Witness, NM

The Second Sunday of Lent “Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to…

Chasing more, becoming less “Elijah then came near to all the people and said, ’long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him.’ The people did not answer him a word” (1 Kings 18:21). Ba’al, the Ancient Canaanite deity of storms, the…

The First Sunday of Lent “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove upon him. And a voice came from the heavens,…

Ash Wednesday “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be…

The tyranny of self-will “Yet even now, says the Lord,    return to me with all your heart,with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;     rend your hearts and not your clothing.Return to the Lord your God,    for he is gracious and merciful,slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love,    and relenting from punishment.Who knows whether he will not turn and relent    and…

The Last Sunday after Epiphany “Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling bright, such as no one on earth could brighten them. And there appeared to them Elijah with…

Not as I will, but as Thou Wilt “Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’ When he had left the crowd and entered the…

Final thoughts “The Word of God, born once in the flesh (such is his kindness and his goodness), is always willing to be born spiritually in those who desire him. In them he is born as an infant as he fashions himself in them by means of their virtues. He reveals himself to the extent…

Forgiving others’ trespasses for fun and profit “There is no one who does not know from his own experience that egoism and self-affirmation involve the sapping of our vital forces and in the long run the very destruction of life itself. While that ‘bad infinity’ which is constituted by the aching void of desire and…