Ash Wednesday

Last updated on: March 5, 2019 at 8:14 pm By Mark Shea

This strange time of life hidden in brown death. The earth still crusted with ice. Birds still seek their meager seeds and fight this Goliath of cold as big as the world. Out they peek from under wing as the rising sun makes the sky pearl and winter’s unblinking stare loses its nerve. Crocuses are awake though the barren trees still sleep as the bare cross will likewise know no fruit but our pain for forty days. Slow, slow, slow,... Read more

The End of Ordinary Time

Last updated on: March 5, 2019 at 12:40 pm By Mark Shea

…till Pentecost is past. I like the concept of ‘Ordinary Time’. The Tradition is fond of ordinary things. God chose ordinary things to be the matter of his sacraments. Water, bread, wine, oil. Dime a dozen stuff. And he chose ordinary people to be his apostles. Indeed, he himself entered into ordinary life as a peasant laborer and ordinary working stiff at Nazareth. You could not have picked Jesus out of a lineup. Isaiah tells us he had no form... Read more

Surprisingly, I did not know some of the detail

Last updated on: March 2, 2019 at 12:05 pm By Mark Shea

…which is embarrassing for a 60 year old man to acknowledge. But then, I’m an English major, not a science guy. Anyway, something lovely to contemplate on a Saturday. Read more

Beyond Personal Piety

Last updated on: March 1, 2019 at 1:08 pm By Mark Shea

Here is an interesting piece by one of my favorite priests in the world, Fr. Michael Sweeney. He was my pastor for years during the 90s at Blessed Sacrament in Seattle and then went on to be the President of the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology at Oakland, CA. He is also one of the people who helped Sherry Weddell at the Catherine of Siena Institute. The closest I will ever get to meeting St. Thomas Aquinas and a... Read more

My keyboard is busted, so I will let Michael Cohen preach to the Christianist Cult Today

Last updated on: February 27, 2019 at 1:19 pm By Mark Shea

Jesus’ words about persecution boil down to ‘You may have to suffer and die for me. Don’t worry about it.’ His real words of warning are these– ‘Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.’ We live in a time and place where white conservative American Christians have, in overwhelming percentages and by the millions, with malice aforethought... Read more

Power to be Children of God

Last updated on: February 23, 2019 at 9:20 pm By Mark Shea

Gary Michuta interviews Bryan Gesinger on his book, Power to Become Children of God: Essays on the Catholic Faith (Amazon): Conversation with Bryan starts about 14 1/2 minute mark. Check it out! One of the great challenges our age has revealed is the question of disposition to the grace of the sacraments. The promise of the gospel is nothing less than participation in the divine nature of the Blessed Trinity himself. But the embarrassing spectacle Catholics so often present often... Read more

We, Not God, Were the Authors of Christ’s Passion

Last updated on: February 23, 2019 at 9:21 pm By Mark Shea

In one of the most profound and mysterious passages in the New Testament, Paul tells us, “For our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). Elsewhere, reflecting on the same mystery, he speaks of God “sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin.” In doing so, “he condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom 8:3) This lands us... Read more

Rod Bennett on his new book Bad Shepherds

Last updated on: February 12, 2019 at 3:17 pm By Mark Shea

Gary Michuta interviews the ever-interesting Rod Bennett on his new and timely book Bad Shepherds: One of the weirdly consoling things about being Catholic is that we have lots of experience of lousy shepherds. Indeed, even our very best shepherds have had their spectacular failures, starting with Peter and the gutless apostles. And, like Judas, not all have been well-meaning failures. Some have been right SOBs. The Church, like all human things, has had periods of sin and dissolution and... Read more

Some Reflections on the Crucifixion for a Friday

Last updated on: February 12, 2019 at 7:53 pm By Mark Shea

It is notable that, though subsequent Christian piety, meditation, and art would rightly dwell upon the extremities of Jesus’ sufferings in the Passion, the New Testament narrative is typically spare. All the gospels are hesitant to speak much beyond the bare facts about the sheer physical horror of the Passion. Instead, they tersely say that Jesus was scourged, crowned with thorns, crucified. The reason for this is not far to seek. Crucifixion was a common occurrence in the world of... Read more

Ignatius: A Brief Introduction to the Theology of Pope Francis

Last updated on: February 13, 2019 at 3:38 pm By Mark Shea

Dan Amiri continues over at Where Peter Is: Finally, we should not neglect the importance of Francis being the first Jesuit pope. In many respects, it appears Francis’ Jesuit background has had an important influence on Pope Francis’ theology. Given the Jesuits lengthy history and its varying roles over time, it would be merely superficial to draw the many parallels between Francis’ papacy and the Jesuit order broadly. Rather, the goal here specifically is to focus on the parallels between... Read more