Barbara Green

I want to position my reflection between two catalysts nbsp First is Karen Armstrong rsquo s assertion that mythos or sacred narrative assists us to review and experience deeply the many facets of the human predicament notably here the choice between Good and Evil Second is the genre of imaginat

Second Sunday of Advent Year C The entrance antiphon and gospel specifically and the first reading and response more allusively speak of God rsquo s role to ldquo save rdquo give ldquo salvation rdquo to Israel believers perhaps all humans and even creation Now is a good time to ask exact

Mary Chilton Callaway a perceptive and profound commentator on the Jewish Scriptures and their vast matrix literature says that our understandings and interpretations of biblical passage are often more influenced by how others have read them than by the texts themselves nbsp By ldquo other read

The prophet Jeremiah preached so far as we can hear from the book bearing his name mostly harsh threatening and accusatory words urgently necessary in his day nbsp There are a few chapters of hope promise and joy as sampled in the first reading today nbsp The prophet exults to announce th

This Sunday rsquo s readings all work to deepen for us a common conundrum paradox or challenge relationality mdash how any of us is related with everything else The extraordinary reading from Genesis situates the original human as ldquo alone rdquo until it has named the animals and been config

These readings emerge from our tradition and liturgy into a world that is filled with violence war torture rape with the devastations of the drug culture and consumerism poverty crime sexism racism lies accusations insults powerfully negative constructions of each other nbsp Our need t

If I were preaching on these readings my main objective would be to avoid re-enforcing the idea strongly if sometime subliminally held by Christians that Jews are almost unavoidably legalistic and hypocritical about their arcane law nbsp It can sound as if Jesus is saying that which I would al

20th Sunday of OT Year B The liturgy continues to offer us portions of John rsquo s Gospel on feeding and eating bread and Eucharist paired with various OT readings on God rsquo s provision of food loaves multiplying for Elisha rsquo s people manna in the wilderness baked bread for Elijah to

Two related points about this week s readings First it is difficult for me as a woman religious to hear Ezekiel rsquo s description of nbsp ldquo bad shepherds rdquo behavior without thinking of recent acts of power by authorities in the Catholic Church Whether pondering the abuse of childre

Building on last week rsquo s readings about prophets in a way unusual and interesting we now get additional insight from Amos and Mark nbsp The Amos narrative looms oddly in a book where otherwise the prophet is a speaker rather than spoken about and it comes too abruptly since the lectionary s