Rubrics[1] and the GIRM present just two choices; follow them or don’t follow them. So why is it that excuses about following (or not following) the guidelines for sacraments are as confusing as solving that similar sounding 70’s classic 3D puzzle Rubik’s Cube? On the one hand excessive attention to the rules detracts [...]
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What a fantastic and often underestimated gift the Lectionary is! Each day the Lectionary juxtaposes readings from Moses and the Prophets with the Gospels in order that we may hear Christ’s messianic mission pronounced clearly. Each time I read the daily readings I consider what purpose the Church had in mind and often [...]
Continued... »“…Hence it is important to avoid the secularisation of clergy and the ‘clericalisation’ of the laity”…
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So I think that this idea has merit… that the Apostles bore and raised the Church as Mary bore and raised Jesus. That brings up the question, when was the Church conceived rather than born or instituted (Jesus instituted the Church at His Ascension Mat 28:18-20)? It may be that the Church was announced at the Transfiguration, conceived at the Last Supper, labored for at the Crucifixion and born at the Resurrection. Indeed, as scripture says, this child was born quickly…
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Yet I can’t help but consider that it is because goodness itself (God) entered history by becoming man, suffering, dying and rising, that evil has any limit at all. It seems to me that the greatest evil that can be done has indeed been done to God. It is precisely because of the perfect goodness of God that evil has its limit.
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Jesus first instructs the workers to fill jars with water. And here is where every Christian journey begins, with instruction and the waters of baptism. The baptismal waters are just a beginning because the water must be turned to wine before the head waiter approves. In a sense the head waiter is like God the Father who at His son’s baptism declares, “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased.” Similarly, the head waiter approves of the wine in an extraordinary way….
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Moving deeper toward the dark center of this place I saw many, many hundreds of thousands of people with snakes burrowing through their bodies, moving in and out of their flesh like worms in viscous mud. The people there stood nearly catatonic, not dancing at all but still as if completely given over to the movements of the serpents. The people’s heads were turned upward and their mouths open as if dry from thirst. But no water was given them.
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At once I am aware that the workshop is Joseph’s but also metaphorically the workshop of the Father in heaven. We get there instantly, and the Child Jesus explains, “We build many things here, my father and I.” I am aware that this means also that He and His Devine Father made all things. I notice a stain on a length of wood and Jesus responds, “Yes, it is my blood.
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But this wound is different than the ordinary kind. It is a sign of contradiction in every sense of the phrase. First, it is a contradiction in the way that the cross of the crucifix is visually a contradiction, having a horizontal line that intersects a vertical line. The moment that the phrase “delightful wound” crosses the mind it intersects the heart with the enigmatic question, “what (or who) is this?” Second…
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