Pilgrimage and the Christian Life by Chris Armstrong
Our Lenten disciplines address us as pilgrims and exiles—believers who need to moderate our attachments to the world to prepare us for the next. To Satan’s “All this I will give you”—calculated to inflame prideful and lustful idolatries—we are to respond, as Jesus did in the desert, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.” Only then will we be weaned from the too-familiar comforts of this home and oriented toward our true home.
The Spiritual Discipline of Hanging Out in Cemeteries by Cortland Gatliff
I find cemeteries surprisingly comforting. Being in the place of the dead has a sobering effect. Walking among tombstones, I often think of the Capuchin Crypt in Rome, where thousands of skeletal remains are accompanied by a sign that reads, “What you are now we used to be; what we are now you will be.” This reminder puts the stress of everyday life in perspective and challenges me to fix my heart and mind on that which is eternal.
This Church Mother Comforted the Grieving with Scientific Thinking by David Hutchings
Did Macrina (and her scientific observation) persuade Gregory that the family would one day be reunited? The heart-warming answer is yes. This very passage appears in one of Gregory’s own theological writings, On the Soul and the Resurrection, which was penned after his older sister’s death. He confirms, later on, that he was greatly comforted by her insight. If Macrina is right, of course, he will tell her this one day in person, and he will, no doubt, also thank her for her love, her wisdom, her healing words—and, of course, her scientific thought.
New Harvard Research Says U.S. Christianity is Not Shrinking, but Growing Stronger by Glenn Stanton
Religious faith in America is going the way of the Yellow Pages and travel maps, we keep hearing. It’s just a matter of time until Christianity’s total and happy extinction, chortle our cultural elites. Is this true? Is churchgoing and religious adherence really in “widespread decline” so much so that conservative believers should suffer “growing anxiety”? Two words: Absolutely not.
