Clergy Family Confidential

With Pope Benedict XVI in the United States this week, I find myself being a bit defensive. Our eldest son Benedict was not named for the current pope. His birth-date (and naming) preceded the death of John Paul II. Check the papal archives!

Our Ben was, of course, named for the saint not the former Cardinal Ratzinger known to the world as Benedict XVI. Though Ratzinger Schenck has a certain ring to it…

Click here to read an article I wrote in today’s Journal News on Benedict in America from a non-Roman Catholic perspective.

I heard a piece on NPR this afternoon about napping. It wasn’t that interesting — for some reason I kept yawning. But they interviewed some woman who works at an organization called MetroNaps. They operate out of the Empire State Building where they offer napping areas. For $14 you get a 20 minute power nap inside an “energy pod.” You’re supposed to wake up refreshed, healthy, and productive. With my luck I’d oversleep and end up with a $200 bill.

But it did give me an idea. Since most churches are relatively quiet during the day, let’s start competing with MetroNaps. What’s an energy pod but an empty confessional? Heck, take a pew. We’d have to charge extra for ones with comfortable pew cushions but let the napping begin!

Of course you could argue that the MetroNaps concept is nothing new. The Episcopal Church has been offering the 20 minute power nap for generations — it’s called the sermon. 

Well, as Paul once wrote to the church in Corinth, “Christ has risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”  I really need to get a leather couch for my office.