A six-week itinerary of reading, prayer, and faith-filled discussion crafted especially for parish groups, schools groups, friend groups, and families. Start preparing for Lent right now.
What I'm Working On to Close Out 2020
This Easter, accept your call to mission
Christ did not rise from the dead so we could gorge ourselves on marshmallow Peeps. We knew that even before spending most of the weeks of Lent quarantined in our homes during global pandemic. After all, gorging is an act of singular enjoyment, and if we have learned anything together these past several weeks it is just how perilous actions can be when “I fill myself with what I want.” We are perhaps more prepared than ever before to accept the true measure of Easter joy, which is the degree to which the disciples of the risen Lord indulge in the good of others. The celebration of Easter is ordered to communion, so much so that Easter works centrifugally through Christ’s disciples: We move the joy outwards.
10-Part Series on the 10 Commandments
Free Resource: A Scriptural Pilgrimage through Lent
Preparing an Advent Pilgrimage
When the Magi came to Bethlehem they did not find Christ so much as they were found by him. He brought them joy, he led them to worship, and he made them exceedingly generous. Christ seeks us in the same way. Let this be a reminder for us as we wait for the Lord this Advent. …
In my new book––A God Who Questions–-I ask you to join me on a “scriptural pilgrimage” through the questions Jesus asks. He is the person waiting for us at the end of our journey, and the place he seeks to meet us is the space of genuine encounter.
The Wilderness Within: Pope Francis, Moses, and Religious Liberty
Retelling the story of the American People as a story that began in the pursuit of liberty, that progresses in seeking this liberty for all, and that shall always be an ongoing project to secure liberty so that dialogue and peace may become its fruits, makes the story of the United States a story of religious liberty.
The Questions of Jesus: "What are you discussing as you walk along?"
The Questions of Jesus: "Have you anything here to eat?"
This is the last fish Jesus saw before he ascended to heaven, and he ate it. I wonder how many fish he saw during his 33 years. A lot, for sure, but still there is some kind of definite number that we simply cannot know. What we do know, however, is that this was the last fish in that number, and it was broiled. Jesus eats a lot throughout Luke's Gospel, but this is the only time Luke tells us of him eating after the Resurrection. And this fish, which once swam around in a school and was caught and then broiled, was consumed by the glorified body of the Savior. No other fish in his school or in the all the seas of the world could claim that. Blessed are you among fish.
The Questions of Jesus: "Whom do you seek?"
The Questions of Jesus: "Where have you laid him?"
The Questions of Jesus: "What are you thinking in your hearts?"
The Questions of Jesus: "Why do you call me good?"
The Questions of Jesus: "Do you see anything?"
The Questions of Jesus: "Do you want to be healed?"
The Questions of Jesus: "Does this shock you?"
Jesus is obedience incarnate. He is nothing other and nothing less than everything the Father gives to him. To consume his words, to consume his works, to consume his example, and, in the end, to consume his very life--his body, his blood--is to receive nothing other than his uninterrupted obedience to the Father.
The Questions of Jesus: "Who do the crowds say that I am?"
Perhaps there is no greater threat to our own security than the gods we create out of our own expectations. These gods constantly swirl in our hearts and masquerade in our imaginations. There is the god of my own convenience; the god of my condition; the god of my hidden agenda; the god of my private religious worldview. These gods get broadcast far and wide by the "crowds", who present an divine image that serves some end that they or we or I seek for their or our or my own purposes.
