Faith and Disappointment

The last week of the Church year has, for much of my life, been my least favorite time, liturgically speaking. There is a relentlessness to the themes of catastrophe, destruction, violence, and death. There is the constant reminder, as we hear in the gospel today, that “the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down” (Luke 21:6). The reminders of the limits of humanity’s potency and effectiveness have always easily evoked my personal psychic sense of and fears of futility. One of the hardest but truest spiritual directives[read more]

In Our Living and Our Dying

“If I give myself glory, my glory is nothing.  It is my Father—of whom you say, ‘He is our God’—who gives me glory; and you have not known him, but I know him.  And if I say I do not know him, I shall be a liar like you; rather, I know him and keep[read more]

The Demands of Wisdom

Thus says the Lord, your redeemer, / the Holy One of Israel: / I, the Lord, your God, / teach you what is for your good, / and lead you on the way you should go.” Isaiah 48:17 “But wisdom is vindicated by her works.” Matthew 11:19 Today Isaiah tells us that God will teach[read more]