This last section of Romans reads like the toast at a wedding being attended by a bunch of people who don’t know each other very well. Uncle Paul starts knitting up the story of this family, reminding them of who belongs to which parents, who married into the family,...
Jesus spends a significant amount of time telling us parables about how things are, how they are going to be, and how we can do better. He’s always telling us what to look for, how things will feel, explaining to us what to do when people are hurting or afraid or need...
James and John, the sons of Zebedee—called Boanerges by Jesus, meaning the sons of thunder—are among the first followers of Jesus. James is the first apostle to die, and John is known to us as the one Jesus loves. But do they really imagine they'll have the...
Thomas á Kempis wrote The Imitation of Christ, a spiritual handbook, between 1418 and 1427. Reflective of his vocation as a priest living in a community of other priests, his devotional meditations placed a strong focus on cultivating an interior spiritual life, with...
From the Archives: December 4, 1943We recently learned of a striking experience on the islands of the Inland Sea near Japan. A sailor approached a priest and asked him to call upon a friend in deep spiritual need. ….(View this reading and more resources for...
Mary's inability to recognize Jesus doesn't surprise me. Flowing tears and swollen eyes and the overwhelming noise of grief make it hard for any of us to see clearly. She doesn’t see the awful thing she is expecting to see, the sight she has prepared herself...
Maria Skobtsova lived a full life in her fifty-three years. Part of the cultural elite in Saint Petersburg, Russia, she was a poet, theology student, mayor, social activist, immigrant, resister of Nazis, and finally, a nun who would only submit to a religious rule if...
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Amelia Jenks Bloomer, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Ross Tubman: Each of these remarkable women exemplify love of neighbor. Elizabeth Cady Stanton called on the church to stop using scripture to justify the oppression of women....
You are expecting what has been promised—and one day, you will be on your feet cheering and kissing all the babies and giving all the high fives; the fireworks and confetti and balloons and champagne will flutter and fizz. This is hope. Even if it looks...
In today’s readings, the children of Israel are on the cusp of entering the Promised Land, the place they have been heading toward for forty long years. The psalms compare physical thirst and hunger to longing for God’s grace and mercy, leaning into God’s promises...
