Today’s meditation reflects on the final and seventh of the Last Seven Words of Jesus. All seven passages are from the Gospels, and they often serve as the focus of the church’s prayers on Good Friday. Given the length of each mediation, I have chosen to offer one a day, ending on Good Friday. This is the second of eight meditations. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” With these words from the cross, Jesus dies... Read more
Today’s meditation reflects on the sixth of the Last Seven Words of Jesus. All seven passages are from the Gospels, and they often serve as the focus of the church’s prayers on Good Friday. Given the length of each mediation, I have chosen to offer one a day, ending on Good Friday. This is the second of eight meditations. Eschatology is the study of the end, of final things. It is as old as any other part of... Read more
Today’s meditation reflects on the fifth of the Last Seven Words of Jesus. All seven passages are from the Gospels, and they often serve as the focus of the church’s prayers on Good Friday. Given the length of each mediation, I have chosen to offer one a day, ending on Good Friday. This is the second of eight meditations. In over two thousand years of church history, the controversial heresy is the one that denies the divinity of... Read more
Today’s meditation reflects on the fourth of the Last Seven Words of Jesus. All seven passages are from the Gospels, and they often serve as the focus of the church’s prayers on Good Friday. Given the length of each mediation, I have chosen to offer one a day, ending on Good Friday. This is the second of eight meditations. Then come what are, perhaps, the most troubling words of all from Jesus. “My God, my God, why have you... Read more
Today’s meditation reflects on the third of the Last Seven Words of Jesus. All seven passages are from the Gospels, and they often serve as the focus of the church’s prayers on Good Friday. Given the length of each mediation, I have chosen to offer one a day, ending on Good Friday. This is the second of eight meditations. Among the crucial words from Jesus on the cross, why these? Are they a final gesture of filial affection... Read more
Today’s meditation reflects on the second of the Last Seven Words of Jesus. All seven passages are from the Gospels, and they often serve as the focus of the church’s prayers on Good Friday. Given the length of each mediation, I have chosen to offer one a day, ending on Good Friday. This is the second of eight meditations. I had not focused on it before, but the biblical commentaries on this passage are appallingly thin and equally... Read more
Today’s meditation reflects on the first of the Last Seven Words of Jesus. All seven passages are from the Gospels, and they often serve as the focus of the church’s prayers on Good Friday. Given the length of each mediation, I have chosen to offer one a day, ending on Good Friday. This is the second of eight meditations. In Clint Eastwood’s 1992 film, “Unforgiven,” gunfighter William Munny is drawn out of retirement a final time.[i] Munny is... Read more
Beginning today, I will be offering eight meditations on what are often described as the Last Words of Jesus. Today’s meditation provides an introduction. The remaining seven focus on each of the seven “words”. All seven passages are from the Gospels, and they often serve as the focus of the church’s prayers on Good Friday. Given the length of each mediation, I have chosen to offer one a day, ending on Good Friday. I can remember as... Read more
Today, for at least the second time in the last month, the President of the United States has speculated in public about the fortunes of the Ukrainian people. In response to a question about the possibility that Russia might use chemical weapons, the President responded: “The nature of the response would be based upon the nature of the use.” The President indulged in this kind of speculation the first time when the issue of incursion (read invasion) was in play:... Read more
13 There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived... Read more
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