ArcaMax

The mission statement of the God Squad is that we know enough about how we are different and not enough yet about how we are all the same. I realize that I have been spending too much time writing about how we are different and not enough about how we are the same so let us begin our exaltation of sameness with the Golden Rule.

Q: You have ...Read more

In an interfaith column like The God Squad, it is easy to scoop up sectarian holidays and learn from their wisdom. Passover, Chanukah, Easter, Christmas, Diwali, Ramadan, Vesak all have much to teach us about the way sacred time intersects with secular time. However, the sacred calendar does not have ...Read more

As we move away from God winks for a bit and devote our time and love to understanding the big questions, we encounter a very big question, “Can prayer heal?”

Q: I read your column faithfully. My question for you is my prayer list. It just keeps growing, and I have had a difficult time reading my list and praying for each person and ...Read more

Q: Your exploration of the question “Is God Too Big For Us?” was of much interest. I appreciate your honesty in noting that we do not have knowledge about God. Thus your words about God are declarations of faith, but not matters of knowledge. My question has to do with your faith confession that trust in God is like the words of a child�...Read more

Q: The Bible presents us with a cosmology completely at variance with that accepted by modern science. The Bible tells us that the entire universe was created in six days and that the Earth is the center of the universe with everything in the sky revolving around it. Science tells us that the universe is between 14 and 15 billion years old, ...Read more

Q: My friends have told me lately that I tend to see a dark side to everything. We got to talking about spirituality, and I told them I believe there can be a God, but that such a God is indifferent to us. The reason I think this is because we are too small and minute to be noticed by a gigantic being capable of creating a universe millions of ...Read more

Q: Could the identity of the unknown forbidden fruit in the world's oldest and greatest mystery story have something to do with procreation and the family Adam and Eve do not have until their eviction from Eden at the end of Genesis 3?

Adam and Eve disobey the Genesis 1:28 commandment – the first commandment – to "be fruitful and multiply (...Read more

Q: I read your column every week in Newsday. I was particularly interested in a question from M in Gainesville about faith being more important than works. My 12 years of Catholic education didn't include too much Bible study, but I know "faith without works is dead." Had to look up James 2:14-26 NKJV. “By their fruits you shall know them....Read more

I hope this year’s rare confluence of Christmas and Hanukah brought you a spirit of joy and at least one present you will remember long past New Year’s Day.

Both Father Tom and I are/were big supporters of gift giving. I understand the common gripe of many that the holiday season is over commercialized and there is good evidence of that. ...Read more

Only rarely do Chanukah and Christmas fall on the same day, but this year is one of those times. The first light of Chanukah will be kindled in Jewish homes across the world on Wednesday evening, Dec. 25 – Christmas Day. So let me use the rare and blessed gift of our shared sacred ...Read more

Q: I have always enjoyed your God wink stories so I decided to share mine. When my daughter was very little, maybe 4, while in her room one morning she said out of the blue, “That’s when the angels come and get me and take me.”

I was a little concerned thinking, is this a sign from above letting me know she may be taken from ...Read more

Many of the God winks you send me, dear readers, have to do with music. The songs of our life somehow act as signs that the life of our souls extends beyond the grave. Also many God winks are connected to sacred places – not only houses of worship but places where love and hope and joy were given and received. Here is a lovely and poignant God...Read more

Thanks dear readers for your suggestions for little things we overlook on Thanksgiving. If this column arrives after Thanksgiving it is no problem. Thanksgiving is more than a holiday. Thanksgiving is a state of the soul. Here is my favorite this year from M…

My husband of 26 ...Read more

I am still flooded and inspired by the God winks you are sending to me, and I thank you from the bottom of my winking heart. Even so, I am happy to take a break from God winks to send along my annual Thanksgiving blessings and my suggestions for things, animals and people for which, and for whom, we should give thanks, but do not....Read more

Certain patterns are emerging from the flood of God winks I have received. The vast majority of your winks are completely non-extraordinary events that occur at completely extraordinary moments. They do not violate natural law but their appearance in your life is way more than a simple coincidence. What makes them wonderful to me is that you are...Read more

Two reasons above all keep me sharing God winks with you, my dear readers.

First, they are a source of hope for those of you who are in grief over the death of a loved one. You want to know that death is not the end of us, and I believe with you and your winks that death is definitely not the end of us. It ought to comfort you to know that ...Read more

When you scrape away the fun and silly, but charming, veneer of what is now the thoroughly secularized holiday of Halloween; when you get beyond the extorted candy of trick-or-treat; when you finish carving and lighting your last pumpkin; when you take off the ridiculous costume you wore to a Halloween party, and ...Read more

Q: My family had a much-beloved pet rabbit that we rescued/adopted from a hospital lab. I worked at the hospital as a medical photographer, and as such spent a lot of time in various operating rooms and labs. The hospital was doing research with female rabbits and after they were done the animals were euthanized. We adopted three of the ...Read more