In the spiritual life one never rests on one's laurels. It is a sure recipe for falling. Attainments are like the manna given to the Iraelites in the desert, good only for the day (Exod. 16:4). Past attainments do not place us in a position of merit that permits us to let up in the hot persuit of God for today, for now ( Read more... )

CS Lewis: Its not that our desires arent too strong; its that they arent strong enough.

Luke 19:47-48
47Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. 48Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.When i read ( Read more... )

i have prayed this a katrillion times:

Dear Lord, bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies.

and it just occoured to me:

shouldn't I be blessing God and not the bread?

1Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear him. 2But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, This man welcomes sinners and eats with them ( Read more... )

A story of grace from the movie Ironweed. Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep stumble across an aold Eskimo woman lying in the snow, probably drunk. Besotted themselves, the two debate what they should do about her.

"Is she drunk or a bum" (asks nicholson)
"Just a bum. Been one all her life ( Read more... )

37When he finished that talk, a Pharisee asked him to dinner. He entered his house and sat right down at the table. 38The Pharisee was shocked and somewhat offended when he saw that Jesus didn't wash up before the meal. 39But the Master said to him, "I know you Pharisees (religious leaders of that day) polish the surface of your cups and plates so ( Read more... )

At the Home of Martha and Mary
38As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, Lord, don't ( Read more... )

13He replied, You give them something to eat. They answered, We have only five loaves of bread and two fishunless we go and buy food for all this crowd. 14(About five thousand men were there.) But he said to his disciples, Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each. 15The disciples did so, and everybody sat down. 16Taking the five ( Read more... )

A busy man. Jesus had time for interruptions.

Making his way through a crowd, a mob, a mass of people crammed shoulder to shoulder they were just trying to see him, to hear him, to touch him; the text says they almost crushed him. Then the Messiah he just stops. He asks the question who touched me?
Peter is like Jesus you have to be kidding me ( Read more... )

44Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46You did not put oil on my head, ( Read more... )