The God-Hero and our battles On shoulders men bore me there, then fixed me on hill; fiends enough fastened me. Then saw I mankind’s Lord come with great courage when he would mount on me. Then dared I not against the Lord’s word bend or break, when I saw earth’s fields shake. All fiends I could have felled, but I stood […]
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Why are we commanded to love? “Christ did not love humanity, He never said He loved humanity; He loved men. Neither He nor anyone else can love humanity; it is like loving a gigantic centipede.”)[2] Why do we need Christ and his difficult command to love? Because we are fallen. (This stance was nicely summed
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Arsonist of the heart is the last line of a poem by theologian-poet John Shea about the road to Emmaus. Shea’s reflection on the liturgical Gospel reading for Wednesday compels more than a cursory read of the too-familiar Gospel passage about Jesus’ disciples who have decided to get out of town: the road to Emmaus.
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Holy Saturday: silence and triumph Over six weeks ago, we began what felt like an endurance test of penances: a Great Fast, intense prayer, spiritual reading, and almsgiving. The strangeness of time, the suddenness with which it’s over, startles. It makes us pause in wonder and awe at today’s silence: Holy Saturday. After their one
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Faces of the human heart This image magnifies two faces of the human heart in Lucas Cranach’s painting, Christ and the Adulteress, found in Bishop Erik Varden’s piece, 5 Sunday of Lent. Front and center we see one face with a terrible, smug smile and a large sharp rock at the ready in his right
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Hell: Is it real? Of all the theological errors commonly held today, the most popular is surely the denial of the doctrine of hell. Even among the more devout, such as those who go to daily Mass, the teaching that God would send or consign anyone to hell is routinely dismissed. If it exists at
It’s not about sin “The prodigal son gospel reading is the perfect ‘laetare‘ for the fourth Sunday in Lent…laetare means joyous…we are happy because we’re now halfway through Lent,” the new Pastor, Fr. Jose Alberto Vasquez at St. Patrick’s Church in Arroyo Grande, California, claimed. Then he exclaimed that reconciliation is not about sin but
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Sarah Leading Hagar to Abraham- Mathis Stom Forbidden fruit and its consequences This painting, Sarah Leading Abraham to Hagar by seventeenth century painter Matthias Stom hangs in the Gimaldegalerie in Berlin. Even a quick look at the figures portrayed by the artist conveys something unseemly, even odious. All too evident is the purpose of the
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Libido Domanandi and The Transfiguration of Christ Last Sunday, the first Sunday in Lent, the liturgical churches advised us to accompany Jesus’s forty day desert fast and temptations. This Sunday’s seemingly abrupt switch to the Transfiguration of Jesus may be puzzling. But as I ponder the reason for the Transfiguration of Jesus on the second
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A joyous Lent? It isn’t something that can be understand easily. This past Wednesday, the liturgical churches left ordinary time to enter forty penitential days in the desert with Christ. Today’s Gospel reading returns to the Baptism of the Lord and the beginning of Jesus’ three-year journey to the Cross. The Gospel of Mark starkly
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Lin Wilder has a doctorate in Public Health from the UT Houston with a background in cardiopulmonary physiology, medical ethics, and hospital administration
Book Author: LIN WILDER
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