Frank Kafka (1883-1924) is one of the most important literary figures of the 20th century. In his parable called “An Imperial Message,” he asks the reader to imagine that the emperor of your country is dying. He has an earth-shaking message to leave before he dies,...
During Lenten matins (morning prayer) in Eastern Orthodox churches, one prayer reads: “Let us venerate the Cross of the Lord, offering our tender affection as the cypress, the sweet fragrance of our faith as the cedar, and our sincere love as the pine; and let us...
What if wearing a cross were the sign of bearing the cross? Wearing crosses is a decoration. Bearing crosses is the discipline of discipleship To access this post, you must purchase Standard Membership, Standard Membership - Yearly, Video Membership, Video...
Graham Greene’s novel Monsignor Quixote (1982) has a moment when the Spanish priest has a “terrible dream” that stays with him “like a cheap tune in the head.” He had dreamt that Christ had been saved from the Cross by the legion of angels to which on...
Nicholas Buxton, The Wilderness Within: Meditation and Modern Life (2014), 95: “The mysterious and paradoxical truth revealed in the death of Jesus on the cross—-that through suffering there is ultimately an end to suffering–can thus be seen as a kind of ‘homeopathic’...
The sculptor Rodin is most famous for his “The Thinker.” One day Rodin noticed a large crucifix that had been discarded in a pile of trash. Although it was terribly marred and defaced, Rodin perceived that it could be restored to its original beauty. When Rodin and...
