Lent Lessons from a Little Known Woman
Last week I found lessons for us in the life of Zacchaeus. Because I’m so engrossed in the people of the New Testament after writing that book about them, this week I’m reflecting on another one, Salome, to see what she can teach us as we near the season of Lent. Salome was the […]
Don’t Procrastinate. Act! Take Charge of Your Life.
A lesson plan called for the teacher to cut out cardboard circles and print “TUIT” on them. Then she was to pass them out to her students and state that they now had no excuse for saying “I didn’t get around to it.” Part of the human condition is that we sometimes put off what […]
Fasting in Lent in Order to Feast
One of the three spiritual disciplines Christians practice during Lent is fasting. (The other two are prayer and almsgiving. The three practices have their origin in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6.) We must eat in order to live, and fortunately God has made eating pleasurable for us . . . except when the […]
Five Ways to Show Mercy
Pope Francis has just declared an Extraordinary Jubilee Year: a Year of Mercy, which will begin on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception this year. We have witnessed and been fascinated by this pope’s numerous acts of mercy as he reaches out to the neediest of God’s people. Of course, the greatest act of mercy […]
Listening and Looking during Lent
My friend Sister Mary John Paul wrote an intriguing and thought-provoking article for our Associate newsletter. She let me share it here. Coincidentally (?) it echoes the theme of a book I’m reading now called Becoming Beholders. The book develops the idea that everything, person, and occasion can be a channel of grace, a sacrament. […]
Ash Wednesday and Evangelization
A mom once told me that her four-year-old came home from school on Ash Wednesday with ashes on his forehead. When she asked, “Who gave them to you?” he said, “God.” “And what did God look like?” she asked. “Well, he wore a purple dress and had white hair,” the boy responded. Ash Wednesday and […]
Lent: Meaningful Suffering
Every year during Lent we recall that God as man was beaten, whipped, mocked, crowned with thorns, and nailed to a cross. Only the gift of faith enables us to believe the incredible: that the all-powerful God actually endured agony, suffered, and died for us. By his suffering, Jesus gave meaning to all of our […]
