Eating with Jesus should be a time of healing, which can shock even customary religious sensitivities.

Over the past weeks the readings have alternated between presentations of Jesus as a model of compassion and mercy and as a leader who makes harsh demands of his followers e g entering the narrow gate casting fire on the earth bringing division among families In today rsquo s Gospel the deman

At the end of his magisterial survey of the quest of the historical Jesus in the 19th century Albert Schweitzer recalled Jesus rsquo command to every Christian to follow him and added quot to those who obey him whether they be wise or simple he will reveal himself in the toils in the conflic

Christians today overly concerned about impressive gates and religious identity may find some surprising table companions at the messianic banquet.

Difficulty in reflecting or preaching on the Assumption has always been the absence of any biblical account that the quot ever Virgin Mary having completed the course of her earthly life was assumed body and soul into heaven quot Pius XII Nov 1 1950 The dogma arose from centuries of reflec

The host of a morning news program was interviewing a writer from Forbes magazine who was lamenting the financial losses suffered by various dot-com billionaires He said that one person rsquo s fortune had fallen to a mere 170 million and another had only a billion left I could barely hold back m