Monthly Archives: December 2016
Love Summary for the Year: Week 2 Summary
Love Summary for the Year: Week 2 Summary: Sunday, December 25-Friday, December 30, 2016 The full and participatory meaning of Christmas is that this one universal mystery of Divine Incarnation is also intended for us and continuing in us! (Sunday) The only way to be victim in a generative and healing way is as Jesus… Continue Reading Love Summary for the Year: Week 2 Summary
Universal Restoration
Love Summary for the Year: Week 2 Universal Restoration Friday, December 30, 2016 There were a number of fathers in the early church (the first four centuries C.E.) who believed in apokatastasis, “universal restoration” (Acts 3:21). They believed that the real meaning of the resurrection of Christ was that God’s love was so perfect and… Continue Reading Universal Restoration
Love Never Fails
Love Summary for the Year: Week 2 Love Never Fails Thursday, December 29, 2016 1 Corinthians 13 might be the supreme piece of condensed theology in the entire Bible. The whole message of Scripture is there. In this one short part of a longer letter, Paul shows himself to be an excellent philosopher, theologian, mystic,… Continue Reading Love Never Fails
Suffering for Love
Love Summary for the Year: Week 2 Suffering for Love Wednesday, December 28, 2016 (Feast of the Holy Innocents) Authentic love is of one piece. How you love anything is how you love everything. Love is a quality of relationship more than a statement about the worthiness or deservedness of the object loved. (Read that… Continue Reading Suffering for Love
The Greatest Commandments
Love Summary for the Year: Week 2 The Greatest Commandments Wednesday, December 27, 2016 (Feast of John the Beloved) Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way… Continue Reading The Greatest Commandments
Changing the Game
Love Summary for the Year: Week 2 Changing the Game Monday, December 26, 2016 (Feast of St. Stephen) Today I encourage you to read the account of the death of Stephen (Acts 7:58-60). Stephen, the proto-martyr of Christianity, has become a new Jesus, which is henceforth the only and never-ending goal. Jesus and Stephen state… Continue Reading Changing the Game
The Continual Incarnation
On this Christmas day, all of us at the Center for Action and Contemplation pray you may know the deep love of God that surpasses understanding. The story of Jesus’ birth reveals what is too simple and profound for us to comprehend: God is with us, even in our pain. In this 8-minute video, I… Continue Reading The Continual Incarnation
Love Summary for the Year: Week 1 Summary
Love Summary for the Year: Week 1 Summary: Sunday, December 18-Friday, December 23, 2016 The True Self—where you and God are one—does not choose to love as much as it is love itself already (see Colossians 3:3-4). The True Self does not teach us compassion as much as it is compassion. (Sunday) Love is caught… Continue Reading Love Summary for the Year: Week 1 Summary
Heaven: The Home of Love
Love Summary for the Year: Week 1 Heaven: The Home of Love Friday, December 23, 2016 Only love can move effectively across boundaries and across cultures. Love is a very real energy, a spiritual life force that is much more powerful than ideas or mere thoughts. Love is endlessly alive, always flowing toward the lower… Continue Reading Heaven: The Home of Love
Love: Jesus’ Plan
Love Summary for the Year: Week 1 Love: Jesus’ Plan Thursday, December 22, 2016 I’d like to give a simplified summary of what seems to me to be Jesus’ foundational worldview and plan: God can be trusted. God is like a loving Father or Mother who is involved in our lives and our world. So… Continue Reading Love: Jesus’ Plan