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Behold Your Mother: Reflections on the life of St. Mary

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  Among the last words our Lord Jesus Christ spoke from the Cross were words of gift. Looking down upon His mother and upon the beloved disciple standing beside her, He said, "Woman, behold, your son!" and then, "Behold, your mother!" (John 19:26–27). In that hour of darkness, when the Lamb of God was taking away the sin of the world, He was also establishing a household. The disciple received a mother; the Church received the Theotokos. The words are an imperative: behold . They ask something of us. To behold is more than to glance; it is to look until we see, and to keep looking until what we see changes us. This article invites that kind of looking — not at St. Mary in isolation, but at the whole arc of her life as the work of the Heavenly Father, from prophecy to glory. Foreseen Before She Was Born The Virgin was not chosen by chance. Before the world began, the Father's plan of salvation already embraced the mystery of the Incarnation — the Word taking fles...
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Did Abraham Know God by the Name Yahweh?

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  Among the most searching questions that arise from a careful reading of Scripture is one that emerges from an apparent tension between the Book of Genesis and the Book of Exodus. Throughout the patriarchal narratives, the divine name Yahweh ( יהוה , YHWH) appears again and again. Abraham builds altars to Yahweh, calls upon the name of Yahweh, and hears Yahweh speak to him directly. Yet when God later reveals Himself to Moses at the threshold of the Exodus, He says something that seems, at first hearing, to overturn all of this: "I am Yahweh. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by My name Yahweh I was not known to them" (Exodus 6:2–3). How can both testimonies stand together? Did Abraham know God by the name Yahweh, or was that name unveiled for the first time only in the days of Moses? The question is not a trifling one, for it touches the very heart of how God makes Himself known to His people. And the answer, when we listen patiently to th...
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The Subtle Danger: When Personal Conviction Replaces Biblical Truth

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One of the subtle dangers facing Christians today is not the open rejection of God or the Bible. It is something far less obvious: confessing the authority of Scripture while quietly allowing another authority to take its place. Sometimes that authority is personal feeling, and we say, "I feel God is telling me this." Sometimes it is human reasoning, and we say, "This makes more sense to me." Sometimes it is contemporary culture, and we say, "Surely God would not require that today." Sometimes it is religious tradition, and we say, "This is what we have always been taught." And sometimes it is personal experience, and we say, "I know this must be true because of what happened to me." None of these things is evil in itself. Feelings are part of our humanity, and God has given us reason. Christian tradition can preserve profound wisdom, experience can teach us, and circumstances can help us discern God's providence. Yet none of them i...
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The Crisis of Knowing About God, Not Knowing Him as the Father.

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Never before has so much information about God been so readily available. Millions of sermons, podcasts, books, and Bible studies are accessible with a few keystrokes, and Christians today possess more theological resources than any previous generation. Yet beneath this abundance lies a troubling reality: many believers know a great deal about God while knowing Him very little. This is not merely a modern complaint dressed up in spiritual language. Scripture itself names this exact danger, long before podcasts or printed Bibles existed. Through the prophet Hosea, the Lord said, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings" (Hosea 6:6). Through Jeremiah, He said, "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me" (Jeremiah 9:23–24). Eternal life is not defined by possessing relig...
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