Category: Life in Christ

Life in Christ

Note that neither Origen nor Augustine nor Jerome was writing for tenure or to impress an academic audience

Posted on by John W Gillis / 0 Comment

Quote of the Day for Saturday, October 1st, 2011: Fr. Robert Barron, from the Introduction to his book, Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Master (Crossroad, 1996), on the pastoral character of pre-Scholastic theology: [P]rior to 1300, that is, from the earliest centuries of the church up until the time of Thomas Aquinas, there was no significant split between theology (talk about God) and spirituality. Many of the significant spiritual masters of the patristic period – Origen, Augustine, pseudo-Dionysius, Ambrose – were what we would call theologians. All of the...

Life in Christ

We have the duty and joy of sharing in this prayer whenever possible

Posted on by John W Gillis / 0 Comment

Quote of the Day for Sunday, May 29th, 2011: Taken from the website of an Anglican priest in New Zealand, Bosco Peters, on the proper place of the Liturgy of the Hours in the prayer life of the Christian believer: Many who pray the Daily Office have a personal Rule of Life, or even an expectation or vows that require that regular discipline. These can often end up feeling guilty when a particular Hour has not been prayed by them. Some, in fact, will then try to “catch up” what they have missed – even gluing a number of Hours together an...

Life in Christ

Through obedience, we become who we really are

Posted on by John W Gillis / 1 Comment

Quote of the Day for Tuesday, April 26th, 2011: David Mills, from an On the Square post over at First Things, from an interesting, if somewhat bizarrely sensationalist, reflection on the moral significance of being true to the self: No one objects to being told to live like Jesus. But to live the way St. Paul says to live, or the way the Catechism of the Catholic Church says to live, that we dislike. Being chaste, or giving alms, or stifling our desire for profit, or going to confession, or watching our language, or suffering a fool gladly, that rankles,...

Life in Christ

I’m going to kill you! HA HA HA!

Posted on by John W Gillis / 0 Comment

I find the readings for the Mass of the 5th Sunday of Lent (Year A) to be among the most exhilarating set of liturgical readings in the canon, with its recurring promises of resurrection culminating in the Gospel story of Jesus raising his friend Lazarus from the tomb. I reflected quite a bit on them over the weekend of the 5th Sunday. During the following week, I came across what I’d guess is by now a well-traveled “sermon jam” drawn from recordings of Ravi Zacharias, which asks what should perhaps be considered, for Christians, the fundamental qu...

Life in Christ

Christ reigns by unfolding Himself in men

Posted on by John W Gillis / 0 Comment

Quote of the Day for Monday, January 31st, 2011: A. G. Sertillanges, from his venerable book The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods: Christianized humanity is made up of various personalities, no one of which can refuse to function without impoverishing the group and without depriving the eternal Christ of a part of his Kingdom. Christ reigns by unfolding Himself in men. Every life of one of His members is a characteristic moment of His duration; every individual man and Christian is an instance, incommunicable, unique, and therefore nece...

Life in Christ

We have children because love overflows

Posted on by John W Gillis / 0 Comment

Quote of the Day for Sunday, January 30th, 2011: Timothy Dalrymple, writing at Patheos.com, on Why We Have Children: At the thought of fathering a daughter, waves of joy rolled through me. I loved my little girl long before I met her. I read her stories in the womb, sang to her, prayed for her. It wouldn’t matter what she looked like or what her personality was. She was mine—mine to nurture and protect, mine to train and guide, and mine to love with all my might. We have children because love overflows. I believe as a Christian that I am created in...

Life in Christ

God Did Not Make Us to Remain Within the Limits of Nature

Posted on by John W Gillis / 0 Comment

Quote of the Day for January 2nd, 2011: Henri De Lubac, writing on the nature of the Church, in The Splendor of the Church, p. 237 in the 1999 Ignatius edition: God did not make us “to remain within the limits of nature” or for the fulfilling of a solitary destiny; on the contrary, he made us to be brought together into the heart of the life of the Trinity. Christ offered himself in sacrifice so that we might be one in that unity of the divine Persons (Jn 17:19-23). That is to be the “recapitulation”, “regeneration”, and “consummation” of all things, and...

Life in Christ

O Emmanuel

Posted on by John W Gillis / 0 Comment

“O Emmanuel, king and lawgiver, desire of the nations, Savior of all people, come and set us free, Lord our God.” (O Antiphon for Dec 23rd) The sequence of antiphons this week culminates today in what is one of the most outrageous claims ever made. I was reading someone not too long ago who was speaking of the dangers that have historically been encountered whenever believers try to shift the focus of Christianity from the Passion/Resurrection to the Incarnation. Though the details escape me at this point, I recall it being a compelling read. But the ten...

Life in Christ

O Rex Gentium

Posted on by John W Gillis / 0 Comment

“O King of all the nations, the only joy of every human heart; O Keystone of the mighty arch of man, come and save the creature you fashioned from the dust.” (O Antiphon for Dec 22nd) Of all the titles of Christ given in these antiphons, I find the notion expressed in today’s antiphon the most difficult to see my way clear to. The others all seem to allow a kind of "religious" perspective to them – “light” and “wisdom” and other even more abstract ideas. I don’t mean by that to contrast the obvious political character of the idea of...

Life in Christ

O Oriens

Posted on by John W Gillis / 0 Comment

“O Radiant Dawn, splendor of eternal light, sun of justice: come, shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.” (O Antiphon for Dec 21st) Ironic, isn’t it?, that the antiphon for the Winter Solstice calls upon Christ as the Light of Dawn, or Rising Sun, or Dayspring from On High! Like all the antiphons of this octave, it recalls an Isaiahan Messianic prophecy: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shown.” (9:1 in NAB – 9:2 in most versions). All the bells and whi...