Posts tagged Lent 2014

Holy Saturday: In the eye of the storm.

Neil and I were talking about the feeling of Holy Saturday, after praying the Office of Readings this morning. The reading from the Saints (below) uses beautiful imagery and it had made me think how we experience a hollowness, an emptiness on this part of Holy Week. At the same time, theologically speaking Christ has […]

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The Seven Last Words 6: “It is Finished.”

When Jesus has received the sour wine, he said ‘It is finished’ and bowed his head and gave up his spirit. After receiving the sour wine in fulfilment of the scripture, Jesus utters the word “It is finished.” One, with some sympathy, may think that, in the light of the terrible suffering that he has […]

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The Last Seven Words 5: “I thirst.”

“I thirst,” stands alone as a stark statement of one who has suffered so much: the pain and suffering of the scourging; the sweat and toil of the Via Dolorosa; the blood lost and the struggle to breathe in the slow suffocation and the crucifixion. It is no surprise that the one crucified would seek […]

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The Seven Last Words 4: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

My God, my God, Why have you forsaken me? This isn’t the last words uttered by Jesus from the cross but they are the most terrible. We have see in the first three saying something emerging. The first words speaks about forgiveness, the second about salvation and the joy of Paradise and the third about […]

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The Seven Last Words 3: “Behold your Mother.”

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing near, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” In Jesus’ words we are drawn to focus on the wider scene of his crucifixion. What we glimpse is not an unfamiliar scene of distort […]

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“And I’m going with you.”

A couple of weekends I spent some time listening to Peter Kreeft talk about evil (and also good) in Lord of the Rings. It was, as always is with Kreeft, thought provoking and it got me thinking about what Tolkien does in the story. The part that struck me particularly strongly, on this listening, was […]

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