“However, it doesn’t just go to suffering. The core of discipleship is self-denial. It is at this point especially that Jesus makes it quite clear that the gospel is certainly counter-cultural. However, one could take “losing your life” more than one way. Losing your life can also be seen as shedding the old way of living that was in harmony with the values of the world.”
“Abba, may we bend the knee
of our hearts, minds, souls, and bodies,
to live in joyful obedience to your will.”
“As we prepare to enter into Lent, we are encouraged to expand our perception. We end the season after Epiphany each year with stories of transfiguration to give us the courage to allow our eyes to adjust to the seeing of who Jesus REALLY is in our lives, much like those disciples who witness his transfiguration in our gospel.”
“Bearing contempt for others cannot be made right just by offering a gift at the altar. No, that’s too easy, and avoids the very real work of reconciliation. The entire point of covenants and commandments is that we live in RELATIONSHIP with God and with each other.”
“And as I listened to Bible stories read to me by my mother, I began to notice when in the Bible it stated that a character was amazed, such as this Sunday, when we hear still in chapter one of Mark’s gospel how Jesus’s teaching and healing amazed those in the synagogue who witnessed them.”
“May we ever give you thanks,
O Shepherd of Our Souls,
and seek your guidance
as we seek the good road of faith, reason, and peace.”
“As Christians living in the 21st century, we face every day a hundred interior negotiations between what we say we commit to as disciples of Jesus Christ, and what we commit to as people living in a post-modern capitalist society, based as it is on a heartless calculus of a few ‘winners’ and a large pool of ‘losers.'”
“Yesterday was a day when we teetered on the brink of deep waters—waters that, if they were to close over our heads, threaten to overwhelm us and all that we hold dear.”
“Christmas is about hope. Christmas is about faith—faith in God and in each other. Christmas is about love. Love in action. Love found sleeping in a manger, leading us to the way of life we were meant to live from the beginning.”
“I’ve often marveled that the heart is often described as being set ablaze by love. Add a single letter, and “heart” becomes “hearth,” radiating warmth and light into the most steadfast darkness.”