He is risen. Allelluia!
“Why do you look for the living among the dead. He is not here; he is risen.” Luke 24:5-6
Indeed, he is risen. Alleluia, Alleluia!
Holy Saturday: Waiting in the shadows
Peter never really used to be one of my favorites from Scripture, but the older I get, the more beloved he becomes. He gives me comfort because I identify with him, especially lately. At this point in our faith story, Peter is locked away — afraid, ashamed, alone. He doubted, he denied, he ran away. Even before the crucifixion, he often seemed to get it wrong. Imagine for a moment that Jesus says to you, “Get behind me, Satan.” Yeah, that’s pretty bad. And yet Jesus saw fit to call him the “rock,” the one who would go on to lead his church, or, at that point, his band of disciples. Maybe, just maybe then, Jesus sees some shred of worth beneath my many failings, behind my own doubts and fears. (more…)
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you…
Because by your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
Just back from Stations of the Cross at the beautiful Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany. (Click on the photo at the bottom of this post to enlarge. The Stations are spectacular, if you ever have a chance to visit the cathedral.)
The Scripture verse below is the one that jumped out at me from all the others as we were praying this afternoon:
Where are the shepherds who are willing to live with the ‘smell of the sheep’?
I’d like to backtrack for a minute and make sure you all had a chance to read what I think is a critical and spot-on portion of Pope Francis’ homily — directed toward priests — at the Chrism Mass yesterday. When I read this, I was moved by the beauty of both the content and the language, and by the truth that this pope speaks. (more…)
The gift of bread, broken and shared among friends
Earlier this week, we sat around our kitchen table as a family and broke the unleavened bread made by Chiara’s faith formation teacher as a Holy Week exercise and gift. As we passed the bread around, we talked about Passover and Jesus and the Last Supper and Eucharist, all the while thinking about how fitting it was that we were doing this as our Jewish neighbors were celebrating their own Passover meal in the house next door. (more…)
