Reading through 2014 with Pope Francis [Index Post]

Throughout 2014, I’ll be reading and blogging through Pope Francis/Cardinal Bergoglio’s collections of meditations: Open Mind, Faithful Heart: Reflections on Following Jesus.  Every Friday, I’ll be reading the next meditation in the series (spiritual reading is my Friday discipline) and then posting a reaction on Monday.  Commenters are heartily invited to read along and contribute your thoughts.

Part 1: Encountering Jesus

• Jesus in Dialogue — “An Inheritance of Joy” (1/6/14)
• Living in Constant Encounter — “Blessed be the Bridgebuilders” (1/13/14)
• Believing in Joy — “A Supersubstantial Joy” (1/21/14)
• Joy and Perseverance – “Apathy Can Feel Like Energy from the Inside” (1/27/14)
• The Faith that Frees Us – “Lost in the Weeds and the Wheat” (2/3/14)
• Called Despite Our Fears – “Living a Priestly Vocation” (2/13/14)
• Nurtured by the Church – “Sharing Mary’s Love” (2/17/14)
• Cross and Mission – “The Consolation in Desolation” (2/24/14)
• The Courage of the Cross – “Girding My Loins for Lent” (3/5/14)
• The Challenge of Sin – “What do we choose instead of Light?” (3/10/14)
• The Hopelessness of Sin – “The Odd Contempt of Impatience” (3/17/14)
• Testing and Temptation – “Mary’s ‘Amen’ and Our ‘No’s” (3/25/14)
• Humility and Hope – “A Vainglorious Desire to Suffer” (3/31/14)
• United by the Grace of Memory – “Memory in the Here and Now” (4/7/14)

Part 2: Manifestations of Light

• The Light of Jesus – “Out, Dusty Spot! Out! Hell is Murky” (4/22/14)
• Staying Alert – “A Discerning Pareidolia” (4/29/14)
• The Hardening of Hearts – “The Wrong Kind of Resilience” (5/7/14)
• God’s Plan Unveiled – “Humble Kinds of Holiness” (5/12/14)
• Passing on the Faith – “Bringing Beauty to a Gun Fight” (5/19/14)
• The Son Reveals the Father – “Spiritual Overextrapolation” (5/26/14)
• The Vision of the Wedding Feast – “Christ’s Loyal Widows” (6/3/14)
• Faith Beyond Space and Time – “Questioning Christ Fruitfully” (6/10/14)

Part 3: The Letters to the Seven Churches

• Reading the Apocalypse – “Prophets and Bottles that Breed Confusion” (6/16/14)
• Ephesus – Recapturing the First Love – “Discern the Right Thing” (6/23/14)
• Smyrna – Overcoming Fatigue and Bitterness – “Getting Sucker Punched by Satan” (7/7/14)
• Pergamum – Holding onto the Truth – “Of Morality and Mandelbrot” (7/14/14)
• Thyatira – Loyalty to Our Inheritance – “Of Metals and (God-)Men” (7/29/14)
• Sardis – Restoring Self-Respect – “Receiving Children and the Kingdom” (8/4/14)
• Philadelphia – Love Among Sisters and Brothers – “Happy Churches Are All Alike” (8/11/14)
• Laodicea – True Friendship – “Lukewarmness is for Zero Sum Games” (8/18/14)

Part 4: Human Prayer

• Drawing Close to All Flesh – “Solving a Problem vs Being with a Person” (8/25/14)
• Abraham: Learning to Let Go – “Enclosing Ourselves in False Infinities” (9/2/14)
• Prayer as Obedience to Mission – “Til we’ve all of us been burned a bit, and burnished by the Son” (9/8/14)
• David: The Art of Surrender – “And a little child shall lead them (for lack of anyone else)” (9/16/14)
• The Solitude of Prayer – “Finding Fellowship in Exile” (9/22/14)
• Moses and the People: Intercession vs Murmuring – “Mary Asks More than Détente” (9/29/14)
• God Revealed in Weakness and Limitation – “Luxuriating in Kvetching” (10/6/14)
• Job: Praying from Our Sores – “Minimizing the Weight of Mercy” (10/14/14)
• Homeward Bound – “The Ahistorical Pharisee” (10/21/14)
• Simeon: Led by the Spirit – “Being Tutored by the Expectations of Elders” (11/4/14)
• The Mystery of Talking With God – “Standing Naked Before God” (11/10/14)
• Judith: Speaking Freely with God – “Pope Francis’s Judith Leaves Me A Little Lost” (11/17/14)
• Entering into the Humanity of Jesus – “Why Welcome Sorrow?” (11/24/14)
• Freely Embracing Death – “Choosing a Prudent (not a ‘Tough’) Advent Fast” (12/1/14)
• The Totality of Surrender – “Is Your Christianity Ever Mistaken for Criminality?” (12/8/14)
• The Failure of Jesus – “Filing Down the Sharp Edges of Failure” (12/15/14)
• Jesus Christ the Priest – “Christ is an Outlier and Should Have Been Counted” (12/22/14)
• Holding Back Nothing – “Catching the Joy of Others” (12/29/14)