“In church, we are taught that Mary chose the better part, sitting and learning from the Master while he was on earth. At that time, the disciples didn’t know Jesus would soon be gone, but we benefit from knowledge in retrospect. It makes all the difference.”
“I’ll admit it wasn’t until after becoming Christian that I truly began to examine the structural evils of the present day, and how Christianity has played a part in them. But by then, something had changed in me: Christianity was my home.”
“Make me ever joyful and merciful
even if children pull my tail.
Help me be ever watchful
that I may protect my home
as you have protected me, O Steadfast One.”
Now, with another change of location and a new technological innovation, comes this beep.
The last time I attended an in-person conference, I remember the keynote speaker mentioning in passing that he sets an alarm on his phone at noon each day to remind him to pray.
I have decided to regard this beep as my personal call to prayer.
“But it’s never just bread, wine, and water.
With each bite of bread, sip of wine, and splash of water, we are reminded that God comes to us in the most intimate, personal, and tangible ways.”
We are children of God and, like Daniel, we also live in an imperial culture. What does our culture name us?
What is your response to meeting the risen Lord in the Upper Room of the Soul? Have you wrapped your mind around the fact of his wounds? Christ has conquered death through going all the way through it. What does that mean for each of us? What does it mean for you?
The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; It gathers to a greatness, like the
Jesus eats with his disciples after the Resurrection to reassure them and to once again declare his steadfast fellowship with them, regardless of their doubts, their despair, and their previous weaknesses. There is nothing fishy about this, either. Jesus continues to be Jesus even after his Passion, death, and resurrection—for the disciples, and for us. That humble piece of fish becomes part of Jesus’s body as a testimony to the power of God to vanquish even the power of death.
A reflection on John 16:1-15 Daily Office Readings for Friday, April 9, 2021: AM Psalm 136; PM Psalm 118; Dan. 12:1-4,13; Acts 4:1-12 / 1 Cor. 15:51-58;