Messy Jesus Blog, a new blog run by Sr. Julia Walsh, FSPA and her friends, has a guest blog from Sr. Sarah Hennessey reflecting on the Baptism of Jesus. The entry, Segues, looks at the reality of transitions in our lives:

“Liturgically, now is a moment of segues: from the nativity of Epiphany to the manhood of the Baptism of the Lord, from the festiveness of Christmas to the regularity of ordinary time. We stand in the movement of transition.

I am preparing the inquirers in RCIA for the Rite of Acceptance into the Order of the Catechumenate. Their silent questings and private searchings are now finding the breathing room of a public space.  “I wonder” is becoming “I believe.”  Never an easy step, we surround them with the companion of a sponsor and the public assurance of all our prayers.  On this feast of the Baptism of the Lord, they step forward with conviction into a new life of faith.”

Read the rest here.

John W. Martens

Follow me on Twitter @johnwmartens

John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn,where he teaches early Christianity and Judaism. He also directs the Master of Arts in Theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He was born in Vancouver, B.C. into a Mennonite family that had decided to confront modernity in an urban setting. His post-secondary education began at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, came to an abrupt stop, then started again at Vancouver Community College, where his interest in Judaism and Christianity in the earliest centuries emerged. He then studied at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and McMaster University, with stops at University of Haifa and University of Tubingen. His writing often explores the intersection of Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman culture and belief, such as in "let the little children come to me: Children and Childhood in Early Christianity" (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), but he is not beyond jumping into the intersection of modernity and ancient religion, as in "The End of the World: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Film and Television" (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Press, 2003). He blogs at  www.biblejunkies.com and at www.americamagazine.org for "The Good Word." You can follow him on Twitter @biblejunkies, where he would be excited to welcome you to his random and obscure interests, which range from the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, to his dog, and 70s punk, pop and rock. When he can, he brings students to Greece, Turkey and Rome to explore the artifacts and landscape of the ancient world. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and has two sons. He is certain that the world will not end until the Vancouver Canucks have won the Stanley Cup, as evidence has emerged from the Revelation of John, 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra which all point in this direction.