I am excited that Patheos is turning five. As I’ve written about, on more than one occasion, I think Patheos is one of the best places on the internet for theological discussions and exploration of faith. I have still very honored to be a part of the family here.

As bloggers here, we have all been taking this time to think back on the past 5 years and to think about what some of the best posts we have written might be. This is a hard task for me. I have written about so much, and on so many vastly different things.

My most popular posts are generally not the best posts in my opinion.

I have decided to look at my posts in a few categories

a lot of my writing has been grounded in my own scholarship. I spend a lot of my personal time reading and thinking about theology. I am often afraid to post my thoughts and findings because I fear that no one will read it, and people will find it boring. This Lent however I published my study on the origins of lent. It is certainly not my most viewed article (in spite of it being one of the most challenging articles to research and write about), but those who have taken the time to read it have given a lot of great feedback on it. I think this is one of my best contributions to the overall task of helping people better understand the liturgy and history of the church.

 For Lent this year, I published a list of 5 fasting ideas that people could do that could connect them to the struggle of poor and hungry people in the world today. I was blown away by the response I got. People actually did them. I was touched in a special way by this letter. It was one of the most encouraging things I have read in my years of writing.

When I told my story about why I was joining the Catholic Church, I was afraid that I was going to get a lot of blow-back. Instead what I got was a wave of good will from hundreds of people who didn’t even know me. Even more interesting was that even the critiques I got were filled with care and thought. If only every blog post could generate so much good will!

There have been a lot of theological questions that have pushed me over the years, but the one that I have struggled with the most is “Why did Jesus die?” My post this year about my struggle with that question was not only a powerful reflection for me personally, but also a great reflection for a lot of others.  

It’s been a great ride so far, and I’ve got a lot of good stuff coming down the line! Make sure you take time to subscribe and like The Orant on Facebook to insure you won’t miss any updates!

If you have a favorite article, or want to tell me about how something I’ve written helped you in any way I would love to read about it in the comments below!