In the first days after loss of a beloved, absence is palpable. Sorrow runs deep. We feel as if there is a hole in the solar plexus. Raw feelings—yearning, unbelief that...

From Western and Eastern Christian traditions, resurrection/anastasis carries an individual and a communal quality. In the days after the tragic school shootings in Parkland, Florida, and in dozens of others before,...

Anastasis, which means “up” or “rising,” is the ancient Greek word used by Orthodox Christianity for what the churches of Western Christianity call “resurrection.” While the English translation of the word...

“Why are you weeping?” is the most absurd question Mary has ever heard. She is there when they nail Jesus to the cross. She sees them lay his body in the...

My mother was living in a nursing facility near us in Florida when she died at age 95. Our last conversation was during the residents’ Christmas party. She was enjoying the...

The Gospel writers don’t linger on the gory details of Jesus’ flogging and crucifixion. The descriptions are scarce. The sentences are simple. The ghastly wounds on Jesus’ body are the same...

In The Road to Character, David Brooks notes a common pattern among people whom we know to have great character: “They had to go down to go up. . . . They had to...

The words, “And it was night,” aren’t just telling time. John’s Gospel opens by celebrating the light that “shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (1:5). Only...

Do these Greek pilgrims find what they were looking for? John doesn’t answer that question. All we know is that they want to see Jesus and that their coming marked the...

I would guess that Mary has not planned to break open her perfume jar that evening. She may be saving it for her wedding night or as financial security for her...