Anointed with Clay
by Hans BoersmaThis is the gospel of Lent: He anointed the eyes of the blind man with clay. Continue Reading »
This is the gospel of Lent: He anointed the eyes of the blind man with clay. Continue Reading »
We are a people marked by death—not death as a power that holds sway over us, but rather the liberating death of Christ on the cross. Continue Reading »
Lent is a kind of death, the laying bare of one’s soul through fasting, prayer, and meditation. Continue Reading »
Our crosses chip away our defenses, perverse habits, and self-delusions, removing “what hid Christ” so he can be seen. Continue Reading »
On Ash Wednesday, hundreds of English speakers climb the Aventine before dawn to receive penitential ashes and celebrate the first Mass of Lent. Continue Reading »
Friday abstinence was once a defining mark of the practicing Catholic, and it ought to be again. Continue Reading »
I’m at the corner of Broadway and West 73rd Street trying to decide whether the security guard at the building next door dislikes me. Earlier he was giving me dirty looks when I bent down to study the sign in front of the church he is guarding. With apologies to a man who is just trying to do his . . . . Continue Reading »
Just lately from the forest and after a short time on the savannah, humanity acquired a sense of self. We awakened one morning, so it seems, and if we did not know who we were we at least knew we were not like the animals. We knew we died and the animals did not. We possessed an interior . . . . Continue Reading »
Two recent articles reveal the weakness of both secularism and much of contemporary Christianity. Continue Reading »
The Victorian poet Christina Rossetti (1830–1894) is most celebrated for her popular Christmas carols, but her most prolific liturgical season was Lent. A fervent Anglican, Rossetti expressed in her poems a deeper understanding of suffering than pieces like “Love Came Down At Christmas” might lead you to suspect. In her Lenten poetry, she focuses not only on her own sins, but highlights how her intense brokenness united her to God. Continue Reading »