Category: Good Friday

Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. WITHIN THE JEWISH TRADITION the last prayer one says before dying is called the Shema (or Sh’ma) : שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יי אֱלֹהֵינוּ יי אֶחָֽד Hear, Israel, the Lord our God: the Lord is one. The recitation of this line of scripture, along with some other passages of…

This essay is an edited version of last year’s post. I seem to be. on the same track this year. It is finished. Perelandra Is CS Lewis’ brilliant and engaging meditation on the Fall. It takes place on Venus in the 1940s where God is making a new race of persons and they are again…

I thirst. T HIS SIMPLE REQUEST of Jesus pulls many into theological arabesques. What is Jesus thristing for? For our faith! For our love! For souls to heal and bring to heaven! None of that is in the text, of course: they arise from meditation on the text as does this essay. Jesus, having hung…

Woman, behold your son.Behold Your Mother. WE HAD A GUEST show up at our homeless ministry. It was her first time. She seemed a little out of it. She seemed more than a little confused. We fed her. Then we closed our doors, as we do at a certain time, and folks left. Guests usually…

My God, My God why hast Thou forsaken me. CAN GOD FORSAKE HIMSELF or can he be forsaken by himself? It always seems that this verse gets called out to prove that Jesus didn’t see himself as God – or that the earliest Christians didn’t see him as God. Then, sometimes, this verse gets thrown…

Behold Your Mother. BY WAY OF disclaimer, this admission: Pope Francis has stepped out to consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and this seems to me a good thing. As the Pope is the Vicar of Christ, the whole world is his See, and he can make Eucharist with all that…

This is the final post in a series on the Seven Last Words of Our Lord from the cross. There is a menu and a posting schedule at the bottom of this post. Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. WITH GOD AS OUR Father brothers all are we.” That’s a line from the…

This is the sixth in a series of posts on the Seven Last Words of Our Lord from the cross. There is a menu and a posting schedule at the bottom of this post. It is finished. Perelandra Is CS Lewis’ brilliant and engaging meditation on the Fall. It takes place on Venus in the…

This is the fifth in a series of posts on the Seven Last Words of Our Lord from the cross. I used this same text last year: but I was limited to a five-minute talk. This is the director’s cut, slightly up-dated because it’s a year later. There is a menu and a posting schedule…

This is the fourth in a series of posts on the Seven Last Words of Our Lord from the cross. There is a menu and a posting schedule at the bottom of this post. I’m late on this one. I had a termpaper for Church History. Sorry! My God, My God why hast Thou forsaken…

This is the third in a series of posts on the Seven Last Words of Our Lord from the cross. There is a menu and a posting schedule at the bottom of this post. Behold Your Mother. IWONDER ALWAYS Why Jesus took this moment to address his Mother as “woman”. In the gasping asphyxiation of…

This is the second in a series of posts on the Seven Last Words of Our Lord from the cross. There is a menu and a posting schedule at the bottom of this post. Today you will be with me in Paradise. PUT YOURSELF ON THE CROSS next to Jesus there. We want to imagine…

This is the first in a series of posts on the Seven Last Words of Our Lord from the cross. This series will continue through Lent. There is a menu and a posting schedule at the bottom of this post. Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. Forgiveness IS NOT ONLY Something…