Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 177

Read, Mark and Learn – 1

Welcome to our Lenten Bible Study of Mark’s gospel. Let me give you some instructions. First of all, don’t read this like you would any other blog post. Take more time. It’s God’s word. Say a prayer before you begin. Maybe just something like, “Open my mind and my heart Lord, to the mysteries of [Read More...]

Why Fast?

Here is my latest article for Catholic Online on why we should fast. Suddenly I understood why the monastic tradition in every religion insists on asceticism. To concentrate on the spiritual, the monks and nuns strictly discipline their physical lives. They narrow their lives down by staying in one place. They take vows of poverty [Read More...]

Forgiving Ourselves for Lent

Dr Greg Popcak gives some sage advice on making spiritual progress over at his blog: To forgive ourselves doesn’t mean letting ourselves off the hook.  It means refusing to give into the temptation to heap coals on ourselves for having failed.  St Francis de Sales in his Introduction to the Devout Life reveals the folly of this [Read More...]

Introduction to Mark’s Gospel for Lent

I hope you will join me every weekday during Lent for my first Blobble Study–which is of course a Bible study on a Blog. We’ll be studying Mark’s gospel. Why? Because I want to have a fresh vision of Jesus during Lent, and studying the gospel is a great way to do that. Why Mark? [Read More...]

Kissing Ugliness

What was going on when Pope Francis kissed the deformed man some weeks ago? Here’s my latest article for Integrated Catholic Life — Kissing Ugliness Do you remember when the cameras caught Pope Francis reaching out to embrace the “monster” of a man covered with warts and boils? How could he kiss that ugliness? St. Francis kissed [Read More...]

God Moves in a Mysterious Way

On Saturday I attended the first South Carolina Catholic Men’s Conference. At the book table a young guy said to me, “Father, I’m a convert from Baptist too.” “Great! Tell me how that happened!” “It was my mother. She messed me up at the age of seven.” He said this with a smile on his [Read More...]

More Christianity Radio Show

For a couple of years now I have been recording a weekly radio show for Catholic radio in South Carolina. Last month the half hour show started to be broadcast on EWTN nationwide. I can now link to the archived shows here. Here’s one of the first programs with Joseph Pearce on the Harry Potter [Read More...]

Missing Papa Benedict

Today is the anniversary with incredible memories of a frail Pope Benedict waving farewell, climbing into the helicopter and flying across the rooftops of Rome into retirement. I miss him, and here’s why. First of all, I think Pope Benedict shared my love of England and Anglicanism. He made a historic trip to England, giving [Read More...]

The Benedict Balance

On the anniversary of Pope Benedict’s departure from Rome, here is my latest article for Aleteia on his emerging role as “Behind the Scenes Pope.” What is the emerging role of Pope Emeritus Benedict? At last Saturday’s consistory, he looked alert and strong for a man of eighty-six years. Is he really in complete seclusion [Read More...]

Free Resources for a Holy Lent

There are plenty of free online resources for Lent. Sign up here for my free weekly newsletter. During Lent there will be articles on prayer, almsgiving and fasting. There are points to ponder, resources and other stuff. Fr Robert Barron is offering free Lent reflections. Go here to sign up. Dr Marcellino D’Ambrosio’s Crossroads Initiative [Read More...]