Mary M. McGlone

The opening liturgy of Holy Week calls us to be stouthearted. It reminds us that the godliness to which we would naturally cling has nothing to do with the God of Jesus.

Scripture for Life: The Scriptures urge us to practice living faith, to allow the Spirit of Christ to free us from any fear that focuses us on our own well-being as if it could be separated from that of others.

This Sunday, we can't help but hear this Gospel as an invitation to scrutinize our perspectives, sort through our presuppositions and see what should be discarded and what new insights might be hidden in unexpected, even unwanted places.

Scripture for Life: Salvation happens when we attend to God's thirst and respond with personal hospitality. Once we have been affected by a relationship with God, it automatically begins to flow into all our other relationships.

Scripture for Life: The mystery of the Transfiguration, Jesus' self-revelation as God's beloved, offers us more than just a glimpse of his divine vocation. Jesus' appearance as God's beloved, his revelation of divinity in humanity, gives us a preview of our own destiny.

Scripture for Life: Jesus' temptations were not a one-time event, nor simply an experience in the desert and then Gethsemane. They summarize all the ways he and any of us can distort our vocation to be images of God.

Scripture for Life: Jesus' examples of relational holiness came from his day-to-day experience. Our challenge is to imitate their cleverness in our own time and circumstances.

Scripture for Life: Today's Scriptures invite us to lay claim to the freedom to live in love. We cannot control others, but we can choose how to respond to them.

Scripture for Life: The Sunday readings we will hear from now until Lent invite us to keep asking about the good life — about the reign of God in our midst.

Scripture for Life: Today, we are invited to remember our moments of metanoia and reflect on how we have integrated them into the project of our lives.

Scripture for Life: As we begin "Ordinary Time," John the Baptist invites us to learn over and over to recognize Jesus for who he is and what he offers.

Scripture for Life: The Magi knew that growth requires displacement, the uncomfortable process of venturing into an unknown that stretches and questions assumptions, all for the sake of a greater depth of being.
 

Scripture for Life: As Meister Eckhart explained, "We are all meant to be mothers of God." The Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary invites us to marvel at the God who comes to us in loving vulnerability and dependence.

Scripture for Life: All our Nativity stories include hints of the end — both the cross and resurrection, Jesus' rejection and love's triumph through him. Christmas reminds us that God remains among us weak and mild.

Scripture for Life: Perhaps the lesson of Advent is that it's not so much we who are waiting, but God who comes to our door and appears in dreams, asking, "Will you, like Joseph, adopt my plan? Will you make room for Emmanuel in ways you've never imagined?"

Scripture for Life: This Third Sunday of Advent invites us to join John in asking ourselves what we expect of God and, in turn, what God offers and hopes for from us.

Scripture for Life: John tells us to prepare, to ready ourselves for the coming of God's reign. Isaiah tells us that "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord." Now is the time to envision what that can mean and to begin to act as if it were true.

Scripture for Life: In the days to come, especially during these 28 days, we have a unique opportunity to wake up to Parousia, the myriad simple and spectacular ways in which God is present, drawing us forward together.

Scripture for Life: The title of this feast is superlative. The images we create for it are flush with symbols of royalty and high priesthood, greatness and grandeur. But the Gospel we hear today reflects none of that.

Natural and social catastrophes would make it seem that the world was coming to an end, and God's own people would be persecuted by enemies, former friends and even family members. The answer to their anxieties? Only this: "By your perseverance you will secure your lives."