1 Thessalonians 5

Like John the Baptist, progressive Christians tend to define ourselves in the negative.

How is thankfulness engendered? By giving thanks in all circumstances.

We seem to always want something—anything—to happen. This has implications for the life of prayer.

In my Century lectionary column for this week, I wrote about Zephaniah 1 and 1 Thessalonians 5, with their shared theme of the “day of the Lord.” Zephaniah’s account is particularly fearsome, and it serves as important background for the medieval liturgical text “Dies Irae.”

I chose to focus on these passages because they are hard to hear. Initially they seem so alien, and yet on second reflection, their scenes of destruction are so terribly familiar.

Are our days of destruction the "day of the Lord"?

Multitasking is marked by a sustained sense of urgency in a world mediated by communication devices. Puttering is something different.

Some 50 years ago, Merton warned us about what can happen when “all words have become alike.”