Someone sent me a funny meme this morning. Someone asked a priest: “So what are your Valentine’s Day plans?” The priest responded: “I have to work and remind everyone of their inevitable deaths.” I thought it was funny. My oldest sibling asked if that was from “The Book of Morbid Priest Jokes.”
Year ago I read a short article about working on relationships, and if memory serves, there was a TED Talk speaker who mentioned something similar to the article. In short, if a couple romantically involved takes time each day to stare into one another’s eyes, the intensity of their common life increases. Both sources noted that it takes a little practice to no longer giggle/chuckle and to realize that it is “ok” to blink, but perseverance has its own rewards. Then an article came into my inbox. The topic seemed like something to post on Valentine’s Day. Continue reading
In today’s readings for Ash Wednesday, we encounter Jesus in the midst of the “Sermon on the Mount” from the Gospel of Matthew. As my friend, Fr. Bill points out, the entire context of these verses is that prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are a “given.” Jesus is operating out of the understanding that faithful people already are doing those things. In other words, Jesus doesn’t recommend a new set of practices, rather he addresses the underlying attitude about those practices. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 1st Sunday of Lent. 12 At once the Spirit drove him out into the desert, 13 and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.
The account of the baptism moves immediately into Jesus’ test in the wilderness (eremos) as seen in the phrase “At once.” Jesus’ expulsion into the desert is connected to his baptism; it is the same Spirit who descended upon Jesus at his baptism who now forces him to enter more deeply into the wilderness. In Mark, the Spirit is “casting out” or “throwing out” (ekballo) Jesus into the wilderness. (Matthew and Luke are a bit less graphic with the Spirit “leading” [anago & ago] Jesus.) In the wilderness Jesus is to be tested (peirazo) by Satan (Mk) or the Devil (Mt & Lk). Continue reading
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