Pastoral, Liturgical, Teaching, and Social Justice Moments brought to you by www.DignityUSA.org.
Breath of the Spirit is DignityUSA’s electronic spiritual and liturgical resource for our members and potential members. Nothing can replace your chapter or other faith community, but we hope you will find further support here for integrating your spirituality with your sexuality and all the strands of your life.
We welcome relevant homilies, inspirational writings, social justice opportunities, or theological articles from other sources also — particularly from wise women and men who can help us grow as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) and allied Catholic/Christians. You may volunteer to help with this program or send your comments by e-mailing [email protected] ATTN: Breath of the Spirit.
To correctly interpret Scripture, we must take ourselves out of our day and age and put ourselves in the day and age of Scripture’s original readers. For instance, most of us who read today’s Christian Scriptures are members of various institutions which have been promoting the “Christian religion... more
One of the most difficult things for modern Christians to pull off is to put ourselves in the environment of our Christian sacred authors. What triggers them to write, and for whom are they writing? They certainly aren’t writing for followers of Jesus in the 21st century.
One of the most significant lines in today’s three readings comes at the end of our gospel pericope. Appearing to his disciples on Easter Sunday night, Luke’s Jesus reminds them, “You are witnesses of these things.”
Looking back at my pre-scriptural religious education, it seems the only “vision” instilled in me was my being in heaven one day. If I daydreamed about anything having to do with this earth it probably revolved around all my friends and family converting to Catholicism so we could spend eternity... more
Ideally all 9 readings should be proclaimed tonight, but because of space limits I can only comment on 4.
Tonight we’re reflecting more on our own death and resurrection than we’re reflecting on the historical Jesus’ death and resurrection. If we haven’t personally died and risen, there’s no... more
Every Palm Sunday I recall the old joke (I first heard it in high school) of the Hispanic man who attends his first major league baseball game. Returning home, his family, anxious to hear about his experience, asks, “How did they treat you?” “They couldn’t have been nicer,” he replies. “For... more
Why do we belong to organized religions? Though it flies in the face of popular religion, neither Yahweh in the Hebrew Scriptures nor Jesus in the Christian Scriptures directly commands us to do so. Our sacred authors presume we’ve committed ourselves to being disciples of Yahweh or the risen Jesus... more
At times I’m criticized for giving “depressing” homilies. Probably a valid critique. I suppose one reason for my bleak approach to preaching is that I try to give homilies based on the Scripture readings of the day. As any serious student of the Bible knows, our sacred authors are normally... more
I once asked a rabbi friend what he thought of the commotion over public displays of the Ten Commandments. He just smiled and answered as I thought he would. “Those commandments are our responsibilities,” he said, “not yours. But we Jews appreciate all the free publicity we’re getting.”
Many regard today’s second reading as Yahweh’s cruelest biblical trick. How can any god command a father kill his son, and then only tell him he was “kidding” just before he strikes the fatal blow? There must be more here than meets the eye. Why is such a narrative even in Scripture?
Though today’s Genesis passage mentions the Bible’s first covenant, I’m afraid some of us Catholics don’t know the first thing about Scriptural covenants. We’ve heard the word and know it has something to do with “things” between us and God, but that’s about as far as we go.
Paul’s words to the Corinthians should ring throughout today’s liturgy: “. . . I try to please everyone in every way, not seeking my own benefit but that of the many . . .” As other Christs, our actions are geared to helping others, not doing things for our own advantage. Pope Francis says it well... more