The Good Word

When lecturing on Paul s first letter to Corinthians Daniel J Harrington S J my colleague at Weston Jesuit School of Theology tells our students that there are no problems in the Church today that did not exist in some form in the early church at Corinth This insight can be consoling

Mark 3 1-6 the Gospel for today tells of Jesus curing of a withered hand In itself a noteworthy miracle an expression of good will of love But Mark sets the miracle in a context of controversy they continued to watch to see if Jesus would cure on the Sabbath and once he cured t

Though the compilers of the lectionary probably did not have the Presidential primary season in mind when selecting this week s passage from 1 Corinthians it is difficult for me as a resident of South Carolina to read these words from Paul without thinking of electoral politics With the Republ

How long should a good homily be That question is often discussed A related question–but one that is not often addressed–is how long goes a homily have to be In other words how short is too short I got to thinking about this question this weekend while visiting a parish in Massachusetts The

This Sunday s first reading is woven explicitly into the Gospel a writer s move recently named intertextuality The practice is ancient though often the intertexts are less clear and more difficult to spot Today we have Isaiah 9 1-2 invited by Matthew into the Gospel at the place now ca

We now enjoy public discussion about a Mass in which the priest faces ad orientem some like to refer to this position as with his back to the people while others like to refer to this position as towards the east itself a reference to the direction from which in olden times God was ex

Peter Sellick s beautiful article on this topic refers us approvingly to Archbishop Rowan Williams critique of the anthropocentric Renaissance view of the artist as a creative genius who imposes his will on his artistic material Williams proposes a return to the earlier more self-effacing v

There is a static way of considering the Baptism of the Lord particularly in art and in liturgical story-telling nbsp In these forms the Baptism is looked at or read as a story complete in itself nbsp But the Gospel-writers for all their differences in nbsp describing the event of Jesus

The affinity of creation theology to the wisdom tradition of Israel has long been recognized However in such study creation regularly has been considered one theme among many and usually one of secondary importance rather than the basis of all theology as is proposed here Furthermore when not d

The Christmas Season comes to a close with the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord The outpouring of the Spirit and the Father s declaration You are my beloved Son make Jesus baptism one of the three traditional Epiphany events That Jesus submitted to receiving baptism a baptism of