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Besides the obvious reasons why a man and a woman need each other to bring forth life, he and she together help the lives that they create become creative. That takes effort: surmounting the fear that her difference from me is precisely what I most need to thrive. And trusting God that my gendered gift supplies something essential to her. We must foster that reliance upon each other so that otherness breeds more appreciation than annoyance. Or intimidation. Or judgment. I lov

‘In the Church, Jesus entrusts Himself to those who betray Him over and over.’ Pope Emeritus Benedict As we proceed with Jesus to Calvary, we linger at the Last Supper where we witness St. Peter dining comfortably with Jesus, curious of who Jesus’ betrayer might be and confident that it is not himself (JN 13:21-38). Perhaps the purpose of Lent and Holy Week is to challenge such confidence by inviting us into the desert in order to spotlight our denials. No better lesson than

A tough woman careful to avoid the gaze of others hears a man asking for her help. She turns toward Him. Jesus needs water, yes, but more than that He wants to give her what she needs—mercy that will well up from her depths and satisfy her forever. We discover her morally broken state later on in JN 4; all that matters now is that Love has come to her and that Love alone can make her whole. Chastity is all about wholeness. Far from the pale and passive face we ascribe to it,

‘We don’t merely want to see beauty…we want to become beautiful.’ CS Lewis Join us during Lent; each week we will consider a different facet of chastity and how God’s mercy frees us to realize its beauty. Perhaps this Ash Wednesday would be a good time to consider: do I know what chastity is? Have I realized it? What must I do to become chaste? Let’s explore this together for the next 47 days. Consider: 1. Chastity is Beautiful: I love chastity! I discovered its meaning in th

‘The Spirit sent Jesus into the desert, and He was there forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended Him.’ (MK 1: 12, 13) Lent exposes us, lays us bare. This year, Jesus prepared our Living Waters group to follow Him into the desert by gathering us for an all-day session on Valentine’s Day. Some wept as they considered the painful state of their stalled single lives or distressing marital ones. We asked ourselves: ‘Is Jesus really eno

‘Shame can only be absorbed by true love-a love which affirms the value of the person and seeks the greatest good for him or her with all its strength.’ Ever since I first read these words by Karol Wojtyla (before he became John Paul ll), I have pondered this truth. And witnessed it in action: holy love evaporates the veil of shame around us until we actually live in the light of that love. We approach Lent next Wednesday. We have over 40 days to reflect upon the face of holy

‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’ (Matt. 5:8) Lent is an extended season of exposure. For 40 days, God tends to reveal the thoughts and intentions of our hearts; He highlights what is in our hearts rather than what we would like others to think. For example, this Lent God is exposing the folly that I am in truth a merciful person. Yes, I am inclined to show compassion to sexually broken people. But toward traditional men with a regional Midwest mindset

‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.’ (Matt. 5:7) Mercy is the heart of God. Fittingly, mercy is the core theme of the Beatitudes: the poor, the mournful, the meek and hungry welcome mercy like rain on broken dry ground. Jesus then exhorts such receivers to extend that unfailing love to those who fail them. No easy thing. To look with pity on the poor ‘out there’ and to give something of God’s generosity is one thing; to release captives who have captivate

‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.’ (Matt. 5:5) Weeping over one’s poverty is a gift. The contrite heart cries. Consequences of sin in our own lives and in persons we love reduce us to grief. Yet for that grief to become good, raised from the ‘worldly sorrow that brings forth death’ (2 Cor 7:10), we must surrender to Jesus. He bears our affliction and transports us to His Kingdom. There, divine comfort coaxes us to exchange rags for riches. The King defi

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ (Matt. 5:3) Poverty can incline us to riches beyond ourselves. When directing us to God as our wealth, poverty achieves holy ends; it renders us blessed citizens of a whole new world. In contrast to Luke, who begins his version of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ with ‘blessed are the poor’ (LK 6:20), Matthew expands that phrase to ‘poor in spirit.’ I am grateful; it challenges a privileged white dude like me to

Starting next week, we at Desert Stream Ministries begin an 8-part prayer/intercession series designed to prepare us for Easter. Entitled ‘Downward Ascent,’ this series will focus each week on one of the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:1-12). We will explore the conditions of heart that free us to welcome Jesus afresh. At a time when gender and sexuality have never been more muddled, we need His clarity. Light will dawn as we apply a biblical understanding of the Beatitudes to His Cross.

“You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and don’t need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.” (Rev. 3:17) St. Peter reveals our prideful detachment. When Jesus knelt down to wash the apostle’s dirty feet, his response is ours: “Get up! Get away from my stench! Remember the fragrant things I do!’ Jesus responds to Peter and to us: ‘Unless you let Me wash you there [feet—the lowest, dirtiest parts of us], you can have no p

‘Since we have confidence to enter the Most holy place through the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us by His body, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith…’ (Heb. 10: 19-22) My friend Dean Greer returned broken to the church of his youth. He had left years earlier to explore the homosexual life; fed up with his folly and under the death sentence of HIV, he needed a place to rebuild his life. He discovered a hard truth: ‘The

‘Am I stone and not a sheep, that I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy Cross, To number drop by drop Thy blood’s slow loss, and yet not weep?’ – Christina Rossetti ‘A guilty suffering soul is more open to grace than an apathetic or smug soul.’ Edna Hong Maybe it hurts to slow down. To a church traumatized by sex abuse scandals, corruption in the ‘corporate offices’, and everyday injustices (parish and otherwise), busyness preserves us. Works defend us from our wounds. Better to

‘For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’ (Matt. 6: 21) A few years ago, my teenage son told me that the largest evangelical church in our city was winning over many of his friends. His concern? Those new converts continued in sexual immorality as the church ‘did not make a big deal about premarital sex.’ Later I read one of the pastor’s books in which he conveyed quietly that Christians had to become ‘gay–affirming’ if they wanted to be relevant to a new e

‘The greatest figures of prophecy and sanctity step forth out of the darkest night.’  – St. Edith Stein Suffering alone does not give us life or make us good. Jesus does. He simply uses suffering to reduce us to Himself. Serious trouble invites us into the desert to prepare for the resurrection He has in store for us. Of all the kinds of suffering that exist, the best kind involves suffering for being a Christian. The Church at Smyrna knew that suffering well. (Rev.2: 8-11) T

‘You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will remove your lampstand from its place.’ (Rev. 2: 4, 5) How much more does God want us to settle next to Him, to draw wordlessly from His very Presence? Lent calls us back to the Source. Just in time: I am ‘worded out’. Speech never ceased in my efforts to help equip the Church in New Zealand and Los Angeles to stay true to

‘For Zion’s sake, I shall not be silent, for Jerusalem’s sake, I will not remain quiet, until her righteousness shines forth like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch.’ (IS. 62: 1) Such intimacy prepares us for the Cross. As Lent becomes Holy Week 2013, might we wait longer with Him on Good Friday, and so rejoice more fully with Him on Easter Sunday? Lent is a time of reduction. We pare down the extras in our life; we turn down the noise of a thousand voices in order

Merciful Discipline 6: Humbled, We Shine ‘When You disciplined us, we could barely whisper a prayer.’ (IS 26:16) ‘Christ’s abiding presence in the midst of our suffering is gradually transforming our darkness into light.’ Pope Benedict The sexual abuse crisis in the Church brings us to our knees. We do not kneel politely but painfully, a sprawl rather than a pose. On behalf of those felled by the weight of a priest’s perversion, we too stumble and fall. Behold the scandal we

— Perseverance and Mercy 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 40 O great day, in which divine love will be confirmed in me. On that day, for the first time, I shall sing before heaven and earth the song of the Lord’s fathomless Mercy. This is my work and my mission, which the Lord has destined for me from the beginning of the world. (825) Come close to My wounds and draw from the Fountain of Life…Drink copiously from this Fountain of Life and you will not weary on y