At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus is led into the wilderness. In the midst of human hunger, Jesus confronts the reality of evil and clarifies his own sense of calling.

"Throughout Luke's Gospel," Robert Karris writes, "Jesus is always at a meal, going to a meal, or coming from a meal." This summer, we're joining as houseguests at some of the tables Jesus visited, beginning with the woman who taught him table manners—his mother, Mary. 

Long before social media companies started fracking our attention, a French philosopher named Simone Weil was exploring attention as a spiritual practice—the substance of our love for God and neighbor. 

Worrying about the effects of new technologies on society is probably about as old as society itself. At the same time, it's entirely possible that the technological moment we're all in makes it much harder to give our attention to others and to the world. Thankfully, Jesus shows us a better way. 

What has your attention at the moment? How do you experience your own ability to attend to others and the world around you? Many people see our current culture as marked by a profound deficit of attention. If that's true, Christian tradition has deep wisdom for how we might begin to heal our ability to attend. 

After our journey through Lent, we arrive at our destination: the resurrection of Jesus. It's the dawn of new creation and the formation of a new community.

On the journey toward Jerusalem, the pilgrims sing of being the depths of despair, yet holding onto to hope that with the Lord there is full redemption. Throughout the events of Holy Week, we see how Jesus brings about this long-expected redemption.

Research suggests that even people who manage to stay active don't particularly enjoy exercising... but sometimes music helps. Psalm 129 offers an example how music designed to help us persevere.

Almost all of us would agree with Psalm 133: it's good and pleasant when people get along and live together harmoniously. Yet our experiences with each other are often marked by conflict and disagreement. What drives humans toward conflict?

Psalm 121 is both a cry for help and an assurance that God hears, sees, and responds. Interpreting Psalms like this, though, takes us into contested territory, as we try to reconcile the goodness of God's promises with the often painful realities of life.