Week 7 (Year 1, NL)

Read Tamar or Dinah's story with your church. Listen together for their cries.

I enjoy the tomatoes I grow, but they aren't really mine.

The Apostle Paul shows the struggle to transcend the architecture of ego.

How shrewdly the drama of mixed motives, mixed loyalties, and mixed feelings unfolds.

The lectionary readings for Ash Wednesday are the same each year. So it almost doesn’t feel like Ash Wednesday if I go through the day without hearing Psalm 51: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.”

Robert Barron’s grasp of the complex development of David’s character in 2 Samuel is unsurpassed. And his references to history and literature are more than adornment.

I've always admired the prophets. Their job of truth-telling required such courage and personal sacrifice. Yet they never held back. They spoke the truth no matter the consequences. I imagine they were lonely, then. Who could stand their challenging company for very long?

Personal relationships, however, weren't the prophets' priority. Their job was to tell God's truth in a way that would be heard.

My husband came home one night confused and needing to talk. A friend of his had blown him off at work, and Dan couldn't figure out why. "I was standing there, waiting to talk to him, and he just walked away!" My husband was hurt and remorseful.

In this week’s reading, Bathsheba, the woman David drew dripping out of her bath and into his story, is not named.