“If you read between the lines, however, it seems that the psalmist actually feels threatened and endangered, and is trying to build up his own confidence by giving himself a pep talk to remind himself that there is nothing to fear. Language about being endangered and afraid is implied in every verse. The psalmist seems to be screwing up his courage in the face of some sort of terror.”
“Vincent was not the only person who paid a price for speaking the truth boldly. Bonhoeffer. Sebastian. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Perpetua and Felicity. The Maryknoll nuns. Jan Huss. Oscar Romero. William Tyndale. Edith Stein. The list is long, and many who suffered for their faith and died are known only to God.”
“God of silence and speech, we give you thanks —
for church buildings that offer sanctuary and peace found in the woods
for prayers offered in worship and in the dark nights of the soul…”
“But a good life takes practice and attention. And the answers to the questions of discernment – marriage, divorce, vocation – all must come in dialogue with the Spirit. And with abiding fidelity to and love for Jesus and learning from the few words we have of his in four slim Gospels plus Acts and a few letters.”
“Come and see,” Jesus tells his soon-to-be disciples when they ask him where he is staying. And this seems to me to be the best, short response to any theological question. Who is God? Who is the Christ? Come and see.
“I remember that often dreams in the Bible were messages that the dreamer was supposed to get regarding something God wanted them to know. At other times, God used God’s own voice or that of an angel to pass the message along.”
“It would have been easy for him to allow himself to be the visitor’s intercessor, to put himself in the position of the holy man with special connections to God–yet he did not. As harsh and jarring as Antony’s response might be, he displayed his own humility by pushing his visitor to take his own journey with God. Feeling God’s connection to us often is strongest when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable enough to both wail at God and rail at God.”
“Come and see” is not a command for the world to come to us—and that’s not how our peripatetic teacher and Savior, Jesus from no-account Nazareth, operated, either. “Come and see” calls us ourselves to be swept up in the unbounded vista of God’s saving love, for only in embracing the mystery of God’s love can we truly dare to share with others the wonders of grace and truth.
“Epiphany is not about preparing to receive light. Nor is it about arcane credal words suddenly illuminated. Instead, Epiphany is the nascent light of Christ splitting night into two. Not because we are worthy, but because God decided for reasons unknown to exist with us.”
“What if in all these moments God is showing me over and over again what it is to listen? To hear God’s joy in the laughter of my children, to feel God’s peace in the cuddles on the couch, and God’s hope in reaching a hand out to share the peace on Sunday morning.”