The Commons
A preaching blog with ideas and for interactive story sermon writing and image exegesis by Len Sweet.
Here, you can comment on any post to discuss its meaning and share your thoughts.
The Crossed-Out “I”
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’ remedy for spiritual disease. By the shocking sin…
Make Room for the Cross
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 some friends carried…
Good Friday
A Good Friday meditation/animation: Benedictine monk and cardinal Basil Hume (1923-1999) tells a story (“Whether it is true or not, I do not know. It happened thus”): They were all lined up, ill clad, some not dressed at all, men, women, and children too. They would walk a few…
Julian of Norwich
“Lord God, your goodness enfolds all your creatures and all your marvelous works, and surpasses them forever, for you alone are eternal. You have made us only for yourself and restored us by your precious passion. You keep us in your perfect love. And all this is of your goodness.…
Egeria
The woman Egeria in 381 set out from Spain on an epic journey to holy places in Palestine and Egypt. Her diary is astonishing. Paulist Press reissued Egeria: Diary of a Pilgrimage in 1970, and you can buy it on Amazon. It especially comes alive when she tells of her…
Patton
In early December 1944 General George S. Patton’s 3rd Army was stalled in its advance to the Siegfried Line along the French – German border. Patton was a master of combined arms operations and he knew he needed tactical air support from the Army Air Forces before he could breach…
To be a saint
“To be a saint means to be myself,” Thomas Merton wrote in his 1949 book New Seeds of Contemplation. “Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is, in fact, the problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self.” Christ reveals who we are to ourselves.…
Resurrection
“We have become unaware of how our actions and lifestyles contribute to the destruction of both God’s creation and human dignity. We like to focus on the promise of the Easter Resurrection, instead of dwelling on Ash Wednesday’s call for repentance or the suffering of Good Friday. But in order…
Faith and Belief
Rabbi Rami Shapiro explores the difference between faith and belief in the following way: “Belief is about knowing; faith is about not-knowing. Belief is about content: I believe this, and I don’t believe that. Faith is an attitude toward reality, a trusting in what is unfolding without knowing just…
Chardin
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin invites us to Venite Adoremus, to open our eyes to the omnipresence of good, not just the omnipresence of evil: All around us, to right and left, in front and behind, above and below, we have only to go a little beyond the frontier of…