The Narthex
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Advent Preface I reads, When the Lord comes again 'all is at last made manifest'
By John M. Grondelski | December 6th 2024 5:21 PMDuring Advent, the Church uses two different Prefaces at Mass: one for most of Advent, the other for Advent’s last nine days. We have two because their foci are different: Advent Preface I looks forward to Christ’s Second Coming at the end of history, while Advent Preface II shifts back,…
READ FULL BLOG POSTMercy, Humility, & Hell-Fire
Mercy as concern for the other is prominent in Jesus’ Judgment
By John M. Grondelski | November 29th 2023 2:59 PMLast Sunday’s Gospel for the Solemnity of Christ the King is Matthew’s Last Judgment account. I have to admit I’m partial to that text because, prior to the 1969 Calendar Reform that inserted Christ the King as the last Sunday of the liturgical year, there was a kind of eschatological…
READ FULL BLOG POSTGod's 'Right to Privacy'
Christianity does not admit of zones of life shielded from the Divine gaze and judgment
By John M. Grondelski | June 27th 2023 9:36 PMIn the wake of the first anniversary of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, partisans of abortion-on-demand continue to assert their “right to privacy” and trot out numerous other bogeymen of what an “out-of-control Supreme Court” might yet do to “human rights.” In light of this obsession with protecting…
READ FULL BLOG POSTThe Ascension and Upward Mobility
Jesus is true God and true man. What becomes of Him also points to us
By John M. Grondelski | May 25th 2023 9:16 PMThe Church is in the post-Ascension period, waiting for the promised Paraclete. Jesus instructed His Apostles to stay in Jerusalem to await the coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is notoriously ambiguous on timing. The Spirit will come “in a few days.” Luckily, He set His departure date and was…
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