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“The Passion of Our Lord: Anointed for Burial” (Mark 14:1-11) This year Ash Wednesday happens to fall on Valentine’s Day. And I think that’s a happy coincidence. Because on Valentine’s Day, our thoughts are all about love. And there is no greater love than the love that God has for us in sending us our Savior Jesus Christ. As it says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Or in 1 John chapter 4: “In this is love, not that...

NEW ORLEANS -- It was John B. Baus's 82nd birthday. When he was getting ready to go out with his wife, he had a heart attack and ended up on his way to the emergency room instead. Doctors there worked to stabilize him and performed surgery to implant a pace maker. Mary Adele Baus, his wife, went home after the surgery, assured that her husband was resting comfortably. Instead, at 3 a.m. doctors were working frantically with oxygen and electric paddles to keep Baus alive. In the midst of the effort Baus asked for a Roman Catholic priest, fearing death...

by Marcellino D'Ambrosio, Ph.D. Other Articles by Marcellino D'Ambrosio, Ph.D. Baptism of the Lord: Our Power 01/09/06 At first glance, the scene makes little sense. John’s strident call to repentance provokes an overwhelming response. People of all shapes and sizes flock to him in the wilderness. They are baptized in the Jordan as a sign of repentance and cleansing. Suddenly, out of the crowd steps John’s cousin Jesus. Wait a minute. What’s Jesus, the sinless one, doing in a crowd of repenting sinners? What’s He doing coming forward to be baptized by John, who is by his own admission, inferior to...