During Lent we seek in the desert the questions and answers that have eluded us in all other times and places through the year. Yet there’s still a natural resistance, a longing to stay where life is comfortable, where we feel at peace and settled. God entices me with the story of a day at [...]
Archive for February, 2007
Entering Lent
Posted in Lent on February 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Through the Desert to the Cross
Posted in Fasting, Lent on February 25, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Over and over again we are tempted to take the easy way out—the pleasures of creature comforts, the glamour of power, a healthy cynicism toward promises of goodness and salvation. Is this where our identity lies? If we are to discover our identity as Christians, we must accept the fact that this identity must be [...]
“This is the fast I wish”
Posted in Fasting on February 23, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
“This is the fast I wish,” God tells us through Isaiah. And I have to wonder what God thinks about the fast food restaurants “Friday Lent Specials” and All You Can Eat fish fries. And then there’s the old standby of staying up till after midnight to eat a hamburger. Afriend and I often go [...]
Ashes on the hearth
Posted in Ash Wednesday, Lent on February 21, 2007 | 1 Comment »
We don’t have much day-to-day contact with ashes these days. Awood stove in the winter, a fireplace, a barbecue grill, an ashtray. None of these is particularly symbolic or even suggestive of anything spiritual. And yet we gather once a year in great numbers to receive a cross of ashes on our foreheads.
In a book [...]
Palms to Ashes
Posted in Ash Wednesday, Lent on February 21, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Each year we celebrate Palm Sunday.
We commemorate the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
Our palms on that day suggest our hopes for victory.
We welcome our dream of a messiah.
But the green palms of feverish, excited hopes
can dry and crack in a long year of sorrow and joy.
Perhaps our hopes have been disappointed.
Perhaps we’ve betrayed another’s [...]
Expect the Unexpected
Posted in Gospels on February 18, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Has loving our ememies gotten harder since 9/11? It seemed for a time in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Twin Towers that nearly everyone had a sense of wanting revenge. For many, perhaps most, that was a passing emotion and clearer heads and deeper faith prevailed. But for others, getting even became [...]
An Upside-down world
Posted in Gospels on February 11, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Fans of the British comedy troupe Monty Python all know the phrase “Blessed are the cheesemakers,” from their satirical comedy The Life of Brian. Those who have watched the movie more than once also know that the Pharisee figure goes on to point out that surely this refers to all manufacturers of dairy products and [...]
It’s not about self-esteem
Posted in Spirituality on February 4, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
A woman active at a parish I once belonged to complained at a liturgy committee meeting that she was offended at having to pray, “O Lord, I am not worthy to receive you.” This was in the 1980s, when issues of self-esteem were just getting to be hot topics in the therapy and self-help worlds
We [...]
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Click below for more information about the new electronic distribution of the print version of Bringing Home the Word for parishes and small groups.
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