J.R.R. Tolkien, who worked on a translation of the book of Jonah for the Jerusalem Bible, found much in the text worthy of his own personal exploration and consideration. One point which he found important is the way God and God’s mercy often is not properly understood by those who are authentically called by God to do some work in the world. Even prophets, while inspired, are human, and their human misunderstanding can and often does get in the way... Read more
While Catholics have been told that the institutional church should be always reforming, many feel the need is greater now than it has been for decades. There have always been issues. The institutional church and its leaders has always been far from perfect, though the grace given to it means that their imperfections will not prevent the fulfillment of Christ’s purpose for the church (to be a vessel of salvation and change in the world). Dororthy Day understood this, which... Read more
“And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” (Jn. 17:3 RSV). The Christian faith is about a personal, experiential relationship with Jesus, a relationship which allows them to join themselves to him and participate in the glory of the divine life through him. We know the one who has been sent into the world, the divine person who became incarnate so as to reveal to us the fullness... Read more
It could be said that the final act of Jesus’s temporal ministry was not his resurrection from the dead, but his ascension into heaven. It is, in many ways, a very mysterious act. At first glance, this might seem to contradict what Jesus said when he said he would be with us until the end of the age. And yet, when examined, this is actually the way Jesus uses to be with each and every one of us at once,... Read more
Icons are often described, quite properly, as windows into heaven, because they reveal to us elements of the kingdom of God. They show us the spiritualized, glorified form of the saints depicted in them, as well as the spiritual reality which lay behind various events of salvation history. This is why they, though they often are seen as being unrealistic in relation to empirical standards, they are said as being realistic according to spiritual ones. They give us a glimpse... Read more
It shouldn’t surprise me, but it still does. Republicans use religion, especially Christianity, as a way to suggest they are being upright and moral while what they do undermines many of the basic moral principles of the Christian faith they claim to follow. This was in full force with the House Republicans when they prayed that the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” would be passed in the House. As they knew they did not need to pray, that they already... Read more
We are born in this world with a kind of spiritual blindness; that is, we either are unable, or have difficulty perceiving spiritual realities. Our focus and attention is mostly on the material world, the realm of being which experience with our empirical senses. This is why some think that only material reality exists, because it is all they can perceive, however, if they contemplated it philosophically, they would see that we engage non-material truths throughout their lives, and as... Read more
When worship God in the Divine Liturgy (or the Mass, as the West calls it, a name which comes from the dismissal at the end of the worship service), we are participating in and experiencing in the kingdom of God. During the service, we partake of communion, not merely for our own individual benefit, but to be transformed and become more Christ-like as we open ourselves to Christ and realize our unity with him and with everyone else who likewise... Read more
We are called to know ourselves, for in knowing ourselves, we will come to know God. Why is this so? Because we are made in the image and likeness of God. We are, of course, not God by nature, and so God transcends us, but we represent God in such a way that if we know ourselves, we will be able to know something about God. It is important to keep both God’s transcendence and God’s representations in creation, including... Read more
Christ taught Christians to embrace selfless love, a love which would lead them to be concerned about the welfare of their neighbor; that is, they should not be self-absorbed, looking out only for themselves. I feel, sadly, that this part of the Christian message, one which makes Christianity a religion which follows Christ, has been lost to too many Christians. They only accept those aspects of Christian faith which gives them something, such as being saved, but they do not... Read more
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