The above command comes at the very end of 1 Corinthians, the letter written by Paul to the church in Corinth. In a short while this practice would be widespread in the church – it came to be known as the osculum pacis, the “kiss of peace”.  While some think that the word “holy” in […]

“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an […]

In a series of commandments in Leviticus 19, God’s people are commanded this: 32 “You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the LORD. The “fear” of the Lord here is tied directly with how the people treat the elderly […]

We set aside a day to remember – Memorial Day – because a precious gift was given – the life of a soldier, for us – and because we humans are so forgetful.  Forgetfulness is a theme of Psalm 78, where Asaph recounts Israel’s forgetting God’s precious gift – His redemption of them out of […]