“Quo Vadis?” – Always a Good Question, by Michael Pakaluk
February 2, 2021Msgr. Charles Pope: On a Strange and Horrible Biblical Story and the “Bad” Memory of God.
February 2, 2021
By Michele Chronister, Catholic Exchange, Feb. 2, 2021
Michele Chronister is a wife, and mother to three little girls and one little one in heaven. …
As a young mother, holding my first child in my arms, I remember thinking often of Mary going through the various “rites of passage” of her time and faith. When my oldest child was baptized, I was in the early throes of (undiagnosed) postpartum depression (PPD). There was such tremendous comfort and normalcy found in her Baptism. The words were familiar, the rite was familiar, and the priest radiated joy.
This experience of finding consolation as a new mother led to deeper contemplation of Mary’s experience as a new mother. Surely, Mary knew about the custom of presenting a firstborn son in the Temple. She must have been so happy and felt so relieved to have one aspect of her experience, as a new mother, feel normal.
But Jesus’s presentation was not the same as every other little Jewish boy’s, and even that moment was infused with suffering. ….
Continue reading >>>