Monday: The Tree and the Temple

Monday: The Tree and the Temple

Read Mark 11:12-19 and Matthew 21:12-14 (and see John 2:13-17) Monday of Passion Week begins with a tree. Yesterday, Jesus entered Jerusalem to wild acclaim—a forest of palm branches, cheering crowds, his disciples clearing a path for the humble beast and its humble...
Palm Sunday and the Lazarus Effect

Palm Sunday and the Lazarus Effect

I read John 11, Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:11, and Luke 19:41-44 in this order In 2022, I stood once again on the Wall surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem, looking across to the Mount of Olives. Once covered in olive groves, its slopes over the past three thousand...
My Will Be Done

My Will Be Done

I can tell you from continuing experience that we never stop learning things about ourselves. The work of Christ illuminates that self-willed inner us and asks—again and again—what we intend to do about it. Case in point. I was checking out several sites for an...
Why I Will Let Love Win

Why I Will Let Love Win

Due to the trepidatious occurrence of Lent again commencing on Valentine’s Day, I have—again— decided to make a different kind of Lenten offering. Rather than give up sugar, an obvious choice year to year with my proclivities, or chocolate, which I’ve...