At the Cross Is the Real World

Christ of Saint John of the Cross by Salvador Dali

We contemplate for a time the meaning of Good Friday, and then return to what is called the real world of work and shopping and commuter trains and homes. As we come out of a movie theater and shake our heads to clear our minds of another world where we lived for a time in suspended disbelief, as we reorient ourselves to reality, so we leave our contemplation - we leave the church building, we close the book - where for a time another reality seemed possible, believable, even real. But, we tell ourselves, the real world is a world elsewhere. It is the world of deadlines to be met, of appointments to be kept, of taxes to be paid, of children to be educated. From here, from this moment at the cross, it is a distant country. "Father, forgive them, for they have forgotten the way home. They have misplaced the real world." Here, here at the cross, is the real world, here is the axis mundi.

Richard John Neuhaus

The Inseparability of Orthodoxy and Orthopraxis

The way of godliness consists of these two parts, pious doctrines and good works.
Neither are the doctrines acceptable to God without good works,
nor does God accept works accomplished otherwise than as linked with pious doctrines.
Cyril of Jerusalem

Are You Not a Robber?

I find this quotation appropriate to begin the season of Lent as almsgiving and self-denial have traditionally been part of what Christians do during this season specifically to prepare themselves for the annual commemoration of the Passion of Christ which will culminate in the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ.

Are you not a robber, you who consider your own
that which has been given you solely to distribute to others?
This bread which you have set aside is the bread of the hungry;
this garment you have locked away is the clothing of the naked;
those shoes which you let rot are the shoes of him who is barefoot;
those riches you have hoarded are the riches of the poor.
Basil of Caesarea

There Is More, There Is More...

The older I get and the deeper I grow in the Gospel
there is more goodness, and mystery,
and wonder, and kindness, and grace in the world
than the little tweezers of my theology can possibly hold.
Thomas Grier Long

Busy-ness and Spiritual Restlesness

Our mundane busy-ness can be a symptom of a spiritual restlessness -
a symptom of our own disbelief and disobedience which would prevent us
from entering God's rest. When we become consumed with "our work"
- whatever that might be, and even if it is noble, holy, and just -
we unwittingly fall back into the autonomous dreams of our own making.
When we spurn rest, we spurn grace and reject God's gift.
James Smith

Exegesis & Spirituality

"The ultimate aim of all true exegesis is spirituality.
Only when exegesis is so understood
has the exegetical task been done in a way
that is faithful to the intent of the text itself."
Gordon D. Fee

Theology & Prayer

"If you are a theologian, you pray truly;
if you pray truly, you are a theologian."
Evagrius (One of the Greek Fathers, AD 346-399)