“Not My Will But Yours Be Done”

Understanding the Agony in the Garden

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done.” And to strengthen him an angel from heaven appeared to him. He was in such agony and he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like dro … [Read more...]

Questions Answered – August 2021

The Knowledge of the Incarnate God Question: If Jesus is both human and divine, why didn’t he know everything God would know from the moment of birth or soon after? How could Jesus not know the second coming if God the Father knew and they … [Read more...]

Questions Answered – July 2021

Why Jesus Is Called the “New Adam” Question: I am a bit troubled by so many people calling Jesus the new Adam. I think to do so gives the Jehovah’s Witnesses an advantage they can easily take, that is to prove Jesus is a creature and not th … [Read more...]

Book Reviews – December 2020

Art and Architecture for Congregational Worship: The Search for Common Ground. By Richard S. Vosko. Reviewed by Christopher Siuzdak. (skip to review) American Priest: The Ambitious Life and Conflicted Legacy of Notre Dame’s Father Ted Hes … [Read more...]

The Eucharistic Christology of Pope Benedict XVI

In Commemorationem Christi

Christ is truly present among us in the Eucharist. His presence is not static. It is a dynamic presence that grasps us, to make us his own, to make us assimilate him. Christ draws us to himself, he makes us come out of ourselves to make us … [Read more...]

The Interface of Spirituality and Theology in Leontius of Jerusalem and Theodore the Studite

Lex orandi, lex credendi: the law of prayer is the law of belief. This maxim, attributed to the fifth century writer, Prosper of Aquitaine, pithily expresses the inherent link between theology and spirituality. The way in which one connects … [Read more...]

The Ascension Today

Christianity moves. As we ponder so often in the Gospels, Christ gathers and sends out, he forms and confers a mission. The mystery of the Lord’s ascension into heaven manifests the grand vertical dynamism that comprehends all such h … [Read more...]

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

A Blueprint for Theology and Sanity

God’s divine revelation of himself to humanity is brought to its completion, and fullest realization, in the divine person of Jesus Christ, who, throughout sacred scripture and sacred tradition, reveals himself as “one in being [or essence] … [Read more...]

The Temptations of Christ and the Paschal Triduum

A Reflection

I am not sure what to call this. It is not an exegesis. As a theological reflection, it lacks a certain rigor. It does seem to work as a spiritual/homiletic/liturgical reflection, and that’s how I’ve proposed this when I have taught it, and … [Read more...]

The Prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane in the Monothelite Controversy

In this article, originally published in French in the Actes du Symposium sur Maxime le Confesseur (1982), François-Marie Léthel shows how the prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane factored into the monothelite controversy. Léthel first focuses on t … [Read more...]

Christian Life: The Outworking of Christ’s Life Within Us

Christ Ascends the Mountain to Pray by James Tissot The Christian community of faith is born of the grace of God. Grace expresses what God does for us. Just as when we hear of the wisdom of God in the Bible, we think of how God’s action m … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

Question: A local priest has, on more than one occasion, preached that Jesus “became a human being.” Is that the same thing as he “became man?” Are the two terms interchangeable? Answer: This question takes up the famous issue of what the … [Read more...]

Reflections on the Glorification of Jesus in the Gospel of John

One of the leitmotifs of the Gospel of John is the theme of glory: how the Son receives glory from the Father, and through this reception, the Son is manifested to us.  In fact, the very purpose of the Gospel stated in John 2 … [Read more...]

How to Read Christology and Still Keep Your Faith

“Christology” is everywhere. That is, if we take its basic etymology and understand it simply as “speech concerning Christ.” People can utter his name flippantly, even blasphemously. Popular films and novels can be “christological.” And ther … [Read more...]

New Testament Witness

The faith of the early Christians in Jesus and the Kingdom of his Father constituted them as a community or Church. If it was their shared faith that formed them into a community, who and what they believed in would be the decisive factor … [Read more...]