Our readings this week have taken us through the disciple’s journey, a journey that begins with conversion, proceeds through deepening discipleship, and culminates in ministry to the world. We began with...

The seventy disciples must have felt terrified. Without warning, it seems, Jesus sends them into the world to minister. In some ways, it is what they have desired. Surely some of...

Have you ever noticed that every superhero movie or TV show includes a moment when the villain nearly defeats the hero? It usually turns out that the villain has been playing...

Many young people in America view the modern church as judgmental, insensitive, and hypocritical. The popular perception of Christians is a finger-wagging crowd that believes discipleship involves following rules and castigating...

After her death in 1997, one of Mother Teresa’s spiritual directors revealed letters in which she described a decades-long “dark night of the soul,” a period during which she felt that...

There’s an old joke about a faithful disciple who is drowning in a flood. As the water rises, he prays, “God, I believe in you and I know that you’re going...

Naaman is a great man, a powerful and wealthy military commander. But he has leprosy. While his disease does not disable him, it must be distressing nonetheless. The slave girl, by...

Jesus got angry. This has always made sense to me intellectually, especially when I ponder the Incarnation, the confession that, in Jesus, God is truly and fully one of us. However,...

When a bad mood spreads we often think nothing good can come of it, and usually we’re right. But sometimes important—if uncomfortable—growth can only come from something as foul as a...

I hate forks in the road. I don’t care if it is a highway interchange or an intersection out in the country. Even if I know exactly where I am going,...