A series of four homilies tracing God's work with the human soul, deepening us to the point where union between God and humanity becomes possible.

Jesus affirmation of the lowliest of servants at the Last Supper envisions a world of limitless human potential where people engage each other at the point of vitality rather than respectability. (John 13:1-17)

Christians are defined by their ability to identify with the steadfast goodness of Jesus through suffering and death, not by the human sinfulness of those who persecuted him. (The Passion Narrative)

A look at the difference between for whom love is "written on the heart" and those whose primary instinct is me-first. (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

Of the many problems assaulting the Israelites during 40 years in the wilderness, only their own fatalistic response to hardship was deadly. God's corrective act was to make them look at themselves instead of their travails. (Numbers 21:4-9)

Destruction of community--excommunication--is the poisoned Kool Aid of the Christian faith. (1 Corinthians 1:18-25)

When Jesus asks us to take up our cross he asks us to embrace our own death, setting the world free from the iron boundaries of our desires, needs and imagination. (Mark 8:31-38)

Satan's original temptation that we would know good from evil ought to warn us that it's not that easy. Ideas that good is what feels good and bad is what doesn't obscure what God is really all about. (Genesis 9:8-17 and Mark 1:9-15)

While flamboyant piety isn't quite the sin it was in Jesus' time, our addiction to the opinions others have of us still damages our ability to be who we are in the eyes of God, a sin against the two great commandments. (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21)

Elisha's claim on Elijah's mantle demonstrates how God has no grandchildren, and challenges us all to take nothing for granted in the development of our own spiritual life. (2 Kings 2:1-12 and Mark 9:2-9)