Bleak Theology

When we incorporate this virus into our daily rhythms and our children and grandchildren learn this time of human history, how do we explain it?

And with that, Jesus dies. Death surrounds us like we have never experienced and Good Friday strikes right to the heart. The single event of the Crucifixion overturned everything in the disciples' lives. The communal event of this plague has overturned everything in our lives. Death does not become. It always is. Today of all

Enjoy the Silence - Plague Epistle VIII I have never really focused on contemplative silence. I don't consider myself a contemplative, but the silence that accompanies grief and exhaustion is with me, now. I welcome it.

So begins Holy Week in April, the cruelest month, in the midst of our creeping, wheezing plague. And today, Palm Sunday, is when we begin our collective betrayal of the Son of Man. Who else shall be betrayed? Today, we read in Matthew's gospel the Liturgy of the Palms of how Jesus fulfills Jewish prophecy

Yesterday was the first day this plague overran my mental defenses. I sat in my chair for long spells staring. Time languished and curdled with disuse. I felt like I was waiting for something that would not leave. I heard church bells as I looked for my car, only to find that it had been