Welcome to Day 11 of our Blobble Study of Mark’s gospel. I am very much enjoying my re-reading of Marks’ gospel and hope you appreciate the comments and reflections. Just a short passage for today since there is so much in it. Sorry I forgot to post the link to reflections yesterday. In fact, I had a very busy and stressful day yesterday with the funeral of a young father who fell suddenly with a heart attack last week. Please... Read more
Yesterday’s post explained why Jesus taught in parables. Today’s reading goes on to recount three of Our Lord’s simple parables, which help to further explain why Jesus uses parables to teach. The parables also reveal the mystery of Christ and his teaching and why so many do not respond. They need God’s grace to see the light and faith to respond with understanding. As you read try to glimpse the person of Jesus–so clear and radical yet so profound and... Read more
The other day I saw a snarky comment about the legend of St Patrick casting all the snakes out of Ireland: “Thing is” said snarker “Ireland never had any snakes anyway. The climate is too damp and cold. Duh.” Duh indeed. The legend was never about snakes anyway. It was about serpents–meaning Satan and the demons. Hearing this legend and coming up with such a snarky comment is about as smart as reading the poem and saying, “That’s dumb. My... Read more
Today’s reading contains one of the most mysterious and difficult to understand passages in all of Scripture. I hope you are enjoying the Blobble Study so far and that you are being drawn to a closer experience of Christ the Lord during this Lent. The Parable of the Sower .1 On another occasion he began to teach by the sea. A very large crowd gathered around him so that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down. And the whole... Read more
Welcome to the eighth day of our Lenten Blobble Study of Mark’s gospel. Don’t forget you can use the “Categories” tool in the right sidebar to see all the posts together. Just click on “Blobble Study.” I hope you are gaining much from the study. I’m enjoying reading the gospel through again and meeting Jesus in a fresh way. Make sure as you read that you take time to try and visualize Jesus. So far Mark presents us with a... Read more
Welcome to Day Seven of the Lent Blobble Study. We begin chapter three today and the conflict with the scribes and Pharisees over Jesus breaking the Sabbath continues. A Man with a Withered Hand .1 Again he entered the synagogue. There was a man there who had a withered hand.2They watched him closely to see if he would cure him on the sabbath so that they might accuse him.3He said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up here before... Read more
Jesus makes a shocking statement when he says that if your eye offends you it would be better to gouge out your eye and enter the kingdom with one eye than to have both and go to hell. This statement is given a new and startling dimension in Bought With A Price Bishop Paul Loverde’s powerful and necessary pastoral letter on pornography. He writes: Perhaps worst of all, however, is the damage that pornography does to man’s “template” for the supernatural.... Read more
Welcome to Day Six of the Lenten Blobble Study of Mark’s Gospel. We conclude chapter two today. In chapter one we saw Jesus beginning his ministry with a clear assault on Satan’s kingdom with his baptism, temptation, teaching the truth and exorcisms. Yesterday we saw how this leads into the issue of forgiveness of sins. When the paralytic is healed the sin and forgiveness question surfaces. The clash with the self righteous, legalistic scribes begins and so the chapter ends... Read more
It occurs to me in watching children play that they know something that we have forgotten. They know how to play for its own sake. We, on the other hand, will only play games if we can enter a competition, and we enter a competition to win. What do we want to win? We want to win some sort of trophy. If not a trophy itself, then the reward of being not just best at something, but better than someone... Read more
Welcome to Day Five of the Lent Blobble Study. Today we begin chapter two of St Mark’s Gospel. In the first chapter Jesus begins his ministry and the theme is his battle against Satan. After his baptism he is tempted in the wilderness and then he begins his ministry with great energy and vigor. The two main aspects that are emphasized are his teaching with authority and his authority over evil. Chapter two moves on and begins to deal with... Read more
Fr. Dwight Longenecker
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