Dr. Howell’s Reflections
Everyday, Dr. Howell writes a reflection, inquiry prompt, and a prayer.
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The Miraculous Part 7
July 12, 2025
We have all heard the phrase “It would take a miracle.” Some examples of its usage are: “It would take a miracle for our team to win,” “It would take a miracle for him to pull out of this illness,” and “It would take a miracle for her to ever fall in love again.”
The Miraculous Part 6
July 11, 2025
Fifteen years ago, what if someone described to you all the challenges you would face in the next fifteen years? If you are like many of us, the last fifteen years were full of great happiness, but also of life-changing events. Among those we could experience are losses, health issues, existential crises, injuries, relationship issues, addictions, traumas, and many other types of extreme challenges. If you had known all these challenges fifteen years ago, would you think you had what it took to get through it all?
The Miraculous Part 5
July 10, 2025
I stumbled upon a Catholic church in Limerick on my recent visit to Ireland. In the small, attached gift shop, I saw a large, prominently displayed poster picture of a dark-haired young man. I thought to myself, “That is unusual to have a teenager’s picture in a religious gift shop.” I learned from the shopkeepers that the large picture was of Carlo Acutis, a 15-year-old Italian boy who suddenly died of undetected leukemia in 2006, and who was canonized as the first millennial saint of the Catholic Church on September 7, 2025. He is known for being fascinated by the church, God, and by miracles since his early childhood. He had a passion for computers and created an online, comprehensive catalog of Eucharistic miracles. This website is still in use.
The Miraculous Part 4
July 9, 2025
George Gurdjieff (1877-1949) is known as the discoverer of the wisdom of the enneagram and the first person to bring its wisdom to the western world. He studied with many mystics and spiritual teachers in his travels from the Middle East throughout Asia. Since being a young man, Gurdjieff searched for a more conscious spiritual pathway. Raised Russian Orthodox, he never departed from that faith and requested a Christian funeral. But in his extensive travels, Gurdjieff explored many religions and incorporated some of their belief systems into a body of knowledge he called “The Work.” The work focused on the three human intelligence centers and the soul that undergirds them. His teachings were later called “The Fourth Way.”
The Miraculous Part 3
July 8, 2025
As a little boy in the 1950s, television was a new phenomenon. Our TV was in a beautiful wooden cabinet with doors. The first TV screens were microscopic compared to the massive flat screens of today, but that little screen drew our complete attention.
The Miraculous Part 2
July 7, 2025
Some people adhere to the dictionary definition of miraculous— “Something very unusual and out of the ordinary caused by a supernatural power.” While that is certainly true of many miracles, there are others that are not out of the ordinary. Because they occur regularly, we do not call them miracles, even though some of us ascribe them to the Divine.
The Miraculous Part 1
July 6, 2025
Though reality is that our prayer may or may not be answered, and though it may not be answered in the form or substance we wish, why do we continue to pray? Why does every religion include the act of praying to the Divine?