Why did Jesus keep the scars from his crucifixion? …The scars are, to him, an emblem of life on our planet, a permanent reminder of those days of confinement and suffering. …I take hope in Jesus’ scars. …They represent the most horrible event that has ever happened....
We believe in his resurrection! Is this true? Do we believe all that is involved in this? He is the living one. He is the victor over sin and death. He is not one who ascended into heaven in order to disappear from world history as if he had never been in it. He...
It is too small a thing to redeem only a few. God wants us all. This good news deserves our full acceptance. Thomas Merton wrote, “A happiness that is sought for ourselves alone can never be found; for a happiness that is diminished by being shared is not big enough...
I would not want to spend eternity with the self-satisfied souls who think they deserve heaven, while everybody else belongs in hell. Can I damn another fellow being without tasting hell myself? Can I hate other Christians without plunging my own heart into hell? When...
We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other. We know [Christ] in the breaking of bread, and we know each other in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone anymore. Heaven is a banquet, too, even with a crust, where there is...
Until you become thankful, you will never find joy. Being thankful is not telling God you appreciate the fact that your life is not in shambles. If that is the basis of your gratitude you are on slippery ground. Every day of your life you face the possibility that a...
The Gospel is less about how to get into the Kingdom of Heaven after you die, and more about how to live in the Kingdom of Heaven before you die.
Earth’s crammed with heaven,And every common bush afire with God;But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,The rest sit round it, and pluck blackberries,And daub their natural faces unawareMore and more, from the first similitude. from “Aurora Leigh”...