Holy Saturday, nestled between two days of such great weight, gives us a chance to ponder the extent of God’s saving plan. Christ descended to the bowels of the earth so that he could bring us up from the pit of sin. When we find ourselves in an abyss of sinfulness, we need not despair: [...]
“Behold the wood of the cross on which hung the salvation of the world.” When we hear the priest proclaim these words at the liturgy later today, perhaps we should also recall the annual proclamation of our optometrists. Gesturing toward yet another set of letters on the wall, he asks: “Now, what do you see here?” [...]
Not only did Jesus manifest Himself as the Logos so long desired in the pagan West on that Friday afternoon, but He also manifested Himself as the Christ, the true and eternal king. In some mysterious way, it was the death on Friday that revealed all of this, not the resurrection on Sunday. As Jesus [...]
This evening begins the holiest time of the year. The ocean of God’s grace is poised to flood your soul as we are brought into the sacred mysteries and transformed by them. He stands ready to open our hearts as we bear witness to the greatest story our world has ever seen. I still remember [...]
Our faith tells us, and we believe, that the Presence of the Lord is not just a thing of the past. He is with us now, in the present. Once again, our faith has brought us here to mark what Jesus did on that first Holy Thursday. We solemnly remember that night in the upper [...]
While we are in this sojourning to our true homeland, we are not fixed immovably in the love of God. Only in heaven, with the blessed, will we see God and his goodness in all of its contours; and once seen, we will desire nothing else. Human love can be fickle; it can sway here [...]
With eyes that pierce every illusion, Jesus saw us drowning in this stupor of gnawing desires and lies. To snatch our attention out of the swamp, he suffered a death of such torture and abandonment that it shocks us. In college I visited Las Vegas—and I was unimpressed. Sin City markets itself with a swagger [...]
My own continued admiration of Gerald Finzi’s majestic and moving anthem, "Lo, The Full, Final Sacrifice," lies not only in the masterful blend of music and words, but also in the confluence of so many personal memories that touch and move me. Sometimes a piece of music or art brings different aspects of one’s life [...]
It started in a garden—man’s first sin, our fall. It began beneath a tree with fruit that was good and pleasing to the eyes (Gen 3:6). Although we tend to place the blame on the apple based on a Latin pun, some traditions point to the fig tree, whose leaves Adam and Eve used to cover themselves. [...]
Unlike the mute stones surrounding Jesus during that great procession of the first Holy Week, let us hail his arrival with shouts. As Jesus approaches our stony hearts, let us cry out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Luke 19:40). As our Lord [...]
Though Handel's "Messiah" rightly reigns supreme as the king of music for Easter, there are many other seasonal masterpieces that deserve to be heard more often. Here are ten lesser-known classical works that brilliantly depict the dramatic events of Holy Week and Easter Sunday. 1. "Resurrexit" from the Messe Solennelle, by Hector Berlioz (1824) The [...]