Andrew Comiskey (2)


Medicine for Motion Sickness: Dignitas Infinita, Part 1

By Andrew Comiskey
April 22, 2024
  ‘We cannot separate the masculine and the feminine from God’s work of creation, which is prior to all our decisions and experiences, and where biological elements exist which is impossible to ignore. Only by acknowledging and accepting this difference in r...

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You’re not Gay. You’re a Gift.

By Marco Casanova
April 15, 2024
Homosexuality is symptomatic of a wound. Whenever I experience same-sex attraction, I connect with a wound related to masculine (in)adequacy. I give that wound my healing attention. Aware and unashamed of occasional homosexual feelings, I’m able to reinterpret them as ...

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Disembodied

By Andrew Comiskey
April 08, 2024
  ‘To recover the true sense of the spiritual, we must rediscover the mystery of the material…It may be our failure to enter deeply and respectfully into the material that inhibits our discernment of the spiritual.’ Fr. Robert Imbelli A friend wit...

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Limping to New Life

By Andrew Comiskey
April 01, 2024
  I Will Arise ‘Weary and weak––accept my weariness. Weary and weak and downcast in soul, With hope growing less and less, And with the goal Distant and dim—accept my sore distress...’ My confession to Father Justin? One ragged soul on th...

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Foot Washing: Farming Wounds

By Andrew Comiskey
March 27, 2024
‘I will pour out on you a spirit of grace and supplication… We will look upon the One we have pierced and will mourn as one grieves for an only child… On that day, I’ll open a fountain to cleanse you from sin and impurity; on that day, I’ll b...

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Foot Washing: Precious from the Worthless

By Andrew Comiskey
March 23, 2024
‘I will pour out on you a spirit of grace and supplication… We will look upon the One we have pierced and will mourn as one grieves for an only child… On that day, I’ll open a fountain to cleanse you from sin and impurity; on that day, I’ll b...

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Foot Washing: Prophesy that Soars and Ensnares

By Andrew Comiskey
March 20, 2024
‘I will pour out on you a spirit of grace and supplication… We will look upon the One we have pierced and will mourn as one grieves for an only child… On that day, I’ll open a fountain to cleanse you from sin and impurity; on that day, I’ll b...

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Foot Washing: Prophesy that Soars and Ensnares

By Andrew Comiskey
March 19, 2024
‘I will pour out on you a spirit of grace and supplication… We will look upon the One we have pierced and will mourn as one grieves for an only child… On that day, I’ll open a fountain to cleanse you from sin and impurity; on that day, I’ll b...

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Courage of Our Convictions II

By Abbey Foard and Marco Casanova
March 16, 2024
“I will never move someplace without Nick, and Nick won’t move anywhere without me. When Nick dates he lets women know, ‘Hey, this guy’s my best friend, he’s my brother, but he’s also gonna be part of my household. So I can’t pursue ...

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Foot Washing: Whose House?

By Andrew Comiskey
March 13, 2024
‘I will pour out on you a spirit of grace and supplication… We will look upon the One we have pierced and will mourn as one grieves for an only child… On that day, I’ll open a fountain to cleanse you from sin and impurity; on that day, I’ll...

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Courage of Our Convictions #1

By Marco Casanova
March 09, 2024
“The bishops are oblivious to the implications of Fiducia Supplicans,” I grumbled to my spiritual director. “I don’t think that’s true, Marco,” he responded. “Don’t say things that aren’t true. There’s a lack of cou...

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Foot Washing: More to Pour

By Andrew Comiskey
March 06, 2024
‘I will pour out on you a spirit of grace and supplication… We will look upon the One we have pierced and will mourn as one grieves for an only child… On that day, I’ll open a fountain to cleanse you from sin and impurity; on that day, I’ll b...

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Foot Washing: Good Grief

By Andrew Comiskey
February 28, 2024
‘I will pour out on you a spirit of grace and supplication… We will look upon the One we have pierced and will mourn as one grieves for an only child… On that day, I’ll open a fountain to cleanse you from sin and impurity; on that day, I’ll b...

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Reveal Yourself

By Andrew Comiskey
February 24, 2024
‘When we lead with our strengths, we create competition; we create community when we lead with our weaknesses.’ Mike Bickle Mike Bickle taught young people how to live as Christians. More than a pastor of ‘prophets,’ he formed young lives with tru...

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Foot-Washing: Pierced

By Andrew Comiskey
February 21, 2024
‘I will pour out on you a spirit of grace and supplication… We will look upon the One we have pierced and will mourn as one grieves for an only child… On that day, I’ll open a fountain to cleanse you from sin and impurity; on that day, I’ll b...

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Foot Washing: Power to Plead

By Andrew Comiskey
February 13, 2024
‘I will pour out on you a spirit of grace and supplication… We will look upon the One we have pierced and will mourn as one grieves for an only child… On that day, I’ll open a fountain to cleanse you from sin and impurity; on that day, I’ll bani...

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Faith and Affliction

By Andrew Comiskey
February 12, 2024
“I believed, therefore I said: ‘I am greatly afflicted,’ and in my dismay, I said: ‘All men are liars’” (Ps. 116:10). These last couple months have been murder. And rich in mercy. While faith delivers us from evil, it also subjects us to m...

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IHOP Meltdown

By Andrew Comiskey
February 08, 2024
I am sick about new charges against IHOP-founder Mike Bickle: published in today’s KC Star, a detailed 14-page report. This is the worst evidence of Mike as a predator from a now 57-year-old mother/grandmother, using her real name, whom Mike as a young minister began r...

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Bless Individuals, Not Immorality

By Andrew Comiskey
February 05, 2024
‘Come out from them and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters’ (2 Cor. 6:17,18). Our sexual integration conference at the Theology of the Body Institute spoke a better word than ‘the real ...

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Faithful Sons and Daughters of the Church

By Marco Casanova and Andrew Comiskey
January 29, 2024
Is it “disloyal” or “schismatic” to respectfully disagree with the pope? We’ve been wrestling with this question since the release of Fiducia Supplicans (FS). What could’ve been a merciful invitation to accompany sexual sinners into chasti...

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Rebuilders

By Andrew Comiskey
January 22, 2024
‘Is it a time for you to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains in ruins? Go…and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored’ (Haggai 1:4, 8). Building the house requires workers. In our goal to create a house ...

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Personal Path

By Andrew Comiskey and Marco Casanova
January 15, 2024
‘Our freedom hinges on realizing truthful integrity.’- St. John Paul II Two groups protest our gathering to help people heal from sexual identity confusion. The first hates that we even link ‘gay’ or ‘trans’ identified people with Jesus an...

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Untangling Knotty Blessings

By Andrew Comiskey
January 08, 2024
‘We have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. Rather, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God’ (2 Cor. 4:2). ’23 ended with Fi...

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Manifest Destiny

By Andrew Comiskey
January 05, 2024
My ‘gay’-identified friend Tim needs Jesus. Finally. It’s taken decades and a terminal condition for him to soften to the God-man. And I have loved every minute: watching, waiting, and tending to that Fire of love, God’s wooing of Tim. That’...

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What Lies Beneath?

By Annette Comiskey
January 02, 2024
Editor’s Note: Annette wrote this year-end piece about wounded systems and symptoms. I loved it and thought it worth repeating. What is going on when a family, a faith community, or a person begins to exhibit weird signs? Chances are likely that unseen parts have colluded...

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Monsters and Messiahs: Unmasking the Holy Family

By Andrew Comiskey and Annette Comiskey
December 31, 2023
Please. We love the Holy Family: Joseph, Mary, Jesus. As the embodiment of binary goodness, we need their witness more than ever. Think Joseph: most excellent of men who shielded Mother with Child from social shame; from his dream on, he ensured both thrived under fire....

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God is With Us

By Andrew Comiskey
December 25, 2023
‘God is with us: that was the promise, and we have wept and pleaded for it. And it has been realized in accordance with each individual’s capacity: completely different, much more fulfilled, and at the same time, much simpler than we thought. We should not a...

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Scary Angels

By Andrew Comiskey
December 24, 2023
‘Knowing the love that surpasses knowledge may well mean not knowing much else’ (Loretta Ross-Gotta). God often overshadows the faithful with opportunities that either crush us or conceive Christ in us.   Mary knew trouble when she saw it: an imp...

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Joy is Reality

By Andrew Comiskey
December 23, 2023
I’m grateful, even joyful about changes going on at IHOP. Aquinas said joy was a state of well-being based on reality. Let’s get real. I’m happy that Mike is out altogether, for good. Thick solid lines of exclusion are the only way for everyone’s chan...

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House on Fire

By Andrew Comiskey
December 20, 2023
I love the International House of Prayer (IHOP). Its crisis is our crisis.    In ’99, Mike and Diane Bickle shifted from pastoring a church to nurturing 24/7 intercession and musical devotion to Jesus in South Kansas City. Intimacy with Him: out of that b...

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Declaration of Unreality

By Andrew Comiskey and Marco Casanova
December 18, 2023
Pope Francis said in early October that he would bless same-sex unions. He made it official today in a rare declaration from the Vatican’s doctrinal office. This is the first time Francis has invoked a declaration of this weight.   This ‘declaration&rsqu...

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Desert Witness: Solitary and Free

By Andrew Comiskey
December 17, 2023
“Who are you…what do you have to say for yourself? ‘I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness…’” (Jn. 1:22-23). Advent pops our holiday bubble, cracks our globe of fake snow, and gives us John the Baptist. Twice. Half of Advent ...

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Shooting Synodality (and Cardinal Burke) in the Foot

By Andrew Comiskey
December 14, 2023
‘What serious Catholics should be looking for in this era of unsettlement is a synthesis, a viewpoint that makes sense of change in the church but also maintains a deep continuity with the Catholic past that’s essential if the church is what it claims to be&mdas...

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Shakedown

By Andrew Comiskey
December 10, 2023
‘Before the end, the world will be set quaking. Only when man does not cling to false security will his eyes be capable of seeing the Ultimate’ (Fr. Alfred Delp). I could see it coming. Annette and I had simmered in sustained disagreement all week. While I ...

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Virgin. Again.

By Andrew Comiskey
December 03, 2023
Virgin. Again. ‘If the essence of Advent is expectancy, it is also a readiness for action: watchfulness for every opening, and willingness to risk everything for freedom and a new beginning’ (editors, Watch for the Light). Sara laughing. Zechariah boomin...

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Criminal Kingdom

By Andrew Comiskey
November 26, 2023
‘How do we measure the gravity of sin and the incomparable vastness of God’s love for us? By looking at the magnitude of what God has done for us in Jesus, who became like a common criminal for our sake and in our place.’- Fleming Rutledge This has not ...

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Thankful

By Andrew Comiskey
November 23, 2023
Thankful. You help us stay true. Of all the treasures of 2023, our 40 days together of ‘rousing Her radiance’ shines brightest for me. Together. Prayerful solidarity strengthens us in the unseen. His ‘deep’ calls to ours, ours to each other’s. T...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 40

By Andrew Comiskey
November 19, 2023
Rousing Her Gently, Firmly ‘Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for Her, to make Her holy, cleansing Her by the washing of water through the word, and to present Her to Himself as a radiant Church, without stain or wrinkle ...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 39

By Andrew Comiskey
November 18, 2023
Blazing ‘I am not afraid. God is with me. He made me for this.’ - Joan of Arc ‘I have come to set the world on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!’ (Lk 12:49). Jesus freed me from sexual disintegration by my declaring the truth of ...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 38

By Andrew Comiskey
November 17, 2023
Living Truth ‘You are Peter, and on this Rock, I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.’ - Matt. 16:18 ‘Since the beginning of our life together, we have faced one sexual crisis or another in every community we&rsquo...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 37

By Andrew Comiskey
November 16, 2023
The Child is a Warrior ‘I have quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.’- Ps. 131:2 Nothing good comes easy, like shifting from evangelical to Catholic. In all the unknowns, one thing was clear: no on...

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What I Would Say to The Synod

By Andrew Comiskey
November 15, 2023
I am a man dealing with same-sex attraction. I am committed to chastity and helping others to become chaste. No mere abstinence will do. Chastity invites me continuously into a robust self-denial that frees me to behold another’s authentic good and to bless it without muc...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 36

By Andrew Comiskey
November 15, 2023
Magnificent Seed ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in a field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, it grows into the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its ...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 35

By Andrew Comiskey
November 14, 2023
Becoming Home ‘Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The Lord will roar from Zion…the earth and sky will tremble. But the Lord will be a refuge for His people     ...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 34

By Andrew Comiskey
November 13, 2023
Courage and Common Sense ‘These men began to argue with Stephen, but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by which he spoke.’- Acts 6:10 While praying with the staff, I had a strong discernment of many—millions—of Christian...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 33

By Andrew Comiskey
November 12, 2023
Contending for Transformation ‘Jesus is a foe of any kind of fatalistic mindset that reduces His creation to something less than what He intended for it. He opens the door to a new horizon and frees us to resume that journey with Him to realize that intention.&rsqu...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 32

By Andrew Comiskey
November 11, 2023
Contending for the Good News ‘Our Gospel came to you, not simply with words, but with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with deep conviction.’ -1 Thes.1:5 Leanne Payne preached the Gospel eloquently and profoundly that evening in England: she made clear ho...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 31

By Andrew Comiskey
November 10, 2023
Holy Fear ‘He will be the foundation for our times—a rich store of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge: fear of the Lord is key to this treasure.’-Is. 33:6 Every Christian can be bought. The unthinkable becomes a thought then desire; a look becomes tou...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 30

By Andrew Comiskey
November 09, 2023
Contending for Justice ‘In the darkness of the unexpressed, sin poisons the whole of a man.’ - Dietrich Bonhoeffer Give me a bold sinner any day. Worldly souls who strut their unchastity usually live that way. You know what you are getting. My single ...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 29

By Andrew Comiskey
November 08, 2023
Contending for Compassion ‘Ain’t there one **** song that can make me break down and cry?’– David Bowie Only Jesus’ love song over His estranged child makes me cry. Now, eloquent lamentation over lost human lovers fails to move me. Not mu...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 28

By Andrew Comiskey
November 07, 2023
Bridal Tears ‘Mary triumphs with the sword in heart, not hand.’ - Cardinal Christoph Schonborn Loving Christ’s body hurts. The more we love Jesus, the more we love His heart’s desire, ‘the Bride who has made herself ready’ (Re...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 27

By Andrew Comiskey
November 06, 2023
Overcoming Domestic Violence ‘Without a firm understanding of our biological sex and the God-given purpose of men and women to love, support, and protect each other, we are lost and cut off from the goodness Jesus wants for us all.’- Garrett D. Johnson The C...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 26

By Andrew Comiskey
November 05, 2023
Unconverted Lives ‘Is the price we are paying today with the collapse of the organized churches anything else but an inevitable consequence of grace acquired too cheaply? We poured out rivers of grace without end, but the call to rigorously follow Christ was seldo...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 25

By Andrew Comiskey
November 04, 2023
Free Fall ‘Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, for their Defender is strong; He will take up their case against you.’– Proverbs 23:10-11 35 years ago, a friend of mine dreamt of a woman attending a wed...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 24

By Andrew Comiskey
November 03, 2023
Ugly Orthodoxy The priest corrected our errant ways throughout one of our Living Waters training. We discovered this together as team members recounted his admonishments, sourced in truth but unsolicited and given in a sour tone. ‘Right lyrics, wrong music,’...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 23

By Andrew Comiskey
November 02, 2023
How Solid Witnesses Unite a Divided Church ‘Modern man listens to witnesses more than teachers.’- Pope Paul VI Marco and Ania shared candidly of divides in their personal lives that disqualified them for marital love: homosexuality, sexual abuse, promiscuit...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 22

By Andrew Comiskey
November 01, 2023
Who’s Evangelizing Who? ‘The only problem with homosexuality is the one you have with it.’-‘gay’ Christian student to campus pastor I love warm welcoming churches where everyone can experience palpable grace. I was converted through one ...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 21

By Andrew Comiskey
October 31, 2023
Deeper Ache ‘Those who are whole don’t need a doctor but those who are sick. I come not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.’- Lk. 5:31-32 Two young men wanted me to bless their friendship as a covenant, a ‘special’ bond in t...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 20

By Andrew Comiskey
October 30, 2023
Guidance and Goals #2  ‘Lead me to the Rock that is higher than myself.’-Ps. 61:2 The biggest problem with failing to call LGBTQ+ seekers to repentance? They lose Jesus. The Head of the Church died for sin; His anguished bloodletting corresponds w...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 19

By Andrew Comiskey
October 29, 2023
Guidance and Goals #1 “The moral life as John Paul II understood it is a drama: a drama lived in the gap between the person I am and the person I ought to be. Each of us lives in that gap every day; growth in the virtues, supported by God’s grace, is the mean...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 18

By Andrew Comiskey
October 28, 2023
Smashing the Serpent #2 Grieved by our divides, made whole only though Divine Mercy, we stand and fight for Her radiance: the Church’s clear witness of chastity. She has the authority to do so. And She must clarify Her good news. Now. A colleague of mine who wo...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 17

By Andrew Comiskey
October 27, 2023
Smashing the Serpent #1 ‘If the Divine call does not make us better, it will make us very much worse. Of all bad men religious men are the worst.’ -C. S. Lewis Church hypocrisy empowers the enemy to trick leaders into fake reparations. Put another way, th...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 16

By Andrew Comiskey
October 26, 2023
Leveraging Church Hypocrisy #2 ‘God loves you, He made you gay, the pope loves you, and you must love yourself.’ - Pope Francis to ‘gay’ activist Juan Carlos Cruz How did Pope Francis come to parrot the world in the ludicrous claim that God mad...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 15

By Andrew Comiskey
October 25, 2023
Leveraging Church Hypocrisy #1 ‘If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who I am to judge him?’- Pope Francis The leaning rainbow tower was built on shifting, sandy layers of immorality, like our culture of divorce, porn, fornication, and contracep...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 14

By Andrew Comiskey
October 24, 2023
How Did We Get Here? ‘The distortion of the beautiful is the self-irony of lost truth.’ - Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI Sociologists marvel at the speed with which the western world changed its mind on homosexuality: from disdain to reserve then tolerance and now...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 13

By Andrew Comiskey
October 23, 2023
Repentance ‘There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God’- Ps. 46:4 Turn from the false and dive into the depths of His mercy; let Him wash away your sin! I pray this for myself, for Pope Francis, Father Martin, Cardinal McElroy, and any other syno...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 12

By Andrew Comiskey
October 22, 2023
Peace Like a River ‘The hope of Christianity, the prospect of faith is ultimately based quite simply on the fact that it tells the truth.’- Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI My unrest over the synod invites prayer upon prayer, founded on trusting God, which ushers in...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 11

By Andrew Comiskey
October 21, 2023
Peace Interrupted ‘They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious, “Peace, peace” they say, when there is no peace.’ - Jer. 6:14 This Synod on Synodality (‘finding our way together’) is stressing me out. Sure, I surrend...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 10

By Andrew Comiskey
October 20, 2023
Conquering Ourselves for Her ‘We are deceived to think that it is possible to become a human being without conquering oneself, without the patience of renunciation and the task of overcoming oneself…’- Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI Loving the Bride ...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 9

By Andrew Comiskey
October 19, 2023
Springing Up ‘You heavens above, rain down righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up…’- Isaiah 45:8 That our simple prayers to Jesus rouse Him ‘to make her righteousness shine out like th...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 8

By Andrew Comiskey
October 18, 2023
Dying for Love ‘The law of prayer is the law of belief.’- Medieval axiom We believe therefore we pray. We believe in the Church therefore we pray for the Church. In her courts, we behold the beauty of the Bridegroom; we too become beautiful—w...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 7

By Andrew Comiskey
October 17, 2023
Binary Beauty ‘He who has not the Church as Mother cannot have God as Father.’- Henri DeLubac My parish has two rather exquisite statues of Mary and Joseph aside the altar. They look straight out and up to God while sharing sacred space. Joseph’s qui...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 6

By Andrew Comiskey
October 16, 2023
Ordering Our Courts  ‘Beauty is the radiance of truth.’- Thomas Aquinas I love this Church. Strength and clarity for the day arises from quiet contemplation on Christ Crucified. He points to the tabernacle below the crucifix where He deposits Himself ...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 5

By Andrew Comiskey
October 15, 2023
How the Church Forms Conscience ‘However much Christianity may have failed during its history (and it has failed again and again appallingly), the standards of justice and love have nevertheless emanated from the good news preserved in the Church, even against her ...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 4

By Andrew Comiskey
October 14, 2023
Radiant Jesus Prepares Us for Himself We come into being through the spousal union of man and woman, and we are redeemed by that fullness—we the Bride of Jesus, a people set apart for Him, and He our faithful Bridegroom. St. Paul in Ephesians 5 employs marriage (so...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 3

By Andrew Comiskey
October 13, 2023
Radiant Jesus Names the Confused The young woman looked boyish but wanted Jesus. She was happy to engage a bit after the service. We prayed. The Holy Spirit confirmed her unique sexual self: ‘You are much loved by the Father, utterly unique and utterly woman.&rsquo...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 2

By Andrew Comiskey
October 12, 2023
Radiant Jesus Covers the Naked The Gospels refer to ‘harassed and helpless’ ones, which literally means people without skin, unprotected. Jesus vows to cover us—to extend His mantle over our shameful nakedness. Never has our overexposed world needed ...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Day 1

By Andrew Comiskey
October 11, 2023
‘Real love is neither static nor uncritical. If there is any possibility at all of changing another person for the better, then it is only by loving her and by slowly helping her to change from what she is to what she can be. Should it be any different with the Church...

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Piercing the Darkness, Rousing Her Radiance

By Andrew Comiskey
October 09, 2023
‘The light shines in darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.’- Jn 1:5 The only good thing about Pope Francis’ confusing suggestion that the Church bless same-sex unions is clarifying his ‘gay’ agenda. That applies to the synodal gather...

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Whispers and Roars

By Andrew Comiskey
October 02, 2023
‘The weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.’ -1 Cor. 1:25 Feverish and weary, I prepped for a men’s conference in Lithuania during a long flight. My only clear thought: men destined to be lions reduced to domestic fat cats by vermin (worl...

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Does the Church Kill ‘Gay’ People?

By Andrew Comiskey
September 25, 2023
Part 3: Integration This is the second blog of our three-part series. If you haven’t already, please read parts 1 and 2. ‘Though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not.’- C.S. Lewis Simon Kent Fung surmises in his podcast Dear Alana that...

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Does the Church Kill ‘Gay’ People?

By Andrew Comiskey
September 18, 2023
Part 2: The MacGuffin of Conversion Therapy This is the second blog of our three-part series. If you haven’t already, please read part 1. ‘Conversion therapists’ permeate Dear Alana like mold, wounders who pose as healers and hasten the disintegratio...

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Does the Church Kill ‘Gay’ People?

By Andrew Comiskey
September 11, 2023
Part 1: Mistaken Identity Simon Kent Fung does. Believe the Church kills ‘gay’ people, that is, like Alana Chen on whom he based his popular podcast, Dear Alana. He curates the 8-part series on the early life and suicide of Alana Chen by feigning a tempered ...

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Rousing Her Radiance: Praying and Fasting for the Church

By Andrew Comiskey
September 04, 2023
Rousing Her Radiance: Praying and Fasting for the Church       October 11th-November 19th, 2023 ‘I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to Him’ (2 Cor. 11:2). Husband and wife....

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‘Gay’ Christianity and Holy Fear

By Andrew Comiskey
August 28, 2023
Originally published March 21, 2022 ‘The sin of this century is the loss of a sense of sin.’- Pope Pius XlI Holy fear over the horror of sin levels us at the Cross. Facedown, our hearts behold the Lamb (Jn. 1:36). Love is the Lamb. Christians define love as ...

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Sloth: A Slow Suicide

By Andrew Comiskey
August 21, 2023
Originally published March 9, 2015 ‘Sloth is a kind of oppressive sorrow that so depresses a man that he wants to do nothing.’- St. Thomas Aquinas Not long ago I faced a series of events that tempted me to despair. I neither tend towards hopelessness nor the d...

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Miracles of Becoming Whole

By Andrew Comiskey
August 01, 2023
Previously published in Desert Stream’s 2023 Mid-Year Report Jesus heals the sexually disintegrated. I know this because He healed me of homosexuality, one miracle at a time. Becoming whole involves a series of miracles, each elicited and sustained by His saving gra...

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Fault Line

By Andrew Comiskey and Marco Casanova
July 24, 2023
‘Gay’ selves splinter into a ‘trans’ nation. The moral and psychological fault line underneath today’s homosexuality widens into a rejection of one’s sex altogether. ‘LGBTQ+’ is a spectrum of sexual disintegration that begins w...

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Read the Wound

By Andrew Comiskey
July 17, 2023
‘By His wounds we are healed.”– Is. 53:5b I left my father in knots, an occasional but not unfamiliar experience in that season. I began to experience strong same-sex desires. A still small voice invited me to read the wound. Conflict. Stifled emotion. Rage...

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After Pride: Pouring Out

By Andrew Comiskey
July 10, 2023
‘Freedom consists not in doing what we like but in having the right to do what we ought.’ St. John Paul II After a couple weeks of heightened (grand)parenting, Annette admitted, ‘I’ve never been more happily exhausted.’ She’s &lsquo...

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After Pride: Icons

By Andrew Comiskey
July 03, 2023
I liked these guys but wouldn’t agree that they were ‘married.’ ‘Friends with benefits’ better described them. As we talked, it was clear they were riding the wave of rainbow justice—wealthy dudes with no dependents ready for Europe. W...

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Blazing Heart

By Katie Comiskey
June 30, 2023
Today marks both the final day of Pride month and the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Celebrating life under the ‘rainbow’ pales in comparison to the fiery, constant love of Him who was pierced so that we can be healed. Sure, it can be easy to gr...

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Not Alone

By Andrew Comiskey
June 26, 2023
‘Now in Christ Jesus you who were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ’ (Eph. 2:13). To find the narrow way between romancing LGBTQ+ers and demonizing them can be lonely. How few seem to grasp that immersion in the Blood and merciful Bo...

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Transfiguration

By Abbey Foard
June 22, 2023
I went to bed exhausted after our fifth Living Waters training in Poland. Like you, I am bombarded with news feeds featuring everything LGBTQ+. It helped to be surrounded by Christians seeking chastity amid a swirl of unchaste ‘liberties.’ Pride? In what? ‘...

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(Extra)ordinary Time

By Andrew Comiskey
June 19, 2023
‘I shall lose none of those who the Father has given Me’ (Jn 6:39). I am welling up with joy. Still savoring the Living Waters intensive in Czestochowa Poland, I departed porous in the Spirit of Pentecost. At every turn, the Father opened doors of ‘natur...

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We Cry Out, He Answers

By Dean Greer
June 15, 2023
My self-sufficiency dies hard. I’m still learning that when I cry out to the Lord, He is faithful to answer. For the last 6 months, I have headed Desert Stream Care. I have witnessed His unfailing response to your cries for care. We seek Him in the confusion and div...

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Language of Love: A Letter to My Kids

By Andrew Comiskey
June 12, 2023
After I spoke to one of my children about why I take pains (and risk causing pain) to not use LGBTQ+ language in defining people, I wrote down my thoughts, cheered on by St. John Paul II: ‘Let us not lose sight of the essential bond between truth and freedom. To defen...

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Witnessing the Body of Christ in My Own Body

By An anonymous Living Waters leader
June 11, 2023
One year ago, as I left home for Mass to celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi (Latin for the Body of Christ), I had no idea that my life would change: later that day, I met the woman who is now my fiancée. Until then, my romantic life had often alternated between, on...

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Securing Strugglers in Love

By Andrew Comiskey
June 05, 2023
‘Secure attachment means the child feels confident that others will be there to protect, comfort and support him…insecure attachment means the child is unable to develop confidence that others will be reliably responsive to his needs for comfort, protection, or ...

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DSM 2023 Mid-Year Newsletter

By Annette Comiskey
June 05, 2023
Jesus Revolution was a surprise box-office hit; it captured well the 1968 Jesus People movement in Southern California. Although my personal “Jesus Revolution” came a few years later at the Vineyard West Los Angeles, our pastor Kenn Gulliksen (founder of the Vine...

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Authentic Love

By Andrew Comiskey
June 01, 2023
Ann meant well but her eyes, filling slowly with tears, belied her. She responded confidently at first to my question as to why she was flying to Portland, OR: housesitting for her daughter Jill, whom she loved much. She pointed out her rainbow bracelet as a sign of solidar...

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Look Listen Live

By Andrew Comiskey
May 28, 2023
‘When we find ourselves in the presence of such beautiful souls, we cannot but discover in them an obvious sign of the experience of God.’ Pier Giorgio Frassati Only Pentecost can transform dismay into delight. Slack jawed by a Rolling Stone article about a&nb...

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Ecstasy of a Wounded Man

By Marco Casanova
May 22, 2023
“Erotic love shows most vividly one of the deepest paradoxes of human life: that we are complete and fulfilled not so much in being ourselves as in transcending ourselves.” -Dr. John D, Finley I love being married. Living and working life out with Ania is my...

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Raised to Raise Others

By Andrew Comiskey
May 15, 2023
‘The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name—He will teach you everything…’ (Jn. 14:26) What were they thinking? Why did they ask me to address the women of the Kansas City Kansas Diocese at their annual conference? &lsquo...

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Songs of Ascent

By Abbey Foard
May 08, 2023
Not long after Easter, I awoke with music in my soul–the beautiful chant melodies and simple lyrics that narrated the weekend's services. From a haunting “Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani” (My God, My God, why have you forsaken me), to the repetitive “Glo...

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Dignity in Diapers?

By Andrew Comiskey
May 01, 2023
Pope Francis’ poor word choice in describing the Church’s catechism on sexuality as ‘still in diapers’ (‘The Pope: Answers’, Hulu) can’t diminish the dignity She summons in our man and womanhood.   I for one am only grateful ...

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Lifted Up

By Katie Comiskey
April 24, 2023
As one subject to self-pity and despair, the Lord has trained me to fight. I now recognize my temptation to a familiar despair. I have a choice: to plant myself (or not) on the solid ground of His mercy and love. I needed that discipline unexpectedly. Lent had been hard ...

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Merciful Solution for the Trans-Wounded

By Andrew Comiskey
April 17, 2023
Like you, I cannot fathom Biden’s declaration last month that the transgendered ‘shape America’s soul.’ Young people violating themselves and loved ones through puberty blockers, opposite sex hormones and self-mutilation is a trans-wound. Unattend...

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Happy Wound

By Andrew Comiskey
April 10, 2023
‘In this desolation we find Jesus, triumphant over death and shockingly alive, present to us in ways we can’t understand, much less explain. In Him we find vibrancy of life and a firm compassion that does not deny our suffering but transforms it and illuminates ...

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Open Letter to Pope Francis: A Father Restores

By Andrew Comiskey
April 03, 2023
Dear Pope Francis, We enter Holy Week fixed on Jesus. His wounds are magnetic to us, the wounded.  I am grateful for your exhortation to tend these wounds in our Church, to make Her a field hospital where the gap or gash underneath sin can be restored by fellow members....

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Open Letter to Pope Francis: A Father Disciplines

By Andrew Comiskey
March 27, 2023
Dear Pope Francis, I just returned from a Living Waters group where Jesus is healing broken lives aspiring to chastity. My co-teacher Dana, a woman Jesus rescued from years of same-sex unions (in part through our help), accompanies many like her returning to Jesus in this...

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Open Letter to Pope Francis: A Father Guides

By Andrew Comiskey
March 20, 2023
Dear Pope Francis, Thank you for fathering us generously. You eschew formalities, which invites us to pour out contradictions—desires in conflict. With you, we cannot hide behind ‘religion.’ You invite us to become good, not just to look good. We know the...

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Open Letter to Pope Francis: A Father Clarifies

By Andrew Comiskey
March 13, 2023
Dear Pope Francis, Thank you for championing the oppressed; you help create level ground on which they regain footing and dignity. As the synod recognizes this ‘wound of marginalization,’ I too envision a Church that advocates for ‘radical inclusion’ ...

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Open Letter to Pope Francis: A Father Confirms

By Andrew Comiskey
March 06, 2023
Dear Pope Francis, You exemplify a father who draws near to sons and daughters to dignify them. You encourage us to aspire to more, to cultivate magnanimity, to take hold of all for which Christ took hold of us. Thank you. A father’s power to confirm matters not on...

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Open Letter to Pope Francis: A Father Ignites

By Andrew Comiskey
February 27, 2023
Dear Pope Francis, I appreciate how your papacy is Gospel-centric. You have sought to reveal this Jesus who shatters stinginess. He expands our horizon, invites us into generous love and so glorifies His Father. Why stay conformed to worldly identities when Jesus gives us...

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Beachhead: Review of Jesus Revolution

By Andrew Comiskey
February 25, 2023
Something sweet and true runs through this film about hippies ‘getting saved’ in Woodstock-era Southern California. (I caught the tail-end of this revolution but our pastor, Kenn Gulliksen, started his career with Chuck and Lonnie at its onset.) Its premise is si...

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Open Letter to Pope Francis: A Father Listens

By Andrew Comiskey
February 20, 2023
Pope Francis, Forgive my mild resistance to the ‘synod on synodality.’ The name itself tempts me to revert to evangelicalism; I resist. I now understand this global undertaking as your invitation for Church members to express their voices. As I’ve read the ...

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Open Letter to Pope Francis

By Andrew Comiskey
February 13, 2023
Dear Pope Francis, I write this as one father to another. We share a deep love for Jesus and Church.  I honor your weighty fatherhood as Pope; I appreciate you more as my conversion progresses. I am only a 12-year-old Catholic. Jesus through the Eucharist (and the Ch...

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Wounds that Heal

By Abbey Foard
February 06, 2023
During a recent prayer meeting, Andrew prayed for a hurting friend: ‘May what seems traumatizing now become a path for deeper healing.’ More than poetic, it was a prophetic exhortation; I felt it. Through our traumas, Jesus imparts healing and new life. Consider ...

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Sin of Omission

By Andrew Comiskey
January 30, 2023
‘We are all children of God and God loves us as we are…’ Pope Francis, on loving ‘LGBTQ+-identified’ people Pope Francis rightly distinguished between homosexual sins and crimes last week when he condemned nations, mostly Middle Eastern and Af...

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The Prophet Pastors: How Truth Transfigures the Tender Care of Persons

By Andrew Comiskey
January 23, 2023
‘The thing the Church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds…it needs nearness, proximity. I see the Church as a field hospital after battle…You have to heal wounds.’ Pope Francis We’ve all felt the divide: a teachy correction that pro...

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65 Down

By Andrew Comiskey
January 16, 2023
‘Undeniably great is the mystery of devotion...’ (1 Tim. 3:15) I just crossed the 65-year-old mark where Medicare agents ask you upbeat questions like: ‘Does anyone feed or clean you?’ I stammered a response. Annette does feed me, as her peerless c...

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Epiphany of Benedict XVI

By Andrew Comiskey
January 08, 2023
If Epiphany means to make something clear, then late great Pope Benedict is the Feast’s exemplar. ‘Stand firm in the faith! Don’t let yourself be confused!’ were his last words to us. No Christian leader foresaw as clearly nor equipped us as so...

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20-Minute Miracle

By Andrew Comiskey
January 02, 2023
My Christmas started with a minor miracle. Really. Chalk it up to St. Joseph. I am not inclined to pray to saints, even if legendary like Joseph and Mary. Blame it on my evangelical roots; I’ve a slight fear of diffusing my Jesus-focus and mimicking kowtowing brethren ...

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Flesh and Stones

By Andrew Comiskey
December 26, 2022
Why does Christmas Day fold into the stoning of Stephen? Why does your calendar, O Church, disturb our reverie with bloodshed? Why must our reflection on God becoming flesh--and so making holy ours--morph into demonic rage against the flesh of godly Stephen? We m...

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Crossing the Threshold: Advent of Integration 4

By Marco Casanova
December 19, 2022
‘When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home’ (Mt 1:24). I write this in sheer relief. I just finished preparing my home for my bride. Ania didn’t make many requests, but I heeded her few. Whew! Who&r...

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Joyful Generation: Advent of Integration 3

By Andrew Comiskey
December 12, 2022
‘Perhaps what we modern people most need is to be genuinely shaken, so that where life is grounded, we would feel its stability; and where life is unstable and uncertain, immoral and unprincipled, we would know that, also, and endure it.’ Fr. Alfred Delp, Advent of...

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Declare Your Ground: Advent of Integration 2

By Andrew Comiskey
December 05, 2022
‘If you don’t stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all’ (Is. 7:9). Christian, never apologize for upholding persons in their original dignity! No matter how confused and irrational the LGBTQ+ playbook (‘we don’t choose who we love,...

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Coming Together: Advent of Integration 1

By Andrew Comiskey
November 28, 2022
‘It is time to wake up from sleep’ (Romans 13:11). Wake up. Welcome the wholeness that is yours. Receive it. Lay hold of it. At the dawn of a new church year, arise into all that Jesus won for you. New year, new book. Wake up and read. I am proud of this book ...

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Dignify and Deploy 40: Dignity for All

By Andrew Comiskey
November 22, 2022
‘It is Jesus who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life…Jesus stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives.’ -Pope St. John Paul II, Ro...

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Dignify and Deploy 39: Kingdom for All

By Andrew Comiskey
November 21, 2022
“’Pray for my ministry, John.’ ‘Nah, I’ll just ask Jesus to give you a share in His.’” John Wimber We just finished a year of renewal nights at my Catholic parish called Fresh Fire. Surrounding its Eucharistic core (adoration and pri...

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Dignify and Deploy 38: Blind Spots

By Andrew Comiskey
November 20, 2022
‘Now we see through a glass darkly…’ (I Cor. 13:12) Blame it on too much pressure. Too many important decisions that impact thousands of people. Blame it on aging--physical weakness. But ascribe blame. How else do we grow and learn from the failures of our...

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Dignify and Deploy 37: Clear, Merciful Sight

By Andrew Comiskey
November 19, 2022
‘Humanity is going through a remarkably fluid period of history…a time of collapsing values and ideologies in which he who wishes to go forward has one choice left—to walk on water.’ St. John Paul II John Wimber brought the Kingdom of Life to a peopl...

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Dignify and Deploy 36: Friends of God

By Andrew Comiskey
November 18, 2022
“’Do you cry?’ he asked John Paul. ‘Not out loud.’” Enduring papal leadership or creating a global network out of nothing (if it’s Tuesday it must be Nigeria) flowed from deep prayer. Unseen reliance on Jesus fueled John Wimber and K...

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Dignify and Deploy 35: A Way in the Wilderness

By Andrew Comiskey
November 17, 2022
‘Theology of the Body constitutes a kind of timebomb set to go off in the third millennium of the Church...it may well be seen as a critical moment, not only in Catholic theology, but in the history of modern thought.’ George Weigel Our Lady of Refuge elementary ...

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Dignify and Deploy 34: Living the Cross

By Andrew Comiskey
November 16, 2022
‘Suffering is one of those points in which man in a certain sense is destined to go beyond himself.’  St. John Paul II ‘I resolved to know nothing but Christ and Him Crucified…so that your faith might not rest on man’s wisdom but on God&rs...

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Dignify and Deploy 33: Buoyant, Broken

By Andrew Comiskey
November 15, 2022
‘We have firmly hoped, we will always hope, and we are and will be happy.’ Karol Wojtyla Bearing the weight of a billion person Church in constant flux and friction (not to mention the world’s hostility towards Her) could kill a man. Only a dead one, wholly...

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Dignify and Deploy 32: Sing a Simple Song

By Andrew Comiskey
November 14, 2022
‘We are going to sing to God, not about Him.’ Carol Wimber Annette and I are Vineyard worshippers, through and through. From the start of our life together, we caught the upward rising of simple love songs to Jesus. Fear and heaviness broke as we enjoined our voi...

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Dignify and Deploy 31: Personalizing Pentecost

By Andrew Comiskey
November 13, 2022
‘The true self isn’t found when we are looking for it; it’s found when we are looking for Him.’ C.S. Lewis The dream disturbed me at first: two male torsos emerging out of a tree trunk, like thick branches. I saw the face of my dad in one, then mine i...

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Dignify and Deploy 30: Open Heaven

By Andrew Comiskey
November 12, 2022
‘We met John in the restaurant parking lot after the Sunday night healing service at Vineyard Anaheim. Everyone was exhausted. I was with Vicki, a friend who had been infertile for 7 years and had little faith in conceiving a child. A weary John Wimber said: ‘Let&rs...

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Dignify and Deploy 29: Fruitful Fathers

By Andrew Comiskey
November 11, 2022
St. John Paul II rallied more men to the priesthood than any pope in modern history. Everywhere I go in the Catholic world I witness those who received God’s call to pastor at a World Youth Day or through revisiting one of Karol’s books. My current pastor—Fath...

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Dignify and Deploy 28: Becoming Whole in Action

By Andrew Comiskey
November 10, 2022
John Wimber called it ‘doing the stuff’; Karol Wojtyla heralded ‘the law of the gift.’ Launching the gift of our Spirited humanity sets us free. On a Saturday morning gathering of 100 lay leaders, Wimber commanded all the ‘elders’ of the V...

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Dignify and Deploy 27: Restoring Woman’s Dignity

By Andrew Comiskey
November 09, 2022
‘He suffused me without difficulty, burst my shame and the thoughts I’d suppressed… As if He had touched a rhythm in my temples and suddenly carried a great exhaustion in me.’ -Karol Wojtyla on the Samaritan woman St. John Paul II lived a d...

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Dignify and Deploy 26: Hopeful Realists

By Andrew Comiskey
November 08, 2022
‘The great choice posed to the human person in the modern world: deciding between sanctity and the loss of one’s humanity.’ (Witness to Hope, p. 118) Lonnie Frisbee was a winsome firebrand who ignited a generation of ‘Jesus People.’ John Wimber ...

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Dignify and Deploy 25: Humanizing Sexual Wholeness

By Andrew Comiskey
November 07, 2022
‘How, Wojtyla asks, can men and women become responsible lovers, so that our sexual love embodies a genuine freedom?... I cannot achieve my destiny by myself…To achieve my destiny, I must “meet the freedom of another person and depend on it.”’&nbs...

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Dignify and Deploy 24: Liberating Sexuality through Almighty Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
November 06, 2022
‘The concrete challenge of love can’t be separated from Him; it is always in Him.’ Karol Wojtyla Along with several others, John Wimber invited me to headline a healing conference with him at Vineyard Anaheim in 1992. Promotion extraordinaire. Each day for ...

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Dignify and Deploy 23: Anchoring Sexuality in the Beauty of Creation

By Andrew Comiskey
November 05, 2022
‘Jesus testifies that the mystery of creation becomes the power of the mystery of redemption’ (Theology of the Body 46:5). John Wimber loved that we anchored our approach to sexual brokenness in wholeness, what God originally intended for us that no sin coul...

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Dignify and Deploy 22: Kingdom Couple

By Andrew Comiskey
November 04, 2022
“What Christ demands of His listeners in the Sermon on the Mount belongs to that space in which man must rediscover the lost fullness of his humanity and want to regain it. That fullness is the reciprocal life between persons, of men and women…The dignity and balan...

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Dignify and Deploy 21: Kingdom of the Poor

By Andrew Comiskey
November 03, 2022
‘For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.’ (2 Cor 8:9) Karol Wojtyla and John Wimber cast themselves down as to join Christ Crucified in His upw...

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Dignify and Deploy 20: Kingdom and Church

By Andrew Comiskey
November 02, 2022
‘Christ’s mission as Priest, Prophet-teacher and King continues in the Church. Everyone, the whole People of God, shares in this three-fold mission. All “sacred power” exercised in the Church is nothing other than service, service with a single purpose: ...

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Dignify and Deploy 19: Kingdom for the World

By Andrew Comiskey
November 01, 2022
‘St. John Paul II made the world consider its need for redemption, and that the need had been met in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.’ George Weigel ‘The meat is on the streets.’ John Wimber Both Karol Wojtyla and Wimber envisioned...

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Dignify and Deploy 18: Every Member a Player

By Andrew Comiskey
October 31, 2022
‘I realized that I could either get a tent and have a great ministry or empower and equip and release the Body of Christ to do it themselves. I chose the latter as it was Jesus’ model.’ John Wimber Stuck in cycles of sin and shame, Jim (a small group member...

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Dignify and Deploy 17: Equipping Young Saints 2

By Andrew Comiskey
October 30, 2022
‘We didn’t have a youth program; we were a youth program.’ (Carol Wimber on their first ‘church.’) Young people poured out like living water upon us after John spoke a little. They were radiant: multi-ethnic, lit-from-within, California-burnt-br...

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Dignify and Deploy 16: Equipping Young Saints 1

By Andrew Comiskey
October 29, 2022
‘Don’t be afraid to be saints! This is the liberty for which Christ has set us free…Dear young people, be won by Him!’ St. John Paul II God created Karol Wojtyla to be the greatest youth leader ever. He was a solid artful guy won over by Christ and C...

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Dignify and Deploy 15: Kingdom and Community

By Andrew Comiskey
October 28, 2022
‘I am convinced that the starting place of love is the realization that I am needed by another. The person who objectively needs me most is also for me, objectively, the person I need most.’ Karol Wojtyla The launch of John Wimber and Wojtyla into globe-changing ...

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Dignify and Deploy 14: John Wimber--Naturally Supernatural

By Andrew Comiskey
October 27, 2022
‘I’ve seen your ministry; now I am going to show you Mine.’ (God to Wimber) On a flight from Chicago to New York City, John Wimber saw the word ‘adultery’ imposed on a fellow passenger’s face. Wimber cautiously approached him and the Spiri...

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Dignify and Deploy 13: Pope St. John Paul II—Naturally Supernatural

By Andrew Comiskey
October 26, 2022
How can one be at once powerfully anointed and yet accessible, a person of the people? The mystic or cleric can be all too distant, while popular leaders risk compromise by pandering to what people want, not what they need. John Wimber coined the term ‘naturally s...

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Dignify and Deploy 12: Workers

By Andrew Comiskey
October 25, 2022
‘I’m change in His pocket. He can spend me any way He wants.’ John Wimber Both Wimber and Karol Wojtyla died as apostolic Christian leaders wholly poured out for the Kingdom. ‘Retirement’ didn’t exist. Kingdom concerns drove them until ...

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Dignify and Deploy 11: Kingdom and Cross

By Andrew Comiskey
October 24, 2022
‘If God’s got me nailed to the cross for my good, I’m not going to climb down off the cross and wreck the whole purpose of this painful experience. I’ll just go through it, until He’s done with me.’  John Wimber Wimber chided me a...

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Dignify and Deploy 10: Artists

By Andrew Comiskey
October 23, 2022
John Wimber would’ve hated that title. Not that he wasn’t a super-accomplished musician worth his weight in gold as an arranger of popular music. He just didn’t care for the preening ‘creative’ who strove for personal glory rather than God&rsquo...

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Dignify and Deploy 9: Gospel Ground

By Andrew Comiskey
October 22, 2022
‘Whenever I remember the beautiful days of our salvation, I can almost smell the orange blossoms again. The whole experience for both of us was indelibly connected to the fragrance that cloaked Yorba Linda, CA in those days: the dusty warmth of the eucalyptus-lined co...

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Dignify and Deploy 8: Redeeming Love

By Andrew Comiskey
October 21, 2022
“Before I was born the Lord called me…He made my mouth like a sharpened sword; in the shadow of His hand He hid me. He made me into a polished arrow and said: ‘You are My servant in whom I will display My splendor’” (Is. 49: 1-3). John Wimbe...

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Dignify and Deploy 7: Rough Starts

By Andrew Comiskey
October 20, 2022
Hardships in childhood hinder and help. Much seems to depend on the person experiencing them. For John Wimber and Karol Wojtyla, gaps in the plan resulted in an independent thoughtfulness that remains focused under fire. Call it a lonely confidence that Jesus uses to form tr...

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Dignify and Deploy 6: Masters of Integration, Part 2

By Andrew Comiskey
October 19, 2022
‘Man must enter into Him with all his own self; he must appropriate and assimilate the whole reality of the Incarnation and redemption.’ Pope St. John Paul II One of the reasons I love Theology of the Body is that it unites my best self—man made to love wom...

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Dignify and Deploy 5: Masters of Integration, Part 1

By Andrew Comiskey
October 18, 2022
John Wimber and Karol Wojtyla possessed sharp creative minds that joined together disparate ideas. The resulting wholeness became a love song for the Church. Though both men integrated many ideas as a gift to her, I will focus on each one. Wimber loved the enlivening power o...

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Dignify and Deploy 4: Philosopher and Pragmatist

By Andrew Comiskey
October 17, 2022
‘I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these…’ (Jn 14:12) Pope St. John Paul II and John Wimber exemplify the best of their ‘worlds.’ As a European scholar, Karol Wo...

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Dignify and Deploy 3: Truth and Freedom

By Andrew Comiskey
October 16, 2022
‘It is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man truly becomes clear.’ (Gaudium et Spes 22) John Wimber inspired and raised a young lay woman, Denise, to run one of many weekly prayer groups out of his ‘mother church’, the Vin...

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Dignify and Deploy 2: Gospel Focus and Fire

By Andrew Comiskey
October 15, 2022
‘A new teaching--and with authority!’ (Mk 1:27) Two very different men united in one Gospel—one Polish, the first non-Italian pope in 450 years who became the most influential leader of the Catholic Church since the 16th century; the other, an American evan...

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Dignify and Deploy 1: Two Fathers Who Changed the Face of Christianity

By Andrew Comiskey
October 14, 2022
My friend Mark engages regularly with Kim, a cancer-stricken cousin. As the only Christian in the family, he prays sensitively yet firmly for her healing and against the emotional and physical affliction seeking to vanquish Kim. He is fighting for her life. He does so with a...

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Come Home

By Andrew Comiskey
October 10, 2022
What if your pastor asked you to help make your church a healing community for the sexually broken? This is what I would say: As a young man I ran out of a party and into a church just blocks away from what had become an uneasy gathering of ‘gay’ men acting badly...

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Facing Futility, Tenderly

By Andrew Comiskey
October 03, 2022
I could see and hear how much he wanted the relationship to work, to be true: he needed this new guy to be the one that silenced all the critics of his ‘gay’ pursuits. Mostly he had to convince himself. I felt a familiar tension of love for a person and the truth...

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Man Up (with a little help from my friends)

By Andrew Comiskey
September 26, 2022
I’m praying for grace this early morn to be bigger than I am. Having suffered for a few weeks with a painful eye injury, Annette needs me like never before. The indignity of her blurred vision exposes this hapless husband. A multi-tasker I am not. Managing meals and a hou...

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Clarity for a Confused Child

By Guest Author
September 19, 2022
I know my beloved daughter well. I fight for her best, especially when she refuses the beauty that I see.   I am so proud of her. I love her generous heart and joyous spirit. I love the way she lights up a room when she enters it. I owe a debt of gratitude to her. Wh...

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Free to Burn 2: Division

By Andrew Comiskey
September 12, 2022
‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three’ (Lk. 12:51, 52). Jesus’ fire consumes sin. Family bonds too. Espec...

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Free to Burn 1: Declaration

By Andrew Comiskey
September 05, 2022
‘I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already blazing’ (Lk 12:49). I’m built to burn. Gospel flames long to leap from me onto combustible ones. Like Jeremiah, I can’t contain Him, ‘His word…a fire shut up in my ...

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Created for Communion

By Marco Casanova
August 29, 2022
By Marco Casanova I’m made for communion. Love calls me into relationship. Learning to reveal hard emotions to Ania has become my favorite challenge! Now my heart rests in being known.  Still, dating someone across the ocean calls for technological stamina. Whats...

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When the Temptations Don't Stop

By Andrew Comiskey
August 22, 2022
Tune in to the latest Pure Passion Podcast episode "When the Temptations Don't Stop"! Dr. David Kyle Foster features Andrew Comiskey in this worthwhile conversation. You don't want to miss these helpful, personal insights for those coming out of deep sexual ...

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Ten Takeaways from 'Pray Away' & Importance

By Andrew Comiskey
August 15, 2022
Winnowing wheat from chaff in service of persons pursuing wholeness Check out this worthy 'rerun' blog from April 2021! Andrew responds to Netflix's 'Pray Away' with helpful 'takeaways' for anyone pursuing sexual integration. Also, take a listen to our latest podcast, s...

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Beautiful Hope

By Abbey Foard
August 08, 2022
By Abbey Foard Persons offended by Living Waters perplex me. Our focus is the Gospel that transforms; with our free choice and willing cooperation, Jesus—Love Himself—changes our lives. He comes to save what was lost and restores us. He gives us hope for radical ...

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Made New, Together

By Andrew Comiskey
August 01, 2022
‘When You send Your Spirit, they are created; You renew the face of the earth.’ (PS 104:30) The branches are beckoning. Two peach trees I planted last year for Annette and my 40th Anniversary have flowered and now bear first fruit. Towering around them are trees ...

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Kingdom and Creation: Fusing the ‘John’ Force (Wimber and Pope St. JP II)

By Andrew Comiskey
July 25, 2022
Two prophetic pastors, one American, one Polish. Both changed the face of Christendom in the last half of the 21st century. One declared an empowered Gospel for healing wounded people, with signs and wonders following. The other etched an ace biblical map for rediscovering t...

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Inviolable: How Love Dignifies and Protects Same-Sex Friendship

By Andrew Comiskey
July 18, 2022
in-vi-o-la-ble: ‘never to be broken, infringed, or dishonored’, from the Latin ‘violare’, source word for ‘violate’ and ‘violence’ as well. We are inundated by stories—of splashy celebs and less glamorous friends (often f...

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Life, Liberty, Happiness

By Andrew Comiskey
July 04, 2022
I am happy this Liberty Day. America’s top court finally got it right. We defend the unborn living and give voice to their real lives. We repent of our misbegotten constitutional right to destroy the most vulnerable. Thank you, brave justices. I’m happy today. Am...

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At Pride’s End, Boasting Only in the Broken Body of Christ

By Marco Casanova
June 30, 2022
By Marco Casanova I came to Mass wearied. Not surprised that Pride Month intensifies familiar vulnerabilities, I wanted reprieve. I felt alone in my struggle and deficient of masculine strength. As I grow in love for my girlfriend and take more responsibility in my ministry ...

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Impoverished Care, Part II

By Andrew Comiskey and Marco Casanova
June 27, 2022
By Marco Casanova and Andrew Comiskey Review of ‘Still Time to Care: What We Can Learn from the Church’s Failed Attempt to Cure Homosexuality’ by Greg Johnson Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book &ldquo...

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TOBI Statement on SCOTUS Roe v. Wade Decision

June 24, 2022
We rejoice in this decision! Statement by TOB Institute President Dr. Christopher West on Today’s SCOTUS Decision on Roe v. Wade The following is a statement from Theology of the Body President Dr. Christopher West regarding today’s decision by the U....

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Revoicing History, Part I

By Andrew Comiskey
June 20, 2022
Review of ‘Still Time to Care: What We Can Learn from the Church’s Failed Attempt to Cure Homosexuality’ by Greg Johnson I just attended my own funeral. I chuckled as self-described queer/gay/’uranian’ (yeah, really) Greg Johnson pronounced repe...

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Father’s Way (Walk In It)

By Andrew Comiskey
June 13, 2022
In the face of children declaring to their parents any number of LGBTQ+ selves, I always listen for the father’s response. Not much to hear. The man who helped make them is either absent or mute. I am convinced: rainbow confusion can only be clarified by good fathe...

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Jesus-Eyed Part 2

By Andrew Comiskey
June 05, 2022
‘If only I persuade a few, it will be a great gain for me.’ Justin Martyr Jesus’ gaze confirms us and breaks the power of accusation. Freed from the prison of self-concern, we look outward and see what He sees. We then summon what we see in the power of the...

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Holy Resistance

By Andrew Comiskey
June 03, 2022
‘In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood’ (Heb. 12:4). Guys tend to be soft these days, orbited by helicopter parents and overly self-aware, as if sensitivity to one’s ‘needs’ means feeding tim...

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Demon Eyes or Divine Gaze? Part 1

By Andrew Comiskey
May 30, 2022
‘I look upon you at every moment with all the delicacy of My divine friendship, with an inexhaustible mercy.’ In Sinu Jesu A friend of mine described the eyes of his drunken abuser as black and beady, snake-like. Those eyes bore a hole in his 12-year-old soul...

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Kids Bring Out Our Best

By Andrew Comiskey
May 23, 2022
A gander honked me off a running path in Raleigh as to make way for ‘mother’ goose and five goslings. Marvel overtook my startled sidestepping; little ones bring out our best, a truth not lost on me as I ran back to son Nick and wife Meg whose lives will never b...

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Pope Francis Urges LGBTQ+ Community to Repent in the Power of the Holy Spirit

By Andrew Comiskey
May 16, 2022
I’ve been waiting all my Catholic life for this. In response to Fr. Martin’s questions about how the Church should respond to the rainbow set, Pope Francis urges them to discover the Book of Acts as ‘the image of the living Church’! Yeah, I know, ...

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Pope Francis Urges Repentance to LGBTQ+ Community

By Andrew Comiskey
May 16, 2022
I’ve been waiting all my Catholic life for this. In response to Fr. Martin’s questions about how the Church should respond to the rainbow set, Pope Francis urges them to discover the Book of Acts as ‘the image of the living Church’! Yeah, I know, ...

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Optical Illusion

By Andrew Comiskey
May 09, 2022
Building A Bridge film review How you tell a story can cover a multitude of sins. Watching Amazon’s documentary on a-not-very-good-book (Fr. James Martin’s Building a Bridge), I nearly forgot about sin altogether. Smooth and luminous as a saint’s card, M...

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Corridor of Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
May 02, 2022
‘A humanitarian corridor is a zone intended to allow safe transit of aid and of refugees out of a crisis.’ All hell broke loose in the days leading up to Divine Mercy Sunday last week. Sickness, financial loss, and strife rattled all my systems. Hurtling in space...

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A Father’s Joy

By Andrew Comiskey
April 25, 2022
My son Nick and his wife Meg endured the loss of two children early in their marriage. They welcomed then wept over Luke and Elizabeth. Nick and Meg submitted their suffering to Jesus, who over time turned life-defying losses into life-defining ones. As pastor and wife,...

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Singing Shepherd

By Andrew Comiskey
April 18, 2022
‘The season of singing has come’ (Songs of Songs 2:12). ‘He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart’ (Is. 40:11). As we poured out drafts of Living Waters on the thirsty faithful in Lithuania last week, Jesus cheered us with...

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Suffering Well?

By Andrew Comiskey
April 15, 2022
Not really. I am struggling this Good Friday to be still. One loving gaze from the Crucified usually sets me right, but today my attentiveness wanes. I wait before Him restlessly. Maybe I console Him with faith in His wounds for the wounded. Lent began with Putin’s...

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Suffering Well?

By Andrew Comiskey
April 15, 2022
Not really. I am struggling this Good Friday to be still. One loving gaze from the Crucified usually sets me right, but today my attentiveness wanes. I wait before Him restlessly. Maybe I console Him with faith in His wounds for the wounded. Lent began with Putin’s...

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Undone

By Marco Casanova
April 11, 2022
‘My Jesus, hide my soul in Your heart as You lie in the sepulcher alone. Let my heart be as a fire to keep You warm. Let my desire to know and love You be like a torch to light up the darkness. Let my soul sing softly a hymn of repentant love as the hours pass and Your...

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One Bright Shining Lamp: Prayer for Eastern Europe

By Andrew Comiskey
April 06, 2022
As you read this, Abbey and I, along with our Polish Living Waters Coordinator Jacek, are holding a series of important meetings in Lithuania. For such a time as this! In the shadow of Putin’s aggression, we pray our efforts will contribute to a unified and faithful p...

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Cheap Grace and Godly Fear

By Andrew Comiskey
April 04, 2022
‘In You there is forgiveness, so You are to be feared’ (Psalm 130:4). ‘The purpose of Lent…is to create a healthy hatred of evil, a heartfelt contrition for sin, and a passionately felt need for grace.’ Edna Hong Anyone for whom ‘t...

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Living Hope

By Andrew Comiskey
March 30, 2022
No-one embodies the living hope of Jesus better than Dean Greer, our Living Waters USA Manager, and wife Chrystal. I met Dean in San Francisco, mid-nineties, as he struggled to break the low ceiling of an HIV diagnosis. Despite renewed faith in Jesus, Dean nurtured little ho...

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We Need a Guide.

By Andrew Comiskey
March 28, 2022
In a culture committed to every sexual and relational variant imaginable, we need direction. A map for whole relationships. We have one for you. For the first time, Desert Stream Ministries offers its premier gift—Living Waters—to everyone in a new book, care...

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Ukrainian Refugees: A Polish Welcome

By Andrew Comiskey
March 23, 2022
Ania Bandura Ania is a Polish journalist who interviewed me for a Catholic journal last December before our training in Kraków. We met, she met Marco, and the rest is romantic history. I recently returned from the Polish-Ukrainian border. Trains filled with 1,00...

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‘Gay’ Christianity and Holy Fear

By Andrew Comiskey
March 21, 2022
‘The sin of this century is the loss of a sense of sin.’ Pope Pius Xl Holy fear over the horror of sin levels us at the Cross. Facedown, our hearts behold the Lamb (Jn. 1:36). Love is the Lamb. Christians define love as the grace that commands us to repent o...

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Latvia: Prayerful Unity and Resistance

By Andrew Comiskey
March 16, 2022
Latvia is a beautiful nation of two million persons, sparkling like a jewel on the Baltic Sea. Like Lithuania, Latvia belonged to the Russian Empire then Soviet Union until 1990 when she proudly declared her democratic statehood. She is unique in her spirituality: a blend o...

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Love on a Ledge

By Andrew Comiskey
March 14, 2022
‘I tell you, my friends, don’t be afraid of those who kill the body…Fear Him who…has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him’ (Lk. 12:4, 5). Jesus reveals to us the face of the Father. Fearsome. He looks at us lovingly; He know...

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Lithuania: Prayerful Resistance in Eastern Europe

By Andrew Comiskey
March 09, 2022
One of our dearest friends in all of Europe is Vilma Karveliene who heads up Living Waters in Lithuania. She champions healing for all persons through Divine Mercy. Her nation is small (3 million persons), proud of its new fragile democracy, and one of the Baltic countries clos...

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Why Fear the One We Love?

By Andrew Comiskey
March 07, 2022
We have lost holy fear. A virtual search on the topic yielded an underwear ad and a 5-point tract on why we don’t need to fear God anymore. I get that. As an evangelical Catholic, I know ‘perfect love casts out fear.’ But I also know that the God who ga...

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Prayerful Restoration of Order in Eastern Europe

By Andrew Comiskey
March 02, 2022
During Lent, we shall prayerfully reflect upon the requests of our Living Waters friends in Eastern Europe. Karolina, a Polish intern working with us in Kansas City, writes: History repeats itself...A madman, consumed with a lust for power and possession, is implementin...

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Holy Fear, Salient Father

By Andrew Comiskey
February 28, 2022
‘The deepest search in life was our search to find a father, not merely the lost father of our youth but the image of strength and wisdom external to our need and superior to our hunger to which our own life can be united.’ Thomas Wolfe So quotes Leanne Payne ...

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Prayerful Resistance in Eastern Europe

By Andrew Comiskey
February 24, 2022
Besides beloved France, Eastern Europe—namely Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania—are Desert Stream Ministries’ main partners on the continent. And they are being threatened by Putin’s evil. As he plows a deep furrow of deception and destruction into the Uk...

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‘Nothing to Heal’? (Rien A Guerir?)

By Andrew Comiskey
February 21, 2022
Or so goes the tagline for France’s new law that bans ‘conversion therapies’ and authorizes jail time and fines for persons who accompany clients seeking to redirect their sexual energies. So much for fraternity, equality, and liberty. Apparently, the F...

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Winter Wheat

By Andrew Comiskey
February 14, 2022
‘Those who go out weeping, carrying seeds to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them’ (Ps. 126:6). As we prepped for our ‘Integration’ (aka Living Waters Training) course at the Theology of the Body Institute, I was cheered b...

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Censoring Human Freedom

By Andrew Comiskey
February 07, 2022
‘There’s something deeply corrosive about attempting to live in such a way that demands everyone agree with you.’ Sonny Bunch One highlight of our ‘Integration’ week at the TOB Institute was witness Steven Thanh, a Vietnamese immigrant, who arti...

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Place at the Table

By Dean Greer
January 31, 2022
By Dean Greer This Sunday we at Desert Stream Ministries bring our Living Waters Training to the Theology of the Body community. I remember my first time with the TOB Institute, over twelve years ago. I attended one of Christopher West’s week-long immersion courses ...

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Weep, Don’t Weaponize

By Andrew Comiskey
January 24, 2022
At first I was angry. How could parents do this to a beloved child? Framed in their Christmas greeting, the parents beam upon 3-year-old twins; look again, friends and family, mom and dad are employing the card to introduce the child formerly known as Claire as now ‘C...

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Sharing Suffering

By Andrew Comiskey
January 17, 2022
'I write to comfort others as I have been comforted. The word "comfort" means to be strong together, to have fortitude together. There is the reminder of community. Once when I suffered and sat in church in a misery while waves and billows passed over me, I suddenly thought...

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‘New Ways’? No Way

By Marco Casanova
January 12, 2022
By Marco Casanova Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press I just got off the phone with my girlfriend. It was an important conversation. Weighty....

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Manifest

By Andrew Comiskey
January 08, 2022
‘To make obvious or clear to the eye of one’s heart’ (Gr. epiphany). True desires of the heart may languish until someone manifests what we most value. Jesus drew the searching Magi like a magnet; returning to a people dwelling in darkness, the trio man...

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Shine!

By Andrew Comiskey
January 03, 2022
‘Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and His glory appears over you’ (Is. 60:1, 2). The Kennedy Center Honors this year,...

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Treasure

By Andrew Comiskey
January 01, 2022
‘Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart’ (Lk. 2:19, 51). Aging agitates me. Docility flows not peaceably from unexpected aches of body and soul: costly medical procedures unthinkable a decade ago, fretting over regrettable decisions, we...

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Beauty for Brothers

By Abbey Foard
December 29, 2021
By Abbey Foard "Love consists of a commitment which limits one's freedom—it is a giving of the self, and to give oneself means just that: to limit one's freedom on behalf of another." Karol Wojtyla (Later to be known as Pope St. John Paul II) Whoa Karol. This does ...

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Holy Family?

By Andrew Comiskey
December 26, 2021
I tend to prepare myself for the worst on this Sunday, the Feast of the Holy Family. I have heard too many dismal homilies on the too-radiant-to-be-believed triad: you know, ‘be holy as Mary, Joseph, and Jesus are holy’, piercing neither the surface of family nor ho...

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Healing Power of Infant Jesus

By Abbey Foard
December 24, 2021
By Abbey Foard We enter the manger tonight and adore Infant Jesus. There He invites us to heal. Let me give you an example from a recent Living Waters Training.   Our small group sat still and silent around one precious woman. As Eva disclosed the lifelong impact ...

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Revisiting Joy

By Katie Comiskey
December 22, 2021
By Katie Comiskey The joy of Advent is often lost on me. As one prone to melancholy, I dwell more on disappointment than victories. Somber devotion suits me better than musing on the triumphant.  To be sure, sober meditation is necessary. How else can we probe the...

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Rousing Reality

By Andrew Comiskey
December 19, 2021
‘Man becomes truly himself precisely at the point when he recognizes that the highest and brightest Being dwells within him.’ Fr. Alfred Delp A young man once moved in across the street from me. He was an actor-dancer, ‘gay-identified’ and had co...

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Once More, With Conviction

By Andrew Comiskey
December 15, 2021
I couldn’t respect Pope Francis more for his heart for the poor. And like you, I love his jocular, down-to-earth style. Yet I find his wisdom on sexual pastoral matters as clear as mud. Early this month, Francis let go of Archbishop Aupetit--leader of France&rs...

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Joyful Decrease

By Andrew Comiskey
December 12, 2021
‘One is coming mightier than I…He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire’ (Lk. 3:16). ‘He must increase; I must decrease’ (Jn. 3:30). St. John the Baptist I’ll admit it--I’m shrinking. Once 5’ 10.5’’, I&rs...

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Actively Waiting

By Andrew Comiskey
December 05, 2021
‘Advent is the time of the promise, not the fulfillment.’ Fr. Alfred Delp Adele fever is back. Her new album ‘30’ is selling faster than any other this year, and she’s rocking a super-model makeover and new boyfriend who she claims freed her &l...

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Transforming Fear

By Andrew Comiskey
November 28, 2021
Jesus is coming and He’s mad. Today’s Advent Gospel (Lk. 21:25-28; 34-36) rouses us, not with carols but a swift kick. The Son of Man—supreme in ‘power and great glory’ (v.27)—will soon shake heavens, pierce clouds, judge earth. Scary....

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Day 40: Mature Freedom of the Gift

By Andrew Comiskey
November 21, 2021
Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press ‘One of the good things that comes of a true marriage is: there is one face on which changes come wit...

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Day 39: Freedom for the Next World

By Marco Casanova
November 20, 2021
By Marco Casanova DSM Assistant Director  Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press I know a nun whose love of Jesus amazes me. Spirit-fill...

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Day 38: Freedom for the World

By Andrew Comiskey
November 19, 2021
Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press That guy (call him Tom) intimidated me: snorting and glowering as he benched 300 pounds, he typified ...

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Day 37: Beauty of His Devotion

By Marco Casanova
November 18, 2021
By Marco Casanova DSM Assistant Director ‘The way to holiness is the path of My friendship. There are many who complicate the way of holiness and who make it seem forbidding and unattainable to others. It is enough to accept My gift of friendship… Let Me lov...

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Day 36: Beauty of Her Devotion

By Abbey Foard
November 17, 2021
By Abbey Foard DSM Executive Director St. Thomas Aquinas’ (1225-1274) hymn, Adoro te Devote, captured me with its melody when I heard it almost a decade ago (listen to a contemporary setting of the melody here). Hidden God, devoutly I adore Thee, truly pres...

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Day 35: Living His New Creation

By Adam Pane
November 16, 2021
By Adam Pane DSM Creative Content Manager Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press 'Your real, new self will not come as long as you are look...

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Day 34: Living Her New Creation

By Amber Wheeler
November 15, 2021
By Amber Wheeler DSM Asst. to Exec. and Asst. Directors Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press ‘Broken.’  Add to it &lsq...

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Day 33: Freedom of Christ Raised

By Andrew Comiskey
November 14, 2021
Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press First freezing morning: harder to see and feel Risen Jesus in dismal cold. Fire on, fire up! If the faithful...

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Day 32: Freedom to Forge Community

By Marco Casanova
November 13, 2021
By Marco Casanova DSM Assistant Director A couple of years ago, Andrew and I were running a half-marathon. On route, we passed my midtown parish—traditional, profoundly devoted to the liturgy. Her stature catches the eye. The copper domes tower over the main street...

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Day 31: Breakthrough to Community

By Dean Greer
November 12, 2021
By Dean Greer DSM Living Waters USA Manager Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press ‘Man becomes an image of God not so much in the mome...

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Day 30: Freedom to Confess

By Morgan Davis
November 11, 2021
By Morgan Davis Desert Stream Ministries Board Member ‘I realize I don’t have what it takes.  I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway.’  Romans 7...

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Day 29: Carrying His Cross

By Mike Nobrega
November 10, 2021
By Mike Nobrega Desert Stream Ministries Board Member I came to Desert Stream for help almost 30-years-ago: I was unable to break the grip of persistent sexual sin alone.  I had grown up actively Roman Catholic through high school and had an “awakening” e...

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Day 28: Carrying Her Cross

By Katie Comiskey
November 09, 2021
By Katie Comiskey Kansas City Living Waters Leader The Lord has met me in my brokenness in myriad ways: at His Cross, through His people, in the beauty of the Eucharist. He has freed me from the bondage of despair, rooted in a deep sense of inadequacy in my femininity. Fr...

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Day 27: Freedom and Struggle

By Andrew Comiskey
November 08, 2021
Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press ‘The inner man is called by Christ to reach a more mature and complete evaluation that allows him to...

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Day 26: Freedom and Her Self-Knowledge (From a Woman’s Perspective)

By Abbey Foard
November 07, 2021
By Abbey Foard DSM Executive Director Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press "If we do not see our own darkness, we cannot know the lo...

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Day 25: Freedom and Self-Knowledge (From a Man’s Perspective)

By Andrew Comiskey
November 06, 2021
‘If we do not see our own darkness, we cannot know the love and light of divine goodness.’ St. Catherine of Siena Annette often sees my blindness better than I do. She bumps up against her spouse’s striving and denial of the strain; she can at times detect ...

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Day 24: Freedom and Responsibility

By Marco Casanova
November 05, 2021
By Marco Casanova DSM Assistant Director Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press Naps are a luxury for anyone with responsibility. Yet give ...

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Day 23: Deliverance from Evil

By Andrew Comiskey
November 04, 2021
Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press How did we get here? What drives 30-40% of young adult America (Barna Study) to identify as LGBTQ+? Spo...

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Day 22: Wounds that Heal -- Invitation

By David Halliburton
November 03, 2021
  By David Halliburton Member of the Living Waters National Council Sexual abuse led me to believe I needed to be secretive to survive. Jesus invited me to tell the truth and live.  My life began to shatter at the age of 9 when an older male friend groomed then ...

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Day 21: Wounds that Heal -- The Gift of Light

By Annette Comiskey
November 02, 2021
by Annette Comiskey DSM Director at Large ”For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:13-14 Up until adulthood...

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Day 20: Wounds that Heal

By Andrew Comiskey
November 01, 2021
I don’t like wounds. I’d rather avoid them: maybe the bloody mess will coagulate and heal itself. When I fractured my toes running, I committed to ‘run off’ the injury. I especially don’t like emotional wounds. They slow me down. I am tempted to dist...

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Day 19: Into the Depths

By Andrew Comiskey
October 31, 2021
Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press ‘When strong temptations (no matter how ugly) come into your heart, never keep them inside, but reve...

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Day 18: Whole-Hearted Woman

By Abbey Foard
October 30, 2021
Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press I experienced a major emotional shift in my mid 20’s. Until then, I woke up most mornings with a sen...

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Day 17: Whole-Hearted Man

By Marco Casanova
October 29, 2021
Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press I don’t like difficult emotions. They conflict me and I usually try to resolve that conflict by mini...

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Day 16: Freedom for Emotion

By Andrew Comiskey
October 28, 2021
‘…the power of deep feeling seems to serve me, only to deceive me.’ Joni Mitchell Emotions confirm our wonderful, conflictual humanity. St. John Paul ll champions our range of deep feelings yet doesn’t equate love with sensations of love. True love, h...

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Day 15: How Mary Loved

By Abbey Foard
October 27, 2021
Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press On our first international trip in almost 2 years, I took a beautiful walk with my dear Lithuanian friend ...

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Day 14: How Jesus Loved

By Andrew Comiskey
October 26, 2021
Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press ‘They marveled that He was talking to a woman’ (Jn. 4:27). Jesus may be a formidable role m...

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Day 13: Rediscovering Our Lost Fullness

By Andrew Comiskey
October 25, 2021
Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press ‘What Christ demands from…all His listeners in the Sermon on the Mount clearly belongs to tha...

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Day 12: Freedom from Lust, for True Desire (From a Woman's Perspective)

By Christina Basch
October 24, 2021
I grew up in church, hearing sermons about God’s intentions for man and woman, the preciousness of purity and why we shouldn’t 'give ourselves over to lust.' I internalized the idea that waiting to give myself in marriage meant God would bless it. If I’m honest,...

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Day 11: Freedom from Lust, for True Desire (From a Man's Perspective)

By Devon Basch
October 23, 2021
Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press Before my wife and I were married I struggled with lust--particularly with pornography. In the beginning o...

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Kidnapper

By Andrew Comiskey
October 22, 2021
‘30% of American Millennials (born ’84-’02) now identify as LGBTQ, as do 39% of the youngest of the group—Gen. Z, ages 18-24.’  George Barna study Our kids have been snatched from us. The robber seeks to destroy them at core. He snags them ...

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Day 10: Welcoming the Gift of the Other

By Andrew Comiskey
October 22, 2021
Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press ‘The inner man must open himself to life according to the Spirit…in order to find again and a...

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Day 9: Rejoicing in the Body (From a Woman's Perspective)

By Amber Wheeler
October 21, 2021
I have a confession; I don’t rejoice in my body.  Weird confession for someone writing on ‘Rejoicing in the Body’ huh? I thought so too, but I’m learning how to rejoice in my body, this physical Imago Dei. I’m more familiar with body disinteg...

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Day 8: Rejoicing in the Body (From a Man's Perspective)

By Adam Pane
October 20, 2021
Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press 'This is the body: a witness to creation as a fundamental gift, and therefore a witness to Love as th...

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Day 7: Incarnation--Hinge of Wholeness

By Marco Casanova
October 19, 2021
Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press ‘The fact that theology also considers the body should not astonish or surprise anyone who is aware ...

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Day 6: Freedom to Choose Love

By Andrew Comiskey
October 18, 2021
Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press Choosing Jesus amid a host of identity options is key to our clarity. And good love for others. Centered in Chr...

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Day 5: The Divider and Disintegration

By Andrew Comiskey
October 17, 2021
‘The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy…’ (Jn. 10:10) Integration is wholeness, and God who created and redeems us, its champion; walking in hope and humility, we make peace with the true, often disempowered aspects of our humanity and do our part ...

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Day 4: Empowered Will and Self-Possession

By Andrew Comiskey
October 16, 2021
St. Paul counters the slavish sexual immorality tempting Christians by urging them ‘to possess their bodies in holiness and reverence’ (1 Thess. 4:3-5). That means: ‘Forego sensational gymnastics and live like you care more for everyone’s dignity.’ ...

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Day 3: Integration is Freedom

By Andrew Comiskey
October 15, 2021
Integration (an ‘integer’ is a whole number but can broaden to include something whole in itself) grants us a map for wholeness. It is a process, and the emerging result of a life lived openly before Jesus and His friends. First, to integrate means to own the parts...

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Day 2: Jesus--Embodied Gift Who Activates Ours

By Andrew Comiskey
October 14, 2021
Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for St John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press Jesus gave all to give us back Eden. He embodies the God who breaks into our prisons and invites us to paradis...

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Day 1: Freedom of the Gift

By Andrew Comiskey
October 13, 2021
Every human being is a gift from God. Before we are born from natural descent, tossed and anchored by parental decisions and influences—we are born of God (Jn. 1:12, 13). That is not our first thought. As products of a secular, therapeutic culture, we muse more on the unste...

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Close the Gap

By Andrew Comiskey
October 11, 2021
‘You see the trouble we are in…in ruins, our gates burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall…and we will no longer be in disgrace’ (Neh. 2: 17). We witness the gap between a Church vision of sexuality that dignifies all and the indignities foist...

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Battle Breaks Open

By Andrew Comiskey
October 06, 2021
German Catholic bishops and lay persons voted last week to adopt a resolution (168 to 28) to bless same-sex relationships in the national church. Defying a Church-wide ban on such unions, the proposal emerged amid a lengthy German ‘synod’ aimed at resolving the cle...

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Discover ‘Freedom of the Gift’ with Us!

By Andrew Comiskey
October 04, 2021
Freedom figures in big to the Gospel: Jesus declares that His truth ‘sets us free’, fully and completely, while St. Paul declares to us that Jesus ‘has set us free from sin’ (Rom. 6:18): ‘For freedom Jesus freed us! Stand firm, then, and refuse th...

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Father’s Kiss

By Andrew Comiskey
September 27, 2021
Last week, my son Nick asked me to preach the sermon for his ‘institution’ as senior rector. (Nick’s new post takes he and wife Meg from Austin Texas to head a dynamic Anglican ‘Church of the Apostles’ in Raleigh, North Carolina.) A privilege and ...

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Beyond Ourselves

By Andrew Comiskey
September 20, 2021
Best summer memories: Lit up and teary-eyed, my 95-year-old mom’s face as she looked for first time at two infant great grandkids, one named for her late husband (Tommy).  3-year-old Lily choosing me as her refuge as she braved Pacific surf (in my arms). &nb...

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Seven C's: A List of Helps for Struggling Loved Ones

By Andrew Comiskey
September 13, 2021
Original entry date: Spring 2017 Newsletter Conversion: The realization that a loved one has assumed a false identity invites you to go deeper in Jesus; it may well become more about your conversion than his or hers. Perhaps it challenges your current 'standing' in Christ. All...

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Sloth: A Slow Suicide

By Andrew Comiskey
September 06, 2021
Original entry date: March 9, 2015 ‘Sloth is a kind of oppressive sorrow that so depresses a man that he wants to do nothing.’ Aquinas Not long ago I faced a series of events that tempted me to despair. I neither tend to hopelessness nor the depression it engend...

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How to Love a Vulnerable Friend: Responding to the ‘Transgendered’

By Andrew Comiskey
August 30, 2021
Original entry date: May 9, 2016 First, thank you for your commitment to your friend. Sometimes devout, energized persons like you can help prevent an already vulnerable soul from doing further injury. I realize your friend is on the verge of doing just that by pursuing gender r...

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Chastity and Mercy: River Here

By Andrew Comiskey
August 23, 2021
God calls each of us to be a river of life for others. Chastity liberates that flow; sourced in Christ and no longer sidelined by fear and lust, we grow into channels of pure, creative energy. The river’s end? To build up Christ’s body, one member to another. It is...

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Kingdom of Saints

By Andrew Comiskey
August 16, 2021
Original entry date: December 12, 2011 I had never led a healing service for a group of Catholics before. And although I have been translated many times in Spanish, the language difference this time unnerved me. Before I could say a word, the worship team played John Wimber...

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Ten Takeaways from 'Pray Away'

By Andrew Comiskey
August 09, 2021
Winnowing wheat from chaff in service of persons pursuing wholeness 1. Clarify terms and set realistic expectations. Jesus grants us positional authority ('new creature in Christ', 2 Cor. 5:17), but that does not mean freedom from moral conflicts. We've just begun to figh...

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Bray Away: The Whiny Lament of Ex-Ex Gay

By Andrew Comiskey
August 03, 2021
Netflix just dropped ‘Pray Away’, a documentary intent on exposing the ‘harm of conversion therapy’ as to ‘end it’; first time feature director Kristine Stolakis delivers only a meandering piece of propaganda for the rainbow set. Boring. Aren&r...

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Exposing 'Conversion Therapy': Six Points Worth Considering

By Andrew Comiskey
August 02, 2021
Original entry date: October 28, 2018 First, 'conversion therapy' is the current lightning rod of contempt for anyone who refuses LGBT+ identity and destiny. And anyone who supports that decision: friends and family, churches, therapists. While celebrating every person's right...

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Together We Discovered Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
July 26, 2021
Original entry date: February 9, 2010 *30-years ago, 'Living Waters' surfaced in West Hollywood. The burning ground of lust and sexual confusion became a pool of God's mercy. Every Wednesday night for two years, we met in the home of a well-known interior designer. Charlie,...

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Intimate Authority, Transformed and Sent

By Andrew Comiskey
July 22, 2021
Original entry date: June 14, 2013 in our Mid-Year Newsletter On her Feast Day, I recall that St. Mary Magdalene is considered by the Roman Catholic Church to be the Apostle of Apostles. Why? The risen Christ revealed Himself to her first; out of all the disciples, God en...

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Merciful Heart

By Andrew Comiskey
July 19, 2021
Original entry date: November 25, 2013 'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. By this He meant the Spirit...' (Jn. 7:37-39) Each of us has been primed by merc...

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Freedom From Sin is Freedom For Life

By Andrew Comiskey
July 12, 2021
Original Entry Date: October 21, 2014 ‘The Cross becomes a new center of gravity for bringing together what is divided.’ Pope Emeritus Benedict Anyone who wrestles with sexual sin (or been impacted by those who do) understands the divided soul. On the one hand...

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From the Board of Directors...Would You Consider

By DSM Board of Directors
July 05, 2021
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Apostolic Courage

By Andrew Comiskey
June 28, 2021
Pride Month winds down on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29th). Afflicted by weakness, both surrendered to the One who transformed their infidelity to fierce love, nothing short of the power that brings heaven to earth. On Peter’s Rock, Paul declared to Tim...

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Exposing the Exposé – Part II

By Andrew Comiskey and Marco Casanova
June 21, 2021
Eve Tushnet, in her article ‘ConversionTherapy is Still Happening in Catholic Spaces – and its effects on L.G.B.T.people can be devastating’, subtitles a section ‘Leaving Space for the Cross.’ We find this incredibly ironic. How far does the Cross g...

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Exposing the Exposé, Part 1

By Andrew Comiskey and Marco Casanova
June 14, 2021
Eve Tushnet recently wrote an article in America Magazine titled ‘Conversion Therapy is Still Happeningin Catholic Spaces – and its effects on L.G.B.T. people can be devastating.’ Throughout, her supposition seems to be that some people are fundamentally (natu...

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Restored Fullness

By Marie
June 07, 2021
Twice now I have discerned the call to marriage. Once with a woman and once with a man. I am a woman driven by my desire to love fully, to give of myself fully to those in my life. My desire for love and my understanding of the best way to give love became distorted throu...

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Rainbow Crossing

By Andrew Comiskey
June 03, 2021
’Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good’ (Rom. 12:21)  Pride Month is upon us once more. Inevitably, all-things-rainbow will be waved, declared, and shouted from the rooftops. Ok, ok we’ve been through this before, many times over&mda...

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Fire in the Valley

By Andrew Comiskey
May 24, 2021
‘You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses’ (Acts 1:8). Easter primes us with the oil of healing anointing; Pentecost ignites us like a torch. We burned last week in So. Cal.’s San Gabriel Valley, a foretaste o...

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Pure Gifts

By Andrew Comiskey
May 21, 2021
‘When Jesus ascended on high, He took prisoners captive and gave gifts to men.’ (Eph. 4: 8) In this last week of Easter, between Ascension and Pentecost, I am overwhelmed by the generosity of God. Nothing can contain the love between Father and Son. Now reunite...

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Cleansing this Father

By Marco Casanova
May 17, 2021
Jesus unflinchingly washes the feet of His friends. He cleans them up to send them out. Jesus stoops to wash my filthy feet. He falls to wash the untidy parts of me. If I don’t allow Him to do so, I have no part in Him (Jn 13:8). He can’t send me out unless He ...

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Living the Nightmare

By Andrew Comiskey
May 12, 2021
‘When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?’ (Ps. 11:3) The man dressed as a woman shook the vial in his hands as he screamed at the receptionist—'This is a medical emergency; my meds are way off!’ She calmly explained tha...

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Village People

By Andrew Comiskey
May 10, 2021
Venturing to wholeness takes a village. We surrender to Jesus but stumble in route until we find walking partners who help us fix on Jesus and His narrow way. No doubt Jesus is our new dignity as men and women. He IS radical wholeness—the One who takes us back to th...

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Walking through Walls

By Andrew Comiskey
May 03, 2021
‘When the disciples were together, with doors blocked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said: “Peace be with you…” The disciples were overjoyed…’ (Jn. 20: 19, 20). Does an incisive look at our interior bolted do...

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Mutilation is not Transformation

By Andrew Comiskey
May 01, 2021
Ellen (Eliot) Page opened her blouse to Oprah Winfrey yesterday (doubtless you saw the poignant promos) to gush of her breast removal, e.g. ‘top surgery.’ ‘There I am...no breasts...completely transformed my life.’ Mutilation is not transformation. A...

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Double-Edged Freud

By Andrew Comiskey
April 26, 2021
I for one am grateful for Christ-centered therapists. Who else can care for us like a pastor, attune to us like a parent, and help unblock passageways in us that frustrate love? I was honored to address the Catholic Association of Psychotherapists last week, more to give than...

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Resurrection?

By Andrew Comiskey
April 19, 2021
Unbelief. That’s what struck me most about a dear friend’s resistance to my claim that Jesus actually can and does restore LGBTQ+-identified persons to wholeness. My friend is smart and surrounded by talky Christians who jaw about their right to be ‘gay&rs...

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Immerse this Easter

By Andrew Comiskey
April 15, 2021
Easter lasts longer than any other holy season. Makes sense. God invites us to linger in the waters, to immerse ourselves in new life—to take the most time to familiarize ourselves with the Risen Christ. And He is stirring the waters throughout Easter’s 50 day...

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Merciful Refuge

By Abbey Foard
April 11, 2021
“O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in you!” – Chaplet of Divine Mercy A week after Easter in 2018, Andrew and I were ministering in Vilnius, Lithuania--home to the original painting inspired...

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Fountain of Youth

By Andrew Comiskey
April 06, 2021
‘I am making everything new. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life’ (Rev. 21: 5, 6). A friend recently commented that I am just as vital today as I was decades ago, when we first met. ‘I am more vital tod...

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Mercy Bears All

By Andrew Comiskey
April 02, 2021
‘What He has not assumed, He cannot heal.’ -St. Gregory of Nazianzen ‘…the vile and horrible fiend clad His spirit in a robe steeped in all that is hateful and heinous in human crime, which clung close round His heart, and filled His conscience, an...

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How Deep Your Cross?

By Andrew Comiskey
April 02, 2021
‘The rain came down, the stream rose, and the winds blew and beat against the house; yet it did not fall, because it was founded on the Rock.’ (Matt. 7: 25) Sexuality may not be the most important aspect of our humanity. But its integrity reveals the depth of J...

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Mercy Sings

By Andrew Comiskey
March 29, 2021
We the forgiven sing to our Savior; our hearts overflow with grateful melody. We give thanks to Him with simple songs of love. We start each day in praise, not because we feel good but because He is only good, worthy of our first thought. We greet Holy Week in song. Lent f...

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The Converting Power of Chastity (Feat. Article in 'Coming Home Network International')

By Andrew Comiskey
March 25, 2021
I remember always loving the cross. Growing up in a beach town near Los Angeles in the sixties and seventies, my three siblings and I seemed unlikely to live a cruciform life. The sun burned hot, as if the moral ozone layer could no longer buffer its rays. Each of us was overexpo...

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Mercy Lets Go

By Andrew Comiskey
March 22, 2021
Why such a gap between our belief in God’s capacity to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and our refusal to let Him? My friend Dana shared about how she fell into a lesbian relationship while discerning life in the convent. Despite multiple confessions and absoluti...

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Sanctuary: Why I am Catholic

By Andrew Comiskey
March 19, 2021
‘We are more important to God than all the sins we commit. But He does not and cannot bless sin. He blesses sinful man, so that he may recognize that he is part of His plan of love and allow himself to be changed by Him. God takes us as we are but never leaves us as we ...

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Mercy Lays Claim to Us

By Andrew Comiskey
March 15, 2021
‘Beware of refusing to go to the funeral of your own independence.’ -Oswald Chambers How dependent am I on Jesus? Fickle, at best. Yes, I nourish sweet notions of Him at dawn’s early light and may even hear His still small voice. Yet post-prayer I may cu...

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Never Lovelier (at 65)

By Andrew Comiskey
March 13, 2021
Today marks my bride’s 65th birthday. Never lovelier, she reminds me that virtue deepens and resounds with age. Time amplifies faults as well. Still, Annette makes accentuating the positive easy. So here goes… Annette’s natural gift of mothering our child...

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Loving Lent

By Andrew Comiskey
March 08, 2021
‘Everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.’ (Phil. 2:21) Jesus’ main interest in Lent is to lead us into the desert so He can love us there. In the quiet, He accesses our deepest thirst; He fills us with tender mercies, sweet as ...

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Water Seeks the Lowest Ground

By Andrew Comiskey
March 01, 2021
‘Before you call, I will answer you’ (Is. 65:24). Do we even know what we need? Just prior to Lent, I confessed symptoms of lack—outbursts, intemperance in food and drink, poor judgments—but I could not name my need. Jesus knows. And He provides for...

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Context for the Chaos

By Andrew Comiskey
February 25, 2021
‘The task of the Christian is not to whine about the moment in which he or she lives but to understand its problems and to respond appropriately to them.’ Carl R. Trueman Why do we nod sympathetically at the woman who claims to be trapped in the wrong body? Wh...

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Transforming the Desert

By Andrew Comiskey
February 22, 2021
‘At once the Spirit sent Him out into the desert, and He was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended Him’ (Mk. 1:12-13). The Spirit invites us to follow Jesus into the desert. Hard to imagine in our dee...

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Immerse: For All Who Thirst

By Andrew Comiskey
February 15, 2021
For all who thirst, immerse. Come to the waters issuing from the altar of Our Lady of Good Counsel parish. A mercy pool awaits you, smack dab in the center of Kansas City. Every Thursday night from 7-8:30 pm during Lent and Pentecost (Feb. 18-May 20, except April 1st), a S...

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Kingdom Cure

By Andrew Comiskey
February 08, 2021
‘The time has come—the Kingdom is here. Repent and believe the good news!’ (Mk. 1:15) At our Living Waters wrap up party last week, one leader reflected: ‘Serving Kingdom-minded people week after week grounded me amid the swirl of a pandemic, politic...

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Trapped

By Andrew Comiskey
February 01, 2021
‘Our commitment on issues of human sexuality [and every other area] are guided by Christ’s commandment to love and to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters, especially the most vulnerable.’ Archbishop of Los Angeles Jose H. Gomez, President of the...

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Frustrated Men, Face Down

By Andrew Comiskey
January 25, 2021
‘Because we are vulnerable, we can be brave.’ Josef Pieper ‘Inner healing’ tends to attract women, who usually access their wounds more readily than men with the help of words absent from the masculine vocabulary. Yet guys are no less frustrated...

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Frustrated Men, Face Down

By Andrew Comiskey
January 25, 2021
‘Because we are vulnerable, we can be brave.’ Josef Pieper ‘Inner healing’ tends to attract women, who usually access their wounds more readily than men with the help of words absent from the masculine vocabulary. Yet guys are no less frustrated...

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Launch

By Andrew Comiskey
January 18, 2021
‘Why complain when you can act?’ Elizabeth Lesoeur Annette agreed to teach ‘Offering the Gift’ alongside me at Living Waters last week—no small ‘yes’ after a full day with grandkids. We both experienced unusual spiritual warfare s...

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Shine

By Andrew Comiskey
January 11, 2021
‘Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and His glory appears over you’ (Is. 60:1, 2). Reflecting Jesus’ light jus...

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Burn-Around

By Andrew Comiskey
January 03, 2021
‘To authentically live Christmas is to be born again with that little baby, who speaks constantly to us about the infinite, faithful, and unconditional love of God; who is passionately in love with His creatures, those for whom He does not hesitate to give His very self.&rs...

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A Father’s Zeal for the Real

By Andrew Comiskey
December 31, 2020
I am a zealous father but not a very well-rounded one. I don’t like professional sports (my kids mock Dad’s half-hearted efforts to cheer our Chiefs to the Super Bowl) and I exhaust my carpentry skills by nailing two pieces of wood together for Living Waters’ cr...

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Holy Family Reboot

By Dana Epperly
December 26, 2020
The Holy Family: Joseph, Mary and Jesus. Wow. As I reflect on this holy trio, I wonder: “How in the world could we ever imagine living a life comparable to this model?” Impossible? Is there hope for freedom and authentic holiness in our families? I tossed ba...

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Merry Mess

By Andrew Comiskey
December 23, 2020
The bright white carpet in our rental highlighted the dirt strewn all over it by our 2-year-old Nick back in the late-eighties; it seems our efforts to decorate the large potted tree indoors had gone awry. All Nick wanted for Christmas was a sand box. All Annette and I wanted...

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Baptizing Barrenness

By Abbey Foard
December 20, 2020
The Lord inhabits humble, barren spaces. His very presence sanctifies them. A shepherd’s pasture becomes a contact point for divine relationship. An earthly womb becomes a dwelling place for the Most High God. My own weary, wandering soul can display splendor, if only I...

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Something About Mary

By Andrew Comiskey
December 16, 2020
Here, evangelicals tremble: has Catholic-convert Comiskey gone over to the dark-side of Marian devotion? Is he in cahoots with the co-redemptress, now worshipping a fourth member of the Trinity? Nah, I just think she is neat. While considering this most blessed creature, I...

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Festive Refinement

By Marco Casanova
December 13, 2020
“Rejoice!” (Phil 4:4) Today is known as “Gaudete Sunday” (Gaudete--Latin “rejoice”). We set a fire to the lone rose-colored candle. The rosy wick is a bold reminder that an event is underway. “The Lord is near!” (Phil 4:5) Theref...

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Open Letter to Actress Ellen Page on Her Coming Out as ‘Eliot’

December 08, 2020
Forgive my boldness for addressing you on your public ‘trans’ declaration; I don’t know you at all, so I am reduced to a virtual response. I write because I admire your smarts and enjoy your beauty as an actress. You bring something like feminine genius to y...

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Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord

By Annette Comiskey
December 06, 2020
I was a high school senior in 1974 and our church youth group was obsessed with the Broadway show Godspell, a then hip, countercultural take on Jesus and disciples. The movie had been released in 1973 and we knew each and every song by heart. During Advent that year our very brav...

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Alarming Sight

By Andrew Comiskey
November 29, 2020
It’s hard to see things as they are. When what I see sets off prophetic alarms, I am tempted to look away and dull myself with pleasantries. Jesus helps us. On this first Sunday of Advent (and the first day of the Church’s new year), He snaps us out of sleep, rous...

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Desert Streaming

By Andrew Comiskey
November 25, 2020
Hey, join me and Marco Casanova for our podcast, Desert Streaming. (Clever, eh? My daughter Katie came up with it.) We go live next Tuesday. OK, OK, old man alert: I’m not overly familiar with pod-people and their worlds. Yeah, my two sons do great ones--Sam nails &lsqu...

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Radical Wholeness: Day 40

By Andrew Comiskey
November 22, 2020
‘Aquinas assigns intemperance to the “roving unrest of spirit”, which he says is the first-born daughter of acedia (or sloth)…Acedia is the dreary sadness of a heart unwilling to accept the greatness to which man is called by God; this inertia raises ...

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Asexual Slump or Marvelous Desire? Day 39

By Andrew Comiskey
November 21, 2020
‘To begin with: for Thomas Aquinas it is plainly self-evident--indeed so self-evident that it need hardly be mentioned even to those but moderately instructed--the sexual powers are not a “necessary evil” but really a good. With Aristotle, he says incisively ...

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Temperance: Life and Love on Course: Day 38

By Andrew Comiskey
November 20, 2020
‘The primary and essential meaning of temperance…is this: to dispose various parts into one unified and ordered whole.’ (The Four Cardinal Virtues, Josef Pieper, p. 146) ‘The discipline of temperance…is the saving and defending realization of ...

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Patient, Peaceful Endurance: Day 37

By Andrew Comiskey
November 19, 2020
‘To be patient means to preserve cheerfulness and serenity of mind in spite of injuries that result from the realization of the good. Patience does not imply the exclusion of energetic, forceful activity, but simply, explicitly, and solely the exclusion of sadness and c...

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Fortitude for Future Generations: Day 36

By Andrew Comiskey
November 18, 2020
‘To be brave actually means to be able to suffer injury. Because man is by nature vulnerable, he can be brave.’ (The Four Cardinal Virtues, Josef Pieper, p. 117) ‘If the specific character of fortitude consists of suffering injuries in the battle for the r...

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Sexual (In)Justice: Day 35

By Andrew Comiskey
November 17, 2020
‘…any unchastity has these two aspects: to be at once intemperance and injustice.’ (The Four Cardinal Virtues, Josef Pieper, p. 158) ‘…in adultery…we see lust…and neglect almost completely the element of injustice. Yet it is ver...

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Justice and True Sexual Nature: Day 34

By Andrew Comiskey
November 16, 2020
‘Justice is the virtue which enables man to give to each one his due.’ (The Four Cardinal Virtues, Josef Pieper, p. 44) ‘We cannot state the basis of a right…unless we have a concept of man, of human nature. But what if it is claimed that there i...

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Seeing Things as They Were: Day 33

By Andrew Comiskey
November 15, 2020
‘This truth of real things…is contained in the true-to-being-memory. The true-to-being character of memory means simply that it “contains” in itself real things and events as they really are and were. The falsification of recollection by the assent of ...

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Prudence: Decisive Reality: Day 32

By Andrew Comiskey
November 14, 2020
‘To be open to the truth of real things and to live by the truth that one has grasped is the essence of the moral being. Only when we recognize this state of things can we likewise understand the depths to which the unchaste heart permits destruction to invade its very ...

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Four Hinges on the Door of Life: Day 31

By Andrew Comiskey
November 13, 2020
‘“The doctrine of virtue” was one of the great discoveries in the history of man’s self-understanding…It has become a basic component of the European consciousness, as the result of persistent intellectual endeavor by all the creative elements of...

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Pastoral Gagnon: Day 30

By Andrew Comiskey
November 12, 2020
‘Ultimately, it is the individual homosexual who suffers in his or her relationship to God when the church shirks its duty to call a sin a sin. Far from being an unloving act, a sensitive refusal to condone homosexual conduct is the responsible and loving thing to do. T...

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Prophetic Gagnon: Day 29

By Andrew Comiskey
November 11, 2020
‘…it seems clear that consistent exposure to a smorgasbord of variant sexual behaviors and the intense questioning of a heterosexual norm in educational settings can result in sevenfold to ninefold increases in the numbers of people identifying themselves as homo...

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Christian Tolerance, the Public Square, and Homosexuality: Day 28

By Andrew Comiskey
November 10, 2020
‘It is important to be clear about the definition of tolerance and its place among Christian virtues. While tolerance may be a virtue in many instances, love holds a superior place in a Christian worldview (1 Cor. 13:13). Love and tolerance overlap but are not identical...

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An Empowered Gospel: Day 27

By Andrew Comiskey
November 09, 2020
‘Along with most Christians, I have come to the conviction that the gospel message exists in its purest form in the Bible (particularly in the Gospels and in the authentic Paul), for all its warts and problems. For me, the Bible is the normative “playing field&rdq...

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Roman Unraveling: Day 26

By Andrew Comiskey
November 08, 2020
‘In the context of Romans 1:18-32, it is true that there is a certain logic to the sequence of events. First, a false wisdom suppresses the truth about God in creation. This leads, second, to an inevitable distortion of one’s moral compass and the satisfaction of ...

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Meaningful Silence: Day 25

By Andrew Comiskey
November 07, 2020
‘Jesus made no direct or explicit comments on same-sex intercourse, just as He made no direct comments on many other important subjects. In a larger sense though, Jesus was not silent about same-sex intercourse inasmuch as the inferential data speaks long and clear abou...

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Pride in One’s Own Design: Day 24

By Andrew Comiskey
November 06, 2020
‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom. She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before Me’ (Ezekiel 16: 49, 50). ‘Ezekiel thought that the inhabit...

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Serious Business: Day 23

By Andrew Comiskey
November 05, 2020
In studying the Levitical Holiness Code, and Lev. 18:22 and 20:13 in particular, Gagnon asserts: ‘The degree of revulsion associated with the homosexual act is suggested by the specific attachment of the word ‘toeba,’ (hebrew) “abomination,” &...

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Scriptural Witness of Life: Day 22

By Andrew Comiskey
November 04, 2020
‘The objective of this book is to demonstrate two main points. First, there is clear, strong, and credible evidence that the Bible unequivocally defines same-sex intercourse as sin. Second, there exist no valid hermeneutical arguments, derived from either general princi...

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Taking a Stand on Shifting Ground: Day 21

By Andrew Comiskey
November 03, 2020
‘In the cultural, political, religious, and academic arenas of our lives, issues related to homosexuality and homosexual persons are pervasive and hotly contested...Public and private policy debates rage about such issues as antidiscrimination laws regarding housing and...

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Dignifying Marital Sexuality: Day 20

By Andrew Comiskey
November 02, 2020
‘The task of conjugal chastity, and still more specifically of continence, lies not only in protecting the importance of and the dignity of the conjugal act in relation to its procreative meaning, but also in safeguarding the importance and dignity proper to the conjuga...

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Body Talking, Truer than Lust: Day 19

By Andrew Comiskey
November 01, 2020
‘…the human body speaks a “language” of which it is not the author in the proper sense of the term. The author is man--male and female--who rereads the true sense of that “language,” thereby bringing to light again the spousal meaning of th...

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Embodying and Revealing the Great Mystery: Day 18

By Andrew Comiskey
October 31, 2020
‘Although the spouses should be “subject to one another in the fear of Christ” (this point is already highlighted in the first verse of Ephesians 5:21-33), nevertheless in what follows, the husband is above all the one who loves and the wife, by contrast, is ...

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Renewed Dignity of the Body: Day 17

By Andrew Comiskey
October 30, 2020
‘When the Apostle writes, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God’ (1 Cor. 6:19), he means to show a further source of the dignity of the body, namely, the Holy Spirit, who is also the source of t...

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Rediscovering Our Lost Fullness: Day 16

By Andrew Comiskey
October 29, 2020
‘What Christ demands from all His actual and potential listeners in the Sermon on the Mount clearly belongs to that interior space in which man--precisely the one who listens--must rediscover the lost fullness of his humanity and want to regain it. This fullness in the ...

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Deforming the Gift: Day 15

By Andrew Comiskey
October 28, 2020
‘The human body in its original masculinity and femininity according to the mystery of creation—as we know from the analysis of Genesis 2:23-25--is not only a source of fruitfulness, that is procreation, but has ‘from the beginning” a spousal character...

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Living Morality: Day 14

By Andrew Comiskey
October 27, 2020
‘A living morality in the existential sense is not formed only by the norms that clothe themselves in the form of commandments, precepts, and prohibitions, as in the case of “You shall not commit adultery.” The morality in which the very meaning of the human ...

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Day 14: How Jesus Loved

By Andrew Comiskey
October 26, 2020
Editor’s Note: TOB is the abbreviation for Pope St. John Paul II’s book “Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body” Pauline Press ‘They marveled that He was talking to a woman’ (Jn. 4:27). Jesus may be a formidable role m...

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The Incarnation: Main Door for a Theology of the Body--Day 13

By Andrew Comiskey
October 26, 2020
'The study of these chapters [Gen. 1 and 2], perhaps more than others, makes us conscious of the significance and necessity of the "theology of the body"...in this reflection we gain a vantage point that we must necessarily place at the basis of the whole contemporary science abo...

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The Body Makes Visible the Divine: Day 12

By Andrew Comiskey
October 25, 2020
'"And God saw everything He had made, and indeed it was very good" (Gen. 1:31). Man appears in the visible world as the highest expression of the divine gift, because he bears within himself the inner dimension of the gift. And with it he carries into the world his particular lik...

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Pure Gift: Day 11

By Andrew Comiskey
October 24, 2020
‘According to Genesis 2:25, the man and the woman “did not feel shame”; seeing and knowing each other in all the peace and tranquility of the interior gaze, they “communicate” in the fullness of humanity, which shows itself in them as reciprocal c...

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Integration for All: Day 10

By Andrew Comiskey
October 23, 2020
‘When we first will to follow--first attempt obedience--God becomes not just some vague force, but very personal. Our idea of Him changes. Then, as He points to the deeps of our personalities, deeps both good and bad that we are not in touch with, our idea about ourselv...

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Open Letter to Pope Francis

By Andrew Comiskey
October 22, 2020
October 22, 2020 Feast of Pope St. John Paul II Dear Pope Francis, Thank you for assuming a thankless, overwhelming task. I cannot imagine the burdens you face. America's upcoming election pales in contrast to the political challenges you face daily in our 'cohesive' Churc...

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Garden of Solitude: Day 9

By Andrew Comiskey
October 22, 2020
‘Our pastoral task is to help every needy one face his inner loneliness, and there begin to hear God and his own true self. Every one of us, not just the ones who are the most visibly wounded by the darkness in man and in the world, has to face the inner loneliness and ...

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Outward Gaze: Day 8

By Andrew Comiskey
October 21, 2020
‘This listening prayer is the best possible training in the practice of the Presence of God. In looking to Him, we are drawn up and out of the hell of self-consciousness and introspection. We become God-conscious. Stan learned to resolutely check himself when he was tur...

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Timeless Healer: Day 7

By Andrew Comiskey
October 20, 2020
‘In prayer for the healing of memories, the power of the memory to make the past present to us in a very real way is extraordinary. The reason for this, of course, is that Jesus, the Infinite One who is outside of time and to whom all times are present, enters into what...

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Reading Ourselves Rightly: Day 6

By Andrew Comiskey
October 19, 2020
‘In regard to the young man for whom he was experiencing strong homosexual desires I asked him, “What specifically do you admire in this person?” He replied, “His looks, his intellect, the fact that he is successful.” These, of course, were outsta...

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United in His Presence: Day 5

By Andrew Comiskey
October 18, 2020
‘In union and communion with Him, our once fragmented souls are drawn together in one harmonious whole even as the pieces of a complex puzzle fall in place under the guidance of a masterful hand. We are no longer divided within. The Presence calls forth the true self...

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Discerning Love: Day 4

By Andrew Comiskey
October 17, 2020
‘“Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness,” as C. S. Lewis has said, and the most unloving thing I could possibly have done to her [a friend with same-sex desires seeking help] would have been to substitute some sort of mindless “l...

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Prophetic Love: Day 3

By Andrew Comiskey
October 16, 2020
‘Some within the Church…claim that the homosexual condition is an expression of the variety in creation that God intended. “Why--if God made them this way—should their right to genital intimacy be considered immoral?”…In all this I sense t...

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Separation and Solidity: Day 2

By Andrew Comiskey
October 15, 2020
‘The fallen condition is a crisis in separation, and within the trauma of broken relationships resides what is described today as the identity crisis… Evil, is in actual fact, separation, separation from that which completes me. Theologically speaking, sin or ...

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Straightening Up: Day 1

By Andrew Comiskey
October 14, 2020
‘The fallen self cannot know itself. As we have seen, we do not know who we are and will search for our identity in someone or something until we find ourselves in Him. And it is only in Him that we become persons. In the Presence, conversing with Him, we find that the ...

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Fight for Life

By Andrew Comiskey
October 05, 2020
‘We are facing an enormous and dramatic clash between good and evil, death and life, the culture of death and the culture of life. We find ourselves not only faced with but necessarily in the midst of this conflict; we are all involved and we all share in it, with the inesc...

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Basking in their Brilliance: 4 who Lit our Way

By Andrew Comiskey
September 28, 2020
What do Leanne Payne, St. John Paul ll, Robert Gagnon, and Josef Pieper have in common?  These are the four brilliant minds I have chosen as the thinkers who most influenced Desert Stream Ministries. From diverse spiritual and academic backgrounds, each writer envisioned ...

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Stretching for More

By Andrew Comiskey
September 21, 2020
‘We are becoming persons. You are not who you will be. I am not, by the grace of God, who I will be.’ Leanne Payne Pity the man who stops becoming who God created him to be! As I reflect upon the joys of grandparenting, I recall the early days of my relationship...

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Heat Shade

By Andrew Comiskey
September 14, 2020
‘You are a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in their distress…shade for the heat.’ (Is. 25:4) Just returned from a brief blistering trip to California: 103 degrees in a beach town, the sky poisoned orange as fires seared nearby mountains. Gov. Newso...

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Crown Her?

By Abbey Foard
September 07, 2020
Mary. Theotokos. Mother of God. Mother of the Church. The new Eve. Blessed. Who is this woman? And what does she have to share with us, the Church? Can we receive her message as both Catholics and Protestants? The New Testament declares that all generations will call this humble ...

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Glorious Orientation

By Andrew Comiskey
August 31, 2020
Orientation refers to where one is going in relation to others, which include his or her thoughts and beliefs that guide that direction. Much is made today about different ‘sexual orientations.’ I suggest that there is one glorious orientation: ‘the deep orienta...

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Handed Over

By Marco Casanova
August 24, 2020
“The God who once manifested wrath against those who turned to idols by handing them over to their shameful passions has now handed them over to the life-giving, transformative power of the Spirit of Christ.” Dr. Robert Gagnon St. Paul’s words to the Romans a...

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Fruitfulness

By Abbey Foard
August 17, 2020
Anniversary celebrations run the risk of becoming sappy and nostalgic in ways that diverge from reality. Don’t get me wrong: reflecting on accomplishments is important, but best when inspiring a good future hope! Gratefully, we experienced such clarity as Desert Stream cele...

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About A Wedding...

By Andrew Comiskey
August 13, 2020
Much could be said about our 3 day anniversary feast: thoughtful reflection upon each decade of DSM, longstanding co-ministers who overwhelmed Annette and I with poignant and pointed blessing, courageous attendees who refused to allow covid to come between them and their tribe&md...

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True Worship 2

By Andrew Comiskey
August 10, 2020
Why do we worship Jesus, anointing Him with our love songs? Gratitude: He did for us what only He could do—He forgave our sins. Only God can wash us clean. Only God. Good people can forgive us our sins. But only God can make us new. So we sing out of gratitude. We was...

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Kyrie Eleison

By Annette Comiskey
August 06, 2020
Desert Stream Ministries started forty years ago when Andy shared his testimony one hot August Sunday at the Westside Vineyard in Los Angeles; a small group started shortly after and the rest, they say, is history! Blessings and difficulties abound in this ministry.  The ...

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True Worship 1

By Andrew Comiskey
August 03, 2020
We approach our fortieth anniversary bash this week; I am grateful, full of peace and praise for Jesus. In charting the breakthroughs and breakdowns throughout our four decades, I declare assuredly: ‘Lord, You establish peace for us; everything we have accomplished, You hav...

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Unforgettable: COVID Cure

By Andrew Comiskey
July 27, 2020
‘I will not forget you! I have engraved you on the palms of My hands; your walls are ever before Me’ (Is. 49: 15b, 16). In our covid-struck but not destroyed 40th anniversary as a ministry, I rejoice. I am grateful for periodic visits to my nearly 95-year-old Mom w...

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Joyful Rescue

By Marco Casanova
July 20, 2020
By Marco Casanova, Asst. Director of DSM/LW Jesus, through His Church, rescues the joy of my salvation. The mission of Jesus, at its very core, is to offer Himself as our saving remedy. He’s what “salvation” is all about. Jesus Himself descends to the root...

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Glorious Church

By Andrew Comiskey
July 13, 2020
‘For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, til her righteousness shines forth like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch.’ (Is. 62:1, 2) It is too easy to dismiss the Church as inadequate to convey the...

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Come Celebrate Our 40th Anniversary With Us!

By Abbey Foard
July 09, 2020
40-years-ago in Southern California, Andrew Comiskey began to impart to others what the Lord had first given him—encounters with God and His transforming presence. The authority of Andrew’s “yes” to let go of ‘gay’ identification and to take up...

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True Justice in Race and Sexuality

By Andrew Franklin
July 06, 2020
By Pastor Andrew Franklin, Living Waters leader and author of ‘Created for Love: Reclaiming Jesus’ Vision for Sexuality, Gender, and Relationships.’ Jesus created every tribe, tongue, and nation to express His glory in unique but equally meaningful ways. Tha...

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Just and True

By Andrew Comiskey
July 01, 2020
Justice means we give others what is due them. Disagreement need not skew a reasonable evaluation of others; justice demands we strive for objectivity so we can honor what is honorable in our fellow humanity. Justice has stumbled in the streets, as mobs morph from demanding fa...

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Birthright

By Andrew Comiskey
June 29, 2020
June ends with unabated clamoring for justice. Pent up by social isolation, an army of protesters vents in streets and squares. Equality, NOW! Lit by the murder of George Floyd, we face African Americans entrenched in attitudes and structures that are at best oppressive. The stee...

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Collective Burden, Personal Transformation

By Abbey Foard
June 25, 2020
Abbey Foard, Executive Director of DSM/LW Our nation (and our world) is swirling, as dizzying news cycles attest. No need to recount—we are living them. For those of us sensitive to “feeling” our communities, the intensity can feel like a riptide, a fierce pu...

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Sacred Heart, Living Stream

By Andrew Comiskey
June 22, 2020
I write this on the Feast Day of Jesus’ Sacred Heart: His generous love for each human being revealed in His pierced heart pouring out all we need to be free. Jesus’ Sacred Heart distills the meaning of mercy—so deep yet so simple that a child could behold His l...

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Prayerfully Fight for Living Waters (Torrents de Vie/TDV) in the French-Speaking World!

By Andrew Comiskey
June 18, 2020
Over 25-years-ago, a CA woman prophesied that Living Waters would find extraordinary expression in France. Her words came true. Founders Werner and Charlotte and new leaders Claude and Monique have led thousands of French-speakers (France, Switzerland, French Guyana, other territ...

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Injustice for All

By Andrew Comiskey
June 16, 2020
‘Protecting our neighbors from unjust discrimination does not require redefining human nature.’ Archbishop Jose Gomez, President of US Bishops Congress. Yesterday, the Supreme Court of America violated the meaning of sexual identity by broadening it to include pers...

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Become Who You Are

By Andrew Comiskey
June 15, 2020
The full stature of our humanity is always just outside our grasp. Someone truer, stronger, more tender-in-love awaits his or her true revelation. As God made us in us His very image, He has wired us to represent Him more nearly, more authentically. For this we must reach. Jos...

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Holy Resistance 2

By Marco Casanova
June 12, 2020
“You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it” (Mt 16:18). Usually trademarked by LGBT parading throughout the globe, June makes for an interesting month. The shameless gender bending movements have a wa...

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Holy Resistance

By Andrew Comiskey
June 08, 2020
‘In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood’ (Heb. 12:4). Guys tend to be soft these days, orbited by helicopter parents and overly self-aware, as if sensitivity to one’s ‘needs’ means feeding time....

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Life in the Blood

By Andrew Comiskey
June 01, 2020
As the DSM staff gathered throughout Easter to pray for the coming (more Lord!) of the Holy Spirit, we entered Jesus’ merciful heart. Pandemic noise invited us to flee into the folds of His compassion. His wound is love, bleeding yet unimpaired, fiercely beating as to send ...

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Awaken Love

By Andrew Comiskey
May 25, 2020
‘Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing…’ (Heb. 10:25) Having ascended to heaven, Jesus reunites with Father in joyful communion. The first fruit of their feast? Loosing heavenly energy to earth endowed with power to permeate ...

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Jesus Our Peace

By Andrew Comiskey
May 18, 2020
‘Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled or afraid’ (Jn 14:27). Not as easy as it sounds. Sure, I’m praying-nothing but time to pray, lingering longer before Him. Hungry yes, still no Eucharist, but the Real Presence of ...

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Grounded 9

By Andrew Comiskey
May 15, 2020
‘The dignity of every woman is the responsibility of every man.’ St. John Paul 11, Theology of the Body The test of my love lies in marriage; it is revealed in the eyes and heart of a person, a woman, my bride. I will not be judged on my ministry gifts; these...

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Resounding Authority

By Andrew Comiskey
May 11, 2020
‘I pray that you would know…His incomparably great power toward those who believe’ (Eph. 1: 18, 19). Not a big surprise that sexual temptation has increased in the But this Easter, with Pentecost right around the bend, I am fighting for a ‘yes’ t...

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Grounded 8

By Andrew Comiskey
May 08, 2020
One strange (if inconsequential) impact of Covid-19 are ‘virtual’ running races. We who have preregistered for, say, half-marathons, are now instructed that the race will be 5000 (or so) solo ones—take to the hills of your choice, pound 13.1 miles yourself, send...

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Corporate Handover

By Andrew Comiskey
May 04, 2020
Aging cuts both ways: yes, we at Desert Stream Ministries are now 40 years wiser, but also stubborn and calcified in ways that can inhibit our gift of ‘living water’ from coursing through Christ’s body. To be fair, God challenges DSM constantly, especially du...

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Grounded 7

By Andrew Comiskey
May 01, 2020
Authority arises from intimacy. And intimacy is about spending time with the beloved, lovers lingering together until… Who knows? How long the lockdown? Next week? Month? When will the roar of ‘normal’ goad us into frantic action and dull our ardor for Him? ...

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No More Becoming

By Andrew Comiskey
April 27, 2020
Leanne Payne used to quote Charles Williams’ line: ‘Hell is an image that knows no more becoming’ in reference to persons who stall in their growth as persons and cease to aspire to more. That came to mind as I read a review on the latest ex-ex-gay film &lsqu...

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Grounded 6

By Andrew Comiskey
April 24, 2020
Let’s start with confession: I find virtual Masses unsatisfying. They provoke hunger without consummation. Fill my little screen with big Pentecostal preachers any day. In quarantine, watching pale priests sup together then fade out is a kind of fast. Maybe that’s ...

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Sy

By Andrew Comiskey
April 22, 2020
My friend and colleague Sy Rogers died a couple days ago of cancer. Loved him. Sy, Alan Medinger, and me stormed Exodus at the same time in the early eighties, each of us supporting one another as officers of a vibrant, God-breathed movement. A former drag queen, Sy was uni...

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Easter Best

By Andrew Comiskey
April 20, 2020
The light of Easter shines on a simpler landscape this year. Like you, I am more defined than ever by the domestic church, my home. It helps to have an A-list partner who suffers little from lack of beauticians: Annette’s silver hair is just longer, pulled back, and she ...

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Grounded 5

By Andrew Comiskey
April 17, 2020
A renowned director despises vast landscapes in his movies: ‘Humanity reveals itself only in cramped quarters’, he mused. Apply that to one month in quarantine and he’s right: barely recovering addicts circle their troughs, the mildly anxious teeter on paranoia,...

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A Thousand Seeds

By Andrew Comiskey
April 13, 2020
‘What you sow does not come to life unless it dies’ (1 Cor. 15:36). Spring sings jazzy harmonies and awakens the dawn; ok, birds do, and Missouri has scads of them, as many and diverse as the freshly minted trees in which they perform. From Lent throughout spring, ...

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Grounded 4

By Andrew Comiskey
April 10, 2020
‘Many are awed by His miracles; few accept the shame of His Cross.’ Thomas a Kempis From the beginning of His adult ministry, Jesus set His face like flint toward Jerusalem. He lived, breathed, and progressed Cross-ward. His destiny was death. For the life of the w...

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Shifting the Atmosphere

By Marco Casanova
April 06, 2020
“Each generation is converted by the saint who contradicts it most.” GK Chesterton Shifting the atmosphere involves each of us. Jesus is rousing the sleepy Bride through prayerful sinners. Praying for priests and pastors during Lent has shifted something in me. ...

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Grounded 3

By Andrew Comiskey
April 03, 2020
A Lent unlike any other: rather than beef up devotion, I find myself reducing spiritual intake. Much of the time I find myself gaping at a Franciscan cross in my living room. Reduction. That’s how I cope in quarantine. This invasive virus is made worse by wars of words&m...

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Forging Young Fathers: Shoring Up Foundations

By Andrew Comiskey
March 30, 2020
Marco Casanova and Andrew Comiskey Best way to prevent moral collapse of pastors? Train them to grow in robust chastity. It must be evident early on that a young man seeking the priesthood/pastorate engages with God and others consistently about his sexuality. That means th...

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Grounded 2

By Andrew Comiskey
March 26, 2020
‘Hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has…?’ Hard to identify each little loss—they blur into a haze. Maybe familiar Lenten sacrifices like rich food and wine, or the absence of family and friends with whom to share the le...

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Overcoming False Intimacy

By Andrew Comiskey
March 23, 2020
I became a man through confronting my pastor for partaking of his sheep, e.g. emotionally and sexually manipulating a host of single women. My efforts were unwelcomed: the pastor duped his overseer, blamed us for being overly rigorous, and turned our colleagues on the pastoral st...

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Grounded 1

By Andrew Comiskey
March 19, 2020
My dreams reveal one frustrated guy. I wake up half-smiling at the heart’s antics: I can’t get out of the room or parking lot, no exit, strange humiliations where others have the upper hand and I am out-of-control. This lockdown may just make me loony. In that way, I ...

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Whose Witness are You?

By Andrew Comiskey
March 16, 2020
Pete Buttigieg is an impressive guy. This former presidential candidate (and potential running mate) gave us the best sound bites of the Democrat debates—smart, savvy, memorable. Yet his life is a tragic reflection of a nation hell-bent on denying its Creator. How else can ...

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Advocacy, not Acrimony

By Andrew Comiskey
March 09, 2020
‘I will not leave you as orphans…The Advocate, the Holy Spirit…will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you…Peace I leave with you. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.’ (Jn. 14:18; 26-28) F...

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Softening Hardened Hearts

By Andrew Comiskey
March 02, 2020
‘Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.’ (Heb. 3:13) At a church service headed by a dynamic, on-the-go leader, a young father asked for prayer: ‘I am ashamed to admit but ...

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Loving Pastors?

By Andrew Comiskey
February 24, 2020
OK. I’ve got a great pastor. Father Justin is orthodox and admittedly human: richly so, kind of noble but not self-important. His confidence in mercy frees him to be a sinner but not perilously. His solid bearing as a father frees me to exhale. The impact of a pastor’...

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Heart of the Lion

By Andrew Comiskey
February 17, 2020
‘I love you tenderly, faithfully, mercifully; and I will draw you into the embrace of My friendship, and hold you close against My sacred side until, at length, You come to abide in My Most Sacred Heart, the sanctuary of My elect, and the refuge of poor sinners.’ In S...

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Flyover?

By Andrew Comiskey
February 10, 2020
Kansas City. Cowtown? Coastal flyover zone? C’mon. We are the champions. As a focused Kingdom-minded guy, I am not that partial to geography or football. While celebrating our friend Tracey Bickle’s 60th birthday a couple months back, I ran into her brother Mike (f...

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Best Group Ever

By Andrew Comiskey
February 03, 2020
I kid you not. After 40 years of leading Living Waters groups, I just finished the best one ever. These twenty weeks rolled out like a dream. OK, chalk it up to extraordinary co-leaders (Marco and Becky) and inspired worship (Abbey singing at piano as we bowed before the Tabernac...

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Clear-Sighted Compassion

By Andrew Comiskey
January 27, 2020
John the Baptist’s astute sight and sound: ‘Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’ (Jn. 1:29) takes my breath away. His vision stops me in my tracks and invites me to yield to Jesus whatever ‘sin-sickness’ needs His cure. He is m...

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Fierce, Tender Love

By Andrew Comiskey
January 20, 2020
‘Each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked.’ (Neh.4:18) Fighting for wholeness is at once a personal and corporate battle. We help others refuse daily the lure of familiar gods while we strategize to stop the advance of enemy armies. Like the rebui...

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First Love

By Andrew Comiskey
January 13, 2020
‘Encourage one another daily…so that no-one may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We share in Christ if we hold firmly to the confidence we had at first.’ (Heb. 3:13, 14) My life and the life of Desert Stream Ministries is bound together in marriage: A...

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Silent Word, Shining

By Andrew Comiskey
January 06, 2020
‘Shine like lights in the universe, as you hold out the Word of life’ (Phil. 2: 15, 16). A season of silence ends: now back to airports, bills, staff management, and decisions, big and small. 2020 marks our 40th year as a ministry. I shall covet quiet around the ed...

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Silent Word, Pleading

By Andrew Comiskey
December 30, 2019
‘The true revolution comes from silence’ (Robert Cardinal Sarah). ‘How silently, how silently the wondrous Gift is given.’ Yet Christmas can clamor like a bullhorn and break the stillness in which we might otherwise meet Him. Don’t get me wrong: I...

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Trust

By Andrew Comiskey
December 23, 2019
‘Advent means a heart that is awake and ready, which does not let itself become bitter and deadened by hard blows but stays awake and aware of the free coming of the Lord God. That is why this free God must be met by a free person…who may well suffer hard blows but w...

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Offensive

By Andrew Comiskey
December 16, 2019
Adjective: causing someone to feel deeply hurt or angry. Noun: an organized campaign to achieve something. Jesus’ healing ministry satisfies both definitions of ‘offensive.’ His authority to restore lives enraged the religious while establishing the rule and...

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Fearing the One I Love

By Andrew Comiskey
December 09, 2019
Our trouble lies not in heavy-handed religion but in banal lullabies that assure us that God is love, all love, and only wants our best—‘best’ defined by our doing whatever we want. Our trouble lies in the fact that we no longer fear God. We want the benefits o...

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Thanksgiving 2: (Inter)Personal Best

By Andrew Comiskey
December 02, 2019
For the last 30 years, I’ve pounded the pavement as a long-distance runner. I ran the LA Marathon in 1989, beat my training partner, and never looked back. Since then I ran alone. Hard. Desert Stream began to flow to nations; I ran through Perth and Paris, Johannesburg and...

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Thanksgiving 1: Homeliness

By Andrew Comiskey
November 28, 2019
‘The quality of being simple or ordinary, but pleasant, in a way that makes you think of home.’ (Cambridge English Dictionary) The other day Annette and I scrambled to receive Camille (1.5 years) and Jacob (2 years) for a day of puppy love (labs are toddlers’ b...

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Fast Fruit: Knocking on Heaven’s Door

By Andrew Comiskey
November 25, 2019
‘Because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice’ (Lk. 18:5). Prayer and fasting are not sexy. As this 40-day ‘Becoming Good News’ ends, I am hungry and ornery, more inclined to fantasy donuts than holy apparitions. We as a staff h...

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Kingdom Clash 3: Dawning in Darkness

By Andrew Comiskey
November 18, 2019
We blaze with expectancy in this last week of our Becoming Good News fast. What a gift to burn with you: for mercy, for truth, for the grace to flare up as the Spirit leads and shed warmth and light on the untouched. We on the Desert Stream staff are praying to become torches tha...

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Slam Dunked (into Mercy)

By Andrew Comiskey
November 15, 2019
Once again, we gathered to pray on the City Hall steps; this time we awaited the outcome of our efforts before the Kansas City Council to ensure equality for counselors and clients seeking to align sexual identity with Christian values. We trusted in Jesus, not the Council. It w...

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Kingdom Clash 2: Fighting for France

By Andrew Comiskey
November 13, 2019
Until our weakness becomes ground that drinks rain from heaven, it may well invite the reign of hell. Such is the case for persons with gender identity problems who enlist the help of nations in destroying any who open to Jesus in their brokenness. The French government last wee...

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Kingdom Clash 1: Fighting City Hall

By Andrew Comiskey
November 11, 2019
We met in front of City Hall next to the Lincoln statue, featuring Abe and his son Tad. Fitting. Here we were, Christians of all stripes, diverse yet united in the love of our Father who listens and stoops down to make us great. Buttoned down Catholics, earthy Jesus people, young...

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St. Katherine

By Andrew Comiskey
November 04, 2019
All Saint’s Day reminds us of faithful ones who went before us and made a way for our faithfulness. I celebrated this feast of gratitude for saints in heaven with saints on earth, both Catholic and evangelical, at our East Coast Training in Pennsylvania last week. I was mo...

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Rally with us, Rescheduled KC Hearing

By Andrew Comiskey
October 29, 2019
KC rescheduled both the hearing and vote on the teen therapy ban for next Wednesday the 6th (hearing) and Thursday the 7th (vote). This gives us more time to: Mobilize a first-rate legal team and other heavy hitters in KC. Gather evidence on the flimsy ‘scientific’...

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Disappearing?

By Andrew Comiskey
October 28, 2019
I met Carol a year or so ago at a coffee joint; she possessed a cool style and looked at me with piercing, indigo blue eyes. She was also gradually concealing her womanhood in an attempt to ‘transition.’ I felt intuitively her years of torment and sought to reinforce ...

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Open Letter to Mayor Quinton Lucas of Kansas City

By Andrew Comiskey
October 23, 2019
Bless and thank you for your good service of our city. I voted for you because I respect your story. Please hear mine and many whom I represent. I know you are leading the City Council to vote on a citywide measure that would ban any counseling for minors who are seeking to ov...

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Presumption and Prayer

By Andrew Comiskey
October 22, 2019
Between the lines of what we know and what we do not, we pray. The powerlessness of not knowing invites us into the depths of mercy. There many waters cannot quench love (SS 8:7). Deeper than the swirl of suspicion and fear, we discover a warm current that envelopes and carries u...

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Behold the Sham

By Andrew Comiskey
October 21, 2019
‘You are the truth presiding over all things. But in my greed, I was unwilling to lose You, and wanted to have You at the same time as holding onto a lie…That is why I lost You: You do not condescend to be possessed together with falsehood.’ St. Augustine We...

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Clearing a Path

By Andrew Comiskey
October 14, 2019
‘And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness’ (Is. 35:8). Most efforts to pursue sexual wholeness are blocked by the media today. Gone are the days when some journalists honestly explored Christians who claimed to have found a way out of gend...

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Surrounded 2: Mending the Net

By Andrew Comiskey
October 07, 2019
Since becoming Catholic, I’m more aware than ever of the ignorant, prejudicial attitudes that pervade both sides of our divided Church. I’m also aware of real ‘reformation’ differences that should be acknowledged and respected. That is not my concern he...

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Surrounded 1: Chariots of Fire

By Andrew Comiskey
September 30, 2019
It can be tough to burn with hope for some LGBT+ persons; allergic to chastity, alive to sensational new ‘sexualities’, they frame us as ‘haters’ and our fire dims. As we prayerfully ‘Become Good News’ (starting Oct. 16th), it may help us to...

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Good News?

By Andrew Comiskey
September 23, 2019
Jesus is good news for the sexually broken. As a mere member of His, deeply flawed, I fall short. I guess that explains the title of our upcoming 40-days of prayer: ‘Becoming Good News’. We begin by admitting limited love for difficult beloved ones then seek to become...

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Living Bread, For the World

By Andrew Comiskey
September 16, 2019
Long before I centered on the Eucharist as the focus of worship—the real meal that Catholics celebrate–I understood this breaking of bread as how us saints can make known our brokenness to each other in fellowship. ‘Communion’ involves just that—gath...

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Collateral Damage

By Andrew Comiskey
September 09, 2019
We as a staff opened our ministry year in prayer; Annette received a word about ‘collateral damage’, the fall-out from battle—war’s unintended impact upon others. ‘Jesus has won, the enemy knows it, so he is doing everything in his power to wreak hav...

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Ecstasy

By Andrew Comiskey
September 03, 2019
The Crucified rallied the nations last week in Kansas City; under the flood of His Divine Mercy, we wept for joy. Ecstasy. No better way to describe the 80 Living Waters leaders who gathered around His self-giving in order to offer themselves better to others. Jesus gift to us...

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Aging Grace

By Andrew Comiskey
August 26, 2019
Does the thinning buffer between us and eternity expose virtue or vice? Does aging make us better or worse? Not sure… During this summer break—a writing one—I paused to consider the quality of my offering to others and perceived heightened gratitude and grou...

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Stepping into Blessing (and out of blogging….)

By Andrew Comiskey
July 15, 2019
‘May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of people’ (Gen. 28:3). Today. First day of vacation. Still glowing from last night’s closure of our Kansas City Living Waters Training. That glow will di...

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Abuse and Authority

By Andrew Comiskey
July 08, 2019
The Church’s authority to restore sexually broken people with the power that raised Jesus from the dead hinges on her repenting from abusing the most vulnerable. I just returned from what has become one of my favorite nations—Poland. Theologically, St. John Paul ll...

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Restoring the Spire

By Andrew Comiskey
July 01, 2019
Our gendered humanity—submitted to one another in reverence to Christ (Eph. 5:21)—points beyond itself. It reveals the One who made us to co-create in His image. I glimpsed something divine yesterday in a lovely young couple wheeling a newborn: he proud and protective...

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For the Most Vulnerable

By Andrew Comiskey
June 24, 2019
Much is made today about the fragile state of LGBTers who need protection from ‘conversion therapists’, a slam-em-all term for anyone who believes that gender integration is possible. (See recent 'Power to Change' Newsletter.) The logic is simple and skewed. Person...

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Pentecost and 'Pride'

By Andrew Comiskey
June 17, 2019
I love the fire of Pentecost—the coming of the Holy Spirit in power: exposing idols, commanding allegiance to one Father through the Son, raising up sons and daughters who will endure. One thing is sure amid ‘Pride’ month—we will burn like torches for chas...

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Glorious Absence

By Andrew Comiskey
June 09, 2019
‘I tell you the truth: it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go I will send Him to you…When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth’ (JN 16: 7, 13). Jesus must decreas...

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Generous, Jealous Love

By Andrew Comiskey
May 27, 2019
‘Do not give in to the feelings of guilt that assail you because you are not living up to the ideal you have set for yourself. I do not ask you to be faithful to an ideal. I ask you only to be My friend and to live at very moment in the grace of My divine friendship.’...

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Fruit of Scandal

By Andrew Comiskey
May 20, 2019
‘For you became sorrowful as God intended…Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignat...

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Reach

By Andrew Comiskey
May 13, 2019
‘Remember not the former things…behold the new!’ (Isaiah 43:18) Living Waters is a long narrow cross-walk that always opens to Life. To be sure, it can hurt to face the uneven, perilous ground on which we were at once victim and perpetrator, oblivious to bot...

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Who You Looking At?

By Andrew Comiskey
May 06, 2019
Easter opens the eyes of our heart to see the Risen Christ. For the first time, again. He is here! He has walked through our walls; His gaze, lit with tender mercy, catches ours and enlivens our hearts, summoning us from the dead. On Easter Sunday Annette and I experienced tog...

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India: God Answers

By Andrew Comiskey
April 29, 2019
‘The poor and needy search for water but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst, but I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them…’ (IS 41:17) It was a good sign. As I greeted my Thai colleague Sue and team at the Ko...

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Fire. Burning. Notre Dame.

By Andrew Comiskey
April 18, 2019
Fire. Burning. Notre Dame. Judgment at our house, right here, us. More than a sign of French resilience: a church, our Church. ‘Bearing’ becomes ‘burning’. Bones on fire, lit by McCarrick and Vigano and Martel—strange prophets all—arso...

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Bearing

By Andrew Comiskey
April 15, 2019
Though I love the benefits of Jesus’ cross, I am tempted to hate sharing in that cross with Him. It hurts to bear up under the burden He invites us to shoulder, namely grief over His Church. During prayer for the healing of our corporate compromises, I realized: what I m...

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Securing A Father's Foundations

By Andrew Comiskey
April 08, 2019
In prayer with our Lenten group, I saw a flag pole waving an image of the Lamb of God; at a closer glance I could see its base had decomposed to the point that the pole began to waver then slammed to the ground, hurting many and scattering others. Last week, I revisited this visi...

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Humble King

By Andrew Comiskey
April 04, 2019
I sent out a series of questions to my favorite priests and Rev. Msgr William J King who runs a Living Waters group in his parish responded. Excellent priests exist and deserve our prayers. “Dear Andrew, your email is a source of grace. Thank you.  It...

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Radiance from the Ruins: Praying for Priests

By Andrew Comiskey
April 01, 2019
What had been alien to me—a black-coated mystery, heady and aloof, men in rectories, celibate yet suspect—became engaging and vital through actual priests who loved me well. Priests I know possess an attuned compassion that has deepened my trust in Jesus through His C...

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Grieving the Divides

By Andrew Comiskey
March 25, 2019
In her face, I witnessed my sorrow and somehow could feel it. My friend conveyed simple pain over her (natural) father’s ongoing failures, a man she wanted to love but could not trust. All she could summon was pity. And now grief as she witnessed him unraveling before her e...

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Liberating Chastity

By Andrew Comiskey
March 18, 2019
Chastity has taken a lot of hits lately. Many would deem this ‘successful integration of sexuality within the person’ (#2337) a failure, the prospects dim for unifying one’s best spiritual aspirations with bodily desires. As Church sexual abuse scandals drone on...

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Blemished

By Andrew Comiskey
March 11, 2019
My face is a mess. Overexposed for years in the California sun, it now looks like rugged desert terrain, baked red by heat. I am undergoing a harsh chemical treatment that surfaces precancerous blotches. Hidden no more, these sores must face the light, scab, and fall away with th...

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Killing the Truth

By Andrew Comiskey
March 04, 2019
The other night, I dreamt of complicity—a good friend and colleague had been pronounced innocent of murder yet I knew otherwise. She killed someone and I killed the truth by saying nothing. I was just speaking with a fellow minister/healer from another country who descri...

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Good Natured

By Andrew Comiskey
February 25, 2019
‘Just as there is a momentum to evil, so is there a momentum to repentance.’ Sour moods tempt me easily these days. As bishops from around the globe gather in Rome to bind up an abused Church (Responsibility, Accountability, Transparency–RAT—unfortunate...

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Freedom, Naturally

By Andrew Comiskey
February 18, 2019
I chuckled as Lady Gaga decried Vice-President Pence ‘as the worst representative of Christianity’ because his wife took a job at a school that defines freedom as reserving sexual love for marriage and thus requires employees to deny themselves other forms of behavior...

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Nature Rebels

By Andrew Comiskey
February 11, 2019
Nature rebelled at our Living Waters Training in Malibu Canyon last week. Charred by the Woolsey Fire just months earlier, the land struggled to absorb five days of driving rain. A stream on the property became a flood as the 20 member team prepped for the arrival of 35 participa...

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Esperanza

By Andrew Comiskey
February 04, 2019
‘You are no longer aliens but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone’ (Eph. 2:19, 20). Mexicans do it better. Living Wate...

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Authority to Heal

By Andrew Comiskey
January 28, 2019
A disgruntled ‘gay’ activist, Mathew Shurka, testifies in legislatures around the country that conversion therapy did not work for him; he did not change and he doesn’t want to change. And he doesn’t want anyone else to change either. Me thinks he prote...

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With Jesus, Anything

By Andrew Comiskey
January 21, 2019
Reflecting on my 60th year, I was beautifully interrupted by a snow storm that knocked the power right out of us; we were babysitting grandson Jacob while his parents cheered the Kansas City Chiefs onto victory in their division at the local stadium. (Congratulations to The Chief...

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Shepherdless?

By Andrew Comiskey
January 14, 2019
‘When Jesus saw the crowd, He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd’ (MK 6:34). If the wise-men are any example, then Epiphany is about the worship of Jesus manifesting itself in loving people most in need of it. Our new neighborho...

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Holy Family?

By Andrew Comiskey
January 04, 2019
I prepared myself for the worst last Sunday, the Feast of the Holy Family. I prophesied a dismal homily on the too-radiant-to-be-believed triad: you know, ‘be holy as Mary, Joseph, and Jesus are holy’, piercing neither the surface of family nor holiness. Wrong on a...

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Home Fires

By Andrew Comiskey
December 31, 2018
OK, OK, I love my wife and kids and dogs and house. But I am most at home before the One. During these days of Christmas, my eyes are fixed on the little baby in the cow stall; I bow in worship. He is the Lord. He is no mere extension of my religious imagination, nor a sentimenta...

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Almost Home

By Andrew Comiskey
December 24, 2018
‘No-one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. Only those who need someone to come on their behalf will have that someone. That someone is God, Emmanuel, God-with-us…Without poverty of spirit, there can be no abundance of God.’ St. Oscar Ro...

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Cry of the True Self

By Andrew Comiskey
December 17, 2018
‘I know that only the LordGod can and will loose my fetters and open my door, and that only His creative storm will unfurl my flag once again…’ FR Alfred Delp In the film ‘Before Sunset’, Ethan Hawke muses to an ex-lover as to...

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Daigle Disrupted

By Andrew Comiskey
December 12, 2018
‘John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin’ (Luke 3:3). True confession–I love scrunchy Christian pop, like the songs of Lauren Daigle, a Christian singer now soaring up the pop charts....

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Advent: Woes and Warring for Souls

By Andrew Comiskey
December 10, 2018
‘Perhaps what we modern people need most is to be genuinely shaken…God permits this whirlwind to go over the earth…This is the first Advent message: before the end, the world will be set quaking.’ FR Alfred Delp ‘The coming of Jesus is fearsome ...

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Saved by Beauty 2

By Andrew Comiskey
December 03, 2018
‘The joy of a saint is not to draw people to himself…but to cast his crown before God.’ Father Richard Veras This fall I’ve faced the down-drag of affliction—my Church’s tendency to look good rather than to become good, and my mother who sh...

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Saved by Beauty

By Andrew Comiskey
November 26, 2018
‘This aspiration—born of love—is a search for integral beauty, for purity free from stain. It is a search for perfection that contains a synthesis of human beauty—body and soul.’ (Theology of the Body, St. John Paul ll) As she sat in the morning l...

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Gender Matters in the Philippines

By Andrew Comiskey
November 21, 2018
May I please invite you all to pray for our daylong Gender Matters Conference in Manila, The Philippines on Saturday, Dec. 1st? Our gathering could not be timelier. This most Christian nation in Asia is now on the brink of following America’s horrid example of gender-bendin...

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Unflinching Mercy for the Abused

By Andrew Comiskey
November 19, 2018
‘The beauty of the cathedral does not oppose the cross but is its fruit.’ – Cardinal Ratzinger The other morning in prayer I was startled by the image of a priest opening his vestments in a cathedral and abusing a boy. The act was as ugly as the building was ...

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Safe House

By Andrew Comiskey
November 12, 2018
‘O afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted, I will build you with stones of turquoise, your foundations with sapphires…All your sons and daughters will be taught by the Lord, and great will be your children’s peace’ (IS 54: 11, 13). Our chur...

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Kingdom Fire and Foes

By Andrew Comiskey
November 05, 2018
‘I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already blazing…Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, division’ (LK 12:49, 51). As we proceed in our 40 days together, I am grateful for answered prayers. The Bishops&r...

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Conversion Therapy: Six Points Worth Considering

By Andrew Comiskey
October 29, 2018
First, ‘conversion therapy’ is the current lightning rod of contempt for anyone who refuses LGBT+ identity and destiny. And anyone who supports that decision: friends and family, churches, therapists. While celebrating every person’s right to change partners or ...

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Integration, Not Segregation: The Answer to our Prayers

By Andrew Comiskey
October 15, 2018
We join together in prayer these next forty days, crying out for Jesus to become our one sure foundation. We pray especially for loved ones exploring alternative identities. Like us, Jesus invites each to submit his or her sexual longings to God’s ardent pursuit of us. That...

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Fighting for Fruitfulness: Seven Truths for this Generation

By Andrew Comiskey
October 08, 2018
While waiting in line at the market, I observed two young Latina women in matching jean jackets emblazoned with rainbows and crosses. They could barely keep their hands off each other and gave into a long messy kiss just outside the store. Shame? Intolerance? No signs of it. Fell...

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Burning Bridge

By Andrew Comiskey
October 01, 2018
Jesuit priest James Martin—close friend of Pope Francis and the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communication—is bright and just and merciful. He is also committed to normalizing LGBT realities in the Catholic Church. Martin was chosen as the featured Catholic to ...

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Prayer Changes Everything

By Andrew Comiskey
September 24, 2018
In the swirl of Church abuse scandals and the Kavanaugh political drama involving #MeToo’s legitimacy and overreach, I urge you to pray. Virtual headlines pummel us; setting down the cell phone in order to center on Jesus’ Divine Mercy for all the wounded and accused,...

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Little Monsters

By Andrew Comiskey
September 17, 2018
The ongoing outing of men acting badly (Les Moonves of CBS, new evidence against Weinstein, Cardinal McCarrick and his cronies, hundreds of American priests who abused in the second half of the 20th century) may tempt us more to disgust than self-examination. I refer here to my b...

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AB 2943: Love Greater Than Fear

By Andrew Comiskey
September 10, 2018
California Assemblyman Evan Low’s decision to not send his bill for a final vote is a marvel of love, the love that casts out fear (1 JN 4:18). Christians of all stripes came together gently, lovingly to uphold the truth of how we see reality: God made humanity in His im...

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Muddy Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
September 03, 2018
Things just got a whole lot messier for the Church. Archbishop Carlo Mario Vigano—the papal ambassador to the US from 2011-2016–alleges that he made Pope Francis aware of Cardinal McCarrick’s homosexual abuses in 2013; further, Vigano claims that the Pope failed...

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2943 Withdrawn from CA Legislature! Long Live Freedom of Choice!

By Andrew Comiskey
August 31, 2018
In an unexpected move, Assemblyman Evan Low withdrew his bill on the last day of its eligibility. Had it passed, Living Waters would have been outlawed in the state of California. The bill is now dead. Low engaged with many Christian leaders this summer and understood that the bi...

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For the Devoured

By Andrew Comiskey
August 27, 2018
Shepherds who abuse sheep consume them; they devour their dignity, trust, and faith. Scripture makes this clear in Ezekiel 34 when God through the prophet rails against pastors who ‘eat the curds, clothe themselves with the wool, and slaughter the choice sheep’ (v. 3)...

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Seeds and Weeds

By Andrew Comiskey
August 20, 2018
I heard the news in Ubon Thailand, during our first Living Waters Training there: 70 years of clerical abuse in Pennsylvania involving 300 priests, over 1000 of God’s beloved kids, and the Church’s systematic attempt to cover her tracks. I knew the report was comin...

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Betrayal

By Andrew Comiskey
August 13, 2018
For the last month, I have been sickened by reports of ex-Cardinal McCarrick’s long history of sexual abusing male teens and adults; more deadening still is his denial of the allegations (how so when a diocese settled a couple of these cases years earlier?). Most crucifying...

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Pray for 2943 and Asia

By Andrew Comiskey
August 10, 2018
Friends, I am just finishing a wonderful break with Annette and children and grandkids; I leave tomorrow with Abbey for our first Living Waters Training in Ubon Thailand. Ubon, near the Laos border, is a Buddhist stronghold with extremely limited Christian presence. We delight...

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'Becoming Good News' for Wandering Loved Ones

By Andrew Comiskey
July 23, 2018
I am excited about a new booklet I just wrote–‘Becoming Good News’–a daily, 40-part prayer guide for those of us seeking to love persons mesmerized by the LGBT+ dragon. Jonathan Hunter prayerfully glimpsed this brute: a shimmering beast that entrances a ge...

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AB 2943 and Divine Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
July 16, 2018
Will California Preserve Freedom of Choice? The California legislature tried to railroad AB 2943 through the Senate; it looked like a sure thing for a political body intent on outlawing any moral action that clashes with the state’s LGBTQ+ juggernaut. Strangely, the bill...

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Your Answered Prayers

By Andrew Comiskey
July 09, 2018
In New York City, on the last day of ‘Gay Pride’ month, God had the last word.  In the same city where a noisy and highly funded LGBT+ parade glorified identity confusion a week earlier, Living Waters flowed without notice, quietly yet mightily to heal wounds at ...

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Naming Persons in Truth

By Andrew Comiskey
July 02, 2018
‘So from now on we see no-one from a worldly point-of-view’ (2Cor 5:16). It helps persons to name them as they really are. Everyone loses when we heed the false naming of persons according to feelings of same-sex attraction or other expressions of gender disintegra...

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Grand Father's Day

June 27, 2018
Camille Comiskey was born June 8th, 2018 to Christina Comiskey and my eldest son Greg. She is beautiful, feisty, and unusually tall for her age. Her dark hair and eyes captivate us; her exuberance keeps Greg and Tina on their toes. Camille was also born with a temporary proble...

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Barnabus

By Andrew Comiskey
June 21, 2018
Last week the Church honored St. Barnabas, ‘the son of consolation and encouragement’ who empowered St. Paul to fulfill his mission to the Gentiles. Barnabas seemed little concerned with his success; though both he and Paul were granted apostolic titles (Acts 14:14), ...

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Surrounded 2

By Andrew Comiskey
June 11, 2018
My friend Jim Doman is man of the hour in California right now. He has organized pastors from all over the state through his group, Pastors United, to declare that Jesus transforms persons with gender problems in the face of AB 2943. I was honored that he featured the impact of L...

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Polish Spring

By Andrew Comiskey
June 04, 2018
‘See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come.’ (SS 2:11, 12) Amid abuse and cover-up, confusion from Pope Francis regarding homosexuality and Irish citizens overturning their abortion ban, the Sp...

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Surrounded

By Andrew Comiskey
May 28, 2018
“‘Go in the strength you have…am I not sending you?’ ‘But my family is the weakest and I am the least in my family…’ ‘I will be with you’, says the Lord.” (Judges 6:14-16) I write in weakness; amid our busiest seaso...

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Is the Pope Devolving

By Andrew Comiskey
May 22, 2018
In a private meeting with Juan Carlos Cruz, Chilean survivor of clerical sex abuse, Pope Francis reportedly told the ‘gay-identified’ Cruz that ‘God made him gay’ and ‘that you have to be happy with who you are.’ Huh. Always a chance the Pop...

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Highway to Holiness

By Andrew Comiskey
May 14, 2018
‘Let us make good use of our time. Out steps must conform to God’s call on our lives; let us work out our salvation with fear and trembling and with burning love and zeal for the salvation of our neighbors.’ St. Junipero Serra I write this from Mission San Ga...

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At Risk

By Andrew Comiskey
May 07, 2018
‘If our Gospel is hid, it is hid toward those who are perishing’ (2 Cor. 4:3). An outraged congregant railed at Pastor Patrick on the eve of our Gender Matters conference at his church: ‘This isn’t one of those “pray away the gay” groups, is...

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California's New State Religion

By Andrew Comiskey
April 30, 2018
‘In this world, God loves nothing more than the liberty of the Church.’ St. Anselm AB 2943, which prohibits churches from selling resources that helps members live chaste lives, sailed through the Assembly and (barring a miracle) will do the same in the Senate in t...

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River Run

By Andrew Comiskey
April 23, 2018
As I prepared to run the inaugural half-marathon in Kansas City for 2018, I reflected on the river of mercy Jesus released for us in Lithuania. We drove half the night from Latvia to Vilnius, Lithuania’s biggest city and source of the Divine Mercy devotion initiated by an ...

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Messy, Joyful Easter

By Andrew Comiskey
April 19, 2018
I woke from a fitful sleep, jet-lagged and already critical of the things that awaited me at morning Mass. I countered with a prayer for humility and tolerance of things I dislike like dour congregants and uninspiring music. After all, it is Easter! Jesus is walking through walls...

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Outlawing Gender Integration in California

By Andrew Comiskey
April 16, 2018
‘We give you strict orders not to teach in His name.’ Peter and John replied: ‘Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard…We must obey only God a...

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Reality, Healing

By Andrew Comiskey
April 09, 2018
The Archbishop of Latvia rallied the major Christian leaders in his nation—Orthodox, Lutheran, Baptist, Roman Catholic—to stand together for God’s image in humanity and to refuse an effort of the European Union to legislate ‘gender ideology’ througho...

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Easter: Snow and Burn

By Andrew Comiskey
April 03, 2018
The glorious 50-day season of Easter kicked off in Kansas City with a freak snowstorm (we managed to pull off some not indecent bbq anyhow…) Regardless of the weather, whatever the dismal mindset, God calls us to burn bright for Him. He enables us to do so. I urge you t...

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Zeal Consumed Him

By Andrew Comiskey
March 30, 2018
‘Zeal for Your house consumes Me; the insults of those who blaspheme You have fallen on Me… Scorn has broken My heart and left Me helpless’ (PS 69: 9, 20). Zeal consumed Jesus, ate Him up, killed Him. His ‘ardent enthusiasm’ (a good definition...

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Zeal for Our House

By Andrew Comiskey
March 28, 2018
Jesus casts out robbers from His Father’s house for us. That starts with the integrity of our personal temples. He cares about our dignity as male and female and hates that dignity to be defiled. Though we are made in His image, that image is marred and He gives all to rede...

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Why Gender Matter 6: Heavenly Bodies

By Andrew Comiskey
March 26, 2018
Every Sunday I am blessed by a young family of six who typically sit in the pew in front of me. Far from being bothered by the squirms, yawns, and fights that erupt in the service, I relish them. I marvel at the two parents who patiently adjust attitudes and seating; through this...

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Zeal for His House has Consumed Us (And our Finances!)

By Andrew Comiskey
March 22, 2018
We are on fire and need fuel to stoke the flames. Help us with a one-time gift. Here’s the deal. We have been burning with passion for the Church as never before, starting with our 40-day fast last fall for the gender broken then blazing trails in congregations on the we...

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Behold the Lamb 6: 'Having Nothing, Possessing Everything' (2 Cor. 10:10)

By Andrew Comiskey
March 19, 2018
Our Lenten offering is prayer for the whole, broken Church. Not so hard. We are wholly broken, full of faith, bursting with seeds of hope for her best and grateful to sow them in deep rich soil. We are nothing in contrast to how people rate greatness. But in prayerful response to...

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Why Gender Matters 5: Otherness Nurtures Family

By Andrew Comiskey
March 15, 2018
Besides the obvious reasons why a man and a woman need each other to bring forth life, he and she together help the lives that they create become creative. That takes effort: surmounting the fear that her difference from me is precisely what I most need to thrive. And trusting...

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Behold the Lamb 5: Liberty and Loss

By Andrew Comiskey
March 12, 2018
A young Catholic priest who participated in a recent Living Waters Training engaged a lot with our mostly evangelical crowd; he got kicked in the stomach a few times by persons who introduced themselves to him as ‘having become Christians after they left the Catholic Church...

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Behold the Lamb 5: Liberty and Loss

By Andrew Comiskey
March 12, 2018
A young Catholic priest who participated in a recent Living Waters Training engaged a lot with our mostly evangelical crowd; he got kicked in the stomach a few times by persons who introduced themselves to him as ‘having become Christians after they left the Catholic Church...

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Why Gender Matters 4: Gender Vandals

By Andrew Comiskey
March 08, 2018
‘Rates of suicide are nearly twenty times greater among adults who use cross-sex hormones and undergo sex reassignment surgery…’ Dr. Paul McHugh ‘A Fantastic Woman’ isn’t, although it won best foreign film at last week’s Oscar Awards....

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Behold the Lamb 4: Refining Fathers

By Andrew Comiskey
March 05, 2018
God always honors His Word and sacraments even if His servants act dishonorably. For example, I once had a pastor whose stellar preaching (some of his word-pictures still shed light for me on complex truths) coexisted with a trail of confusing seductions he initiated with women i...

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Why Gender Matters 3: What Children Need

By Andrew Comiskey
March 01, 2018
‘We urge healthcare professionals, educators, and legislators to reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex. Facts—not ideology—determine reality.’ American College of P...

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Behold the Lamb 3: Dirty Mother

By Andrew Comiskey
February 26, 2018
‘In the Church, God has put Himself into hands that betray Him over and over.’ Pope Emeritus Benedict I was outraged. A well-known actress whom I understood from good sources to be a Christian of integrity starred in a film that featured ‘gay’ sex; she ...

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Why Gender Matters 2: Good Grief

By Andrew Comiskey
February 22, 2018
I did not grin over skater Adam Rippon’s campy exuberance nor fawn over commentators Johnny Weir’s jewels during the Winter Olympics. I grieved. Here are two strong, disciplined men who acted like girls, preening before cameras in full make-up and elaborate hairdos, g...

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Behold the Lamb 2: Domesticating the Lion

By Andrew Comiskey
February 19, 2018
Yes, Jesus is at once Lion and Lamb, our Almighty Creator and Redeemer who surrendered to our sin and its consequence of death. The Lion became the Lamb. Yet His sacrifice makes little sense if we fail to comprehend who He is as Lion. Literary images help. In his ‘childr...

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Behold the Lamb 1: Golden Scars

By Andrew Comiskey
February 14, 2018
Another Lent. We don ashes as a sign of repentance. We let go of vain things in order to take up what matters. May I suggest you walk this next 47 days with the staff of Desert Stream/Living Waters Ministries? We repent on behalf of the Church for her failure to represent Jesus w...

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Why Gender Matters 1

By Andrew Comiskey
February 12, 2018
Gender matters because we do not create ourselves. We have a Creator who made us to reflect something of Himself in our bodies as male and female. Our gendered humanity is not an accident. It is an ordination. No matter how much we devalue ourselves as gender beings, One remains ...

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Splendor of the Kingdom 3

By Andrew Comiskey
February 05, 2018
‘Faith in the Lord’s real Presence and His transforming power decides everything. If this faith is firm, the Church’s doctrine about human sexuality will be comprehensible and equally firm. If it evaporates, then repentance, conversion, grace and sanctification ...

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Splendor of the Kingdom 2

By Andrew Comiskey
January 29, 2018
We gathered for our Gender Matters conference in New York City last weekend (soon to be in Kansas City February 10, sign up now!); the Holy Spirit flooded us like a river overflowing onto parched land. He is re-awakening our call to live the-truth-in-love and so authenticate...

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Splendor of the Kingdom 1

By Andrew Comiskey
January 22, 2018
‘This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel’ (MK 1:14, 15). We should never reduce Jesus to a tidy set of teachings or ethics. He shatters our controlling tendencies with one touch of His healing, delivering ha...

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Comiskey at 60 (Isaiah and Otherwise)

By Andrew Comiskey
January 15, 2018
‘Arise and shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and deep darkness the peoples of the earth but the Lord rises upon you and His glory appears over you’ (Isaiah 60:1, 2). Does aging make you better o...

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Boundary Breakers or Makers?

By Andrew Comiskey
January 08, 2018
Hollywood’s award season is in full swing and will be dominated by actresses insisting on a new moral order in which men treat them with deference and respect. Right on. You witnessed Hollywood’s best on the Golden Globe Awards wearing black to honor those deadened by...

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Smoke, Not Fire

By Andrew Comiskey
January 01, 2018
Two weeks ago, a Roman Catholic priest from Milwaukee came out as ‘gay’–made by God that way–to his congregation in an effort to integrate his ‘gay’ self and to help LGBTers follow his path to authenticity. Blazing a trail with his fiery wit...

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Gloriously Dependent

By Andrew Comiskey
December 25, 2017
‘The incarnation has forever hallowed the flesh.’ Charles Williams (as quoted by Leanne Payne in The Healing Presence) Today we rejoice in God assuming baby flesh—the Father and Son’s choice for the King of glory to become as small and dependent as we a...

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Binding Up the Betrayed Heart

By Andrew Comiskey
December 18, 2017
‘The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me; He has sent Me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty for the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the Lord and a day of v...

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Glorious Repentance

By Andrew Comiskey
December 11, 2017
‘John came preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. All the people of Jerusalem went out to him, confessing their sins…’ (MK 1: 4, 5) I went to Thailand the second week of Advent in order to repent. Again. Strengthened by our 40-day fas...

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Waking Up

By Andrew Comiskey
December 04, 2017
‘Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come…May He not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: “Watch”!’ We begin Advent 2017 with a disturbing wake-up call, assisted by the outing of men in enter...

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Home

By Andrew Comiskey
November 27, 2017
The next few weeks beg the question: ‘What is home to me?’ Holidays highlight our origins and our goals surrounding home. In the countdown to Christmas, some forego reflection for a cyclone of activity; surrounded by love, we worry only that we will forget to give lov...

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Giving Thanks For You

By Andrew Comiskey
November 20, 2017
Amid the din (virtual and otherwise), thank you for quieting your heart long enough to read this. Amid a thousand requests for your service, thank you for fasting and praying with us these last 40 days, denying yourself for the salvation of others (Jude 20-23). Amid a thous...

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Irresistible

By Andrew Comiskey
November 16, 2017
In these last couple weeks of our fast, I’ve had the privilege of making two trips to the Northeast where I witnessed the irresistible splendor of Jesus in His Church, both evangelical and Catholic. The Spirit is stirring up His saints, girding them in truth and welling up ...

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Struck Down, Deployed

By Andrew Comiskey
November 13, 2017
‘We are struck down but not destroyed, always carrying around in the body the death of Jesus that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.’ (2Cor 4: 9b, 10) As our fast continues, I am especially grateful for the parents of strugglers who are becomi...

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All Saints Day

By Andrew Comiskey
November 06, 2017
Last week, November 1st, the day the Church honors her members on earth and heaven, we buried my son Nick’s second child Elizabeth in a small plot next to her brother Luke. She outlived him by two weeks. Surrounded by the great cloud of witnesses? (Heb. 12:1) Light penetrat...

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Hollywood-izing Harrassment

By Andrew Comiskey
October 30, 2017
Count on Hollywood to highlight a real threat to human dignity (sexual assault, power abuse, a la Harvey Weinstein) only to distort its threat to the point of mockery. If Heather Lind’s accusation of 93-year-old George HW Bush’s sexually assaulting her does not provok...

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Why Feast?

By Andrew Comiskey
October 23, 2017
Fasting is about solidarity with those who suffer; in our self-emptying, we cry out for Jesus to restore them. He suffered; He now lives to heal the grieving. Thank you for praying alongside of us at DSM/LW as we get low to raise up an army of wounded healers—like Jesus, ri...

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Wildfire

By Andrew Comiskey
October 16, 2017
As flames sear the West Coast, so the Hollywood community skewers one of its ‘gods’ (Meryl Streep referred to Weinstein as one in accepting an award for a picture he produced) for sexual misconduct of the most lurid order. Anyone with an IPhone knows that Harvey Weins...

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Why Fast?

By Andrew Comiskey
October 09, 2017
We begin our 40-days of prayer and fasting this Wednesday the 11th; we seek together to become good news for persons vulnerable to the false LGBT+ ‘map’ as they make sense of who they are. Only Jesus through His members can clarify true identity. We pray and fast to b...

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Why Pray?

By Andrew Comiskey
October 02, 2017
As we commence our 40-days of prayer and fasting next Wednesday on October 11th, I pose the question: why pray more? Let me count the ways. First, we are continually knifed by the jagged world and jagged worldly people who we love so much we hate them. Instead of dulling ourse...

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Relationships that Heal

By Andrew Comiskey
September 25, 2017
While we as the Desert Stream staff prayed for our upcoming Living Waters European Leaders gathering in Poland, I received these words: ‘relationships that heal.’ They do indeed. For over 30 years, blessed Europe has been the site where deep bonds have been forged....

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Becoming Good News for the Gendered Challenged

By Andrew Comiskey
September 18, 2017
How do we embody the Gospel for persons enslaved to the false liberties of our day? We pray, and ask God to give us mercy, vision and boldness to make known His transforming love to them. The other day, I encountered a person staffing a drive-through window who could not be di...

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Why We Must Make Our Marriages Work

By Andrew Comiskey
September 11, 2017
Married couple Ed and Christine opened our Gender Matters conference in Pasadena last week; they spoke frankly about how Jesus and His Church were helping them to be good gifts to each other in light of fears and failures. Healthy marriage is the foundation on which we as a co...

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Greatest Story Rarely Told

By Andrew Comiskey
September 04, 2017
‘As long as it continues to be told, no story is ever wasted,’ opines a ‘gay’ Christian writer. Like many today, he feels compelled to testify of how Jesus confirms his intrinsically homosexual self as one expression of the good news. Everyone has a sto...

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Why 'Gay' Christians are Wrong

By Andrew Comiskey
August 28, 2017
Tragically, Inter Varsity Press, which published my books Strength in Weakness and Naked Surrender, is now celebrating ‘gay’ Christianity with a new book that shall remain nameless because it deserves no attention. Suffice to say it is written by a youn...

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United States of the Americas

By Andrew Comiskey
August 21, 2017
‘How pleasing it is when brothers and sisters live together in unity.’(PS 133:1) We please Him. Maybe it’s because we realize that America is as much Mexico and Chile and Puerto Rico as it is the United States. Maybe it’s because we love marriage and tr...

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Tour De Trust

By Andrew Comiskey
August 14, 2017
Why did I sign up in the first place? I’ve ridden thousands of miles on bike but have never raced, let alone raced at 7500 feet in the mountains with a 3000 foot incline over its 50-mile course. Such was the Tour of Big Bear CA that I bungled into last week. We had gathe...

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Courage for Chaste Sex

By Andrew Comiskey
August 07, 2017
At the Courage conference last week in Chicago, Annette and I had the privilege to testify on the glorious challenge of forging a marriage in light of my same-sex attraction and her sexual abuse—two gifts that keep on giving! Actually, we are gifts to each other who through...

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Good To Be Alone?

By Andrew Comiskey
July 31, 2017
Sexuality has something to do with directing us out of our aloneness and into creative communion with others. God made it that way. However challenging that ‘gift-giving’ is today, it remains the way that we honor our parents, grow in appreciation of our gender and th...

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Repent

By Andrew Comiskey
July 24, 2017
I joined the Catholic Church because (among other things) of her witness of marriage and chastity; I die daily as a Catholic because of fellow members who defile that witness by championing ‘gay marriage’ and all things LGBT. Look no further than talk show host Ste...

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Cross Fit: Sorrow and Self-Giving

By Andrew Comiskey
July 17, 2017
I am just winding up a month off in which I spent a lot of time with the one I love most—me! Ouch. Truth hurts. Gratefully my native selfishness was no match for the glorious time Annette and I shared. We stayed home, caught our breath, and renewed our vows. Time off and tu...

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Take the Hit

By Andrew Comiskey
June 19, 2017
The rainbow protesters came as planned to our 6th annual Restored Hope Network Conference in San Diego last Friday, and as usual, barked more than they bit. (‘We’re queer, we’re here’; yeah, we know.) An activist warned RHN Director Anne Paulk: ‘You&...

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Asian Pentecost: The Wind of War

By Andrew Comiskey
June 12, 2017
‘I did not shrink back from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God.’ (Acts 20:27) ‘Sexual orientation is immutable to change.’ Taiwanese constitutional court on why this island nation became the first in Asia to initiate ‘gay’ marriage. ...

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Rainbowed

By Andrew Comiskey
June 05, 2017
June initiates ‘Gay Pride Month’ in which LGBT (and so on) folks celebrate more gender selves then there are colors in the rainbow. Liberty? Think again. Their promise of freedom becomes enslaving liberties. (2P 2: 9). How so? Our common enemy picks off the most vu...

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Fresh Green from Scorched Earth

By Andrew Comiskey
May 29, 2017
‘He will be like a refiner’s fire…then the Lord will have a people who bring offerings in righteousness.’ (Mal. 3:2, 3) I had seen the vision months before: a blackened field, still smoking. A prophetic woman who knew nothing of the burning of many pre...

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Unmasking the Enemy, Part 2

By Andrew Comiskey
May 22, 2017
Words fail to express the suffering endured by persons who resist identification with their biological gender. Left-leaning analysts would attribute that suffering to external sources–the rejection a tough girl or soft boy incurs from peers. The problem runs deeper still...

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Unmasking the Enemy, Part 1

By Andrew Comiskey
May 15, 2017
How do you make sense of a breezily written Time magazine cover entitled ‘Beyond He or She,’ in which the author Katy Steinmetz champions kids from around the country who refuse any gender identification (March 27th)? Or seventy congresspersons who are seeking a natio...

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Up the Down Stairs

By Andrew Comiskey
May 08, 2017
Easter invites us to rise with Christ and to offer our lives to those who have lost hope in His mercy. We arise in hope and become messengers of hope. Our clarity is founded on the hard fact that every other security has failed us. Resurrection demands that we admit ‘all ou...

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Salient Joe

By Andrew Comiskey
May 01, 2017
‘I will send you the prophet…who will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers’ (Mal. 4:5, 6). The late Dr. Joseph Nicolosi popularized the ideal of a ‘salient’ father who embodies both tend...

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Grief Relief

By Andrew Comiskey
April 24, 2017
‘Let the dead bury their own dead. You go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.’  (LK 9:60) Resurrection flies in the face of the sorrows we nurture and the Jesus we tend to conform to the image of our sorrows. Jesus on the other hand broke the back of grief by ...

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Satisfying Jesus

By Andrew Comiskey
April 17, 2017
‘After the suffering of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied.’ (IS 53:11) God surrenders to man’s sin and death in order to vanquish his sin and death. Forever. Today and for as long as we live on earth, Jesus desires that our lives declar...

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Smash Flood

By Andrew Comiskey
April 14, 2017
‘They will look on Me, the One that they have pierced…and grieve bitterly. On that day a fountain will open to cleanse them from sin and impurity’ (Zech. 12:10; 13:1). Jesus mirrored hard truth. Outraged man shattered the mirror. God retaliated by releasing ...

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Blessed Betrayers

By Andrew Comiskey
April 13, 2017
‘In the Church, Jesus entrusts Himself to those who betray Him over and over.’ Pope Emeritus Benedict As we proceed with Jesus to Calvary, we linger at the Last Supper where we witness St. Peter dining comfortably with Jesus, curious of who Jesus’ betrayer mi...

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Chastity: Order in our Courts

By Andrew Comiskey
April 10, 2017
Following Jesus to Calvary requires temperance, that gift of the Holy Spirit which sets love in order within us. The ordered soul loves to linger with Jesus. Yet we with shifting, bloodshot eyes struggle to keep watch with Him. Gerald May is right: ‘Addicts cannot meditate....

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Fortitude

By Andrew Comiskey
April 06, 2017
‘He who loves his life will lose it.’ (JN 12:25) ‘Because we are vulnerable we can be brave,’ says Joseph Pieper. CAN be brave. The truth is—most of us are cowards who seek first to preserve our lives from further wounding. Persons who demonstrate...

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Justice 2: Holy Tears

By Andrew Comiskey
April 03, 2017
‘Justice without mercy is cruelty.’ Thomas Aquinas When St. John (JN 8:1-12) describes the Pharisees hauling the adulterous woman before Jesus in the hopes of exposing His inability to unite mercy and justice (Lev. 20:10), with whom do we identify? Like me, you ...

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Franks, Thanks

By Andrew Comiskey
March 31, 2017
Last Saturday in San Rafael CA, I was privileged to be among those who memorialized Frank Worthen, father of ministries like Desert Stream. “Frank possessed a profoundly Christian heart—as the Hebrews understood ‘heart.’ His good mind could apprehend th...

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Justice 1: Shameless

By Andrew Comiskey
March 29, 2017
‘Mercy without justice is the mother of disintegration.’ Thomas Aquinas Conviction for sexual sin is dull today. We no longer feel bad for acting badly. Misuses of mercy may well enable the problem. When we placate the disintegrated who sow seeds of disorder everyw...

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Love and Wisdom 2: Why Mercy Must Inform the Homosexual Wound

By Andrew Comiskey
March 27, 2017
‘Love Molds Wisdom’ Joseph Pieper The nearly uniform acceptance of homosexuality today cannot hide the wound at its core. No amount of societal celebration cures the wound; it masks it, thereby exploiting persons who buy the lie of ‘gay goodness’. Ci...

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Weekend in Warsaw

By Andrew Comiskey
March 24, 2017
I usually hate to travel during this desert season but I could not resist the temptation to invite myself to the first assembly of 100 Living Waters members and leaders from four robust groups around Poland. Under the strong leadership of Father Joseph and a national team of c...

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Love and Wisdom 1: The Counsel of Friends

By Andrew Comiskey
March 22, 2017
‘To love a person means to see him as God created him to be.’ Dostoevsky Kate led a home group where she befriended and cared for ‘Kevin’, a young adult actively involved in this large dynamic church. What Kate did not know was that ‘Kevin’ ...

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Wisdom

By Andrew Comiskey
March 20, 2017
‘Preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight; they will be life for you…’ (PR 3: 21, 22) Like you, I watch helplessly as divided men and women leave faith and family for another partnership, be it a younger lover, the actualizi...

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Love

By Andrew Comiskey
March 15, 2017
God gave everything for us at Calvary. He poured out His life, which is the best definition of love I know. We have all (I hope) known someone who sacrificed for us. But he or she did not give everything. God did. He died for us. He died for us in order to gain us: He died to ...

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Rebuking the Devourer

By Andrew Comiskey
March 13, 2017
The other night I beheld a demonic power in a dream; the blob-like entity had little form and was obscured by darkness. It made a variety of sounds as if it were feeding off something. Though I could not see its target, I realized the ‘thing’ was intent on foraging of...

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Exuberant Joe

By Andrew Comiskey
March 10, 2017
My good friend and colleague Dr. Joseph Nicolosi passed away yesterday from an unexpected, swift illness. I am in shock. He is the man who gave men like me courage to name the wounds related to our early gender identity, get on a healing track, and proceed onto all we were create...

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Faith

By Andrew Comiskey
March 06, 2017
We are healed and we will be healed by faith in Jesus. So will our loved ones. To stop trusting Jesus for His full and perfect will for everyone we love (including ourselves) negates the power of what He won for us at Calvary. ‘By His wounds we are healed’ (IS. 53:5; ...

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Living Hope

By Andrew Comiskey
March 03, 2017
‘Jesus, You are everything to a lonely soul.’ St. Faustina Mark was among the brightest of Living Waters’ young lights; he faced his same-sex attraction squarely and well with a similarly motivated group of men and women in Los Angeles. He left for China to f...

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Hope

By Andrew Comiskey
March 01, 2017
Lent begins with hope. We start with Jesus, hope’s foundation. We can bear the mark, a little cross on the forehead, because He has gone before us and made a way for us to walk. His Cross blazes our trail and gives us hope to walk further and more fully into His best for ou...

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Green Jesus

By Andrew Comiskey
February 20, 2017
Before speaking to a group of students at Florida’s Ave Maria University, I requested prayer and my host Scott and a kind priest interceded with me. We waited together before Jesus. ‘Ask Jesus what you want from Him tonight,’ requested the priest. After a few mo...

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Silence

By Andrew Comiskey
February 13, 2017
The din surrounding Trump’s presidency invites me to sink into the Source, like a child escaping the surface noise by descending into a pool. There I hope to discover a hidden fount that liberates prayers for the man. Nothing else will do. Only the God who meets us in weakn...

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No Place Like Home

By Andrew Comiskey
February 06, 2017
‘I witnessed God’s glory in every broken life.’ Living Waters participant We just finished our Living Waters group at St. Thomas More’s in Kansas City. It was a hard group–a handful dropped out and the deep needs that remained in the group seemed ...

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Night Nurse

By Andrew Comiskey
January 30, 2017
No, I am not referring to the snazzy ’31 melodrama starring Barbara Stanwyck and Clark Gable nor the Marvel comic book of the same name. I am confessing my paltry efforts to serve Annette as she seeks recovery after surgery (and now healing from my hapless ‘night nurs...

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Obama's Confusing Legacy

By Andrew Comiskey
January 26, 2017
‘The rights of black people are gay rights and the rights of gay people are black rights.’ Kevin Jennings Living in a city built on a fault-line of segregation where the majority of African-Americans flounder in poverty and poor schools, I cheer former president Ob...

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(Not) Seeing, (Un)Believing

By Andrew Comiskey
January 23, 2017
Emptied and wearied by well-doing, I subjected myself to fools—fantasies that rushed into my void like sewage. I was as wanted and exciting as were those around me. I wanted my dream to come true. Barely able to choose otherwise, I did. By grace alone (and a friend&rsquo...

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Breaking Water

By Andrew Comiskey
January 16, 2017
When Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles opened our Truth and Love Conference last week, his words about how we participate in Jesus’ baptism brought this to mind. C.S. Lewis describes a diver breaking the water’s surface then descending into the depths to retrieve t...

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Crowns Down

By Andrew Comiskey
January 08, 2017
‘Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved’ (St. Peter, Acts 4:12). Three kings bowed down before the Infant King, subjecting their royalty to the Lord of Life. No power on earth gave them certainty except ...

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Ponder, Proclaim

By Andrew Comiskey
January 01, 2017
‘Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.’ (LK 2:19) Many of us experience a tension between prayer and action. We may know well the value of pondering the mystery of God-with-us, this baby Jesus who wants to ‘tabernacle’ with ...

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Father-Figure?

By Andrew Comiskey
December 30, 2016
‘All I wanted, something special, something sacred in your eyes; I will be your father-figure…’ George Michael The pop singer died on Christmas, the day Christ was born afresh in the hearts of faithful ones. Michael’s broken heart gave out as Jesus off...

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Home. For Good.

By Andrew Comiskey
December 25, 2016
‘The Word became flesh and made His dwelling with us’ (JN 1:14). In youthful efforts to find ‘home’, a place of belonging where my part of the social equation fit and totaled something valuable, I failed. As ‘gay’ relationships faded, relian...

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Living the Dream

By Andrew Comiskey
December 18, 2016
‘When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel had commanded him and took his wife into his home.’ (Matt. 1:24) Men live their dreams when their entire beings are aligned with God’s will. Those dreams, as St. Joseph reminds us, may well involve angelic encounters in...

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Unoffended?

By Andrew Comiskey
December 11, 2016
John the Baptist, imprisoned and burning with hope for the Messiah, sends friends to check out if this Jesus is the real deal. Christ’s response? ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, ...

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Burn. Again.

By Andrew Comiskey
December 04, 2016
“Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I [John the Baptist] am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the One coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spi...

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Ignite. Again.

By Andrew Comiskey
November 27, 2016
‘Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left. Therefore, stay awake!’(Matt. 24:41, 42) Advent asks us to burn again, to start over, to be born again AGAIN as we await Jesus’ birth. No Hallmark movie this, no happy ending&mda...

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Best for Last

By Andrew Comiskey
November 21, 2016
Around the same time (mid-seventies) and place (San Francisco) that Harvey Milk aspired to become the first openly gay politician in history and firebrand for ‘gays’ as a protected ethnic group, God plucked another brand out of the fire. Frank Worthen repented of an a...

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Contending for The Bride

By Andrew Comiskey
November 14, 2016
‘Zeal for His House has Consumed Me.’ (JN 2:17) In order ‘to contend for the faith entrusted to all the saints’ (Jude 3), we must follow Jesus into the House of His Father and purge ourselves of what divides us. Yes, we must come into the light of fello...

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Election Day

By Andrew Comiskey
November 07, 2016
‘To God’s elect, strangers in the world’ (1P1:1), ‘I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened to know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power to us who believe&r...

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Living the Truth in Love

By Andrew Comiskey
October 31, 2016
We ‘equip holy ones for the work of the ministry…so that we may no longer be infants, tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human craftiness and cunning…Rather, living the truth in love, we shall grow up in every way to Him who...

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Converting the Church

By Andrew Comiskey
October 24, 2016
What woke us up? Was it Covergirl magazine featuring its first ‘coverboy,’ a dude whose extreme makeup blurs any gender distinctions? Was it ‘Modern Family’ featuring its ‘gay’ married couple advocating for a ‘transgender’ 8-year-ol...

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Marvelous Wound

By Andrew Comiskey
October 17, 2016
Jesus’ broken body loosed a river of healing, not only for our personal wounds, but also for the massive divides we face as His body, the Church. These divides are many and complicated. Yet how mighty is the flood of blood, water, and Spirit upon broken ones who seek to &ls...

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Loving the Church

By Andrew Comiskey
October 10, 2016
After we shared our desire to do Living Waters in our home church, one of the new pastors exclaimed: ‘It sounds like you love the Church and believe that Jesus can change lives there…’ Exactly. He caught our vision. Soon after, our Living Waters team gathere...

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Watch Your Step

By Andrew Comiskey
September 26, 2016
I ran along the river in old town Kaunas, Lithuania. As I considered the convergence of streams most dear to me, my heart overflowed and I ran with abandon. Surging in me were ‘currents’ of St. John Paul ll and St. Faustina, a European team of wounded healers who heal...

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Bloody Marriage

By Andrew Comiskey
September 19, 2016
Marriage is messy business. So much so that Jesus allowed Himself to get messed up for us. He shed blood to reveal our starting point as spouses: ‘O God, the love I desire to give, I do not!’ Or more accurately, I cannot. Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. Annette a...

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3 Times a Slave

By Andrew Comiskey
September 12, 2016
St. Peter Claver, Jesuit missionary to Africans enslaved to landowners in 17th century Colombia, would descend into the holds of slave ships and welcome those barely alive with a crucifix in one hand and medicine and food in the other. ‘This Jesus will love you better than ...

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Porn Poison

By Andrew Comiskey
September 05, 2016
Sin makes you sick. Porn makes you sicker. The other night, far from home, I had to alter a plane ticket in the wee hours. A couple days earlier, I had disassembled the porn filter on my computer (which I absolutely need to stay off the rot) in order to use the Internet in a f...

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For the Bride

By Andrew Comiskey
August 30, 2016
This fall, we advance in three exciting ways for the Body of Christ. Desert Stream Ministries is about helping make the Church a transformational place for sinners, and ultimately, a chaste, merciful Bride for her Bridegroom. Toward that end, we want to know about: Our thir...

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Clear to Hear

By Andrew Comiskey
August 22, 2016
‘I heard birds sing for the first time today.’ So testified a woman from our Mexican Training whose ears had echoed with demonic accusations. As the Father sought after His daughter, members of the leadership team prayerfully spoke a few true words to her about her st...

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Healing Ethnic Shame

By Andrew Comiskey
August 15, 2016
Roque Daniel Delgado’s stepfather was Mexican. Real Mexican. Santiago dressed to the nines, stuffed his Chicago home with colorful paintings and big furniture, insisting on speaking Spanish, and took pride in his Catholic family which extended throughout the Guadalajara are...

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Rethinking Change

By Andrew Comiskey
August 08, 2016
Today’s freedom to be whatever one thinks (s)he is, gender-wise, sheds new light on the question of homosexuality and change. If Kevin can wear a dress, use a woman’s restroom, and legally damage another for not referring to him as Karen, then a Christian’s comm...

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Becoming Home

By Andrew Comiskey
July 25, 2016
‘We fully “become” our true selves within relationships. A positive sense of self, rooted in worth and value, arises out of an attuned, empathic, supportive and caring environment in which secure attachment is established. By caring for and attuning to another&r...

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Love at True Sight

By Andrew Comiskey
July 17, 2016
‘To love a person means to see him as God intended him to be.’ Dostoevsky I knew Sara dreamt of being a man, and was trying hard to pull it off with a swagger in her trousers and loafers and men’s dress shirt. But I saw a beautiful woman. Set adrift by the fa...

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Love This Country?

By Andrew Comiskey
July 11, 2016
My pastor recently implored us to love this country (or whichever one is ours); he argued, ‘we only seek to save what we love. What we hate we want to destroy or at least be rid of.’ I agree. I work hard to save what I love. I rally around people whom I want to rec...

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The Nations Return

By Andrew Comiskey
July 04, 2016
Last year, some Living Waters friends from Thailand and China urged us at DSM/LW to gather international leaders again in Kansas City. I balked and winced as I recalled the vision a dear friend had given me five years ago—it was nothing but a burnt field, still smoking. ...

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Annette

By Andrew Comiskey
June 27, 2016
Love has a name. I discovered its meaning only when I chose to offer myself 35-years-ago to this person named Annette. What I thought I knew about love meant little as I bumped up against my selfishness. (I prided myself on a kind of reflective, poetic awareness of love but actua...

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Good Father

By Andrew Comiskey
June 20, 2016
By Cindy Del Hierro Chris Tomlin’s song, ‘Good Good Father’, swept through many of our churches this past year. The melody and lyrics ring true to our hearts: “You’re a good good Father, it’s who you are, and I am loved by you, it’s wh...

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Radical Kindness

By Andrew Comiskey
June 17, 2016
‘He was led like a lamb to the slaughter…’ Isaiah 53:7 We will never know exactly what drove a man to slaughter over 49 people in an Orlando nightclub. Such evil defies comprehension. What oppressed the shooter to the depths that only mass murder lured him t...

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Redeeming the Past

By Andrew Comiskey
June 13, 2016
By Brian Barlow On a recent trip to San Diego, I was given an unexpected gift for my birthday. My bride Nichole had been planning this trip for several weeks. We dropped the boys off at grandparents and arrived at our new waterfront hotel in downtown San Diego. San Diego he...

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An Open Letter to Every Man Who Leaves His Wife/Kids Because He is 'Gay'

By Andrew Comiskey
June 06, 2016
Dear ____, Bless you for finally being open about your same-sex attraction. That is a brave step and I pray that God and a faithful community will honor your confession. You have a big part to play in whether your honesty honors you and your loved ones. What you are admitti...

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Doing the Greater Works (Without Us)

By Andrew Comiskey
May 30, 2016
My Living Waters small group co-leader debriefed with me about the session he had led the night before in my absence: ‘It went great: the guys opened up and Jim received deeply from the Lord as we prayed for him. The Holy Spirit was very present…’ Our group is ...

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Snake in the Bathroom

By Andrew Comiskey
May 16, 2016
The Obama administration has just insisted that all US public schools allow students to use whichever bathroom matches their gender identity, that is, whichever identity one is experimenting with at the moment. Overlooking the facts of one’s biological birth, and the tor...

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How to Love a Vulnerable Friend: Responding to the 'Transgendered'

By Andrew Comiskey
May 09, 2016
First, thank you for your commitment to your friend. Sometimes devout, energized persons like you can help prevent an already vulnerable soul from doing further injury. I realize your friend is on the verge of doing just that by pursuing gender reassignment surgery. Gender is ...

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Blazing Love

By Andrew Comiskey
May 02, 2016
‘Everyone will be salted with fire.’ (MK 9:49) I met Ross a couple of years ago and could tell by his puzzled yet open face that he knew little about religion, for better or worse. He did seem attentive to my offering that God—a Father—cared for him and...

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Ignite the Torch

By Andrew Comiskey
April 25, 2016
‘The Church must accompany with attention and care the weakest of her children by restoring their hope like a torch carried among the people to enlighten those who have lost their way in the midst of a storm.’ Joy of Love, Pope Francis While Pope Francis magnificen...

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Prodigal Pope Embraces the Family (and this Family Man)

By Andrew Comiskey
April 18, 2016
Francis’ long awaited report on marriage and family is good news, a hearty hug of a document that encompasses the best of what marital love can be. I consumed the 256 page exhortation—Love in the Family—as a hungry man. Pressures on my own marriage and family...

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Magdalenes Rising

By Andrew Comiskey
April 11, 2016
I spent Divine Mercy weekend in Ubon Thailand near the Laos border. Beneath a bamboo cross, an international team welcomed a diverse group of Thai men and women whose love for Jesus compelled them to offer Him their sexual brokenness. Ever faithful, He loosed a flood of mercy for...

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Power of the Crushed Seed

By Andrew Comiskey
April 05, 2016
‘Unless a grain of wheat dies it remains alone. If it dies, it produces much fruit.’ I met Benjie Cruz in Bangkok Thailand, 2000, at our first conference there. He was Filipino, unstable in all his ways, and desired Jesus more than any of his false attachments, inc...

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Glorious Wounds

By Andrew Comiskey
March 28, 2016
His smooth smiling face may have belied a deeper conflict but none was apparent. Jim responded to my story of sexual brokenness and Jesus’ healing with simply this: ‘My [homo]sexuality has been positive for me. But I can see why you needed Jesus. You were so wounded.&...

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Chastity and Mercy 6: River Rising

By Andrew Comiskey
March 21, 2016
‘…Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, in order to present her to Himself as a radiant Church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.’ (Ep...

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Chastity and Mercy 5: River Here

By Andrew Comiskey
March 14, 2016
God calls each of us to be a river of life for others. Chastity liberates that flow; sourced in Christ and no longer sidelined by fear and lust, we grow into channels of pure, creative energy. The river’s end? To build up Christ’s body, one member to another. It is...

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Chastity and Mercy 4: River Near

By Andrew Comiskey
March 07, 2016
‘She who has been forgiven of much will love much’ (LK 7:47). Turning from our unchaste ways becomes beautiful when we turn toward Jesus. It’s not only family and friends we violated with our jagged divides; we pierced Him too. He retaliates by releasing a fo...

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Chastity and Mercy 3: Just Love

By Andrew Comiskey
February 29, 2016
‘We seek to be chaste because someone we love needs us to be chaste.’ Heather King Justice means giving to another what is due him or her. In the sexual realm, chastity serves justice by freeing humanity to be good and faithful gifts to others; that involves keepin...

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Chastity and Mercy 2: United We Stand

By Andrew Comiskey
February 22, 2016
The Samaritan woman of John 4 represents many Christians today; you could say she is a ‘type’ of the Church in the 21st century. Her Jewish roots inspired a ‘holiness’ tradition of which she was proud. At the same time, her heritage was also sourced i...

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Chastity and Mercy 1: Beauty Trumps Brokenness

By Andrew Comiskey
February 15, 2016
A tough woman careful to avoid the gaze of others hears a man asking for her help. She turns toward Him. Jesus needs water, yes, but more than that He wants to give her what she needs—mercy that will well up from her depths and satisfy her forever. We discover her morally b...

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Ashes for Beauty: Five Reasons to Pray for Chastity this Lent

By Andrew Comiskey
February 10, 2016
‘We don’t merely want to see beauty…we want to become beautiful.’ CS Lewis Join us during Lent; each week we will consider a different facet of chastity and how God’s mercy frees us to realize its beauty. Perhaps this Ash Wednesday would be a goo...

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Five Things You Need to Know About California

By Andrew Comiskey
February 07, 2016
‘And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness.’ (IS 35:8) Fact number one: I write this as we gather in Malibu Canyon for our first CA Living Waters Training in 11 years. We are wedged in-between two Santa Monica Mountains; Bruce Jenner’...

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Lost

By Andrew Comiskey
January 31, 2016
During one week in December, the New York Times highlighted the following Broadway comedies and musicals: ‘Dada Woof Papa Hot’ about two ‘gay’ married couples raising kids and wondering if papa(s) are still sexy ‘hot’ given the unsexy tasks of ...

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Mercy in Any Language

By Andrew Comiskey
January 24, 2016
‘Divine mercy is the power of God’s love to bring not only good out of evil but the greater good out of evil.’ Fr. Michael E. Gaitley Several nations gathered in Lithuania last week to enter the ‘Living Waters’ together. Mercy alone transformed bi...

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Mother's 'Yes'

By Andrew Comiskey
January 17, 2016
For the last five years, I’ve wondered why the Church begins each year on January 1st by honoring Mary as Christ-bearer, the one who surrendered all to bring forth the Savior of us all. It’s beginning to make sense: our salvation hinges upon that ‘yes&rsquo...

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Bowie

By Andrew Comiskey
January 13, 2016
Crazy how a few songs can elicit a host of memories. David Bowie’s death at 69 this week flooded the airwaves with the soundtrack of my teens—‘Turn and face the strange Ch Ch Ch Changes…’ Strange indeed. For a kid with same-sex attraction who ado...

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Living Christmas

By Andrew Comiskey
January 11, 2016
‘The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.’ (JN 1:5) The day after Christmas is the feast of St. Stephen, the Church’s first martyr; my pastor informed us that after all, ‘Christ’s mass’ refers to His sacrifice (...

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Enkindling Hope

By Andrew Comiskey
January 04, 2016
‘A person’s resurrection is no personal privilege for himself alone. It contains within itself hope for all, hope for everything.’ Dorothy Soelle Like you, I tend to fear what may come out of my mouth in ‘polite’ society. A fire burns in me constant...

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Long Way Home

By Andrew Comiskey
December 28, 2015
Enslaved to many masters, a friend of mine wound up in jail. He sobered up when he realized that his ‘holding tank’ was a facility that his incarcerated father had helped build. Courageously facing that he ‘was imprisoned in his father’s house’ was a...

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Expecting More Together

By Andrew Comiskey
December 21, 2015
A young man who repented as a teen from ‘gay’ identification, Nate is growing into his masculinity as Jesus grows within him. I have the privilege of summoning what I see in this progressively robust man of God. Nothing brings me greater joy. It is easy. Nate says ...

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Do Good, Feel Better

By Andrew Comiskey
December 14, 2015
‘Bring forth the fruit of repentance’ (LK 3:8). Righteous action burns off impure feelings—dread, suspicion, self-concern, lust. I can go to bed with holy intentions and wake up stewing in a pool of diseased emotions. That’s when I need to sit upright b...

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Turn and Burn

By Andrew Comiskey
December 07, 2015
‘John was a lamp that burned and gave light.’ (JN 6:35) I could hardly believe my ears. Surrounded by a host of earnest men, most cradle Catholics, the priest raged like a street fighter as he implored us to turn from what sickened, divided and ultimately would kil...

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Shaken, Waking Up

By Andrew Comiskey
November 30, 2015
Advent starts with a bang this year if Jesus’ words in Sunday’s Gospel reading are true. Luke 21: 25-36 describes the terrifying world-scape into which He will enter, not as a helpless babe but as Almighty Judge separating the faithful from frauds. Season’s grie...

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Before the Flood, Gratefully

By Andrew Comiskey
November 26, 2015
One habit to which I attribute any good that comes from me is abiding before the Crucified. Each morning I awake to a Franciscan cross from which the flood of God’s mercy–blood, water and Spirit—flows graciously into an otherwise dry and stingy vessel. I remind ...

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Royal Flood

By Andrew Comiskey
November 22, 2015
We end our 40 days on the Feast of Christ the King, the final Sunday of the Church calendar. Crowned with thorns and pierced with sword and nails, our Crucified King loosed a royal flood. We can begin to understand that river only if we consider its Source, Jesus Christ, Lord of ...

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No Minor Miracles

By Andrew Comiskey
November 16, 2015
‘Everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; to him who knocks, the door will be opened…if you who are evil give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!’ (Matt. 7) May I encourage you in...

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Glory Stories: How to Tell Yours and Make Jesus Known

By Andrew Comiskey
November 12, 2015
Nothing conveys God’s love better than telling our stories of God’s unfailing love. Our surrender to His on the Cross has become for us the threshold for a new creation; He broke our low ceiling and opened for us an eternal horizon. Yes, we had other options: gay selv...

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Mercy: An Urgent Call for Testimony

By Andrew Comiskey
November 09, 2015
Mercy: An urgent call for testimony Barbara Vittucci (a longstanding friend of DSM/LW, Barb resides in Vienna, Austria and has been a lifeline to hundreds in the church seeking wholeness) Have you received mercy? Through the healing love of Jesus Christ, are you growing in re...

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Wedding Prep

By Andrew Comiskey
November 03, 2015
Last week I discovered some unexpected momentum for our prayer/fasting time. While wondering how I might keep a prayerful focus amid our intensive Living Waters Training week, which ended just in time for my youngest son Sam’s wedding, a team member (thanks Tom Wright!) pro...

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On This Sure Foundation, A Foundation

By Andrew Comiskey
October 29, 2015
Report on Family Synod Last month I addressed a group of Catholic leaders in Rome on the transforming power of Jesus’ love, through His Church, for persons with same-sex attraction. That was on the eve of the Family Synod, a group of 270 bishops from around the world who...

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Wounds and Walls

By Andrew Comiskey
October 26, 2015
As we continue our 40-days of prayer for loved ones, we bump up against some thick walls, or defenses, that surround their sexually immoral decisions. We wonder why: (s)he is not by nature a defensive person. How did this fence get electrified? It may be helpful to remember th...

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False Peace, True Intimacy

By Andrew Comiskey
October 19, 2015
As we proceed on our 40 days of prayer/fasting for loved ones, we discover a marvelous truth: prayer leads to intimacy with God. Simply being in His presence revives the soul. The God who gave all to gain us grants us a share in His generosity. Our stingy prayers swell with mercy...

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Open Door to Chastity: Beginning Again in Argentina

By Andrew Comiskey
October 14, 2015
‘See, I have placed before you an open door that cannot be shut’ (Rev. 3:8). The free and demanding door to chastity cannot be shut. It remains eternally open because God is the doorkeeper and He loves to usher His children into sexual wholeness. Wholeness is chast...

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Rome Report 2: The Child is a Warrior

By Andrew Comiskey
October 06, 2015
‘In today’s society, we grant adults any kind of sexual freedom they want and insist that children take whatever these adults are willing to give them.’ Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse In the center of Rome, we convened on October 2nd to fight for children—th...

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Return to the Father: 40 Days of Prayer/Fasting for Lost Loved Ones

By Andrew Comiskey
October 04, 2015
‘The mercy of God is not an abstract idea but a concrete reality through which He reveals His love as that of a mother or father, moved to the very depths out of love for their child.’ Pope Francis, The Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy The dark powers that drive our ...

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Heading for Rome 1: Passion for a Chaste Bride

By Andrew Comiskey
September 28, 2015
‘Always Go Forward, Never Turn Back’ (St. Junipero Serra) This Wednesday I shall depart for Rome, site of the Roman Catholic Synod on the Family. On Friday Oct. 2nd, I have the privilege to speak (alongside others far more qualified than me) at a conference designe...

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Men with Chests, Part 2

By Andrew Comiskey
September 21, 2015
‘We remove the organ and deny the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise.’ C.S. Lewis ‘And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children.’ LK 1:17 John took a deep breath when he read Tim’s (his tee...

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Men with Chests, Part 1

By Andrew Comiskey
September 14, 2015
‘We remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise.’ C.S. Lewis ‘And he will turn the hearts of their fathers to their children’ (LK 1:17). A man sexually violated John at 9-years-old. Fr...

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Return to the Father: 40 Days of Prayer/Fasting for Lost Loved Ones

By Andrew Comiskey
September 07, 2015
‘The mercy of God is not an abstract idea but a concrete reality through which He reveals His love as that of a mother or father, moved to the very depths out of love for their child.’ Pope Francis, The Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy The dark powers that drive our ...

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Sad Sam, Not So Rosie

By Andrew Comiskey
August 24, 2015
The problem with homosexual practice is not that the Bible and the Church say it’s one. Sin by nature hurts persons, beginning with the perpetrator and fanning out to loved ones. Take Michael Sam, the first openly ‘gay’ draft pick of the NFL who 18 months ago...

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The Greening of Gender

By Andrew Comiskey
August 17, 2015
Those of us who have reduced Pope Francis’ recent encyclical–‘On Care of Our Common Home’–to a holy call to recycle may want to reconsider. The man advocates a rethinking of our relationship to all of creation, including our own gender and bodies. ...

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His Body Broken, Bursting with Life

By Andrew Comiskey
August 10, 2015
‘What the world needs today is the credible witness of people capable of opening hearts and minds to the desire for God and true life.’ Pope Emeritus Benedict The seed of God’s Life in us must be crushed in us and offered to Him in order for it to become frui...

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Waking Up Jesus

By Andrew Comiskey
August 04, 2015
“Jesus rose up…and said to His disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’ ” (Mk 4:39, 40) The sleeping Church can no longer ignore the alarms. She must become the answer to a consumer-driven culture intent on making gender id...

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Magdalenes in the Making

By Andrew Comiskey
July 29, 2015
As I looked out at the Latinos who had come forward to ‘clean house’, I was struck by their radiance. Though time-worn, their faces looked new; defilement underfoot, they beamed like virgins. Pure gratitude shone from hearts washed afresh by the blood, water and Spiri...

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Falsifying Hope

By Andrew Comiskey
July 22, 2015
‘There is no greater tragedy for man than the disillusionment he suffers when he has falsified his hope by placing it in something other than the Love that satisfies.’ St. Josemaria Escriva We are setting up future generations for disillusionment. We are giving th...

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Pope-Spinning

By Andrew Comiskey
July 15, 2015
‘Papal Meeting with LGBT Activist in Paraguay’ headlined the news this weekend, a new low for media spinning of Pope Francis’ ‘gay-affirming’ tendencies. The pontiff ended a profound and complicated tour of three nations in South America last week...

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Consoling Jesus' Heart

By Andrew Comiskey
July 13, 2015
‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me.’ (Matt. 26:38) ‘Sorry God’ has been the gist of my prayer life lately. Since the ‘gay marriage’ ruling, I have found myself asking God’s forgi...

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Magnificent Hope

By Andrew Comiskey
July 06, 2015
While Obama’s White House shimmered in rainbow hues, while ‘the wicked freely strutted about because what is vile (‘gay marriage’) was honored among men’ (PS 12:8), faithful men and women gathered in Lancaster PA for the fourth annual Restored Hope N...

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June Groom (Not Gloom)

By Andrew Comiskey
June 29, 2015
‘In California homosexuality is legal. When it becomes mandatory, I’m leaving.’ Bob Hope I muttered to Annette how much I disliked ‘gay’ pride June, the month of rainbow marches and media glorification of every gender variant under heaven. This mo...

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Storm Center

By Andrew Comiskey
June 26, 2015
‘Perfect love casts out fear.’ (1JN 4:18) We now live in a ‘gay marriage’ nation. Persons who fear the Lord, especially persons ‘barely escaping the error’ of homosexual practice, will experience a new vulnerability, the glare that results w...

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Father Knows Best

By Andrew Comiskey
June 21, 2015
‘The idea that one’s sex is a feeling, not a fact, has permeated our culture and is leaving casualties in its wake.’ Dr. Paul McHugh In families torn apart by gay and transgender-identified youth, the father’s voice is rarely heard. In his silence, mot...

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Under the Rainbow?

By Andrew Comiskey
June 15, 2015
When I crossed the finish line at Kansas City’s toughest half-marathon last week, I was astounded to see volunteers adorning us in rainbow necklaces. We looked like a swarm of half-naked gay activists. Refusing to be an emblem of the zeitgeist, I politely refused my medal a...

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Fighting Fathers

By Andrew Comiskey
June 08, 2015
‘Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint.’ (PR 29:18) Without vision from spiritual parents, God’s children wither. And wander. An entire generation is now subject to ‘Caitlyn’ Jenner and ‘gay marriage,’ and the scandal...

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Papa Do Preach

By Andrew Comiskey
June 01, 2015
‘All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to say nothing.’ For a Pope quick to quip about any number of thorny issues, Frances was strangely silent about the 62% of Ireland who legalized ‘gay marriage’ last month. OK, OK, a Vatican official d...

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Fountains from the Furnace

By Andrew Comiskey
May 27, 2015
‘The burning sand will become a pool; the thirsty ground, a bubbling spring… And a highway will be there; it will be called the way of holiness.’ (IS 35:7, 8) Jim waited for me after the workshop I taught at Moody’s Pastor’s Conference in Chicago...

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Three Glorious Things You Don't Know About France

By Andrew Comiskey
May 20, 2015
I write this from a tiny hotel room in Paris, just a stone’s throw from the Bastille—the site and symbol of the French Revolution. A golden figure dedicated to ‘human glory’ presides over the Bastille; I marvel at how Jesus alone is making France glorious....

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Changing Hearts and Minds

By Andrew Comiskey
May 13, 2015
Many Christians seek to be ‘on the right side of history’ by embracing ‘gay marriage.’ Jesus is not fooled. He exposes the fault lines underneath such thinking and reveals His heart to ours. Last month at our Living Waters Training a woman admitted that...

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Rocky: Freedom Fighter

By Andrew Comiskey
May 07, 2015
Although America seems more inclined to celebrate the ‘Bruce Jenners’ who relent to perversion, I want to honor a man named Rocky who repented from his transgender self to the healing love of God. Disconnection from reality sums up Rocky’s early life. Raised ...

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Bridge in Belgium

By Andrew Comiskey
April 30, 2015
Landing in Brussels at the end of my intensive European tour reminded me of our first conference there in 1999. A most upright Catholic man and Living Waters leader, Maurice Barthelemy, rallied several hundred people in the center of the city for a healing gathering. The Holy Spi...

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Jenner: Pity Not Praise

By Andrew Comiskey
April 27, 2015
The long awaited interview of decathlon-winner Bruce Jenner ‘coming out’ as a woman has inspired nothing but adulation in the media; our local editorialist fawned over him as ‘a superhero’, his decision (to identify as a woman) driven by ‘Olympian st...

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Human Beauty, Divine Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
April 23, 2015
St. John Paul ll said that we discover our true selves only by sincerely giving ourselves to others. We the fallen know also that we can offer ourselves badly; we grasp, we grope, we withhold. To bridge the gap between the original beauty of God’s purposes for our sexuality...

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Fruitful and Faithful in London

By Andrew Comiskey
April 16, 2015
Like Jacob, Janet wrestled with God and won. She described to me the battle she faced years earlier between the pull of the ‘gay self’ and her Christian commitment; at a Living Waters conference in London, 1994, she chose Jesus and never looked back. Now preaching in ...

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Reducing Human Freedom: Obama's Condemnation of Reparative Therapy

By Andrew Comiskey
April 09, 2015
Under the guise of liberating young people, President Obama reduced their freedom by condemning all therapeutic efforts to alter one’s sexual identity. His administration went on record Wednesday night to ensure that all gay people in the USA have no clinical option but to ...

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Love's True Freedom

By Andrew Comiskey
April 07, 2015
‘Jesus’ crucified flesh reveals the bond between truth and freedom, just as His resurrection exalts the fruitfulness of a freedom lived out in truth.’ St. John Paul ll We live in a noisy, confusing world of sexual ‘freedom.’ From Hillary Clinton lam...

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Ache, Eat

By Andrew Comiskey
April 02, 2015
“Jesus said to His disciples, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer…I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in God’s Kingdom.’ “ (LK 22: 15, 16) Jesus ‘eagerly desired’ to dine with Hi...

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Lust in the Light

By Andrew Comiskey
March 30, 2015
‘Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.’ (Rom. 12:21) All sins are not created equal. Overeaters wear their vice in plus-sized outfits; the slothful bear a gloomy countenance, swathed in grave clothes. Both confess their sins wordlessly. Yet the lu...

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A Glutton for Nourishment, Part 2

By Andrew Comiskey
March 26, 2015
‘Can you make the guests of the Bridegroom fast while He is with them? But the time will come when the Bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.’ (LK 5: 34, 35) Those days have come–feasting gives way to fasting for 21st century discip...

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A Glutton for Nourishment, Part 1

By Andrew Comiskey
March 23, 2015
‘It is not the nature of things we use, but our reason for using them, that makes what we do either praiseworthy or blamable.’ St. Augustine The greedy grasp after ‘things’; gluttons and sexual sinners (our last two ‘deadlies’) attach to ple...

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Having Nothing, Possessing Everything

By Andrew Comiskey
March 19, 2015
‘Unless the seed dies, it remains alone.’ (JN 12: 24) My son Sam’s death took time. His surrender to Jesus was syncopated at best: the sorrows and pleasures of sin alternately roused and deadened him. Though counterfeits made him sick, he managed to stave off...

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Greed: To Grasp or Give Away

By Andrew Comiskey
March 16, 2015
‘For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.’ (Phil. 2:21) The focal point of our faith and of most sanctuaries is the Cross. That emblem of God’s self-giving reminds us that freedom hinges on offering ourselves to others, to p...

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Breaking Chains, Healing Thais

By Andrew Comiskey
March 12, 2015
‘Zeal for Your house will consume me.’ (JN 2:17) Sue Hunt considered ordination as a Buddhist nun in the Ubon region of Thailand. An Englishwoman with a deep history of gender confusion, she sought relief in Buddhism from what seemed an incurable wound. She was ord...

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Sloth: A Slow Suicide

By Andrew Comiskey
March 09, 2015
‘Sloth is a kind of oppressive sorrow that so depresses a man that he wants to do nothing.’ Aquinas Not long ago I faced a series of events that tempted me to despair. I neither tend to hopelessness nor the depression it engenders. I discovered both in that hard se...

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Anger: Passion that Purifies and Plunders

By Andrew Comiskey
March 02, 2015
‘Be angry; don’t sin.’ (Eph. 4:26) Anger cuts both ways. It can incite one to drive idols from the Father’s house; it can drive others to fill that house with idolatry. We each face resistance to what we perceive as worthy goals. It helps to access t...

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Envy: A Villainous Void

By Andrew Comiskey
February 25, 2015
‘Envy is a special sort of sorrow over another’s goods.’ Aquinas Envy is a quiet killer. Less obvious than the other seven, it lurks in insecure hearts and tempts us to abdicate what we have for another’s inheritance. Envy tempts us by skewing our visio...

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Healing Power of Payne

By Andrew Comiskey
February 23, 2015
‘To speak of the healing of the homosexual is to speak of the healing of all persons everywhere.’ Leanne Payne Leanne Payne passed into glorious Life on Ash Wednesday. She left a glorious legacy of Life for DSM/LW. To describe her influence as foundational is an un...

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Son-Stroke

By Andrew Comiskey
February 20, 2015
‘The Spirit sent Jesus into the desert, and He was there forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended Him.’ (MK 1: 12, 13) Lent exposes us, lays us bare. This year, Jesus prepared our Living Waters group to follow Him into t...

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Pride: The Folly of Proving Ourselves

By Andrew Comiskey
February 17, 2015
‘When we take too much credit for our lives and achievements, when we look at our lives as products of our own striving rather than gifts, we move close to the idolatry in which the creature refuses to give due to the Creator.’ Willimon Pride is the mother of all s...

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How Love Absorbs Pain

By Andrew Comiskey
February 13, 2015
‘Shame can only be absorbed by true love-a love which affirms the value of the person and seeks the greatest good for him or her with all its strength.’ Ever since I first read these words by Karol Wojtyla (before he became John Paul ll), I have pondered this truth...

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I'm Angry and I Need Your Help!

By Andrew Comiskey
February 09, 2015
Bruce Jenner a woman? America’s fractured take on gender and sexuality took a turn for the worse as this US Olympic Gold Decathlon winner becomes the new and pathetic face of artificial womanhood. Father of 6 and 65-years-old, he has ignited a media blitzkrieg, including...

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Sowing in the Fields of Pope Francis

By Andrew Comiskey
February 02, 2015
‘Unless our eyes are filled with tears, we will not see.’ Pope Francis I write this from the Philippines where last month Francis made a historic visit to comfort victims of a devastating typhoon, the second to ravage the country in two years. Like St. Paul, he fol...

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Heartless

By Andrew Comiskey
January 26, 2015
‘All it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.’ If you remove the central feature from which something derives its nature, you distort its meaning. That ‘thing’ ceases to be what it is; it loses its heart. Look at the Gospels. Cut out ...

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(G)OLD MEN

By Andrew Comiskey
January 19, 2015
‘In this you rejoice, though now for a while you have suffered grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and glorious…’ (1P 1:6, 7) ...

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Birth Pains

By Andrew Comiskey
January 12, 2015
‘This child will be a stumbling block, causing some to fall and others to rise in Israel; He will be a sign that divides and reveals the hearts of many. Your heart, Mary, will be pierced as well.’ (LK 2:34, 35) Simeon prophesies the piercings incited by the Prince ...

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Fire and Fortitude

By Andrew Comiskey
January 05, 2015
‘Go forth from the quiet of contemplation and courageously bear witness to My truth.’ (Jesus to St. Catherine of Siena) Christ’s coming at Christmas can only be received, treasured, contemplated; manifesting the Divine Child throughout the New Year requires a...

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Christmas: Good Flesh

By Andrew Comiskey
December 29, 2014
‘The Incarnation involves our humanity; it is our flesh He divinized. It should not be a matter of indifference to us whether or not we celebrate the intimate union of two natures in Christ on the day when the Word was born according to the flesh…Perhaps we have not ...

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Advent 4: Scary Angels

By Andrew Comiskey
December 22, 2014
‘Knowing the love that surpasses knowledge may well mean not knowing much else.’ Loretta Ross-Gotta God often overshadows the faithful with terrifying opportunities that either crush us or conceive Christ in us.    Mary knew trouble when she saw it: an...

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Advent 3: Stealing Beauty

By Andrew Comiskey
December 15, 2014
‘The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me to bring good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and release for prisoners…’ (IS 61: 1, 2) ‘When life is firm, we need to sense its firmness; when it has no foundation, we...

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Advent 2: Comfort and Conviction

By Andrew Comiskey
December 08, 2014
‘Comfort, comfort my people…in the desert, prepare the way of the Lord!’ (IS 40) The fires of Advent convict us even as they warm us. His light blazes in our darkness, and we, no matter how dull and unresponsive, cannot quench its flames (JN 1:5). How gratef...

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Advent 1: Clearing the Cluttered Heart

By Andrew Comiskey
December 01, 2014
‘Be careful that your hearts be not weighed down by the anxieties of life.’ (LK 21:34) On the first week of Advent, Jesus deals with the ‘Martha’ in each of us by summoning her sister ‘Mary’; ‘Choose the greater thing…&ldqu...

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November 23, 2014: For the Poor

By Andrew Comiskey
November 23, 2014
“‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, a sick person or a prisoner whom we visited?’ ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of My brothers, you did for Me.’” (Matt....

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November 22, 2014: The Lie of 'Gay' Love

By Andrew Comiskey
November 22, 2014
‘That evil appears in the form of light, of beneficence, of faithfulness, of renewal, that it appears in the form of historical necessity, of social justice, is for the commonsense observer a clear confirmation of its profound evilness. We experience and recognize ethical r...

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November 21, 2014: Good Samaritan

By Andrew Comiskey
November 21, 2014
‘The Samaritan woman is every one of us. She is every human being who has ever sinned and betrayed the God who loved and made us, by chasing after other gods, trying desperately to get creatures to give us what only the Creator can give. She is every human being who has eve...

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November 20, 2014: One Bride

By Andrew Comiskey
November 20, 2014
‘I in them and You in Me, Father. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent Me.’ (Jn 17:23) Jesus is committed to one Church. He alone knows exactly who composes His bride; what we can know is that Jesus is singularly passionate for ...

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November 19, 2014: A Chaste Messy Bride

By Andrew Comiskey
November 19, 2014
‘Instead of a Church which clings to its own securities, I want one that is bruised and hurting because it has been out on the streets…’ Pope Francis (EG 49) How do we as the Church fulfill Jesus’ call to love sin-broken people in a way that frees them...

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November 18, 2014: Summoning the Saints

November 18, 2014
‘Leaving her water jar, the woman went back to town and said to the people, “Come see a man who told me everything I ever did…”’ A young Christian and university student, I was also fresh out of the ‘gay’ scene and grateful to Jesus a...

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November 17, 2014: Glorious Sinners

By Andrew Comiskey
November 17, 2014
‘Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.’ St. Paul Vl My young friend Kelsie recently said: ‘If I worship Jesus above all, and He is the Lord of my desires, then of ...

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November 16, 2014: Unholy Hoarders

By Andrew Comiskey
November 16, 2014
‘I was afraid and I went and hid my talent.’ (Matt. 25:25) The Gospel and in particular today’s reading on the Parable of the Talents (Matt. 25: 14-30) makes it clear: freedom is only found in giving our lives away for others. Fear is the enemy of such freedo...

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November 15, 2014: Freedom for the Other, Part 2

By Andrew Comiskey
November 15, 2014
‘Christian spousal love is a living icon of the sacrificial spousal love between Christ and the Church. It is an outward sign of the invisible mystery of Jesus’ love for His bride and the bride’s love for Him.’ Brant Pitre Woman liberated my freedom to ...

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November 14, 2014: Freedom for the Other, Part 1

By Andrew Comiskey
November 14, 2014
‘Jesus and His apostles reclined at table and He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you”…’ (Lk 22:14, 15) Jesus’ ‘eager desire’ to give Himself to us liberates our freedom to give ourselves to one an...

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Novemeber 13, 2014: Bridal Bath and Meal

By Andrew Comiskey
November 13, 2014
‘On that day a fountain will be opened to cleanse the house of David, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, from sin and impurity.’ (Zech. 3:1) The Cross and its fountain of blood and water (Jn 19:34) is the source of our cleansing. Immersed, God cleanses us in ord...

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November 12, 2014: Faithful Love

By Andrew Comiskey
November 12, 2014
Padre Pio, a much revered priest (now a saint), wanted to go to confession; he enlisted the aid of a young priest to do so, who was intimidated by this mystic sage. “Padre Pio launched into the opening prayer: ‘Bless me Father, for I have sinned’; to the young p...

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November 11, 2014: Pleasure versus Happiness

By Andrew Comiskey
November 11, 2014
‘God has placed the desire for happiness in the human heart in order to draw near to the One who alone can fulfill it.’ (CCC 1718) Troubled by unclean thoughts and fantasies, I went to my friend and priest Father Thomas. We talked for a while, he asked good questio...

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November 10, 2014: House-Cleaning

By Andrew Comiskey
November 10, 2014
‘Jesus made a whip out of cords and drove all from the temple area…”Get out of here! How dare you turn My Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for Your house has consumed Him.’ (Jn 2:15-1...

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November 9, 2014: Contracepting Beauty

By Andrew Comiskey
November 09, 2014
The beauty of man for woman is not found primarily in thrashing limbs and ecstatic release. First and foremost, sexual love is beautiful because of its fruit, the gift of children. When we separate sex from openness to new life, we risk making idols of sensual pleasure and our ow...

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November 8, 2014: Beautiful Bride

By Andrew Comiskey
November 08, 2014
‘Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person…’(CCC 2337) When Jesus first looked upon His Samaritan ‘bride’, He saw a disintegrated woman, both sexually and spiritually. She was neither united in her worship of the tr...

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November 7, 2014: Fearful Bride

By Andrew Comiskey
November 07, 2014
‘If we are to evangelize the “prostitutes and sinners,” it demands that we be secure enough and mature enough in our own freedom to not be evangelized by them.’ Christopher West Exposed by loving eyes and primed with living water, the Samaritan &ls...

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November 6, 2014: Lukewarm Bride

By Andrew Comiskey
November 06, 2014
‘Because you are lukewarm—neither hot or cold—I will spit you out of My mouth. You say, “I am rich and don’t need a thing.” But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.’ (Rev. 3: 16, 17) Compromised, t...

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November 5, 2014: Shameless Bride

By Andrew Comiskey
November 05, 2014
‘Those who look to the Lord are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.’ (Ps 34:5) Today’s church is a strange blend of orthodoxy and worldliness. Recently, I heard a ‘devout’ woman rejoicing that a frustrated friend had left her husban...

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November 4, 2014: Compromised Bride

By Andrew Comiskey
November 04, 2014
‘Even while the people were worshipping the Lord, they were serving their idols.’ (2Kgs 17:41a) Jesus began to prepare a ‘bridal bath’ for the Samaritan woman merely by speaking to her. His simple words—‘Will you give Me a drink?’...

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November 3: Runaway Bride

By Andrew Comiskey
November 03, 2014
‘The bridal figure of the Samaritan woman represents the people of God, all of them…’ Grant Pitre During these forty days we are praying that Jesus might give us more of His heart for His bride the Church. Pray we must: without her winsome clarity, the world...

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November 2: He Sees, He Seeks, He Saves

By Andrew Comiskey
November 02, 2014
And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all that He has given Me…For My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal Life…’ (Jn 6: 39, 40) Jesus saves the lost: homeless ones on ...

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November 1: Becoming Icons

By Andrew Comiskey
November 01, 2014
‘Let us consider how we may provoke one another to love and good deeds.’ (Heb. 10:24) We go through the fire of God’s refining love in order to know Him more. We endure the shame of exposing our idols to Him and to others so we can be whole; our integration a...

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October 31: Transformation of Desire

By Andrew Comiskey
October 31, 2014
‘Therefore I urge you, brothers, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.’ (Rom. 12: 1, 2) ...

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October 30: Fire of Love

By Andrew Comiskey
October 30, 2014
‘Our heart should burst out of our body at the realization of the status and dignity which infinite Goodness has appointed us—first by creating us in His image, and then by joining His divine nature with our humanity to ransom us and create us anew! More than this He ...

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October 29: Beloved Enemies

By Andrew Comiskey
October 29, 2014
‘If a foe were insulting me I could endure it. But it is you, a man like me, my friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship.’ (Ps. 55: 12-14) We are hurt most by those we love most. Period. The deeper our relationships, the deeper we can be wounded. That can ...

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October 28: Idols

By Andrew Comiskey
October 28, 2014
‘Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. It remains a constant temptation to faith.’ (CCC #2113) Rather than seeing through our fellows a glimpse of the divine, we divinize them. That is our sinful tendency: we reduce people to the image that pleases us. I...

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October 27: Icons

By Andrew Comiskey
October 27, 2014
‘Adam and Eve saw the glory of God in the human body…because they saw the body not just as a physical object but as a transparent sign of the whole mystery of the other as “person” made in the divine image.’ Christopher West Every human being is ...

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October 26: Faithful Lovers

By Andrew Comiskey
October 26, 2014
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…Love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Matt. 22:37, 39) Cultivating undivided devotion to God underlies faithful human relationships. Any adulterer knows this. Those persons...

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October 25: Flesh of our Flesh

By Andrew Comiskey
October 25, 2014
‘The bride belongs to the bridegroom.’ (Jn 3:29) We who welcome the Cross as the sign and seal of God’s unfailing love for us welcome Jesus as Lover. Calvary is the means by which He betroths Himself to us. His broken flesh is the means by which He incarnates...

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October 24: Pierced by Love

By Andrew Comiskey
October 24, 2014
‘The entire Christian life bears the mark of the spousal love of Christ and Church.’(CCC 1617) Jesus gave all; on the Cross, He pledged Himself to us as Bridegroom to a Bride. There is no richer or deeper expression of spousal love than Jesus pouring out His life f...

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October 23: Pierced for Love

By Andrew Comiskey
October 23, 2014
‘Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her.’ (Eph. 5:22) I will admit: facing my own brokenness in the Church and offering that vulnerability to fellow congregants is not always easy. I would prefer to pose ‘resurrected’, my wounds NOT visible...

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October 22: Community of the Cross

By Andrew Comiskey
October 22, 2014
The healing power of the Cross remains a mere idea unless we discover that Cross in community. That means finding safe places in our local churches where we can be known in our dirty ‘divides. ’ These are the facets of our lives where we need to be saved. Yes, we may ...

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October 21: Freedom from Sin is Freedom for Life

By Andrew Comiskey
October 21, 2014
‘The Cross becomes a new center of gravity for bringing together what is divided.’ Pope Emeritus Benedict Anyone who wrestles with sexual sin (or been impacted by those who do) understands the divided soul. On the one hand, we long to give ourselves to others ...

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October 20: Fountain of Life from the Dying God

By Andrew Comiskey
October 20, 2014
‘On the day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity. On that day, I will banish the names of the idols and…the spirit of impurity from the land.’ (Zech. 13:1, 2) Zechariah prophe...

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Retrieving the Family from Synod's 'Gay Follies'

By Andrew Comiskey
October 20, 2014
How is it that a fraction of the population manages to steal the beauty of family? According to media reports, one would think that the Synod on Family was little more than a battle for ‘gay rights’ in the Roman Catholic Church. Issues surrounding ‘gay-identifie...

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October 19: What the State Cannot Do

By Andrew Comiskey
October 19, 2014
‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.’ (Matt. 15:21) As Christians, we have a commitment to all persons; we must seek to assess and act on behalf of what is best for everyone. ‘The common good’ refers to that discernment...

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October 18: Song from the Cross

By Andrew Comiskey
October 18, 2014
‘Listen! My Lover! “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with Me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone, Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come…” ’ (Song of Sol 2: 9, 10) Love trumps lust. God’s ...

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October 17: Humble and Contrite Heart

By Andrew Comiskey
October 17, 2014
‘The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a humble and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.’ (Ps 51:17) We pierced God and He broke, His balm poured out to heal us. Will we open ourselves to our cure? The tendency to clench is more powerful in us. We have...

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October 16: Tears at the Cross

By Andrew Comiskey
October 16, 2014
‘What do you weep at, if you do not weep at this?’ Dante I respond to Dante’s question with some uncertainty. When my sin draws me to the One I have pierced, I cannot always tell the difference between tears of contrition and grief over His suffering. First a...

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October 15: Looking on Him Who We Have Pierced

By Andrew Comiskey
October 15, 2014
‘Human actions cannot help us but only the sufferings of Christ.’ Edith Stein (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) We begin by gazing on the Cross. Our sins invited Him there. And He was gracious: He suffered and died in our place. Put another way, we killed Hi...

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Battle for the Bride

By Andrew Comiskey
October 13, 2014
‘Can we recognize the diabolical coup at work here? Think for a moment with the mind of the enemy. If the purpose of our creation as male and female and the call to become one flesh is to point us to heaven, and if there’s an enemy who wants to keep us from heaven, wh...

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The Good, The Bad, The Ugly: An Initial Take on the Synod of Family Report

By Andrew Comiskey
October 13, 2014
Rome’s synopsis of its synod on ‘family life’ includes 3 paragraphs (out of 58) on homosexuality which could be a cause for alarm. The bishops appear to grant ‘homosexuals’ a kind of ethnic status—homosexuals are treated as a people group whose...

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Hungry for Your House

By Andrew Comiskey
October 06, 2014
‘Zeal for Your house consumes me.’ (PS 69:9; JN 2:17) During our forty days of ‘Pierced for the Bride’, we shall ‘fast’ lesser loves in order to know Him more. But in this case, intimacy with Jesus is unto a particular end. We will ask Him f...

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Hungry for God

By Andrew Comiskey
September 29, 2014
‘The time will come when the Bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.’ (LK 5:34) In preparation for our 40 days of prayer, it is key that everyone determine what (s)he will ‘fast’ in order to make room to pray. We let go in orde...

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How Then Shall I Fast

By Andrew Comiskey
September 22, 2014
“We at Desert Stream Ministries are positioning ourselves before Christ Crucified for 40-days of prayer, from October 15th to November 23rd. Our purpose is to welcome Him afresh into our depths, that we might more nearly grasp His heart for the one He loves most, the Church...

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Pierced for the Bride: 40 Days of Prayer

By Andrew Comiskey
September 15, 2014
Zechariah prophecies that God will pour out a ‘spirit of grace and supplication’ in order that we ‘might gaze upon the One we have pierced’ (Zech. 12:10). Likewise, we at Desert Stream Ministries are positioning ourselves before Christ Crucified for 40-day...

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The Difference of Marriage

By Andrew Comiskey
September 08, 2014
The two women looked and dressed alike: pleasant, middle-aged, graying hair cut simply, for the sake of ease. I discovered that they had just ‘married’ in Iowa. My first thought: how hard is it ‘to marry’ someone who mirrors yourself—the needs, hurts...

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Judge Not (Part 4) Necessary Judgments

By Andrew Comiskey
September 01, 2014
How lovely to see others through the eyes of mercy. And painful. At times it is necessary to see with those eyes the damage we do to one another when the faithful act unfaithfully through sexual sin. St. Paul gives us a powerful complement to Jesus’ command to ‘not ju...

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Judge Not (Part 3) The Merciful Kingdom

By Andrew Comiskey
August 25, 2014
It is impossible to grasp Jesus’ most famous statements on ‘not judging’ (in LK 6:37-42 and Matt. 7:1-5) without understanding Almighty Mercy. Today we face the kingdom of homosexual fatalism and the kingdom of the Pharisees; in joyful opposition to both kingdom...

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Judge Not (Part 2) Limiting Another's Horizon

By Andrew Comiskey
August 18, 2014
God is the only One qualified to determine the eternal fate of His creatures. The fact that we even aspire to His role as Judge reveals an ugly trait in us. It may not always express itself in condemning others to hell; it may well involve lesser expressions of judgment in which ...

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Judge Not (Part 1) Merciful Judge

By Andrew Comiskey
August 11, 2014
Pope Francis launched a thousand speculations when he quipped ‘who am I to judge?’ in response to a journalist’s questions about persons with same-sex attraction, including Catholic clergy men. I cannot interpret Francis’ exact meaning here. But I know tha...

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Delivered, Devoted, Declaring

By Andrew Comiskey
August 04, 2014
‘Those forgiven of much love much.’ (LK 7:47) Amid three July gatherings of sinners desperate for Jesus—the annual Courage Conference, Hope 2014 (RHN), and the Spanish Living Waters Training in Mexico City—we celebrated the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene&m...

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Dignity of Choice

By Andrew Comiskey
July 28, 2014
‘Fatalism is resigning ourselves to the inevitable; faith is entrusting ourselves to the One who is worthy of our trust.’ Richard John Neuhaus A prevailing assumption today: homosexuality is a genetic, inborn condition that requires us to defend ‘gay’ p...

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Death or Liberty

By Andrew Comiskey
July 20, 2014
‘You took your sons and daughters whom you bore to Me and sacrificed them as food to the idols…you slaughtered and sacrificed My children.’ (Ez. 16: 20, 21) Unthinkable. A father leaves his 22-month-old son in a hot car to die while he exchanges nude selfies...

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Fighting Fire with Fire

By Andrew Comiskey
July 14, 2014
‘For you did not receive a spirit that enslaves you to fear, but you have received the Spirit of sonship, and by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’(Rom. 8: 15) Have you ever consider the truth that many persons who face intense same-gender longings are actually moti...

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The Joyful, Fiery Gospel

By Andrew Comiskey
July 07, 2014
‘God infuses the soul and sets it on fire with the Spirit of Love.’ St. John of the Cross My heart burns with hope. After a week enkindled with story after story of God’s healing love in the lives of persons wounded by homosexuality, I am a believer: the fier...

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The Bad and the Beautiful

By Andrew Comiskey
June 30, 2014
‘We don’t want merely to see beauty. We want to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to become a part of it.’ C. S. Lewis June was a bad month for persons seeking to overcome homosexuality. The once morally sound Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) vote...

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Ambushed 2

By Andrew Comiskey
June 23, 2014
‘For love is as strong as death…it burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.’ (S of S 8:6) Outrageous: Wisconsin just became the 27th state to redefine marriage, the NY Times devotes its entire travel section to ‘gay’ globetrotters by featuri...

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Tran-Wreck

By Andrew Comiskey
June 16, 2014
Gleaming like an Amazon woman, he posed full-breasted in a tight dress–more woman than woman herself. In truth, this man on the cover of Time Magazine is a cartoon of a woman. Yet tragedy trumps comedy here; his artificial extremities emerge from the wound of a masculine so...

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Ambushed, Part 1

By Andrew Comiskey
June 09, 2014
‘Do not be frightened. But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have. But do so with gentleness and respect…’ (1P 3: 14b, 15) Gay Pride Month is upon us,...

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Resurrection: The Wrong Side of History?

By Andrew Comiskey
June 02, 2014
‘I could strengthen you with talk, or shake my head with silent lips.’ (Jb 16:5) I spoke to him plainly of the dangers of ‘gay marriage,’ and the power of Jesus and His church to raise the ‘homosexual’ to wholeness. The earnest bishop implor...

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Darkness Before Dawn

By Andrew Comiskey
May 26, 2014
‘Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of His servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on Him.’ (IS 50: 10) While Michael Sam, the first gay NFL player to be drafted, cavorted on the global stage wit...

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Fear and Fasting

By Andrew Comiskey
May 19, 2014
‘The resurrection of Christ makes life a perpetual feast.’ St. Athanasius Real life provides many occasions for fear. As a parent, I am particularly in tune to threats upon my children’s good. As they grow and face the ‘free fall’ of their own dec...

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Faltering and Fruitfulness

By Andrew Comiskey
May 12, 2014
My friend Kin recently texted me to rejoice in the prosperity of his two children, now faithful husbands and fathers. ‘What if I had believed the lie that had been written over my life. O amazing God, how great are Your wonders….’ Kin referred to how Jesus&rsqu...

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Risky Living

By Andrew Comiskey
May 06, 2014
‘The sick soul fears more than anything else the demands made on one who is well.’ Joseph Pieper When the Holy Spirit blew open Jesus’ tomb, God blew away our excuses for living half-lives. The very Spirit that liberated Jesus from sin and death summons us fr...

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Divine Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
April 30, 2014
Mercy is God’s ache for His children: a stream of unfailing love flowing from His heart towards ours. Through mercy, He woos us and invites us to exchange lesser loves for a double portion of His compassion. The Greek word for mercy—‘eleos’—means ...

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Stream Works

By Andrew Comiskey
April 26, 2014
7 facts you do not know about Desert Stream/Living Waters Ministries: We employ 6 full-time ministers (plus support staff). We own and maintain an office building. We support like-minded ministries around the world. We need over $60,000 a month to operate. No one c...

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Raised to Run

By Andrew Comiskey
April 22, 2014
‘See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth. The season of singing has come.’ (S of S 2: 10, 11) Maybe only long distance runners understand: an unpredictable convergence of things that makes for a great race. Balmy weather, b...

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Gift of Tears

By Andrew Comiskey
April 17, 2014
“A large number of people followed Him, including women who mourned and wailed for Him. Jesus turned and said to them: ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me; weep for yourselves and for your children.’ ” (LK 23: 27, 28) Last year during Holy Week,...

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Downward Ascent 8: Woeful Well-Being

By Andrew Comiskey
April 13, 2014
‘Woe to you when all men speak well of you…’ (LK 6:26) ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.’ (Matt. 5:10) Being hated for loving Jesus means you are doing something right. Auth...

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Downward Ascent 7: Prickly Pear

By Andrew Comiskey
April 07, 2014
‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.’ (Matt. 5: 9) Failing to save ourselves, freed only through Mercy, we rest in everlasting arms: peace like a river. Jesus silences the noisy claims of poverty upon our souls. We are weak, but He is...

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Downward Ascent 6: Blessed Impurities

By Andrew Comiskey
March 31, 2014
‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’ (Matt. 5:8) Lent is an extended season of exposure. For 40 days, God tends to reveal the thoughts and intentions of our hearts; He highlights what is in our hearts rather than what we would like others to thi...

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Downward Ascent 5: Heart of God

By Andrew Comiskey
March 24, 2014
‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.’ (Matt. 5:7) Mercy is the heart of God. Fittingly, mercy is the core theme of the Beatitudes: the poor, the mournful, the meek and hungry welcome mercy like rain on broken dry ground. Jesus then exhorts such ...

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Downward Ascent 4: Ruining Our Appetites

By Andrew Comiskey
March 20, 2014
‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for what is right, for they shall be filled.’ (Matt. 5:6) Jesus wrecks our appetites. Sexy idols compete in vain with the One who offers Himself to us constantly; He becomes the meal, living bread and drink endowed with powe...

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Downward Ascent 3: Almighty Meekness

By Andrew Comiskey
March 17, 2014
‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.’ (Matt. 5:5) Weeping over one’s poverty is a gift. The contrite heart cries. Consequences of sin in our own lives and in persons we love reduce us to grief. Yet for that grief to become good, raised fro...

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Downward Ascent 2: Good Grief

By Andrew Comiskey
March 10, 2014
‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.’ (Matt. 5:4) Happy are the sad. Real joy comes from Christ, and Christ comes for the sorrowful. Not just any kind of sorrow: I mean the grief which results from poverty of spirit. To look inside and out and...

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Downward Ascent 1: Blessed Poverty

By Andrew Comiskey
March 04, 2014
‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ (Matt. 5:3) Poverty can incline us to riches beyond ourselves. When directing us to God as our wealth, poverty achieves holy ends; it renders us blessed citizens of a whole new world. In cont...

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Join Us for a Prayerful Lent

By Andrew Comiskey
February 27, 2014
Starting next week, we at Desert Stream Ministries begin an 8-part prayer/intercession series designed to prepare us for Easter. Entitled ‘Downward Ascent,’ this series will focus each week on one of the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:1-12). We will explore the conditions of ...

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Friend John

By Andrew Comiskey
February 24, 2014
The very fact that he could stand me at all was a miracle. Touched by the afflictions that drove him, I committed myself to self-restraint. What I surrendered he flaunted. Still he respected the faithful and adored his devout mother. He surprised us at times with extravagant gift...

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Obama-Snare

By Andrew Comiskey
February 18, 2014
A nation whose head cannot distinguish between ethnicity and sexual identity is in big trouble. Race is immutable and inspired by God; sexual identity variations (LGBTSQ, etc.) are man-made, elastic constructs designed to either work out inner conflicts or to expand one’...

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At Home, To Heal

By Andrew Comiskey
February 10, 2014
‘Christians who are afraid to build bridges and prefer to build walls are Christians who are not sure of Jesus Christ. When the Church loses this apostolic courage, she becomes a stalled Church, a tidy Church, a Church without fertility, because she has lost the courage to ...

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Savoring Truth in Superficial Times

By Andrew Comiskey
February 03, 2014
Last week, the New York Times featured an article on the uproar provoked by the firing of a Catholic High School VP in Seattle because he married a man. The decision blew apart the school board and fanned student protests. Yet their youthful dissent had more emotion than reason b...

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Fractured in the Fight

By Andrew Comiskey
January 27, 2014
‘A house divided against itself will fall.’ (LK 11:17) Newsreels of the 1960’s and 70’s depict Belfast Ireland as a war-zone; as a child growing up in front of TV, I recall coils of barbed wire separating Protestant and Catholic zones, over which both s...

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Joy Rising

By Andrew Comiskey
January 20, 2014
‘The friend who attends the Bridegroom waits and listens for Him, and is full of joy when he hears the Bridegroom’s voice.’ (JN 3:29) On what seemed like the darkest, coldest day of the year, I took down our nativity scene. I approached the task with some hea...

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Defenseless, Surrounded

By Andrew Comiskey
January 13, 2014
‘Save me from the need to vindicate myself.’ St. Augustine The Infant King provokes both the surrender of our defenses and the strengthening of them. Look at the response to His birth. Three kings cast their crowns down and worshipped Jesus; threatened by the fate ...

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Amazing, Glorious

By Andrew Comiskey
January 06, 2014
‘All who heard from the shepherds were amazed.’ (LK 2:18) ‘Being Christian is encounter with a Person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.’ Pope Emeritus Benedict Are we still amazed by Christ’s coming into our lives? Belie...

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Treasures from Darkness

By Andrew Comiskey
December 29, 2013
‘Everything that affected Jesus affected His mother, yet no intimate understanding existed between them. His life was hers, yet constantly escaped her.’ (Romano Guardini, The Lord) ‘Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.’ (LK...

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Advent 4: Salient Joseph

By Andrew Comiskey
December 23, 2013
“When Mary was betrothed to Joseph but before they lived together she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But an angel of the L...

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Desert Stream 2013 Year-End Newsletter

By Andrew Comiskey
December 16, 2013
In ‘The Gift’ I write: ‘Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing of water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy an...

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Advent 3: Offensive Jesus

By Andrew Comiskey
December 16, 2013
‘When the John the Baptist heard in prison that of the works of Christ, he sent his disciples to Jesus who asked Him: ‘Are You the one?’ Jesus said: ‘Go and tell John what you see and hear: the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, ...

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Advent 2: Beauty, Burning

By Andrew Comiskey
December 10, 2013
‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath! Produce fruit in keeping with repentance…I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come One who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with...

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Advent 1: Waking the Ache

By Andrew Comiskey
December 03, 2013
‘The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.’ (Rom. 13:11) ‘Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come…You must be prepared, for the Son of Man...

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Criminal King

By Andrew Comiskey
November 27, 2013
I marvel at the choice of the Gospel reading for the Feast of Christ the King. To finalize the Year of Faith, the Church spotlights not the triumphant Jesus but the One sneered as ‘King of the Jews’, punctured by spears and jeers (LK 23: 35-43). Jesus the criminal ...

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Mercy 20: Merciful Heart

By Andrew Comiskey
November 25, 2013
‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. By this He meant the Spirit…’ (JN 7: 37-39) Each of us has been primed by merciful Jesus; He pours out ...

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Mercy 19: Merciful Morality

By Andrew Comiskey
November 24, 2013
“In that day, declares the Lord, you will call me my husband; you will no longer call me my master…I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknow...

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Mercy 18: Merciful Gratitude

By Andrew Comiskey
November 23, 2013
‘Now on His way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As He was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met Him. They stood at a distance and cried out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When He saw the...

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Mercy 17: Merciful Allegiance

By Andrew Comiskey
November 22, 2013
‘If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.’ (LK 9: 23) Jesus’ Cross is the foundation of our freedom. His broken body is the narrow way to a spacious life. He asks us to follow Him, to align our new lives with His ...

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Mercy 16: Cross of Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
November 21, 2013
‘There is no other way except through the Burning Love of Christ Crucified.’ St. Bonaventure I grew up in the shadow of the Cross. To paraphrase the words of John Paul ll: ‘It was the gate through which God unceasingly entered my life.’ The rather ...

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Mercy 15: Mercy for Transformation

By Andrew Comiskey
November 20, 2013
‘Do not be conformed to this age but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…’ (Romans 12: 2a) ‘That was the first time I had ever heard anything hopeful about homosexuality’: a not unfamiliar response from Christians who hear us share our jo...

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Mercy 14: Mercy for Purity

By Andrew Comiskey
November 19, 2013
‘I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.’ (Ez. 36:...

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Mercy 13: Mercy for Sodom

By Andrew Comiskey
November 18, 2013
‘These matters are in my hands and I will bring them to fruition according to My Mercy, for nothing can oppose My will.’ Jesus to St. Faustina Growing acceptance of gender brokenness seems founded on the belief that people are born incurably ‘gay,’ &lsq...

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Mercy 12: Mercy for the Deep Wounds

By Andrew Comiskey
November 17, 2013
‘By calling God the “Father,” the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that He is at the same time goodness and loving care for all His children. God’s parental kindness can...

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Mercy 11: Merciful Surrender

By Andrew Comiskey
November 16, 2013
‘I love the Lord, for He heard my voice; He heard my cry for mercy. Because He turned His ear to me, I will call on Him as long as I live. The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came upon me; I was overcome by trouble and sorrow. Then I called on the name...

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Mercy 10: Merciful Justice

By Andrew Comiskey
November 15, 2013
‘The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.’ (PS 103: 6) A strange notion of justice is at work today. Instead of true justice: fighting for the transformation of persons dealing with all manner of sexual brokenness, we fight for their right to...

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Mercy 9: Merciful Memory

By Andrew Comiskey
November 14, 2013
‘Do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness, forbearance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?’ (Romans 2:4) We live in a day of contempt for God’s plan for human sexuality. In a California restaurant recentl...

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Mercy 8: Level Ground

By Andrew Comiskey
November 13, 2013
‘For Jesus Himself is our peace, who has made the two one, and who has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility…His purpose was to create in Himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God...

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Mercy 7: Merciful Guides

By Andrew Comiskey
November 12, 2013
‘The Church must know the difference between order and disorder, and be wise enough to contextualize disorder with grace and truth.’ Dr. Ray Anderson I recently had a conversation with Courage Leader Father Paul Check. He recounted a conversation with a fellow prie...

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Mercy 6: The Merciful Path

By Andrew Comiskey
November 11, 2013
‘Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert…and a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness.’ (IS 35:6, 8) A well-known Christian recently critiqued me on the grounds that ‘Comiskey apparently has no understand...

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Mercy 5: Waking Up, Mercifully

By Andrew Comiskey
November 10, 2013
‘I will rouse your sons, O Zion, and make them like a warrior’s sword.’ (Zech. 9: 13) Rouse thyself! May one glimpse of the world’s rendering of gender and sexuality provoke godly zeal in you. May zeal for His image consume us. In October, California...

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Mercy 4: Crosscurrent

By Andrew Comiskey
November 09, 2013
‘At the moment of Your death upon the cross, You opened an inexhaustible spring of Mercy for us, giving us Your dearest possession, the Blood and Water from Your heart. Such is the omnipotence of Your Mercy. From it, all grace flows to us.’ St. Faustina Ezekie...

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Mercy 3: Sweet Water for Bitter

By Andrew Comiskey
November 08, 2013
‘Come all who are thirsty, come to the waters.’ (IS 55: 1) Last November DSM wound up a 40-day fast in Minneapolis. We prayed for many things, among them 4 states which had ‘gay marriage’ bills. We knew these bills were important. The National Supreme C...

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Mercy 2: Aching for Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
November 07, 2013
‘Because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked, be merciful as He is.’(Lk 6: 35, 6) Each of us aches for something: sex, love, purpose, power, recognition, peace. That ache can find its end in the merciful God. Somehow, Jesus draws out that ache and begins to nou...

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Mercy 1: Communion of Saints

By Andrew Comiskey
November 06, 2013
‘Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses…’ (Heb. 12: 1a)  Mercy flows from the Head through the Body; Jesus shows unfailing love to us through our fellows. Some have long passed but await us in heaven. I draw encouragement daily from ...

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Prayer and Fasting for Mercy

By Ann Armstrong
October 29, 2013
‘O blood and water that flows from the heart of the Savior as a fount of mercy for us, [we] trust in You!’ St. Faustina We are heading into the joy of Christmas. In preparation for His birth, might you join us in ‘Twenty Days for Mercy’? Through prayer ...

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Hungry for More

By Ann Armstrong
October 23, 2013
Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.” Mark 2: 19, 20 “The bride b...

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Twenty Days for Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
October 14, 2013
‘O blood and water that flows from the heart of the Savior as a fount of mercy for us, [we] trust in You!’ St. Faustina When the towers fall and our foundations are being destroyed, what can the faithful do? We can prayerfully cry out for mercy. The Lord of mercy w...

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Cultivating Gay Christians

By Andrew Comiskey
October 07, 2013
I came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ amid the afflicting power of homosexual attraction and conduct. In those years, shame veiled such struggles. I was fortunate to find Christian guides who helped me to discover Jesus as the basis for a new and true humanity. Today, w...

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New Pharisee 3

By Andrew Comiskey
September 30, 2013
Only through the Cross and the mercy released from the One who gave all can we counter the new Pharisee. Boy, do we need it now. I am witnessing a new Pharisaic tendency in Christian spokespeople for ‘GLBT’ (etc.) communities. Instead of surrendering the sexually b...

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New Pharisee 2

By Andrew Comiskey
September 23, 2013
‘Your most merciful Heart is all my hope. I have nothing for my defense but only Your mercy; in it lies all my trust.’ St. Faustina Kowalska How do you restrain the inner Pharisee? Stay near the truth of your own sinfulness and the Cross. That fount of Mercy confir...

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New Pharisee

By Andrew Comiskey
September 16, 2013
‘I desire trust from My creatures. Encourage souls to place their trust in My fathomless mercy. Let the weak, sinful soul have no fear to approach Me, for even if it had more sins than all the grains of sand in the world, all would be drowned in the immeasurable depths of M...

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Kingdom of Shanghai

By Andrew Comiskey
September 09, 2013
‘Neither (s)he who plants nor (s)he who waters is anything but only God, who makes things grow.’  (1 Cor. 3: 7) with my sister and the priest This Chinese city looms large in the popular imagination: a colorful, lawless seaport alternately stripped and se...

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Mercy, Manilla

By Andrew Comiskey
September 03, 2013
‘The knowledge of my own misery allows me to know the immensity of Your mercy.’ St. Faustina Kowalska I slumped on the plane to the Philippines, wearied by a buzz of pesky conflicts. Some involved others’ sin; most mine. Life reduced me to mercy. I took heart...

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The Disappearing Path

By Andrew Comiskey
August 26, 2013
“Jesus said to His disciples: ‘I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!’ ” (Luke 12:49) That God created humanity to be good gifts for each other, grateful for the other’s difference and committed to offering o...

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Provoked

By Andrew Comiskey
August 19, 2013
‘You need an ideal, something that will draw you out of yourself and raise you to greater heights. But you see, there is only One; it is He, the Only Truth! …Under His gaze the horizon becomes so beautiful, so vast, and so luminous!’ Blessed Elizabeth of ...

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Friends who Fear

By Andrew Comiskey
August 12, 2013
‘It is a dreadful thing to fall in the hands of the living God.’ (Heb. 10: 31) Because of Jesus, I am a friend of God. And because of Jesus, I fear God. By that I mean I revere Him and tremble at His Word. He is a friend I don’t want to mess with. That the...

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Fighting for the Faithful

By Andrew Comiskey
August 05, 2013
“And the Lord said to Elijah: ‘I reserve 7000 in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.’ ” (1K 19: 18) It is always good to remember why we do what we do: we clarify the way for the sexually broken ...

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Pope Francis: Clarity, Please

By Andrew Comiskey
July 30, 2013
As the new ‘people’s pope’, Francis’ recent statements on homosexuality seem more concerned with shining the light of Jesus on persons with same-gender attraction (be they priests or seekers) rather than on making moral judgments about homosexuality. His g...

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Rio Grande: Whole Church for the Sexually Broken

By Andrew Comiskey
July 29, 2013
‘Where the river flows, everything will live.’ (Ez. 47:9) Becoming a Catholic provoked my retreat from Latin America; in good conscience, our beloved ‘Aguas Vivas’ (Living Waters) leaders there could no longer partner with one who in their view had comp...

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Transformation: The Fruit of Faith

By Andrew Comiskey
July 22, 2013
‘Sin is not so much doing something wrong; sin is not being true to who we are.’ – Mother Dolores Hart, OSB In his first encyclical, ‘Lumen Fidei,’ Pope Francis highlights the power of faith in Jesus Christ as the ground of the new creat...

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Jesus: The Justice that Transforms

By Andrew Comiskey
July 15, 2013
‘He will not shout or cry out, or raise His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not snuff out. In faithfulness He will bring forth justice.’ (IS. 42: 2, 3) ‘Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He wil...

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Enslaving Justice

By Andrew Comiskey
July 08, 2013
‘By appealing to the lustful desires of human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity.’ (2 Peter 2:18, 19) ‘Gay marriage’ advances in the USA...

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Hope and Grief

By Andrew Comiskey
July 01, 2013
‘Brothers, we do not want you to grieve like the rest of men who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again…’ (1 Thess. 4: 13, 14b) Those committed to the transformation of persons with same-gender attraction suffered a double blow this month: t...

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The Divided States: Marriage Struck Down But Not Destroyed

By Andrew Comiskey
June 26, 2013
The US Supreme Court ruling today on two ‘gay marriage’ cases stopped short of mandating ‘gay marriage’ for the USA. It did however strike down Prop 8 on a legal technicality and struck down the Defense of Marriage Act. In 2008, Prop. 8 was the second a...

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Radiant Hope

By Andrew Comiskey
June 24, 2013
Let the afflicted hear and rejoice…Those who look to the Lord are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.’ (PS 34: 2, 5) Exodus International (North America), the once humble and fruitful expression of hope for persons with same-sex attraction, is ...

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Scouting for Snakes:Exodus 'Kinky' Cannes, and the Deceiver

By Andrew Comiskey
June 17, 2013
‘I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.’ (Luke 10:19) Satan is the master of disguises. He couches things sweetly; he kills us softly. He makes good appear evil and evil good ...

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Desert Stream Ministries 2013 Mid-Year Newsletter

By Andrew Comiskey
June 14, 2013
I am happy to announce the release of Desert Stream Ministries 2013 Mid-year Newsletter. The newsletter features articles written by myself and Annette along with special contributions from friends of Desert Stream. In Intimate Authority, Tender Army, I write: ...

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Power to Change 3: The Awaking Church

By Andrew Comiskey
June 10, 2013
Changing deep patterns of sexual desire, behavior and motivation require the support of an entire community: it takes a village, Jesus-style. Any program or therapy is only as good as the greater community of faith surrounding the one seeking change. Perhaps that is why the enemy...

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Power to Change 2: A Fortress of Friends

By Andrew Comiskey
June 03, 2013
‘A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure. A faithful friend is beyond price, no sum can balance his worth. A faithful friend is a saving remedy, such as he who fears God finds. For he who fears God behaves accordingly, and his friend will...

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Power to Change

By Andrew Comiskey
May 27, 2013
‘I believe, help my unbelief!’ (Mark 9: 24) Pentecost is all about the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is about the power to change. I need to change: I needed it 35 years ago in the grip of homosexual addiction and I need it now as I consider the ...

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Broken Ground for Holy Power

By Andrew Comiskey
May 20, 2013
Pentecost is all about power, the real strength we need from God’s Spirit to do His will. Any Christian who seeks to extend the rule and reign of God’s Kingdom knows this. Beyond the grace to endure the wear and tear of daily living, we need ‘power from on high&...

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Truth Ascending

By Andrew Comiskey
May 13, 2013
‘When He comes, the Spirit of truth, He will guide you into all truth.’ (John 16: 13) God has a lot of nerve. He comes and He goes with only the promise of an unseen Spirit to remind us of His truth (John 16). I know, the Holy Spirit is awesome but we are weak and ...

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Provoking Life 3

By Andrew Comiskey
May 07, 2013
‘Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.’ (Jn 12: 24) Easter is best realized in contrasts. Like green shoots emerging from a burnt field, new life is most appreciated against the backdrop of lo...

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What is at the Core of Same-Gender Attraction

By Andrew Comiskey
May 03, 2013
Facing well one’s same-sex attraction requires more than good theology. One must also understand how we develop into whole-enough men and women. Yes, we are born to become good gifts to the opposite gender and yes, we readily stall en route to the goal of such ‘gift-g...

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Provoking Life, Part 2

By Andrew Comiskey
April 30, 2013
‘See! The winter is passed; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth, the season of singing has come.’ (S of S 2: 11, 12) Amid the battle for souls—the gravitational pull of sin and sadness–let us discover the upward rising of Easter. Th...

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Authentic Drivel

By Andrew Comiskey
April 26, 2013
With grief I consider the irony of Exodus’ response to John Paulk’s immersion in gay culture (Exodus Blog, April 22; Paulk presided over Exodus in the nineties). Exodus used to focus on how Jesus leads persons out of homosexuality. Now Exodus appears to celebrate thos...

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Provoking Life, Part 1

By Andrew Comiskey
April 22, 2013
‘The blind receive sight, the lame walk, lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed are those who take no offense in Me.’ (Luke 7:23) A scene from Charlie Chaplin’s classic film ‘Limelight&rs...

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Reduced to Resurrection

By Andrew Comiskey
April 15, 2013
During Holy Week a few years back, Sam (my youngest son) came home late. In simple desperation, he said to me: ‘I need Jesus. I need help.’ His drug problem was consuming him. In severe mercy, Jesus reduced him to new life. Sam had been baptized years before. Now he n...

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Courage of Our Convictions

By Andrew Comiskey
April 08, 2013
‘Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteousness shone like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.’ (PS 37: 5, 6)  How could a nation captivated by ‘The Bible’ miniseries be taken ca...

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Seventh of 7 Prayers for Marriage: Under the Rainbow

By Andrew Comiskey
April 01, 2013
‘The greatest figures of prophecy and sanctity step forth out of the darkest night.’ – St. Edith Stein I marched last Tuesday in DC for marriage. America was not with me. Christians may still believe that marriage is about male and female but they hold t...

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Lent Devotion 7: Foot-Washing for the Filthy Rich

By Andrew Comiskey
March 28, 2013
“You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and don’t need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.” (Rev. 3:17) There’s a fallen part of each of us that wants to keep a safe distance from the...

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Six of 7 Prayers for Marriage: Just Love

By Andrew Comiskey
March 25, 2013
It is now popular to label anyone a ‘hater’ who upholds marriage and refuses to remove its centerpiece: gender complementarity. On the other hand, those for ‘gay marriage’ are applauded as loving and just. I contend that love is far more stern and splendid...

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Lent Devotion 6: Open Door for the Broken and Accused

By Andrew Comiskey
March 21, 2013
‘Since we have confidence to enter the Most holy place through the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us by His body, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith…’ (Heb. 10: 19-22) ‘Save us, Savior of the wo...

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Fifth of 7 Prayers for Marriage: Children Need Mom and Dad

By Andrew Comiskey
March 18, 2013
‘At stake [in ‘gay marriage’] is the identity and survival of the family: father, mother and children. At stake are the lives of many children who will be discriminated against in advance, and deprived of their human development given by a father and mother and ...

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Lent Devotion 5: Light the Fire Again

By Andrew Comiskey
March 14, 2013
‘Am I stone and not a sheep, that I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy Cross, To number drop by drop Thy blood’s slow loss, and yet not weep?’ – Christina Rossetti ‘A guilty suffering soul is more open to grace than an apathetic or smug soul.’...

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Fourth of 7 Prayers for Marriage: The Gift of Gender Difference

By Andrew Comiskey
March 11, 2013
Properly defined, marriage hinges upon gender difference. A wedding counts only when the angular awkward guy in the tux kisses the woman in white, a vision of curves and hidden complexity. Once the two have crossed the threshold, there is no turning back. They are united irrevoca...

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Housecleaning

By Andrew Comiskey
March 07, 2013
‘For we are reduced, O Lord, brought low everywhere in the world this day because of our sins.’ (Dan. 3: 37) For a couple years my pastor engaged in heterosexual immorality; we discovered this later, but in the meantime, everything changed. Our church became the so...

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Third of 7 Prayers for Marriage: Honoring A Champion

By Andrew Comiskey
March 04, 2013
‘In order for God’s image to shine radiantly in him, man must first receive the purification whereby the divine Sculptor frees him from that dross that conceals the authentic figure of his being.’ Pope Emeritus Benedict I miss him already. Pope Emeritus Bened...

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Lent Devotion 3: True Worship

By Andrew Comiskey
February 28, 2013
‘For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’ (Matt. 6: 21) A few years ago, my teenage son told me that the largest evangelical church in our city was winning over many of his friends. His concern? Those new converts continued in sexual immorality a...

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Second of 7 Prayers for Marriage: We Fight for the Common Good

By Andrew Comiskey
February 25, 2013
‘You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.’  – (IS 58: 11b) Marriage and democracy share a particular golden thread: both are designed for the common good. That means people should benefit, not suffer, from its impact...

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Lent Devotion 2: Good Suffering

By Andrew Comiskey
February 21, 2013
‘The greatest figures of prophecy and sanctity step forth out of the darkest night.’  – St. Edith Stein Jesus makes suffering holy. He alone ‘makes the burning sand a pool.’ (Is. 35:7) His 40 days in the desert prophesied the Cross, on which ...

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First of 7 Prayers for Marriage: Why We Fight

By Andrew Comiskey
February 18, 2013
5 years ago, I rolled up my sleeves and fought as never before for the true definition of marriage. Why? Not because I am a good political animal. In truth, I am a terrible one: neither a faithful Democrat nor Republican. Maybe I fought because I believe that marriage belongs ...

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Lent Devotion 1: First Love

By Andrew Comiskey
February 14, 2013
‘You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will remove your lampstand from its place.’ (Rev. 2: 4, 5) After three weeks on the road, I settled in on the plan...

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Fighting for Our Best-Part 2:Battle for the Bride

By Andrew Comiskey
February 11, 2013
‘For Zion’s sake, I shall not be silent, for Jerusalem’s sake, I will not remain quiet, until her righteousness shines forth like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch.’ (IS. 62: 1) This Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent. During the next...

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Fighting for Our Best-Part 1: What Parents Know

By Andrew Comiskey
February 04, 2013
Do not be afraid of them; the Lord Himself will fight for you.’  (Deut. 1:22) My mother’s tears spoke louder words in response to my ‘coming out’ years ago. ‘I want more for you,’ she then said. Parents want more for their kids than ...

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Courage and Contending-Part 5: What We Need

By Andrew Comiskey
January 28, 2013
‘I urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints’…for ‘godless ones have changed the grace of God into a license for immorality.’ (Jude 3, 4) A common charge against Desert Stream and other ministries that encour...

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Blurred Vision

By Andrew Comiskey
January 23, 2013
‘So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets.’ (Is 59: 14) Obama reiterated twice in his brief inaugural address that ‘gay’ rights, including ‘gay marriage,’ are utterly on par with ge...

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Courage and Contending-Part 4

By Andrew Comiskey
January 21, 2013
‘I felt that I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith,’ in light of ‘those who change the grace of God into a license for immorality.’ (Jude 3, 4) Jodie Foster and David Geffen, two giants of the entertainment industry, recently revealed the...

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Courage and Contending-Part 3

By Andrew Comiskey
January 14, 2013
‘I urge you to contend for the faith’…in light of those ‘who change the grace of God into a license for sexual immorality.’ (Jude 3, 4) We must activate and aim the Gospel of Jesus Christ toward those whose same-sex attraction has morphed into th...

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Courage and Contending-Part 2

By Andrew Comiskey
January 07, 2013
‘We must help all believers acquire a more vigorous, conscious adherence to the Gospel.’ Pope Benedict  ‘I urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.’ (Jude 3b) How Christians apply the Gospel to those with ...

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Courage and Contending-Part 1

By Andrew Comiskey
January 01, 2013
‘I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once and for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men…have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men who change the grace of God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only ...

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Courage and Creativity

By Andrew Comiskey
December 23, 2012
‘A woman, clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown to twelve stars on her head…was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth…then an enormous red dragon stood in front of her …so that it might devour the child t...

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Courage and Community

By Andrew Comiskey
December 17, 2012
‘At Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s baby leapt in her womb and she was filled with the Holy Spirit.’ (Lk 1:41) In order for God’s new life in us to come to ‘term’, we need community. Healthy parents and babies require those who champion t...

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Courage and Conflict

By Andrew Comiskey
December 11, 2012
New life is always under threat. The devourer prowls around cracked doors, hungry. Mary’s ‘yes’ to bear Christ may evoke consoling images of Mother and Child but also invites profound struggle. Mary’s ‘yes’ was a battle cry. Simeon prophesie...

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Courage and Consent

By Andrew Comiskey
December 06, 2012
‘The sick soul fears more than anything else the demands made on one who is well.’ Joseph Pieper Just before leaving for France last week, disgruntled gays in the USA filed a round of new lawsuits against those they had enlisted to help them change their homosexua...

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Home for the Holidays: Life in the Body

By Andrew Comiskey
December 03, 2012
‘When I talk about her, I cannot stop!’ St. Augustine ‘How lovely is Your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints for the courts of the Lord; My heart and flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swa...

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Grateful, Out Loud

By Andrew Comiskey
November 25, 2012
Jesus healed 10 lepers. ‘Only one of them came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked Him—and he was a Samaritan.’  (Luke 17: 15, 16) The skin protecting his humanity rotting away, his ethnic status scorned ...

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A Love Too Weak

By Andrew Comiskey
November 18, 2012
‘Gay marriage’ advocates invoke love as the basis for redefining marriage. Theirs is a love way too weak. ‘Love’ founded on the fault-line of same-sex attraction is no love at all but a concession to human brokenness. ‘Gay marriage’ seals in...

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Waking Up

By Andrew Comiskey
November 13, 2012
How do you explain a nation that resolutely opposed ‘gay marriage’ at the polls (32X) then ushered it in boldly last Tuesday? You could cite Obama’s slide as America’s; he started 4 years ago resolute in his ‘Christian’ commitment to marriag...

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Water Rising

By Andrew Comiskey
November 09, 2012
‘I saw water coming out from the threshold of the temple…and where that river flows, everything shall live.’ (Ez. 47: 1, 9) Deadened like you by a disastrous election (marriage trounced in four states, abortion’s champion re-elected—more on this ...

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November 6, 2012

By Andrew Comiskey
November 06, 2012
‘I will down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.’ (Ps. 4:8) On this Election Day, we entrust our great and compromised nation to God. Because of her goodness and our gratitude to our country, we also fear. We fear that she might refu...

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Pray for Life-November 6, 2012 (Psalm 4:8)

By Andrew Comiskey
November 06, 2012
As these 40-days of prayer and reflection come to a close, I am reminded that sexual love is all about life. The beauty and power of sex is managed well when it is oriented toward creating and tending new life. That presumes, of course, that the man and woman becoming one have...

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November 5, 2012 (Psalm 4:8)

By Andrew Comiskey
November 05, 2012
‘In peace I shall both lie down and sleep for You alone, Lord, make me secure.’ (Ps. 4: 8 NAB) I confess that I fear for the Church. At times I am confused and frustrated by her lack of clarity. Even on issues in which she appears clear—sexual sin, upholding ...

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November 4, 2012 (Psalm 4:8)

By Andrew Comiskey
November 04, 2012
‘I will lie down and sleep in peace…’ (Ps. 4:8) Many times, Annette and I lay in bed at night awaiting the return of a troubled child. Anxiety is easy; how difficult to entrust our children and loved ones to the living God. We can cover them with our pray...

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November 3, 2012 (Psalm 4:8)

By Andrew Comiskey
November 03, 2012
‘For You alone, Lord, make me secure.’ (Ps. 4:8 NAB) Those of us who have veered off the straight and narrow in a sensual quest for love know how destabilizing idols are. Yesterday’s confirmation becomes today’s condemnation. The world’s mirrors a...

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November 2, 2012

By Andrew Comiskey
November 02, 2012
‘I will lie down and sleep in peace, because You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.’ (Ps. 4:8) His pursuers still close behind him, the king trusts the King. Countless battles—from moral failure to murderous threats—reduced David to simple, childli...

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Peace Prevailing-November 2, 2012 (Psalm 4:8)

By Andrew Comiskey
November 02, 2012
‘I will lie down and sleep in peace, because You alone, O Lord, make me secure.’ (PS 4:8) How could David sleep? Hounded by Absalom and a murderous band, he had a natural right to be terrified! So do we. ‘Conflicts on the outside, fears within’ (2 Cor. ...

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November 1, 2012 (Psalm 4:7)

By Andrew Comiskey
November 01, 2012
‘You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine grain abound.’ (Ps. 4:7) The fruit of marriage is children. Even marriages that are childless are oriented toward the possibility of new life. Marriage is so much more than a cozy, sensua...

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October 31, 2012 (Psalm 4:7)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 31, 2012
‘You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.’ (Ps. 4: 7) One of the things I witnessed early on in my faith was the generosity of married couples who loved Jesus and who together overflowed with joyful self-giving. They reve...

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October 30, 2012

By Andrew Comiskey
October 30, 2012
‘You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.’ (PS 4: 7) One way that I have experienced emotional freedom is in same gender friendships. One could say that at the core of most same-sex attraction is the cry for emotional bel...

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October 29, 2012 (Psalm 4:7)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 29, 2012
‘You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.’ (Ps. 4:7) Among the treasures I have discovered in turning from sexual sin and toward merciful Jesus is emotional authenticity—the capacity to be fully present before Him a...

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October 28, 2012

By Andrew Comiskey
October 28, 2012
‘You have filled my heart with greater joy that when their grain and new wine abound.’ (Ps. 4:7) David now reflects upon joy: the fruit of undivided attentiveness to God. He contrasts that joy to the happiness of prosperity. Perhaps he refers here to the rise of hi...

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Joy Rising-October 28, 2012 (Psalm 4:7)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 28, 2012
‘You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.’ (PS 4:7) With all due respect to our great nation, I am not sold on the concept of ‘pursuit of happiness.’ That connotes a restless quest for well-being based on exte...

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October 27, 2012 (Psalm 4:6)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 27, 2012
‘Many are asking, “Who can show us any good?” Let the light of Your face shine upon us, O Lord.’ (Ps. 4:6) In addition to the priest and prophet, Vatican ll implores us to emulate the Spirit of Christ the King. Wow, that’s a stretch. I have known ...

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October 26, 2012 (Psalm 4:6)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 26, 2012
‘Lord, show us the light of Your face!’  (Psalm 4:6-NAB) Jesus as prophet–the truth-teller, inspired by the Holy Spirit—is another facet of Jesus’ life that Vatican ll encouraged the laity to emulate. With humility, we take seriously th...

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October 25, 2012 (Psalm 4:6)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 25, 2012
‘Let the light of Your face shine upon us, O Lord.’ (Psalm 4:6) Vatican II signaled the modern reform of the Roman Catholic Church, circa 1960’s. One of its enduring tenets was to empower the laity to do the work of the ministry. Some history: nearly 500 year...

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October 24, 2012 (Psalm 4:6)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 24, 2012
‘Who can show us any good?’ (Ps. 4:6) One thing we must discern is our disappointment with the Church. Broad is the way of grousing against her, finding fellow grumblers who echo our contempt. Few are those who perceive underneath her failures the beautiful, broken...

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October 23, 2012

By Andrew Comiskey
October 23, 2012
‘Many are asking, “Who can show us any good?” Let the light of Your face shine upon us, O God.’ (Ps. 4:6) We live in a day of decreasing trust. Superficially, we have never been more connected; we tend to our cyber-family with whom we live out loud and ...

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Love Shining-October 23, 2012 (Psalm 4:6)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 23, 2012
‘Many are asking: “Who can show us any good?” Let the light of Your face shine upon us, O God.’ (PS 4:6) Politics brings out the worst in people; divided by partisan bickering and hyperbole, battered by sound bites that become more like sound ‘bul...

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October 22, 2012 (Psalm 4:5)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 22, 2012
‘Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord.’ (Ps. 4:5) We take our places in our nation as living sacrifices, offering prayers to God that He would have mercy on our land through releasing what is good (His healing stream) and restraining what is evil (‘ga...

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October 21, 2012 (Psalm 4:5)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 21, 2012
‘Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord.’ (Ps. 4:5) For the sake of a generation yet to come, we cry for mercy to restrain the drive to normalize homosexuality through ‘gay marriage.’ We know that ‘gay marriage’ is but a symptom and sy...

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October 20, 2012 (Psalm 4:5)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 20, 2012
‘Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord’ (Ps. 4:5) Broken and contrite spirits make room for others. They lead out with mercy because they rely upon mercy. As we learn to live under the shadow of the cross, we discover like Bonheoffer ‘that no sin can e...

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October 19, 2012 (Psalm 4:5)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 19, 2012
‘Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord.’ (Ps. 4:5) St. Faustina Kowalska is right; the deeper our recognition of sin’s misery, the deeper our reception of mercy can be. For this reason alone, we can be grateful to God for ongoing reminders of moral wea...

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October 18, 2012

By Andrew Comiskey
October 18, 2012
‘Offer right sacrifices, and trust in the Lord.’ (Ps. 4:5) David asks that we make right, or fitting, sacrifices to the Lord. What does this mean? David explains it himself after his heart-rending confession of adultery in Psalm 51: ‘The sacrifices of God are...

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Broken Offerings-October 18, 2012 (Psalm 4:5)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 18, 2012
‘Offer right sacrifices, and trust in the Lord.’ (PS 4:5) Never before have I witnessed such an escalation of sexual and relational sin. Pretty good marriages cooling into divorce, cohabitation as a matter of course, guys joking over the porn addictions they sha...

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October 17, 2012 (Psalm 4:4)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 17, 2012
‘Tremble with awe and do not sin; upon your beds, ponder in silence.’ NAB (Ps. 4:4) A good friend recently expressed a deep remorse over the growing worldliness in the Church. She had been pondering many things: the family member who just claimed to be ‘gay&r...

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October 16, 2012 (Psalm 4:4)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 16, 2012
‘Upon your beds, ponder in silence NAB.’ (Ps. 4:4) Silence is crucial to knowing one’s heart. When the noise around us fades, the noise within arises. This morning in prayer, I was distracted by unclean thoughts. Aware of my enemy, the weakness of my flesh...

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October 15, 2012 (Psalm 4:4)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 15, 2012
‘When you are on your beds, search your hearts (‘ponder’ NAB) and be silent.’ (Ps. 4:4) Prayer for me is as much about examining my own heart and priorities as much as it is about crying out for His will to be done out there. In other words, ‘let ...

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October 14, 2012 (Psalm 4:4)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 14, 2012
‘In your anger do not sin’ (‘tremble with awe and do not sin’ NAB) (Ps. 4:4) How do we transform our anger into awe? Through prayer and fasting. What begins in us as unrighteous indignation can become a galvanizing of our heart for the good. Take &lsquo...

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October 13, 2012

By Andrew Comiskey
October 13, 2012
‘In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent.’ (Ps. 4:4) David commands his soul and ours. He exemplifies the tension between trust and outrage, resting in God’s refuge and raging over sin. He swings between faith and...

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Outrage and Silence-October 13, 2012 (Psalm 4:4)

October 13, 2012
‘In your anger do not sin; when you are on your bed, search your heart and be silent.’ (PS 4:4) Last Thursday was ‘coming out day’, a near holy day for the New York Times which featured a ludicrous article on how parents should do their gay kids a favor...

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October 12, 2012 (Psalm 4:3)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 12, 2012
‘Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for Himself; the Lord will hear me when I call to Him.’ (Ps. 4:3) We must continuously rouse ourselves from the drone of our culture in regards to sexual immorality. Slowly, we can be entranced into accepting that kids sl...

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October 11, 2012 (Psalm 4:3)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 11, 2012
‘Know that the Lord works wonders for the faithful’ (Ps. 4:3 NAB) For the last 32 years, my joy has been leading others beside ‘living waters’, the sin-washing, life-giving flood Jesus releases when the broken gather in His Body to be healed.  Anne...

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October 10, 2012 (Psalm 4:3)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 10, 2012
‘The Lord will hear me when I call to Him.’ (Ps. 4: 3) God is faithful to make a way in the wilderness of sin, to become the river that cleanses sin and restores our original dignity. He reveals a sure path of holiness for all who pray for it. We can thank God f...

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October 9, 2012 (Psalm 4:3)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 09, 2012
‘Know that the Lord sets apart the godly for Himself.’ (Ps. 4:3) Whether we like it or not, we live under the threat of judgment. Jesus is returning to judge the world and the Church, and we do well to ‘live holy and godly lives’ in preparation for His ...

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October 8, 2012

By Andrew Comiskey
October 08, 2012
‘Know that the Lord sets apart the godly for Himself; (‘works wonders for the faithful’ NAB); the Lord hears me when I call to Him.’ (Ps. 4: 3) Amid the threat of death, David trusts the Lord. We can too. Our world defies life at every turn: abortion, c...

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Repentance and Refuge-October 8, 2012 (Psalm 4:3)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 08, 2012
‘Just as there is a momentum to evil, so is there a momentum to repentance.’ Surrender is everything. Unless the seed releases itself to good soil, it remains hard and contained, unable to bear fruit. But when we open in faith, holding nothing back, ‘the Lord...

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October 7, 2012 (Psalm 4:2)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 07, 2012
‘How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love delusions and seek false gods’? (Ps. 4:2) Children are ultimately the victims of sexual idolatry. While adults champion their rights to sex, divorce, porn and same-gender unions, little one...

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October 6, 2012 (Psalm 4:2)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 06, 2012
‘How long will you seek false gods (‘chase after lies’ NAB)?’ (Ps. 4:2) The breaking up of marriage as the sanctuary for sex became the basis for ‘gay marriage’. Normal sex had become a personal civil right, to be experienced pre and post-ma...

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October 5, 2012 (Psalm 4:2)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 05, 2012
‘How long will you love delusions (‘what is worthless’ NAB) and seek false gods (‘chase after lies’ NAB)’? (Ps. 4:2) The seventies digressed into the material indulgence of the eighties, in which we grasped after home electronics which evolv...

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October 4, 2012 (Psalm 4:2)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 04, 2012
‘How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame (‘mock my honor’ NAB)?’ Ps. 4:2) We mock God when we take our needs into our own hands and expressly do what He forbids. Such mockery prevailed in the sixties when a generation stripped themselves of s...

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October 3, 2012

By Andrew Comiskey
October 03, 2012
‘How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?’ (Ps. 4:2) David refers to Absalom and company who for a variety of misbegotten reasons are seeking to snuff him out. I will elevate David’s exhortation...

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Tell the Truth-October 3, 2012 (Psalm 4:2)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 03, 2012
‘Instead of trying to avoid hardships, ask God for the grace to bear them well.’ St. Andre Bessette The Church stands at a crossroads. Will she represent God in her body or the delusions of men? Faithful Christians stand at a crossroads. Having been leveled...

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October 2, 2012 (Psalm 4:1)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 02, 2012
‘Be merciful to me and hear my prayer’. (Ps. 4:1) Our prayer must begin by remembering the mercy which is our freedom. We then extend that merciful cry toward the mess we are in. We live in a day so eager to forgive sins that we forego the reality of sin altoget...

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October 1, 2012 (Psalm 4:1)

By Andrew Comiskey
October 01, 2012
‘Be merciful to me and hear my prayer.’ (Ps. 4:1) God’s deliverance is an act of mercy. David knows that. He also knows that any righteousness of his own comes from such mercy; the king wholly depends upon his King for holiness. Hope springs from mercy. If...

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September 30, 2012 (Psalm 4:1)

By Andrew Comiskey
September 30, 2012
‘Give me relief from my distress’ (Ps. 4:1); ‘In my troubles, You make a way.’ (NAB) David is in distress. He does not ask for God to remove His distress but rather to make a way for him to bear it. Today we would be wise to experience the distress of o...

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September 29, 2012 (Psalm 4:1)

By Andrew Comiskey
September 29, 2012
‘Answer me when I call to You, my saving, righteous God…’ (Ps. 4:1) David trusts God. His hope rests entirely on the God who delivered him in the past, and who he trusted would deliver him again. For the king, God is not an abstract ethic or idea—He is...

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September 28, 2012 (Psalm 4:1)

By Andrew Comiskey
September 28, 2012
 ‘Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous, saving God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer.’ (Ps. 4:1) David is in trouble. The righteous king seduced Bathsheba then murdered her husband, which incited a series of betr...

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Restoring Hope-September 28, 2012 (Psalm 4:1)

By Andrew Comiskey
September 28, 2012
‘Prayer is the first and greatest work of love we can do for our brothers and sisters.’ (JPll)  As we begin our 40-days of prayer together, King David grants us a way forward. David is distressed by son Absalom’s murderous pursuit of him. We share a s...

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Clothe Us, O God

By Andrew Comiskey
September 27, 2012
Tomorrow we begin our 40-day fast. Please join me in this extended meditation on Psalm 4, as we seek God’s heart for the sexual and relational brokenness all around us. Instead of seeking mere creatures to solve the moral mess we are in, we will seek our Creator and Redeeme...

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Fasting: The Feast of Freedom

By Andrew Comiskey
September 24, 2012
‘Speak, for Your servant is listening.’ (I Samuel 3:10) Our 40 days of prayer begin this Friday. Might you consider some type of fast as a way of maximizing your time in prayer? Freaketh not thou, child of God. Though fasting is usually associated with not eatin...

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Ache of God

By Andrew Comiskey
September 17, 2012
Praying 40 days for repentance over sexual sin would be a vain task unless we encountered His ache of love for us. Prayer unites us with His ache. Beneath His cross, we witness silently His naked broken body. Like rain from heaven, blood and water flow into our shameful nakedn...

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Ache of Humanity

By Andrew Comiskey
September 10, 2012
We pray for forty days because we ache for love. And unless our ache finds its home in God, we will be vulnerable to false masters. If that is still true for us who love Jesus and His Church, how urgent the need to pray for those whose ache is aimed at false gods! I refer specifi...

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Getting Low for the Lost

By Andrew Comiskey
September 03, 2012
One day last January, God alerted me to the truth that an aggressive, cruel spirit, masking itself as an angel of light, had quickened its assault on humanity. 8am: a man to whom I had been sharing Christ stopped our conversation short by introducing me to his new male lover t...

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Fighting on our Knees

By Andrew Comiskey
August 27, 2012
Dear Friends, We at Desert Stream Ministries would like to invite you to join us for forty days of prayer. Each day, from September 28th through November 6th (Election Day), we will pray through one aspect of repentance related to the sexual immorality of our nation....

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Fighting Fair

By Andrew Comiskey
August 20, 2012
Why do we contend for marriage and for purity and for a Church that restores sexual sinners? It’s simple: we fight for those yet to come. John Paul ll said it best: ‘The dignity of future generations depends on who man will be for woman and woman for man.’ We ...

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Fighting Dirty

By Andrew Comiskey
August 13, 2012
Brad Pitt’s mother takes a stand for marriage and receives death threats from irate activists; Obama comes out for ‘gay marriage’, jets to Hollywood where he parties with Brad, Julia and George, and rakes in $15million. Activists slam Professor Mark Regenerus...

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Exodus: Letting Go, Hope Rising

By Andrew Comiskey
August 06, 2012
Becoming mature requires letting go in order to take hold of what lies ahead. Such is the case with the decision of Desert Stream Ministries to disassociate from Exodus International, an umbrella coalition for those who minister to the same-sex attracted. Over the last coup...

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An Army Rising

By Andrew Comiskey
July 30, 2012
‘I will rouse your sons, O Zion…and make you like a warrior’s sword.’ (Zech. 9: 13) In spite of scandal and slumber, the Roman Catholic Church remains the most cohesive and powerful voice for sexual morality in the world today. If the annual Courage Co...

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Heaven on Earth

By Andrew Comiskey
July 23, 2012
Just prior to the two days of intensive conferencing in Portland OR, I felt a familiar heaviness, and began to question (quietly) the purpose of gathering from around the Northwest to proclaim and administer healing for the sexually broken. ‘No-one will come…Portland...

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Salt of the Earth

By Andrew Comiskey
July 16, 2012
‘I urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.’ (Jude 3) Salt preserves and flavors food; it awakens taste, just as lives raised from the dead of homosexuality awaken the church and sustain her essence. Consider my friend Ben...

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True Justice

By Andrew Comiskey
July 03, 2012
‘The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.’ (PS 103:6) ‘Defending the institution of marriage as a social reality is ultimately a question of justice, since it entails safeguarding the good of the entire human community and the rights of...

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Justice for Whom

By Andrew Comiskey
June 28, 2012
Advocates for ‘gay marriage’ usually claim no harm can be done to anyone through extending marriage and family rights to two men or two women. New evidence now exists to show a host of challenges to kids of gay parents. Professor Mark Regenerus found that, when ...

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Deeper, Truer Love

By Andrew Comiskey
June 20, 2012
‘Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.’ (1P 1:22) I love this verse: it conveys concisely how I overcame homosexuality. I did not run from my same-sex att...

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Clear Direction for a Vulnerable Generation

By Andrew Comiskey
June 13, 2012
My friend and Lutheran Pastor Ole recently commented on Denmark’s (his nation) passage of ‘gay marriage’ last week, which now makes it mandatory for all churches to conduct such ‘marriages.’ I grieve for the church. I grieve that the church offend...

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At Peace in War

By Andrew Comiskey
June 06, 2012
As ‘gay pride month’, June always provokes a kind of dread in me. This month started out with a bang—a federal appeals court struck down the existing federal law defining marriage solely between a man and woman. Gay pride will swagger throughout the month, ampli...

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Pentecost: Power to Live the Truth

By Andrew Comiskey
May 31, 2012
I just read in the New York Times that Dr. Robert Spitzer, the man who documented the transformation of 200 former homosexuals like me, now claims (for no apparent reason) that we must have been lying. Who knew? Not my wife and kids… Bowing to the irrational drive of ga...

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Merciful Eyes

By Andrew Comiskey
May 30, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Merciful Eyes 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 38 To see the image of God in every sister—all love of neighbor must flow from this motive. (861) ...

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Ascending Fear: Jesus' Absence and our Authority

By Andrew Comiskey
May 24, 2012
‘Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you.’ (Jn 16:6) Jesus had to leave us in order to liberate us. He had to depart in order to give us power. But for the disciples, Jesus’ ascension back to the Fat...

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Risen with Christ, Our Wounds Yet Visible

By Andrew Comiskey
May 19, 2012
Our most powerful witness in this hour of ‘gay marriage’ and other injustices are our wounds. Raised with Him, secure in love, we must reveal our scars of sin and shame. The servant is not greater than His master. If the Glorified Christ is to this day ‘a Lamb, ...

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False Justice

By Andrew Comiskey
May 15, 2012
‘Justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.’ (Is. 59: 14, 15) Obama’s ‘gay marriage’ commitment is h...

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Obama's Endorsement of Gay Marriage Fails Us All

By Andrew Comiskey
May 10, 2012
How tragic that the most influential political leader on earth would use his power to redefine marriage. He bowed his knee to the lie that justice means giving gays all they clamor for, rather than what they need. In that, Obama failed to love gays well. He has failed to act auth...

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Bravo to North Carolinians Who Stood for Marriage

By Andrew Comiskey
May 09, 2012
I am about to impart some prophetic healing ministry to our Living Waters Leaders in Belgium and France; our groups have flourished in the French-speaking world amid profound sexual immorality and unbelief about the authority of the Church to heal the sexually broken. Yet the goi...

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Broken and Beautiful

By Andrew Comiskey
May 08, 2012
What relevance is the Resurrected Christ for those struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction? Or with any other profound sexual problem? As one who shares that struggle, I often feel like the rather clueless disciples, stumbling about in the dark with the risen Christ. Diso...

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No Doubt

By Andrew Comiskey
May 02, 2012
Since Easter Sunday, I have never faced such irrational insistence that those with SSA (same-sex attraction) cannot change. The world and worldly church is diabolically united: the gay self is the true self, liberated only in active expression. Thank God for Easter. Thank God ...

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Pray More

By Andrew Comiskey
April 25, 2012
‘Patience, prayer and silence—these are what give strength to the soul.’ St. Faustina If we want to be more like Jesus, we must be with Him more. And do less of everything else. Our roots must sink and stay deep in the Source if we want to bear fruit tha...

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Intimate Authority: Easter's Enlistment

By Andrew Comiskey
April 08, 2012
This is the seventh and concluding post of my Holy Week Meditations for 2012. Please click here for the archive list of posts. Annette and I, as well as the staff here at Desert Stream Ministries, wish you a deeply blessed Easter. He is Risen! — Intimate Authority:&n...

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Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 6

By Andrew Comiskey
April 07, 2012
This is the sixth post of my Holy Week Meditations for 2012. Please click here for the archive list of posts as they become available. — Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 6 Mary Magdalene wept and lingered at the Cross. The Man who had become her life die...

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Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 4

By Andrew Comiskey
April 06, 2012
This is the fourth post of my Holy Week Meditations for 2012. Please click here for the archive list of posts as they become available. — Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 4 Mary Magdalene, in her recognition and reliance upon her Merciful Deliverer, be...

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Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 5

By Andrew Comiskey
April 06, 2012
This is the fifth post of my Holy Week Meditations for 2012. Please click here for the archive list of posts as they become available. — Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 5 Weeping and lingering were the earmarks of Mary’s authority. These are the s...

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Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 3

By Andrew Comiskey
April 04, 2012
Please click here for the archive list of posts as they become available. — Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 3 Intimacy with Jesus made an ex-prostitute the bearer of the most important event in human history. God entrusted a woman, not one of the 12,...

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Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 2

By Andrew Comiskey
April 03, 2012
This is the second post of my Holy Week Meditations for 2012. Please click here for the archive list of posts as they become available. — Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditation, 2 Luke 7: 36-50 introduces us to Mary Magdalene. Mercy drew her out of fear and sham...

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Merciful Discipline 6: Humbled, We Shine

By Andrew Comiskey
April 03, 2012
This is the sixth post of six in the Merciful Discipline Series. A complete list of available posts will be at the end of each article as they are made available. — Merciful Discipline 6: Humbled, We Shine ‘When You disciplined us, we could barely whisper a ...

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Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 1

By Andrew Comiskey
April 02, 2012
This is the first post of my Holy Week Meditations for 2012. Please click here for the archive list of posts as they become available. — Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditation, 1 Why was Mary Magdalene the first disciple Jesus entrusted with the message of His r...

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Perseverance and Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
April 01, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Perseverance and Mercy 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 40 O great day, in which divine love will be confirmed in me. On that day, for the first time, ...

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Merciful Trust

By Andrew Comiskey
March 31, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Merciful Trust 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 39 ‘Trusting in Your Mercy, I walk through life like a little child, Offering You each day this...

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Mercy for a Broken Church

By Andrew Comiskey
March 29, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Mercy for the Broken Church 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 37 Observing myself and those who are close to me, I have come to understand how great an ...

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Mercy for the Truthful Church

By Andrew Comiskey
March 28, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Mercy for the Truthful Church 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 36 I will allow convents and churches to be destroyed…Souls without love and devo...

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Merciful Discipline 5: Hopeful, We Fight for the Dignity and Integrity of our Priests

By Andrew Comiskey
March 28, 2012
This is the fifth post of six in the Merciful Discipline Series. A complete list of available posts will be at the end of each article as they are made available. — Merciful Discipline 5: Hopeful, We Fight for the Dignity and Integrity of Our Priests   The fin...

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Mercy for the Worldly Church

By Andrew Comiskey
March 27, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Mercy for the Worldly Church 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 35   O my Jesus, I beg You on behalf of the whole Church, give us holy priests. You Y...

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Mercy for the Church

By Andrew Comiskey
March 26, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Mercy for the Church 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 34 What a joy it is to be a faithful child of the Church! O how much I love Holy Church and all t...

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Mercy for Minors

By Andrew Comiskey
March 25, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Mercy for Minors 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 33 Truth wears a crown of thorns. (1103) Do not move an ancient boundary stone, or encroach on the f...

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Mercy for Marriage

By Andrew Comiskey
March 24, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. —  Mercy for Marriage 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 32 O Jesus, You do not give a reward for the successful performance of a work, but for the go...

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Urgency and Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
March 23, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Urgency and Mercy 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 31 I have eternity for punishing sinners, and so I am prolonging the time of Mercy for the sake of s...

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Boldness and Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
March 22, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Boldness and Mercy 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 30 If the Lord demands something of a soul, He gives it the means to carry it out; through grace, H...

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Patience and Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
March 21, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Patience and Mercy 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 29 The greatest power is hidden in patience. I see that patience always leads to victory, although ...

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Merciful Discipline 4: Hopeful, We Rebuild Trust

By Andrew Comiskey
March 21, 2012
This is the fourth post of six in the Merciful Discipline Series. A complete list of available posts will be at the end of each article as they are made available. — Merciful Discipline 4: Hopeful, We Rebuild Trust We do not want you to grieve…as those who ...

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Mercy for Beloved Enemies

By Andrew Comiskey
March 20, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Mercy for Beloved Enemies 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 28 Be always merciful, as I am merciful. Love everyone out of love for Me, even your greates...

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Meekness and Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
March 19, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Meekness and Mercy 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 27 ‘You shall conquer by meekness.’ (1597) Come to me, all you who are weary and burde...

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Humility and Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
March 18, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Humility and Mercy 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 26 God has surrounded me with His special Mercy precisely because I am the weakest of all people. (...

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Misery and Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
March 17, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Misery and Mercy 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 25 ‘The more miserable my soul, the more I feel the ocean of God’s mercy engulfing me and...

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Deep Wells of Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
March 16, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Deep Wells of Mercy 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 24 He brought me into such close intimacy with Himself that my heart was espoused to His heart in...

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Mercy Running (An Army of Magdalenes)

By Andrew Comiskey
March 15, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Mercy Running (an army of Magdalenes) 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 23 I found my destiny at the moment when my soul lost itself in You, the only ob...

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Mercy Rising (On Trembling Legs...)

By Andrew Comiskey
March 14, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Mercy Rising (on trembling legs…) 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 22 I know that the grain of wheat must be ground between millstones in order ...

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Merciful Discipline 3: Broken, We Endure Shame

By Andrew Comiskey
March 14, 2012
This is the third post of six in the Merciful Discipline Series. A complete list of available posts will be at the end of each article as they are made available. — Merciful Discipline 3: Broken, We Endure Shame In the Church, God has put Himself into hands that b...

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Mercy's Sacrifice

By Andrew Comiskey
March 13, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Mercy’s Sacrifice 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 21 How sad I am that souls do not recognize Love. They treat Me as a dead object. (1385) Do y...

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Mercy's Meal

By Andrew Comiskey
March 12, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Mercy’s Meal 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 20 Jesus, may Your pure and healthy blood circulate in my ailing organism, and may Your pure and he...

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The Gaze from the Cross, Part 4

By Andrew Comiskey
March 11, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — The Gaze from the Cross, Part 4 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 19 When I was dying on the cross, I was not thinking about Myself but about sinners, a...

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The Gaze from the Cross, Part 3

By Andrew Comiskey
March 10, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — The Gaze from the Cross, Part 3 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 18 I desire that you know profoundly the love that burns in My Heart for souls, and Yo...

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The Gaze from the Cross, Part 2

By Andrew Comiskey
March 09, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — The Gaze from the Cross, Part 2 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 17 Remember My Passion; if you don’t believe My Words, at least believe My wound...

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The Gaze from the Cross, Part 1

By Andrew Comiskey
March 08, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — The Gaze from the Cross, Part 1 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 16 I want to live beneath Your divine gaze, for You alone are enough for me. When I am...

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Everything I Have Is Yours

By Andrew Comiskey
March 07, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Everything I Have is Yours 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 15 At the moment of Your death on the cross, You opened an inexhaustible spring of Mercy fo...

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Merciful Discipline 2: Broken, We Repent for the Church's Mishandling of Abuse

By Andrew Comiskey
March 07, 2012
This is the second post of six in the Merciful Discipline Series. A complete list of available posts will be at the end of each article as they are made available. — Merciful Discipline 2: Broken, We Repent for the Church’s Mishandling of Abuse ‘This c...

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Abundance for a Lonely Son

By Andrew Comiskey
March 06, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Abundance for a Lonely Son 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 14 Jesus, Friend of a lonely heart, You are my haven, You are my peace. You are my salvatio...

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Mercy Restores Our Inheritance

By Andrew Comiskey
March 05, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Mercy Restores Our Inheritance 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 13 My Heart overflows with Mercy for souls, especially for poor sinners. If only they c...

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Mercy, Not Sacrifice

By Andrew Comiskey
March 04, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Mercy, Not Sacrifice 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 12 I am more generous towards sinners than to the just. It was for their sake that I came down fr...

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Mercy and Gratitude

By Andrew Comiskey
March 03, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Mercy and Gratitude 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 11 O Jesus, the more I have known You, the more ardently I have desired You. (591) Thank Y...

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Mercy's Rule

By Andrew Comiskey
March 02, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Mercy’s Rule 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 10 When the battle becomes too much for me, I throw myself like a child into the arms of the H...

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Jesus: A Fountain of Living Water

By Andrew Comiskey
March 01, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Jesus: A Fountain of Living Water 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 9 O inexhaustible spring of Divine Mercy, pour Yourself out upon us! Your goodn...

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Mercy and the Truth of Sin

By Andrew Comiskey
February 29, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Mercy and the Truth of Sin 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 8 The knowledge of my own misery allows me to know the immensity of Your mercy. (56) ...

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False Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
February 28, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — False Mercy 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 7 The great sins of the world are superficial wounds on My Heart, but the sins of a chosen soul pierc...

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Merciful Discipline 1: Broken, We Pray for the Abused

By Andrew Comiskey
February 28, 2012
This is the first post of six in the Merciful Discipline Series. A complete list of available posts will be at the end of each article as they are made available. — Merciful Discipline 1: Broken, We Pray for the Abused No wound runs deeper in the Church today than...

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Mercy and Judgement

By Andrew Comiskey
February 27, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Mercy and Judgment 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 6 ‘Do not fear anything, I am with you. These matters are in My hands and I will bring t...

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Prisoners of Hope

By Andrew Comiskey
February 26, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Prisoners of Hope 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 5 ‘In spite of everything, Jesus, I trust You in the face of every sentiment which sets i...

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Trusting in Our Fighting Father

By Andrew Comiskey
February 25, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Trusting in Our Fighting Father 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 4 ‘I Myself am fighting for them!’ (1516) ‘I do not understand...

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Faithful Mother for an Adulterous Generation

By Andrew Comiskey
February 24, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Faithful Mother for an Adulterous Generation 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 3 ‘Rejoice, for you are closer to God in His mercy than a baby...

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Father of Mercy for an Adulterous Generation

By Andrew Comiskey
February 23, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — Father of Mercy for an Adulterous Generation 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 2 ‘Apart from God, there is no contentment anywhere.’ (4...

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The Lord is Merciful: 40 Days of Mercy Devotional-Lent 2012

By Andrew Comiskey
February 22, 2012
Join us today at 3pm (CST) as we intercede for loved ones in need of God’s mercy. — The Lord is Merciful 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 1 ‘Bring your ear close to My heart, forget everything else, and meditate upon My wond...

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Rousing A Captive Culture

By Andrew Comiskey
February 20, 2012
A well-known Christian leader, hammered by the sexual immorality of his family members, just announced his shift on embracing the homosexual practice of a particular loved one. He is on the brink of accepting ‘gay marriage.’ ‘How can I not?’ he reasoned...

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The New Normal

By Andrew Comiskey
February 15, 2012
I met a young man recently; upon disclosing that I was a Christian, he shot back that he too was Christian, gay, and proudly pointed out to me his new, week-old boyfriend. He showed little interest when I admitted my familiarity with same-sex attraction and asked if we might disc...

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Authority to Name

By Andrew Comiskey
February 08, 2012
A federal appeal court ruled yesterday that Prop. 8–our voter-approved definition of real marriage–violated the US Constitution. Fear not: this is but the latest of numerous efforts to overturn the people’s will concerning marriage. Tuesday’s decision...

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Corruption

By Andrew Comiskey
February 02, 2012
A wise man said: ‘The corruption of society begins with a failure to call things by their proper names.’ Nowhere is this more apparent than in the latest battles to redefine marriage throughout the USA. A senator from New Jersey insists that ‘marriage equalit...

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Young Lungs for Marriage

By Andrew Comiskey
January 31, 2012
As the Washington State Legislature strives to adopt ‘gay marriage’, let us raise our voices to declare the truth that never changes and that always brings hope. Hope for the integrity of marriage, and hope for freedom from sexual bondage needs to be proclaimed in ...

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No More Angels?

By Andrew Comiskey
January 23, 2012
As I begin my 54th year (my birthday was January 13th), I am aware of a tendency to lock into familiar ways and to resist what is peculiar, untested by my experience. Wisdom? Nah…More likely the hardening of the arteries, the closing of the womb, that menopausal te...

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Details Concerning My Conversion to Catholicism

By Andrew Comiskey
January 19, 2012
Dear Friends, I wanted you to know that on Easter (April 2011) this past year I was confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church. That significant decision began three years ago and involved two rounds of RCIA (the adult catechism course), wise counsel, and much prayer. I want to...

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The Martyrs of Epiphany

By Andrew Comiskey
January 09, 2012
Epiphany means ‘manifestation’; it closes the Christmas season by celebrating how Jesus manifested Himself to the 3 kings. They represent the world in need of Jesus. We do well at Epiphany to consider how we manifest Jesus to a world and worldly church which may not b...

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The Kingdom Among Us

By Andrew Comiskey
January 03, 2012
I have never been quite comfortable with Luke 17:21 : ‘The Kingdom of God is within you.’ Here Jesus responds to Pharisaic questions about the nature of His Kingdom. His answer seems to feed that highly individualized, American approach to life: trust no-one, rely onl...

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Heritage 2011

By Andrew Comiskey
December 28, 2011
A dear friend recently eulogized his mother with these words: ‘You have given me the heritage of those who fear Your name.’ (PS 61:5) The Psalmist refers to God as the giver; my friend added to that his acknowledgement of the faith he inherited from his good, god-fear...

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Reduced to Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
December 23, 2011
Kenn Gulliksen, my original pastor and founder of the Vineyard, once said: ‘When you’ve lost mercy, you’ve lost your calling as a Christian.’ He’s right. I tend to assess ‘mercy’ levels in my heart as a gauge of how I am doing as a Christ...

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New Birth and Battle

By Andrew Comiskey
December 20, 2011
New Birth and Battle ‘Now burn, new born to the world!’ – Gerard Manley Hopkins I recall one December when two warring nations agreed to a cease-fire. In light of the Prince of Peace, they agreed to a temporary peace, only to resume the battle a day l...

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The Advent of Repentance

By Andrew Comiskey
December 15, 2011
This Advent I had the privilege of preaching several times at ‘Water of Life’, a large church in Southern California. After each service, many people came up to me seeking counsel on what to do with ‘gay’ friends and family members. Most poignant were the ...

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Kingdom of Saints

By Andrew Comiskey
December 12, 2011
I had never led a healing service for a group of Catholics before. And although I have been translated many times in Spanish, the language difference this time unnerved me. Before I could say a word, the worship team played John Wimber’s ‘Spirit Song’. I coul...

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Fire of Gratitude

By Andrew Comiskey
November 29, 2011
Today the winds rose and the temperature plunged; my mood did as well. Fumbling at 5am with Joanie’s leash in oversize gloves, I led her out into the dark and brought back a stinking remnant of her waste on those same gloves. Not a good start. Prayer consisted of replayi...

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Perseverance and Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
November 23, 2011
Day 40 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Perseverance and Mercy ‘O great day, in which divine love will be confirmed in me. On that day, for the first time, I shall sing before heaven and earth the song of the Lord’s fathomless Mercy. This is my work and ...

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Merciful Trust

By Andrew Comiskey
November 22, 2011
Day 39 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Merciful Trust ‘Trusting in Your Mercy, I walk through life like a little child, Offering You each day this heart Burning with love for Your greater glory.’ (2) St. Faustina possessed a simple trust in Jesus....

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Merciful Eyes

By Andrew Comiskey
November 21, 2011
Day 38 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Merciful Eyes ‘To see the image of God in every sister—all love of neighbor must flow from this motive.’ (861) How we see others must be anchored in how God sees them. ‘To love a person means to see ...

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Mercy for a Broken Church

By Andrew Comiskey
November 20, 2011
Day 37 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Mercy for a Broken Church ‘Observing myself and those who are close to me, I have come to understand how great an influence I have on other souls, not by heroic deeds, but by small actions like the movement of a hand, a ...

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Mercy for the Truthful Church

By Andrew Comiskey
November 19, 2011
Day 36 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Mercy for the Truthful Church ‘I will allow convents and churches to be destroyed…Souls without love and devotion, souls full of egoism and self-love, souls full of pride and arrogance, souls full of deceit and hy...

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Mercy for the Worldly Church

By Andrew Comiskey
November 18, 2011
Day 35 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Mercy for the Worldly Church ‘O my Jesus, I beg You on behalf of the whole Church, give us holy priests. You Yourself, maintain them in holiness. O Divine and Great High Priest, may the power of Your mercy accompany them...

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Mercy for the Church

By Andrew Comiskey
November 17, 2011
Day 34 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Mercy for the Church ‘What a joy it is to be a faithful child of the Church! O how much I love Holy Church and all those who live in it! I look upon them as living members of Christ, who is their Head. I burn with love w...

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California Supreme Court Upholds Prop 8

By Andrew Comiskey
November 17, 2011
Please rejoice with us at Desert Stream Ministries as we give special thanks to God this Thanksgiving. The ever-contested victory for marriage ( Prop. 8 ) in CA was upheld yet again by the Supreme Court. The governor and district attorney of CA ...

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Mercy for Minors

By Andrew Comiskey
November 16, 2011
Day 33 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Mercy for Minors ‘Truth wears a crown of thorns.’ (1103) Jesus instructed St. Faustina: ‘Pray to defend the souls of children against the spirit of evil.’ (1156) That’s why we fight for marriag...

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Mercy for Marriage

By Andrew Comiskey
November 15, 2011
Day 32 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Mercy for Marriage ‘O Jesus, You do not give a reward for the successful performance of a work, but for the good will and the labor undertaken. Therefore, I am completely at peace, even if all my efforts and undertakings...

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Urgency and Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
November 14, 2011
Day 31 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Urgency and Mercy ‘I have eternity for punishing sinners, and so I am prolonging the time of Mercy for the sake of sinners. But woe to them who do not recognize this time of My visitation! (1160) ‘A strange power ...

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Boldness and Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
November 13, 2011
Day 30 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Boldness and Mercy ‘If the Lord demands something of a soul, He gives it the means to carry it out; through grace, He makes it capable. At the Lord’s command, the soul can undertake things beyond its expectation if...

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Patience and Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
November 12, 2011
Day 29 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Patience and Mercy ‘The greatest power is hidden in patience. I see that patience always leads to victory, although not immediately; but that victory will become manifest after many years.’ (1514) During this fa...

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Mercy for Beloved Enemies

By Andrew Comiskey
November 11, 2011
Day 28 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Mercy for Beloved Enemies ‘Be always merciful, as I am merciful. Love everyone out of love for Me, even your greatest enemies, so that My Mercy may be fully reflected in Your heart.’ (1695) St. Faustina rec...

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Meekness and Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
November 10, 2011
Day 27 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Meekness and Mercy ‘You shall conquer by meekness.’ (1597) Meekness is about having power and choosing not to use it. For Love’s sake. From Love’s power. The soul that is genuinely meek is founded on...

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Humility and Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
November 09, 2011
Day 26 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Humility and Mercy ‘God has surrounded me with His special Mercy precisely because I am the weakest of all people.’ (1099) ‘Humility is nothing but the truth.’ (1502) Mercy opens our eyes to the Cre...

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Misery and Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
November 08, 2011
Day 25 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Misery and Mercy ‘The more miserable my soul, the more I feel the ocean of God’s mercy engulfing me and giving me greater strength and power.’ (255) St. Faustina was a weak woman with a mighty calling. She...

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Deep Wells of Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
November 07, 2011
Day 24 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Deep Wells of Mercy ‘He brought me into such close intimacy with Himself that my heart was espoused to His heart in a loving union; I could feel the faintest stir of His heart and He of mine. The fire of my created love ...

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Mercy Running (An Army of Magdalenes)

By Andrew Comiskey
November 06, 2011
Day 23 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Mercy Running (an army of Magdalenes) ‘I found my destiny at the moment when my soul lost itself in You, the only object of my love.’ (57) Why was Mary Magdalene the first disciple Jesus entrusted with His Resur...

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Mercy Rising (On Trembling Legs)

By Andrew Comiskey
November 05, 2011
Day 22 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Mercy Rising (on trembling legs…)   ‘I know that the grain of wheat must be ground between millstones in order to become food. In the same way, I must be crushed in order to be useful to the Church and to soul...

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Mercy's Sacrifice

By Andrew Comiskey
November 04, 2011
Day 21 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Mercy’s Sacrifice ‘How sad I am that souls do not recognize Love. They treat Me as a dead object.’ (1385) St. Paul implores us to not take Communion unworthily (1Cor. 11:27), and Church fathers echo him. T...

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Mercy's Meal

By Andrew Comiskey
November 03, 2011
Day 20 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Mercy’s Meal ‘Jesus, may Your pure and healthy blood circulate in my ailing organism, and may Your pure and healthy body transform my weak body, and may a healthy, vigorous life throb within me…’ (1089...

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The Gaze From the Cross, Part 4

By Andrew Comiskey
November 02, 2011
Day 19 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — The Gaze from the Cross, Part 4  (Please also read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3) ‘When I was dying on the cross, I was not thinking about Myself but about sinners, and I prayed for them to the Father.&r...

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The Gaze From the Cross, Part 3

By Andrew Comiskey
November 01, 2011
Day 18 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — The Gaze from the Cross, Part 3 (Please also read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 4) ‘I desire that you know profoundly the love that burns in My Heart for souls, and You will understand this when you meditat...

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The Gaze From the Cross, Part 2

By Andrew Comiskey
October 31, 2011
Day 17 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — The Gaze from the Cross, Part 2 (Please also read Part 1, Part 3 and Part 4) ‘Remember My Passion; if you don’t believe My Words, at least believe My wounds!’ (379) We meditate on ...

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The Gaze From the Cross, Part 1

By Andrew Comiskey
October 30, 2011
Day 16 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — The Gaze from the Cross, Part 1 ( Please also read Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4) ‘I want to live beneath Your divine gaze, for You alone are enough for me. When I am with You, Jesus, I fear nothing,...

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Everything I Have is Yours

By Andrew Comiskey
October 29, 2011
Day 15 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Everything I Have is Yours ‘At the moment of Your death on the cross, You opened an inexhaustible spring of Mercy for us, giving us Your dearest possession, the Blood and Water from Your heart. Such is the omnipoten...

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Abundance for a Lonely Son

By Andrew Comiskey
October 28, 2011
Day 14 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — Abundance for a Lonely Son ‘Jesus, Friend of a lonely heart, You are my haven, You are my peace. You are my salvation, You are my sovereignty in moments of struggle and amidst an ocean of doubt…You are everything ...

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Mercy Restores Our Inheritance

By Andrew Comiskey
October 27, 2011
Day 13 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — ‘My Heart overflows with Mercy for souls, especially for poor sinners. If only they could understand that I am the best of Fathers to them, and that it is for them that the Blood and Water flowed from My Heart as from a fou...

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Mercy, Not Sacrifice

By Andrew Comiskey
October 26, 2011
Day 12 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — ‘I am more generous towards sinners than to the just. It was for their sake that I came down from heaven; it was for their sake that My blood was spilled. Let them not fear to approach Me; they are most in need of My Mercy....

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Mercy and Gratitude

By Andrew Comiskey
October 25, 2011
Day 11 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast ‘O Jesus, the more I have known You, the more ardently I have desired You.’ (591) This woman loved Jesus from a distance; she had witnessed His healings, listened to His teachings and been converted by His powerful love f...

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Mercy's Rule

By Andrew Comiskey
October 24, 2011
Day 10 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast    ‘When the battle becomes too much for me, I throw myself like a child into the arms of the Heavenly Father and trust I will not perish…I do not lose heart. I trust God’s grace, which abounds in the worst m...

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Jesus: A Fountain of Living Water

By Andrew Comiskey
October 23, 2011
Day 9 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — ‘O inexhaustible spring of Divine Mercy, pour Yourself out upon us! Your goodness knows no limits. Confirm , O Lord, the power of Your mercy over the abyss of our misery, for You have no limits to Your mercies.’ (819) ...

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Mercy and the Truth of Sin

By Andrew Comiskey
October 22, 2011
Day 8 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — ‘The knowledge of my own misery allows me to know the immensity of Your mercy.’ (56) In order for Mercy to have its perfect way in us, we must recognize the depth of our sin. Mercy applies only to those who accept t...

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False Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
October 21, 2011
Day 7 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — ‘The great sins of the world are superficial wounds on My Heart, but the sins of a chosen soul pierce My Heart through and through…’ (1702) After Jesus met me with Mercy in my waterless pit of sexua...

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Mercy and Judgments

By Andrew Comiskey
October 20, 2011
Day 6 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — ‘Do not fear anything, I am with you. These matters are in My hands and I will bring them to fruition according to My mercy, for nothing can oppose My will.’ (573) God was merciful to me in my ‘waterless ...

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Prisoners of Hope

By Andrew Comiskey
October 19, 2011
Day 5 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — ‘In spite of everything, Jesus, I trust You in the face of every sentiment which sets itself against hope.’ (14) Imprisoned by hope: Zechariah expressed well the exile of the Israelites (Zech. 9: 11-12). Far from th...

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Trusting in Our Fighting Father

By Andrew Comiskey
October 18, 2011
Day 4 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — ‘I Myself am fighting for them!’ (1516) Two streams of mercy converge in our God: His masculine, steadfast love which keeps covenant with us (hesed), and the deeply felt and tenderly expressed love that issues from ...

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Fighting Mother for an Adulterous Generation

By Andrew Comiskey
October 17, 2011
Day 3 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — ‘Rejoice, for you are closer to God in His mercy than a baby to its mother’s heart.’ (423) Our father is the perfect parent; He combines and surpasses the best virtues of both mother and father. Just as natura...

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Father of Mercy for an Adulterous Generation

By Andrew Comiskey
October 16, 2011
Day 2 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast — ‘Apart from God, there is no contentment anywhere.’ (42) A painful fact of life for my twenty-something children is the sexually immorality that defines their generation. If not subject to parents who failed to keep...

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The Lord is Merciful

By Andrew Comiskey
October 15, 2011
Day 1 of our 40 Days of Mercy Fast ‘Bring your ear close to My heart, forget everything else, and meditate upon My wondrous mercy.’ (229) God’s greatest attribute is Mercy. It is the foundation of who He is; it is the way He wants to deal with us. In ...

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Join Us for "40 Days of Mercy"

By Andrew Comiskey
October 14, 2011
‘O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the heart of Jesus as a Fount of Mercy for us, I trust in You.’ – St. Maria Faustina Kowalska Please join us from October 15th –Nov. 23rd for a 40-day fast centering on the power of Mercy. Drawing up...

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The French Lesson

By Andrew Comiskey
May 06, 2010
My first desert experience occurred shortly after I became a Christian. Having moved back to my parent’s home from the gay ghetto of Long Beach, I grew bored. Fast. So I moved back to the beach, only this time to a family of French folks who were renting out a tiny 20&rsquo...

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Reunion

By Andrew Comiskey
April 04, 2010
‘He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him.’ (Mk 16:6) Resurrection is reunion: Jesus, torn from His Father, now returns to Him. Evil demanded payment: crucifixion, the vast distance between God and God.  Love crossed over that gap, conque...

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Abandonment

By Andrew Comiskey
April 03, 2010
‘But I cry to you for help, O Lord; in the morning my prayer comes before you. Why, O Lord, do you reject me and hide your face from me? I have suffered your terrors and am in despair. Your wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me. All day long they surrou...

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Turning for Good (Friday and Beyond)

By Andrew Comiskey
April 02, 2010
We might receive foot-washing and communion and yet still not grasp the cross. Perhaps our need for that cross is not yet clear. We may still believe in our own capacity to follow Him, the self-inspired power of allegiance to Jesus. Peter the ‘Rock,’ full of bluste...

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Receiving the Fullness of His Love

By Andrew Comiskey
April 01, 2010
Maundy Thursday makes one thing perfectly clear. It is God’s faithfulness that makes us faithful. On this night of foot-washing and communion, we behold the full extent of God’s love toward us. Mercy takes on new meaning as Jesus grants us tokens of the cross that ...

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Suffering for What Is Right

By Andrew Comiskey
March 31, 2010
In His mercy, Jesus redeems our suffering. Some of the sorrow we submit to Him is not of particularly noble origins—it may be, as we have seen, the bad fruit of our sin, or the normal wounds and losses we sustain this side of Heaven. He loves us to the extent that He wil...

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Discovering the Cross in Our Wounds

By Andrew Comiskey
March 30, 2010
During Holy Week, we pause to consider Jesus’ cross and the smaller one He asks us to carry. The goal? To know Him more. Perhaps He will invite you in these days to ‘keep watch with Him’ in His suffering. We take another step toward Calvary by considering the wa...

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Discovering the Cross in Our Sin

By Andrew Comiskey
March 29, 2010
A tendency of most Christians is to want to enter into relationship with Christ through His cross but to want to avoid that same cross in our own lives. No-where is this more apparent than in how we deal with our personal sin. We will go to great lengths to deny our sin, an...

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Holy Week of the Merciful Cross: Knowing Him More

By Andrew Comiskey
March 28, 2010
On Palm Sunday, Lent becomes Holy Week—the seven days leading to the cross. Perhaps the parallel between Jesus’ 40-days in the desert and His commitment to crucifixion is becoming clear. Jesus sanctified the desert for us. He made a way in our wilderness. Instead o...

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Merciful Children

By Andrew Comiskey
March 27, 2010
Through our four children, mercy breaks like waves upon Annette and me. They delight us. All in their twenties now, each possess unique gifts and strengths—Greg’s kindness, Nick’s astute analysis, Kate’s perseverance and lack of pretense, Sam’s integ...

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Merciful Dad

By Andrew Comiskey
March 26, 2010
At the core of my same-sex attraction was the struggle to find a father, and so discover my own masculine power and purpose. I had a father alright, and a pretty good one: Thomas Augustus Comiskey. But for most of my life I could not apprehend that goodness, much less take it ...

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The Mercy of Marriage

By Andrew Comiskey
March 25, 2010
Since our transition to Kansas City, God has provided two men who have stood with me in prayerful friendship: Mike and Morgan. I am not sure I could have stayed true to the Lord without them. When I have been discouraged, they speak God’s truth to me; when unsure, they spea...

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Mercy for the Bride, From the Bride

By Andrew Comiskey
March 24, 2010
While en route to a Living Waters Leadership gathering in Europe, I was moved deeply by God’s heart for His European bride. The church there has played such a foundational role in western culture; from her has come our art, our music, our philosophy, and our ethics. In spit...

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Mercy for the Whole Image

By Andrew Comiskey
March 23, 2010
After Massachusetts adopted ‘gay marriage’, we as a ministry sought to understand and pray for what was at stake for a nation that elevated the status of homosexual unions to those of heterosexuals. We prayed for mercy, not judgment, for this ultimate expression of...

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Roused by Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
March 22, 2010
At the dawn of the new millennium, I noticed a growing darkness in the area of gender and sexuality. Powerless to overcome perversion, western culture used its power to justify all manner of sexual expression. Around that time, I had a dream about a group of young people who w...

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Mercy From Rome

By Andrew Comiskey
March 21, 2010
While doing a conference in Denver many years ago, a vigorous young man introduced himself to me as Christopher West; he was then the ‘marriage and family’ guy for the Archdiocese of Denver. He loved our emphases on healing through the cross and community. And he want...

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Dying to Release Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
March 20, 2010
‘Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.’ (John 12:23) Among the most bittersweet realities of ‘Living Waters’ around the world is the surrender of one’s leaders...

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Dunking the River Goddess

By Andrew Comiskey
March 19, 2010
I hate idolatry. The worship of false gods turns humans into animals. While worship of the one true God humbles and exalts what is best in humanity, idolatry enslaves us. No-where is this more evident to me than in Thailand–the first nation I served that had no Judeo-Chr...

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Mercy for the Sinner

By Andrew Comiskey
March 18, 2010
I met Benjie Cruz at the onset of our first trip to the Philippines. Virmi, our gracious host, had arranged for him to be our liaison as we prepared for our first conference in Manila. Like our advances in any new country, particularly those lands where ‘religion’ ...

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Merciful Rest

By Andrew Comiskey
March 17, 2010
Running hard in the jungles of Venezuela or on the pampas of Argentina (or crazy lost anywhere in Europe) may sound fun but actually it is exhausting. And so I was upon returning home after a particularly arduous trip. Annette and I took a few days off—no release; I incr...

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The Cleansing Flood

By Andrew Comiskey
March 16, 2010
The heart of our efforts in South America lies in Argentina, home of our faithful colleagues, Mauricio and Daniela Montion. The enemy of our souls aims at the heart–perhaps that is why I usually experience significant degrees of temptation in Argentina. I can feel the te...

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Taking the Land for Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
March 15, 2010
We landed in Caracas, Venezuela—the first of many advances in South America. The soil was rich for digging, and God’s merciful ones received us with open arms. Still we faced numerous obstacles to releasing Living Waters there. Suitcases never arrived; flights were...

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A Cup of Cold Water

By Andrew Comiskey
March 14, 2010
International travel takes a toll; normally good attitudes threaten to become foul under the strain of disorienting circumstances. The cry for mercy matters here: ‘O God, show Your infinite patience to this sinner, this grumbler, that I may in turn show some measure of p...

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A Global Gift

By Andrew Comiskey
March 13, 2010
Toni Dolfo-Smith’s help to me in Germany was but a glimmer of what he offered to the global work of Living Waters. He has since come alongside of me to release Living Waters in humility and power; he is matchless in mercy. I first met Toni 20 years ago at a Leanne Payne ...

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Dancing in the Dark

By Andrew Comiskey
March 12, 2010
In the expanding world of Living Waters, God’s mercy always took the form of my travelling partners: alongside of men like Kin Lancaster, and women like Sonja Stark (our first international coordinators), we were able to overcome cultural and spiritual hurdles to releasing ...

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Finding the Way Home

By Andrew Comiskey
March 11, 2010
One of the perils of my long distance running overseas is the threat of getting lost. No idle threat: I have been thoroughly disoriented in the great capitols of Europe (and beyond)–without map, address, or language with which to find a way ‘home’. I now recall ...

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Opening Doors and Floodgates

By Andrew Comiskey
March 10, 2010
London, where the waters of mercy had sprung up for me years earlier, became deep ground for Living Waters. Jonathan Hunter and I took one of our first international ministry trips there: we teamed up with new friends Reverend Christopher and Lisa Guinness who eventually became t...

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A Deeper Well, Waters Rising

By Andrew Comiskey
March 09, 2010
The move to Anaheim was a shakedown. Everything that could be shaken was—from our relationship with our previous church to the still reverberating effects of our sexual abuse crisis. God was merciful. He used both earthquakes to level us. He was preparing us for a new se...

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Falling Mercies

By Andrew Comiskey
March 08, 2010
You could say that the way to Vineyard Anaheim had been paved in righteousness—we had been cast out of our home church for doing what was right, and God promoted us. Noble. How ignoble to discover a darker strain of sin in our own ranks. The hardship we endured in the fi...

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A Severe Mercy, Part 2

By Andrew Comiskey
March 07, 2010
During the long drive to the confrontation at hand (see #18), I felt the sentence of death. And yet peace. Something in me was dying but deeper still was the witness of His presence. My premonition of death was right. The pastor weaseled his way out of my charges on the ground...

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A Severe Mercy, Part 1

By Andrew Comiskey
March 06, 2010
An early lesson we learned in Desert Stream: sexual sin always has consequences. It tears the fabric of individual souls, or relationships, of entire communities. That is why God is serious about the boundaries of His people—He wants us to know the lines that delineate frie...

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A Merciful Friend

By Andrew Comiskey
March 05, 2010
Digging ditches for God’s mercy to flow into the desert of sexual and relational brokenness—hard work made joyful by amazing workmen. No-one provoked more joy for Annette and me than partnering in ministry with Jonathan Hunter. We met Jonathan early on at the Vi...

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Merciful Exposure

By Andrew Comiskey
March 04, 2010
The Fuller years were demanding and fruitful. We pushed ourselves hard. Departing from ‘student housing’ in Pasadena, Annette and I ventured throughout the Los Angeles area with shovels in hand, digging ditches. We trusted God to fill them with mercy, His streams of h...

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A 'Fuller' Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
March 03, 2010
Throughout the eighties, Fuller Theological Seminary helped us to establish a sure foundation for our offering of mercy. (I was a student there studying for a Masters of Divinity, and to become a Marriage and Family Therapist.) Three recollections: my most demanding and fruitf...

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Mercy for All

By Andrew Comiskey
March 02, 2010
The first few years of Desert Stream had been defined by same-sex strugglers; that began to change as the word got out that men and women were digging a deep well of mercy in West Hollywood. Three particular groups of people broadened the scope of our offering. The contributio...

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Eyes of Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
March 01, 2010
Annette is an amazing woman. She partnered with me faithfully in these first years of Desert Stream. She endured the threat of men who shared my vulnerability while imparting wisdom to a fragile new work. Yet she resented it. Desert Stream was a far cry from the life she had e...

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Mercy Street

By Andrew Comiskey
February 28, 2010
Although most of the healing and care-giving we did was behind closed doors, the waters levels rose and poured out onto the streets. The mercy could not be limited to the church; as Ezekiel prophesied (Ez. 47), the temple waters rose from our church, the Vineyard Westside and ...

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Messy Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
February 27, 2010
Annette and I did not quite know what we had signed up for in those first two years at Desert Stream at Charlie’s. We were willing, and naïve. The saints and saints-to-be were often as willing as they were rebellious and overwhelmingly needy. Mercy took on new meani...

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Desert Stream

By Andrew Comiskey
February 26, 2010
Every Wednesday night for two years, we met in the home of a well-known interior designer. Charlie, along with many of his friends, was riding the first popular wave of gay activity on the West Coast. But after the disco and drug-induced orgies, these men and women cried out for ...

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Currents of Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
February 25, 2010
Three persons—three distinct currents of mercy—poured into Annette and I and became foundational to how we loved and served. Without them, our offering of mercy would not have been realized. Period. Each of us depends on human sources of God’s mercy to find life...

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Merciful Intimacy

By Andrew Comiskey
February 24, 2010
Around this time I was baptized in the Pacific Ocean. Amid a winter storm, my pastor dunked me into the waters, and counted the old man dead. I arose with Christ into new life. It was timely. I needed to know that something really had changed beyond my subjective experience&md...

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Clean Water

By Andrew Comiskey
February 23, 2010
The temptation to fall with other men sexually increased after I first proclaimed healing from homosexuality. The word of my testimony, through which one triumphs over evil (Rev. 12:11), seemed to invite the evil one to nail me! Now I see clearly, then I did not. I had become ...

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The Pool at Piccadilly Circus

By Andrew Comiskey
February 21, 2010
Soon after the French party, I moved home and determined to grow with the Christian friends I had. Fun or not, they were my people. My parents asked me if I wanted to save my shekels and go with them on a short trip to Europe the next summer. I did and I went. London was a ...

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Drinking Water

By Andrew Comiskey
February 21, 2010
After Europe, I moved into a UCLA fraternity house crammed with conservative Christian men. They were Republicans, I was the on the lunatic fringe of the Democratic party, as was my hair, which resembled a Benjamin Franklin fright wig; their crew cuts and manner were clipped and ...

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Reflection 3

By Andrew Comiskey
February 18, 2010
What is your desert? It could be several things: harsh and severe circumstances, or personal distress–physical, emotional, or moral. Maybe you are wrestling with heightened sexual temptation, or the temptation to hate yourself or another due to a conflicted relationship. ...

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Reflection 2

By Andrew Comiskey
February 17, 2010
Jesus’ 40 days in the desert came immediately after His baptism. Filled with the Spirit, just named by the Father as His beloved Son, Jesus was ready to endure the weakness of fasting. Taken his advantage, as he always does with the weak, Satan made three efforts to tempt J...

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Reflection 1

By Andrew Comiskey
February 16, 2010
Lent prepares us for Easter by leading us to the cross: 40 days, 40 steps to Calvary. It is the downward ascent to God’s mercy. Lent break ground in us for fresh mercies. It exposes what in us is merciless–stingy, resistant to grace. Lent is the desert in which we ...

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Together, We Discovered Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
February 09, 2010
30-years ago, ‘Living Waters’ surfaced in West Hollywood. The burning ground of lust and sexual confusion became a pool of God’s mercy. Every Wednesday night for two years, we met in the home of a well-known interior designer. Charlie, along with many of his ...

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Unholy Week? Crucifying Christ Afresh Through 'Gay Marriage'

By Andrew Comiskey
April 11, 2009
On the week that centers on Christ Crucified for millions around the globe, the USA has acted in a most unholy manner. Palm Sunday to Good Friday was marked by daily advances of ‘gay marriage’ forces in our land. Our Bridegroom King, whose very image is manifest in ma...

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'Gay Marriage' in the Heartland

By Andrew Comiskey
April 04, 2009
While we were sleeping, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously overturned the state’s ban on ‘gay marriage’ on grounds that it was unconstitutional. Most believers I spoke with in and around Iowa knew little if anything about the Court’s deliberation. Those wh...

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Proposition 8 to be Heard Today

By Andrew Comiskey
March 05, 2009
May I call you to pray with us in this hour? Today, the Supreme Court of CA will hear arguments against Prop. 8 (the ‘gay marriage’ ban that CA voters passed in Nov. last year), and why once more the will of the people should be overturned in favor of ‘gay marri...

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The Fight for Marriage Continues, Part 1

By Andrew Comiskey
December 04, 2008
As soon as the results were tallied in favor of Proposition 8—the ban on same-sex marriage in California—a backlash erupted that continues to this day. Those of us who supported 8 had little time to celebrate. Throngs of gay activists protested in CA’s larges...

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The Fight for Marriage Continues, Part 2

By Andrew Comiskey
December 04, 2008
First we must answer the question: can homosexuality be compared to ethnicity? Not well, according to the Latinos and African-Americans in CA who rallied to pass Prop.8, in contrast to their Anglo counterparts. Race is a biological birthright; it is immutable, unchangeable, an...

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The Fight for Marriage Continues, Part 3

By Andrew Comiskey
December 04, 2008
The second question we must raise: does freedom from racial restrictions in marriage apply reasonably to freedom from gender distinctions in marriage? In other words, does interracial marriage set a solid precedent for ‘gay marriage’? Not at all. Throughout the his...

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Humbled by Victory

By Andrew Comiskey
November 05, 2008
After a sleepless night, I can say with joy and relief: ‘gay marriage’ is no longer in CA.The people arose and went to the polls. They took back marriage from the Supreme Court and rightly defined it as one man pledged to one woman. For the sake of kids. For the good ...

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The True Image

By Andrew Comiskey
November 04, 2008
During these forty days, I had the privilege of battling for Proposition 8 in several churches in CA, including my home church, St. Gregory’s Episcopal of Long Beach. Seated before the altar, I observed with new eyes the 40-foot representation of Jesus emerging in stained g...

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Awakening the Church, Persuading Men

By Andrew Comiskey
November 03, 2008
“All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke “Since we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men.” (2Cor. 5:11) It is time for the Church to arise, humble in mercy, clear in truth—ready t...

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Repenting Unto Mercy

By Andrew Comiskey
November 02, 2008
In the battle for marriage, I am inclined toward the sin of the Church at Ephesus (Rev. 2:1-7). Working hard, persevering, identifying falsehood (the church’s strengths; vs.2, 3) mean little if one loses his first love. And that has been my challenge in this battle. In f...

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Cheap Versus Costly Grace

By Andrew Comiskey
November 01, 2008
It would be wrong to assume that all if not most churches overreact to homosexuality as if it were a landmine, ready to explode. In truth, the churches most influential in our land today seem to have detonated the issue altogether. How? By avoiding it. Rick Warren, arguably on...

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Exposing True Lies

By Andrew Comiskey
October 31, 2008
I scoured the obituary of the well-known lawyer, a Christian who in the sixties and seventies had successfully defending laws protecting Christianity and prohibiting rights for gays. Had he lived today, he would have fought hard for Prop. 8. What stunned me was a small note at...

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Nature Revolts: Consequences of Gay Marriage

By Andrew Comiskey
October 30, 2008
“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.”  (Pr. 14:34) ‘Gay marriage’ is serious business. More than protecting gays from cruel and unusual punishment, it celebrates them. It is the ultimate expression of normalizing hom...

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God Honors Righteousness in the Land

By Andrew Comiskey
October 29, 2008
“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.” (Pr.14:34) When we uphold marriage, we uphold His image and the boundaries that protect that image. As we have seen, marriage represents Him in the duality of male and female. Boundaries that pro...

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Restraint and Refuge

By Andrew Comiskey
October 28, 2008
As our culture embraces perversion as normal, we as the church must provide a sure path for those seeking the better way. That involves clear teaching on God’s design and redemption for those with same-sex attraction; more practically, it means opening our arms and hearts. ...

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God's Fast for His Justice

By Andrew Comiskey
October 27, 2008
A couple of weeks ago my good friend Peter Kockelman and I had the privilege of proclaiming the truth of God’s mercy to transform His broken image in humanity—right in the middle of the Castro, arguably San Francisco’s (and the country’s) most notorious ga...

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Rend Our Hearts

By Andrew Comiskey
October 26, 2008
United with Christ, turned toward the good and aware that the enemy is no-one but the deceiver himself, we must grasp the urgency of the hour. And be willing to act urgently. Why? If we do not take a stand against ‘gay marriage’ today, then we help loose a flood of pe...

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Turning Toward Jesus Christ

By Andrew Comiskey
October 25, 2008
Clearly we have witnessed a momentum to evil. One desecrating act begets another, broken boundaries fan out like myriad wildfires on dry forest. But the momentum of repentance is more powerful still. As we turn back to Him, the Author and Redeemer of who we actually are, our s...

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Repentance for Breaking Natural Boundaries

By Andrew Comiskey
October 24, 2008
In the Los Angeles earthquake of 1994, I witnessed power lines under and over ground breaking and igniting into flames. Showers of sparks flew from the broken lines as they lashed out, like huge snakes striking wildly at anything in their path. Broken power lines did more damage ...

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Repentance for the Desecration of God's Image in Humanity

By Andrew Comiskey
October 23, 2008
Those who honor God and His image regard other human beings as a kind of sacrament, a living witness of God’s grace on earth. That involves a good kind of shame and a fear of the Lord; we dare not transgress the boundaries of one who bears His image! To do so is to blasphem...

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Repentance for the Arrogance that is Idolatry

By Andrew Comiskey
October 22, 2008
The Apostle Paul claims that all of humanity knows something of the truth of God through His design in creation. Our hearts bear witness of His grandeur through the works of His hand. That applies to the duality of male and female in humanity and throughout all of creation. Hu...

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Fighting in Peace

By Andrew Comiskey
October 21, 2008
As we are now only two weeks before the election, I want to shift into a more prayerful, less teaching-like mode. I want to turn unto the Lord in a spirit of repentance. Some of the sins we will be naming and turning from may or may not be ours. At least we are capable of them. L...

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Marriage Disciplines the Greed of the Gay Community

By Andrew Comiskey
October 20, 2008
Gay activists are relentless in their push for full embrace in the culture. And ‘gay marriage’ is the prize for attaining ‘normal.’ Throughout my adult life in ministry to the homosexual, I have witnessed the evolution of this relentless drive. What beg...

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Marriage Exposes the Lie of 'Gay Marriage'

By Andrew Comiskey
October 19, 2008
The design of creation speaks for itself: God created humanity in the duality of male and female. Marriage proclaims the essence of that bonding for the express purpose of creating and raising children. Many desire other forms of sexual relating outside of marriage, including ...

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Marriage is God's Justice for Gays and Lesbians

By Andrew Comiskey
October 18, 2008
Not all men and women submit their same-sex desires to God and His purposes. Increasingly, we live in a day when ‘the only problem with homosexuality is the one you have with it,’ to paraphrase the curt response of a young Christian to his pastor. In some circles&m...

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Marriage is God's Justice for Those with Unwanted Same-Sex Attraction

By Andrew Comiskey
October 17, 2008
Many exist in the church and outside of it who experience unwanted same-sex attractions. These are men and women like me. For reasons we understand and do not, we have historically felt inclined toward our own gender. By the grace of God and out of reverence for Him, we have soug...

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Marriage is God's Justice for the Boundaryless

By Andrew Comiskey
October 16, 2008
You could say we live in a relational holocaust. More children than not are subject on a daily basis to porn, various forms of abuse, in general, a violation of what God intended for His human creation: one man for one woman committed to one another for life. God created marri...

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Marriage is God's Justice for Citizens

By Andrew Comiskey
October 15, 2008
The state cannot redeem marriage. That is the business of the church. But the state has a responsibility to its citizens concerning marriage. It must uphold what is best for the common good. That means defining marriage clearly for all: one man for one woman, pledged to fidelity ...

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Marriage is God's Justice for Children

By Andrew Comiskey
October 14, 2008
Marriage is the only institution on earth that rewards and supports couples who raise the children they created. If they honor that commitment, the man and woman provide stability and a source of clarity and confirmation for the identities of both sons and daughters. The state...

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Reclaiming Marriage as an Arm of God's Justice

By Andrew Comiskey
October 13, 2008
The state rewards a man and woman for their commitment to each other and the children they may bear. Government provides limited legal guidelines and benefits that encourage marital commitment. But in order for marriage to become what God wants it to be, we must realize the li...

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Raising Kids Requires the Grace of Marriage

By Andrew Comiskey
October 12, 2008
The most rewarding and difficult task Annette and I have undertaken is raising children. Without each other’s support, and the unique grace God gives to man and woman who yield to each other in the heartache of parenting, we might not have made it. And had we not, our ki...

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Raising Kids Requires A United Front

By Andrew Comiskey
October 11, 2008
Conceiving a child is easy; raising a child is hard work. Over the course of his or her development, a child demands the attentiveness of two caregivers with complementary vision and gifts. Annette and I are different in the way we view our kids. My view is essentially masculi...

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Children Need Male and Female Parents

By Andrew Comiskey
October 10, 2008
Marriage unites the biological requirement of procreation with what matters most to kids: the social and legal dimensions. Marriage makes parents responsible for children. Both God and state demand that the fruit of love be given form and protection by those who made love. In ...

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Children Require Male and Female

By Andrew Comiskey
October 09, 2008
Marriage is about procreation. To be sure, God made male and female for the purpose of the two creating an emotional and spiritual whole; man and woman must ‘meet’ before mating; they are first companions, then lovers. As we have seen, gender complementarity is essent...

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How Jesus Restores Marriage

By Andrew Comiskey
October 08, 2008
Marriage matters. The quality of care between spouses matters. Generations to come are impacted by that quality, or the lack thereof. To paraphrase John Paul II, how husband and wife care for each other impacts the dignity and destiny of those they influence. Especially their ...

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Rebuilding Boundaries, Restoring Trust

By Andrew Comiskey
October 07, 2008
A good marriage is supreme among human relationships; a troubled marriage wrecks havoc. The most basic and powerful building block on earth cuts both ways. One cannot taste the glory of marriage without also risking its shame. For example, Annette and I work together, engage c...

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Boundaries and Marital Sexuality

By Andrew Comiskey
October 06, 2008
Sexuality is intense and powerful. It can unite humanity in the most creative way imaginable; when misdirected, sex kills. Mason writes: “Marriage is the only weapon man possesses against the brutalizing passion, the primitive passion, the mindless explosiveness of the raw ...

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Marriage and Sexual Wholeness

By Andrew Comiskey
October 05, 2008
Man for woman, woman for man, committed to permanence and fidelity. Nothing better for the civilizing of sexuality. And its enhancement. Nothing channels the power of the raw sex drive better than a committed, honorable relationship between a man and a woman. Think about it. O...

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Otherness and Sacrifice

By Andrew Comiskey
October 04, 2008
Opposites are designed to attract; many can attest to the powerful pull of the other’s appeal that initially drew him/her into the marital relationship. But chemistry alone cannot sustain the covenant. In truth, the precise differences that intrigued us in the other also...

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Otherness and Holiness

By Andrew Comiskey
October 03, 2008
Gender difference is marriage; its essence is male and female together. Without the tension of otherness, there is not wholeness, no dance between similarity and difference. The duality between male and female draws one out beyond the limits of ‘sameness’; out of o...

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Why Women Need Men

By Andrew Comiskey
October 02, 2008
Femininity needs masculinity. Woman needs man. Her softness and depth not only invites intimacy; woman possesses a marvelous capacity to nurture relationship. Therein lies the paradox of woman—powerful in love yet equally powerful in her vulnerability to be wounded in those...

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Why Man Needs Woman

By Andrew Comiskey
October 01, 2008
Masculinity needs femininity; man needs woman. His angular focused essence requires the more diffused and rounded contours of woman. Most men long for that essence. All men need it. The anatomical differences between the sexes are only the beginning. The probing, driven, and e...

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Otherness and Intimacy

By Andrew Comiskey
September 30, 2008
To honor marriage is to honor the distinctions of male and female, and how the two combine to form a whole. The one discovers its need in relation to the other—‘I do not possess what the other offers’, and one’s unique gift—‘I possess something...

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Marriage is Male and Female

By Andrew Comiskey
September 29, 2008
Gender matters in marriage. As we saw yesterday, the distinctly masculine and feminine dimensions of marriage reveal something about God to us, His very image revealed on the earth. Let us explore this further. Marriage involves the joining together of two distinctive parts: m...

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Complimentary and Gender Clarity

By Andrew Comiskey
September 29, 2008
Wholeness in marriage requires two distinct parts, or complements. Maleness and femaleness define marriage; the two together create its essence. That is more than a practical means to procreation. Before babies, the duality of male and female creates the basis for authentic aw...

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The Greater Love Story

By Andrew Comiskey
September 27, 2008
Marriage is pre-political. It did not originate in any one nation, under any one government. It was born in the heart of the Creator. He created humanity as male and female and described them together as manifesting His image upon the earth. God dared to represent Himself in the ...

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Marriage: The Most Important Relationship on Earth

By Andrew Comiskey
September 26, 2008
Every human being is deeply and persistently impacted by the relationship shared by his or her parents. Most had parents who were married; the man and woman who created the child made a decision to not only join bodies but lives. Invoking both the authority of the state and Go...

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Why Marriage?

By Andrew Comiskey
September 03, 2008
Marriage is the most powerful and civilizing institution in the world. At its best, marriage possesses a unique authority to teach spouses to love, to channel their sexuality constructively, and then to love the fruit of that creativity (children) well. Marriage impacts everyone....

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