Fifth Sunday of Lent (Cycle A)

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The Raising of Lazarus Lectionary:  34 Reading 1 -  Ezekiel 37:12-14 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 130:1-8 Reading 2 -  Romans 8:8-11 Verse - John 11:25a, 26 Gospel -  John 11:1-45 Lazarus, come out! LESSON: The Power of God Through Those Who Believe We’re a week away from the start of Holy Week. Our Lord now has his sights set on Jerusalem, and the pace is quickening. In these next two weeks, we’re living just one part of the Gospel passage from today: an encounter with the reality of suffering and death. Jesus is asking us to have faith in him. In today’s First Reading the prophet Ezekiel reminds us of the Lord’s promise to not only to bring us back to life but to bring us home. The background of this passage is the famous "Valley of Dry Bones." The people of Israel were in exile in Babylon. They weren't just sad; they were spiritually and nationally "dead." Their common saying was: "Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we are cut off." They d...
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Review: Christian Love

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Christian Love Christian Love by Bernard V. Brady

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book: *****
Performance: ***

The Evolution of Christian Love

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor 13:13)

This is a review on how the understanding of the Command to Love as a Christian vocation has evolved since the founding of the faith centuries past. The other begins with how love is portrayed in the Hebrew scriptures (aka Old Testament), focusing on the aspects of ahab (broadly between persons) and hesed (compassion and mercy). Examples are taken from Ruth, Tobit and Song of Solomon among others. Dr Brady follows that up with another two (2) part chapter on Agape (Greek) and Caritas (Latin) in the New Testament (the latter coming from a Latin translation of the Greek). From there, we start to consider the various theologians and philosophers who were the thought leaders of their time, such as St Augustine (another two part chapter), three (3) medieval mystics (Bernard of Clairvaux, Julian of Norwich and Hadewijch), Courtly Love poets such as Andreas Capellanus in response to the mystical love movement … eventually bring us to the present time after considering St Thomas Aquinas and Martin Luther. Our modern understanding was greatly influenced by 19th century theologians such as Søren Kierkegaard, Anders Nygren, Reinhold Niebuhr; and 20th century activists such as Martin Luther King Jr, Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II; to finish with Jules Toner and Gene Outka.

Dr Brady skillfully weaves in all of these sources to come to three (3) general propositions about Christian Love.

1) God Is Love
2) Humans Love
3) The Full meaning of human love is found within the full participation in God’s Love.

In other words, we have the Lover, the Beloved and the Love shared between them (one of the concepts frequently used to explain the concept of the Christian Trinity).

The chapters and sections in this work are:
Preface 0.1 - I Love Therefore I Am (7m)
Chapter 1.2 - Love In the Old Testament (70m)
Chapter 1.3 - Romantic Love (72m)
Chapter 2.4 - Love in the New Testament (73m)
Chapter 3.5 - St Augustine (106m)
Chapter 3.6 - Ordered Love (94m)
Chapter 4.7 - Mystical Love (74m)
Chapter 5.8 - Troubadours and Troubled Romance (39m)
Chapter 6.9 - St Thomas Aquinas (50m)
Chapter 7.10 - Martin Luther (40m)
Chapter 8.11 - Christian Love is Sacrificial Love (43m)
Chapter 9.12 - Love Activists (84m)
Chapter 10.13 - Self Regard, Other Regard and Mutuality (70m)
Chapter 11.14 - Reflections on Christian Love (29m)

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#ChristianLove #FreeAudiobookCodes

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