The Rt. Rev. George Wayne Smith, Bishop of Missouri, discusses how he is surprised by Holy Week: Holy Week is, every year, a time of spiritual renewal for me. As the liturgy says, it makes it possible for us to enter into the passion of Christ’s death and the mystery of his resurrection and yes, to follow in the steps of Jesus. I try to reflect on those things, and to prepare … [Read more...] about ‘God’s Surprise for Me’
Holy Week
Thorns, Cross, Crucifixion
Cæli enarrant If the first two sorrowful mysteries — our Lord’s agony in the garden and scourging at the pillar — directly confronted us with the Passion, dropping us in the deep end, the last three only repeat and intensify the regimen. Their sole purpose is to fix our attention on things as they are: the form of God’s suffering love. To pray these mysteries — traditionally … [Read more...] about Thorns, Cross, Crucifixion
Jesus’ Entry Sent a Message
Mainpage art by Waiting for the Word/Flickr Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s message for Easter It’s taken me some years to realize it, but Jesus didn’t just happen to be in Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday. He wasn’t on vacation. He wasn’t just hanging out in town. Jesus was in Jerusalem on purpose. He arrived in Jerusalem about the time of the Passover when pilgrims … [Read more...] about Jesus’ Entry Sent a Message
Christ’s Agony and Scourging
liz west/Flickr Cæli enarrant By Christopher Wells The great gift and power of the rosary is its laser focus on the “mysteries” — the sacraments — of our faith (see Eph. 5:32), which God would break open before and in us. He seeks to show himself to us entirely, and in so doing to place us in the flesh of his Son. Every feeling, hope, dream, and fear; every love, … [Read more...] about Christ’s Agony and Scourging
No Substitute for Substitution
Defending Substitution: An Essay on Atonement in Paul By Simon Gathercole. Baker Academic. Pp. 128. $19.99 Review by Fleming Rutledge It may or may not come as a surprise to some readers of The Living Church to know that the simple statement, “Jesus Christ died in my place for my sins,” might bring down the wrath of the academic community upon the unsuspecting head … [Read more...] about No Substitute for Substitution
What Would an ESFJ Do?
Multiple bloggers at Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton, Illinois, write: To help prepare you for worship during Holy Week, we offer this reflection on genuflection using your personality type. If you don’t know yours, you can take an official Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment here. Each Holy Week personality is paired with a patron saint, so we can imitate them in … [Read more...] about What Would an ESFJ Do?
A Holy Week Primer
The Rev. Matthew Marino writes at The Gospel Side:Holy Week, in a nutshell, is a spiritual retreat without leaving home. Remember summer youth camp? You had an authentic, transformative experience of God in a group of others having the same experience. You came home connected to those people and God in a new way. You thought, “That was fantastic. I am different and I can hardly … [Read more...] about A Holy Week Primer
Jesus as Martyr for Israel
By Robert Russell Smith In 2010 I wrote a play, The Inquiry: A Story of the Passion of Jesus, to resolve some of the conflicts between the Gospels and modern biblical scholarship. I resolved that it would not reenact the Passion Narratives but would be a dramatic reconstruction based upon my years of study of circumstantial though compelling evidence. I wrote from this … [Read more...] about Jesus as Martyr for Israel