The Good Word

As indicated in an earlier blog in THE GOOD WORD there are a number of passages in the writings of St Paul which suggest understandings of and limitations on women that seem unreasonable nbsp It is too long a project to analyze here all of these passages – indeed a fair and final nbsp evaluat

When asked to paint the Sistine Chapel in Rome Michelangelo followed a scheme in which he alternates Jewish prophets with pagan oracles nbsp His goal was to offer the viewer the Christian belief that all wisdom whether it be Jewish or pagan looks to one person Jesus Christ himself also

The ancients in general seem to have understood that diverse deities existed related competed–and that the question for human discernment and commitment was which one whose was the real God Today s first reading from Isaiah can be understood in that way Perhaps generated from amid a wider

For me as a student of the Greco-Roman era the word Epiphany has certain connotations attached to it which are hard to shake and they all revolve around one man Antiochus IV Epiphanes As told in 1 Maccabees 1-2 and 2 Maccabees 5-7 Antiochus attempted to annihilate Judaism which initially he pr

In his poem Desiderata Max Ehrmann states You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars People today have come to see that they are not over and against nature but embedded in it in the very creative matrix that has given them life and that continues to give l

The story of the Innocents is only two verses long but serves at least two purposes for Matthew s story about Jesus nbsp First it exemplifies the furor of Herod the Great at the possibility that a King of the Jews had been born after all Herod be decree of Rome was King of the Jews

St Stephen reminds us 1 In his lengthy speech in Acts 7 the point is made that worship even the glorious worship of God by Israel is now to be made through the person of Jesus There is much amiss in the worship offered to the Father from which His Son is rejected all goals of worship are ac

Matthew s first line in today s Gospel speaks of how the birth of Jesus Christ came about nbsp His story is a gathering of strong traditions already existing in the Christian world of the Mediterranean Basic St Paul s letters are good examples of this already existing tradition nb

These last seven days of Advent are a special time of the Church year among my favorites on the liturgical calendar nbsp Not only do the readings for the daily Masses just before Christmas include the beginnings of the Gospel infancy narratives Matthew 1 on Dec 17-18 Luke 1 on Dec 19-24 but

In Matthew 1 20 the Gospel author cites a prophecy from Isaiah 7 14 concerning a 8220 virgin 8221 Gk parthenos who would give birth to a child Matthew seems to be citing the Septuagint LXX a 3rd century B C translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek which also has parthenos Why