God Talk

St. Lutgarde of Aywieres, Belgium (1182-1246) is the first person who reported a “heart exchange” with Jesus Christ. A Cistercian nun, she reported a number of religious encounters and ecstatic moments with Christ. Most important is the heart exchange between Lutgarde and Jesus. Saint Mechthild of Hackeborn (1240-1298) was the second woman on record to […]

Maybe I was looking the other way, so I didn’t see it. It was right there in front of me, but I just didn’t get it. Here I had all those experiences described above, and I was fairly familiar with the Scriptures. I was, however, ignorant of the vast tradition concerning the Sacred Heart of […]

In the first letter of John, likely written by the author of the Gospel of John, the centrality of abiding in Christ, as commanded in John 15, is at the heart of its message. As in John’s Gospel, abiding is not meant to be taken figuratively but quite literally. It signifies the state of being […]

It is in Jesus’ “Priestly Prayer” of John 17 where Jesus offers the clearest vision of the eternal union with Jesus and God the Father to be offered to all believers. This is a never-ending prayer which Jesus will continue praying for us until we are all home in the Father’s house…. If you do […]

The theme of God’s promise to give humanity a new heart is not picked up directly in the New Testament. As I learned in seminary, the New Testament was written in response to two basic questions: Who is Jesus Christ, and what are His benefits? Who is this guy, and why should it be important […]

How an intense romantic and erotic narrative between a man and a woman, where the name of God is arguably never even mentioned, got into the Hebrew Bible canon is a story unto itself. It was definitely contested, but the rabbinic powers that be strongly endorsed its addition to the Bible. The famed Rabbi Akiba […]