It wasn’t just the three wise men from the east (Matthew 2:1-12) who were looking for Jesus, dying to learn more about Him. In age after age there have been people who felt the cold death swirling about their feet and wondered if maybe the stories they had heard of a Divine Deliverer from the children of Abraham might just be true.

Mary is what a human in heaven looks like – a human person who wants first and only to do what Jesus tells her.

Discipleship is the means by which the thought world of God becomes accessible to us, and Discipleship is like learning a language – you never learn a language without learning a culture at the same time, and getting the words right requires also getting the culture right.

But for all of Paul’s lifetime nobody thought that Christianity and Judaism could be separated. That’s because they can’t be separated. Even now. Especially now.

We are far, far past the time when our opponents neither know, nor care about the particulars of Christian faith. Our opponents know the particulars of Christian faith, and know which particulars are the biggest problem for them

Part of turning all the way around involves exploring ideas all the way through without any interference from rage, or bigotry, or fear. It involves listening all the way through, resisting “gotcha” in favor of “I get it.”

Jesus is made available to all. If you knew a time and place where heaven was going to touch the earth like that, and you knew that anyone could come and touch and hold that heaven, touch and hold it forever, wouldn’t it be the most obvious act of generosity to point that out?

St. Paul wasn’t any more done than we are in the sense that every doctrine had been completely described and adequately understood at the time of his death. He was done only in the sense that he had advanced the conversation as far as he could.

Words never stop being vibrations in the air, or lines on a page; but wrapped around an image that people can see with their eyes shut, they can last forever.

4 May 2026 Acts 14:5-18 Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter “Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, because he was the chief speaker, they called Hermes.” Acts 14:12 A teacher says to his class, “All you students with brown eyes, raise your hands.” Brown-eyed students raise their hands. “You all fail for the year. Get out.” The students say (all together now), “That’s not fair!” Teacher: I don’t care. Get out. Students: We’ll get you fired for this! Teacher: Wow, you we

This is characteristic of all the evangelists who have had the biggest impact on history. They have all been outliers and headaches to the established Church authorities, and those authorities have always had to run to catch up to them.

All the advances of Church and culture since the time of Paul have begun with laypeople gathering with each other, around scripture, and in prayer. The priesthood only emerged when the Church began to grow and needed consistent leadership.