A culture of competition may lead to spending our days grasping at versions of ourselves that don't exist while evading the truth of who we really are.
An unexpected gift reveals the mission of the church: to woo the world back to God through the self-giving love revealed in Jesus' Eucharistic sacrifice.
It is tempting to offer another gospel, an easier one one without the cross. But there God reconciles the world to himself, not counting our trespasses against us.
Human failure, soberly appreciated, reveals the faithfulness of God. Even in pitch-black darkness, divine generativity and grace, mysterious and uncategorizable, still go on.
The sequence in the traditional absolution is curious, downright weird: (1) absolution; (2) true repentance; (3) amendment of life. What does this tell us about God's grace?
Inspired by the 2023 film, "The Critic," Jordan Hylden diagnoses our instinct to criticize as a defense mechanism. When we lay it down, we're able to receive more freely grace and mercy.
