Jesus came and stood among his disciples and said peace be with you, then he didn’t try and hide the mark from the spear on his side. He didn’t wear gloves to conceal his scars. Jesus came and stood among his disciples and said peace be with you then he showed them his hands and his side.
Trinitarian theology says that true power is circular or spiral, not so much hierarchical. It’s here; it’s within us. It’s shared and shareable; it’s already entirely for us.
When the Holy Spirit arrived on the first Pentecost, it was not a quiet event; the sound was as if a great wind (breath) filled the room in which the disciples had gathered in their uncertainty and fear.
Prayer and action can never be seen as contradictory or mutually exclusive. Prayer without action grows into powerless pietism, and action without prayer degenerates into questionable manipulation.
The Christian belief in the Trinity says that God is absolute relatedness. God is our word for the ultimate ecosystem that holds all things in positive relationship (see Colossians 1:17).
For a long time I didn't really understand the necessity of prayer. Why pray if what God wants to happen will happen? Why pray if it doesn't impact the actual world and people we actually live with?
Our passage continues Jesus’ offer of comfort to his disciples. He is in the middle of breaking the unwelcome news that they will soon be without him.
To be calm and quiet by yourself is not the same as sleeping. In fact, it means being fully awake and following with close attention every move going on inside of you.
Author Judy Cannato believes we experience Christ’s resurrection through ongoing growth and transformation.
Our heart is at the centre of our being human. There our deepest thoughts, intuitions, emotions, and decisions find their source. But it’s also there that we are often most alienated from ourselves.
It will bother you off and on, like a rock in your shoe, or it will startle you, like the first crash of thunder in a summer storm, or it will lodge itself beneath your skin like a splinter, or it will show up again—the uninvited guest whose heavy footsteps you’d recognise anywhere, appearing at your front door with a suitcase in hand at the worst. Possible. Time.
I imagine the crowds sounded a bit like the chattering of morning birdsong - awaiting the arrival of the charismatic wandering preacher, in the midst a city already celebrating the joy and sorrow of Passover.
A classic gathered community of relatives and friends, grieving together, illuminates the humanity that binds us all. Grieving and sorrowing also disturbs our perspective – brokenness and blame, belief and benevolence.
Let me try to sum it up and describe it in this way. Beginner’s mind is a readiness to always be in awe, to always be excited. We see it in children and in people who don’t filter everything through the brain. Beginner’s mind is one’s mind before the hurts of life have made us cautious and self-protective.
Jesus said, ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-dresser. Every branch in me that bears no fruit he cuts away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, to make it bear even more.’ (John 15:1–2)
The opposite of resentment is gratitude (from the Latin gratia = favour). Gratitude is more than an occasional ‘thanks be to God.’ Gratitude is the attitude that enables us to let go of anger, receive the hidden gifts of those we want to serve, and make these gifts visible to the community as a source of celebration. Gratitude is at the heart of celebration and ministry.
Lent offers an opportunity to look at our personal life – heart and soul, mind and body - to honestly review how we are living, why we are doing what we are doing, how we are managing, or honestly, how we are not managing.
Even the two greatest commandments, love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and love your neighbour as yourself, are on paper, fairly simple. But obviously, when put into practice it’s a lot harder than it seems.
As we contemplate the Beatitudes in Matthew’s gospel this month, the wisdom of Henri Nouwen can help us understand the compassion of Jesus.
Scripture as validated by experience, and experience as validated by Tradition, are good scales for one’s spiritual worldview.