McKenna

The Lord Jesus grew up in an agricultural setting, and so it’s no surprise that He draws on images that run through that world.

A favorite verse, Psalm 4, reads: “Lord, let your face shine upon us.” It summons up a very warm and private kind of experience that each of us in our own way can recognize.

A remark I once overheard: “I don’t mind suffering when nobody knows about it – as long as somebody knows about it!”

If you’ve watched any sports events over the last decades, you’ve seen banners held high, calling attention to a famous passage in John’s Gospel.

Early in St. John’s gospel, we see Jesus resolutely striding into the outer courtyard of the Jerusalem Temple, a space bordering on what the Jewish people acknowledged to be God’s own Dwelling place.

A question: what is it that allows people to keep on giving? What is it that motivates someone who isn’t receiving any reward or payment to continue being generous?

There have been times in both the history of the Jewish people and in our own Church when there was a wide dividing line between the clergy and the rest of the believing people.

There is a phase to describe what often happens when somebody who is believable begins to talk: “When he or she stands up to speak, everybody listens!”

Am I more often alert to the sounds of God’s presence? Or do I not pay much attention to the ways God is directing me?