The Shadow of Three Crosses

by Andrew Stephens-Rennie

(Preface)

We read this story in the shadow of three crosses.

There is the story in a nutshell. There are the various ways into the story. There is the story itself. There are the stories themselves. There is the question: Whose story is this?

The passion was coming. They didn’t know it yet, but it was soon to arrive. The disciples, sitting in the upper room, their leader talking, the air pungent and heavy. One week prior, he had been celebrated by the throngs as they entered the city. And now they feel unrest. Though they don’t know it, they wait for an arrest.

And in this room. In this tension. In this celebration of a victory once won, an exodus made, from a land much afraid. In this celebration, fear assails.

We read this story in the shadow of three crosses. The cross follows soon after Judas’ double-cross.

Will You Take My Cup?

by Andrew Stephens-Rennie

A reflection on Romans 15:1-13
Wine Before Breakfast
Originally Delivered March 13, 2007

Jesus cries out,
battered and bruised
in the garden of torment, sweat, and blood he prays:

Take this cup from me.
Will you take the cup?

Intentional Community

by Liz Ivkovich

“There is no cross without Jesus on it,” states Father James Chelich of St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Grand Rapids, MI.

There is no life in Jesus without the pain and joy of sharing in His sufferings. There is also no full life in relationship with Jesus that does not include the pain and joy of life in community. To live as a Christian means to define oneself as a ‘person-in-relationship.’

We exist in relationship with God- who names us His Beloved, we exist in relationship with the Earth that He made, and we exist in relationship with the Jesus in those around us. Next to the Blessed Sacrament, our neighbor is the holiest thing we encounter every day, submits CS Lewis in “The Weight of Glory.” Intentional community is the call of every human, as every human needs to be known and loved.