During forty-nine years of hearing confessions I have heard mostly from people who neglected to go to Church on Sunday, who did some kind of sexual transgression or who said something nasty about their neighbor. The point of confession is summed up well by the prophet Isaiah: Cease doing evil; learn to do good. What… Read More »

There is an Italian saying, to translate is to betray. (It sounds better in Italian.) The saying reminds us that when moving between languages you lose some nuance, some understanding that lay in the original. Jesus and his followers spoke Aramaic, a Hebrew dialect. His words were remembered by Aramaic speakers (since there was no… Read More »

My sister JoAnn was going to the prom. This is the sister who woke in the morning with curlers in her hair, whose skin peeled when she had a sun burn, whose hands and mouth were covered with Old Bay seasoning while eating crabs. But she was going to the prom so a visit to… Read More »

Today you are making this agreement with the LORD: he is to be your God and you are to walk in his ways… And today the LORD is making this agreement with you: you are to be a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you. This two sided agreement is called forming a covenant.… Read More »

During World War II Count Helmut Von Moltke and his friends had discussed a Germany based on moral and democratic principles that could develop after Hitler. This was considered treason by the Nazi regime and he was put on trial. The real issue crystalized when the prosecutor said in court, “Christianity and National Socialism are… Read More »

Queen Esther, seized with mortal anguish, had recourse to the LORD. By a happy coincidence, or actually we should call it a providence, on the day when the Lenten reading of the Church mentions Queen Esther is the Feast of Purim on the Jewish calendar. Purim is the festival which recalls that it was Queen… Read More »

According to the Biblical story Jonah is sent to Nineveh to preach repentance. The story prompts the question: who really needed to repent? The story starts off with Jonah resisting the call to become a prophet. Fleeing from God, he ends up in the belly of the whale. That gets his attention and he decides… Read More »

Which is the most important line in the Lord’s Prayer? “Thy will be done?” “Give us this day our daily bread?” The way that St. Matthew introduces the Lord’s prayer suggests a different line. To the prayer itself Jesus adds this appendix: “If you forgive men their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you.” In… Read More »