I’ve been throwing pottery for over a year now. For a while, I had the technique down, or at least down enough to center the clay and build from there. But lately, I have had the worst time centering the clay. As I sit with my struggles to center the clay, my mind wanders to the world around me: does anything feel centered these days?
“This whole year has felt like a Lenten penance in the desert, so I’m not thinking about what to give up. Instead, I enter this season replaying images of that day with Javier.” Christopher Alt, SJ, recounts the story of his friend’s first day out of prison and considers what lessons it has for us as we see promises of the end of the pandemic and move into Lent.
On this Good Friday, Jesuit rapper, Michael Martinez S.J. produced a music video in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Films about the life of Christ can help us deepen our relationship with Jesus. Four Jesuits pick four different movies on the life of Jesus and reflect on how these selections help them draw closer to Christ.
“What is truth?” Pilate will ask Jesus. And, Jesus will answer with his life. I’ve been thinking this week about a Jesuit brother of mine who has been sitting in jail in Brunswick, Georgia, for the last two years trying to do the same: answer with his life.
This is a time where people should develop an attitude of contemplation. How can we take a “long, loving, look at the real,” during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Both the season of Lent and the current coronavirus crisis are desert experiences. Just as we adapt new practices during Lent, we are experiencing radical changes in our lives with the spread of COVID-19. Last month, we reached out to TJP readers about how they are praying, fasting, and giving alms this year. Many of you responded. Read the responses, along with the graces that readers are receiving. You’ll find that these words echo even stronger amid the uncertainty and anxiety of the current crisis.
One of the great images of Lent is Jesus being driven into the desert where he goes toe-to-toe with Satan. As real as Jesus’ temptations are to pleasure, fame, and power, they are but expressions of a more fundamental and deceptively obvious one: the temptation to forget who and whose you are.
Just like Jesus in the desert, we are tempted on a regular basis. Damian Torres-Botello, SJ, reminds us that Jesus is both our model and our biggest support when trying to avoid temptation.
At the beginning of Lent, we focus on…our death?! Jeff Ryan Miraflor, SJ, and Eric Immel, SJ, reflect on death, Lent, and the greater meaning of life.
