Today, as I take a next step along my Lenten spiritual journey, my focus is on what Richard J. Neuhaus (in his book, "Death on a Friday Afternoon") shares on Atonement. "What was separated by an abyss of wrong (the crucifixtion of Jesus) has been reconciled by the deed of perfect love. What the first Adam destroyed the second Adam (Jesus) has restored." "We knew not what we did when we reached for the right to name good and evil. We knew not what we did when we grabbed what w

The first chapter of "Death on a Friday Afternoon" focuses on the "First Word from the cross" - Father forgive them for they know not what they do." We were there, there at the cross and so, we are a part of the 'they'. But surely I was aware of what was going on when Jesus was put to the cross. Surely I was condoning this tragedy (by not doing anything). As Neuhaus writes, "I ways I do not understand, I know that I too, did the deed, wielded the whip, drove the nails, thru

For my 51st birthday in 2000 my wife gave me "Death on a Friday Afternoon", a book by John Richard Neuhaus (May 14, 1936 - January 8, 2009). And, to this day, the book has served as a magnificant spiritual development resource. For this lent, I have decided to use the book again for reflection, contemplation, and prayer traveling on my personal spiritual growth journey. According to Neuhaus, "Good Friday is the drama of the love by which our every day is sustained" and, in re