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The Thirty-Third Day of Christmas Advent. The Desert of Human History.

INTO THE DESERT OF HUMAN HISTORY, and even here, in to the modern deserts we shape and inhabit, at a time when the poor and needy—their tongues parched with thirst—desperately seek life-sustaining waters, the Holy One pours out rivers and fountains. He places the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive along their banks, and he sets together the cypress, the plane, and the pine. He is with us in our poverty, and he

Morning Dew. From the Morning, O Lord…

Morning Dew “My child,” God says, “I want you to feel yourself in communion with my splendid universe, with its uncertain aspirations, its unexpressed thanksgivings.  I want above all, especially in those moments when you seek to become one with boundless Love, that you be perfectly humble. You have often seen morning dew.  It places sparkling jewels on blades of grass and on leaves, shortly before the rising of the sun.  Dew is abundant there

The Great and Holy Monday. The Mystical Reality of Holy Week

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 6, 2015 As we journey through Holy Week… For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. (1Co 15:16-19 NKJ) Earlier this Spring, two

The Third Day of Christmas Advent. An Illegal Christmas

By Father Stephen Freeman The great advantage to thinking about God in legal terms, is that nothing has to change. If what happens between us and God is entirely external, a matter of arranging things such as the avoidance of eternal punishment or the enjoyment of eternal reward, then the world can go on as it is. In the legal model that dominates contemporary Christian thought, the secular world of things becomes nothing more than

The Land of Love (Part II)

There was a man who invented the art of making fire. He took his tools and went to a tribe in the north, where it was very cold, bitterly cold. He taught the people there to make fire. The people were very interested. He showed them the uses to which they could put fire— they could cook, could keep themselves warm, etc. They were so grateful that they had learned the art of making fire.

Pure Love’s Ways: A Valentine to God

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind (and with all your strength).  Matthew 22:37, Mark, 12:30, Luke 10:27   How do I love Thee my Lord?   I love Thee when I turn my back to bitterness, forgiving spite and might To caress and bless the broken-hearted walking dead.   I love Thee as I abandon sleep to dawn metallic bangles and belts-tight

Jesus is Lord

“Jesus is Lord” (Romans 10:10) was proclaimed by the early church as their most concise creedal statement. No one ever told me this was a political and subversive statement, until I studied the Scriptures. To say “Jesus is Lord” was testing and provoking the Roman pledge of allegiance that every Roman citizen had to shout when they raised their hand to the Roman insignia: “Caesar is Lord.” Early Christians were quite aware that their “citizenship”

Saint Benedict the Righteous of Nursia

This Saint, whose name means “blessed,” was born in 480 in Nursia, a small town about seventy miles northeast of Rome. He struggled in asceticism from his youth in deserted regions, where his example drew many who desired to emulate him.