Amazing Grace

After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” –Luke

Read more

Eyes Wide Open

Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure: Married in haste, we may repent at leisure. –William Congreve, The Old Batchelour (1693)– Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, and half shut afterwards. –Ben Franklin– As a Catholic student at Moravian College (Bethlehem, PA), in the late 1970s, in

Read more

Atonement

Fr. Bernard J. Ezaki’s Class Notes on Atonement Introduction: Definition and Biblical References             Our first parents had originally been at one with God.  As a result of their sin, however, this union was lost, both for themselves and for the whole human race.  The central problem, then, became how

Read more

Bright Gabriel Poem

Bright Gabriel’s voice the Virgin heard And was receptive to God’s word. The sleeping Joseph saw, it seems, Angelic visions in his dreams. Shepherds prompted by Heaven’s choir Sought newborn Christ with hearts afire. And wise men came from country far, Led on by light of natal star. How could

Read more

The Holy Eucharist

Three Different Views Concerning the Eucharist Most Christians would readily agree that the Eucharist is “the central act of Christian worship.”   [The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 2nd Edition, p. 475.]   Unfortunately, those who profess to follow the teachings of Jesus differ greatly when it comes to

Read more