Sometimes I think of the mystery of the Incarnation—central to Advent and Christmas—as God deciding to enroll in the “Human Being 101” course. Not because God didn’t grasp what it was like to be fully human, but because WE didn’t grasp that God fully knew our human experience. So, in the person of Jesus, God lived among us and knew our joys and hopes, our griefs and anxieties first-hand. And we still unfold and celebrate that mystery in our own day-by-day living as members of Christ’s Body.
Read moreAuthor: Alan Hommerding
Liturgy and Chastity: The Pure-heartedness of Ministry
In both Joseph and Mary we see a single-heartedness, a purity of intent, a devotion to their child Yeshua bar Yussef, even before his birth. It is the very stuff that covenants, and vows, and ministries are made of. Their living of the beatitude “blessed are the pure in heart” does not mean that they were never confused, or were never afraid, or never doubted. Certainly they each had moments that we would all recognize as frail humanity in action. But in their love—of God, of their child, of each other—they also knew the fullness of Emmanuel, the God-with-them.
Read moreWe Need a Little (Advent and) Christmas
I sincerely hope that we see future offerings of this sort from Phyllis Zagano. As her work has enriched the Church in history and ministry, so will it in matters of the spirit.
Read moreTeam Spirit . . . and Spiritual Teams
I believe that the pervasiveness of the team/pack mentality, along with its inappropriate or disproportionate responses, qualifies as a “sign of our times” and, therefore, we can be guided by the wisdom of the Spirit, assess it critically, and live it out carefully, as Vatican II called us to:
[. . .] the Church seeks but a solitary goal: to carry forward the work of Christ under the lead of the befriending Spirit. And Christ entered this world to give witness to the truth, to rescue and not to sit in judgment, to serve and not to be served. To carry out such a task, the Church has always had the duty of scrutinizing the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel. (Gaudium et Spes 3, 4)
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