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Articles
Instant Conversion
One feature of the Gospel for this Fifth Sunday of Lent has intrigued many readers: Jesus’s writing on the ground with his finger. For what could he possibly have been writing? One ingenious scribe,...
Articles
The Layered Meaning of the Prodigal Son
In 1861, John William Burgon, the (Anglican) dean of Chichester cathedral, preached a sermon in Christ Church cathedral, Oxford, that included the following statement:
THE BIBLE is none other
than the voice...
Articles
Really Seeing
Are old people wise? Have they learned anything from experience? Or are they all curmudgeons, continually grumbling about the young generation and contrasting it unfavourably with the way things used to be? Well, as...
Articles
Forgive our Sins as We Forgive
I’ve been hearing confessions, now, for over fifty years, and I have noticed that there is one sin that comes up more than any other; it’s connected to today’s Gospel, about loving your enemy,...
Articles
The Entrance of Baptism
A BIBLICAL TEXT can become so familiar that we simply bypass statements that would ordinarily puzzle us. I’m thinking of an aspect of the Gospel of today's feast, viz., John’s baptizing at the River...
Articles
C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity and the Puritan Paradigm of Conversion
 In a letter of 11 December 1944 C. S. Lewis mentions five “shining examples of human holiness”. Along with Saint Francis, George Herbert, George MacDonald, “and even burly old Dr. Johnson” we find John...
Articles
Waiting for the Real Christmas
I don’t know about you, but I’m already tired of 'Christmas'. Of course, I am not referring to the real Christmas—the birth of Jesus—but what goes by the name of Christmas in the stores...
Articles
Keeping Advent Well
Everyone here knows that Advent is the season of waiting. As the readings for the first Sunday indicate, the fundamental characteristic of this time in the Church year is an expression of our longing...
