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Lent is Scary and Hurts Like Hell |
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Written by Brian E Volck
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Tuesday, 12 February 2008 |
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Genesis 12:1-4  2 Timothy 1:8-10
Matthew 17:1-9
The Catholic lectionary readings for the Second Sunday of Lent include the Transfiguration account, a reading many Protestant traditions heard two weeks earlier. In any case, I have nothing to add to the vast libraries of commentary devoted to that gospel episode. It’s 2 Timothy that I have on my mind this Lenten week (Those of you hearing Romans 4 also have something meaty to dwell on. It’s rather more closely related to the Genesis passage, but that’s another matter…) Here’s the text from Timothy:
Join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
The traditional practices of Lent – prayer, fasting and almsgiving – were, of course, never meant to earn God’s love and forgiveness.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 12 February 2008 )
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Written by Brian E Volck
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Tuesday, 12 February 2008 |
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Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7
Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11
This past Sunday brought NCAA basketball just down the street from my parish on the campus of Xavier University in Cincinnati. We’d been warned parking would be a nightmare for the 11 o’clock mass, so we went instead to St. Joseph’s church, a largely African-American Catholic church in Cincinnati’s struggling West End. My family had worshipped there before – usually at the end of one of our parish’s “urban plunge” weekends – and knew we were in for a powerful experience.
But what struck me more than the heartfelt singing and unselfconscious prayer was the force of scripture proclaimed by mouths familiar with the bitter taste of injustice. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 12 February 2008 )
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Written by Debra Dean Murphy
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Tuesday, 05 February 2008 |
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Mardi Gras. The phrase conjures images of drunken revelry and riotous carnality, tempered with a little voodoo carnivàle. Associated as it is with that most sensual of American cities, New Orleans (at least until Katrina and its aftermath changed the city and our perception of it forever), “Fat Tuesday” seems the antithesis of anything holy or sacred. But its origins, of course, are in the Church’s season of Lent. Ash Wednesday is preceded by Fat Tuesday ("Mardi Gras" in French) which, historically, was a time to eat up all the rich foods—meat, butter, eggs—you would not be consuming during the Lenten fast. The word “carnival” literally means “farewell to meat”. Some churches observe “Shrove Tuesday” (shrive=to confess) by hosting pancake suppers. But what does it mean, I wonder, to "feast before the fast" when we are encouraged every day in this culture of excess to feast? |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 06 February 2008 )
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