My dear friends,
There are several ways to tell someone they belong. You can preach about welcome. You can print ALL ARE WELCOME on a sign large enough to be read from the parking lot. Then, when a nervous person actually appears at the door, you can move over and make room.
This week kept bringing us back to that difference. On Sunday, somebody had to put down their weapons first. We lifted high the Cross and then stood beneath it with Mary. We watched frightened Christians return after failing under persecution, and we followed San Gennaro to a prison before joining his feast in Little Italy. From Calvary to Mulberry Street is quite a journey for six days, even for us.
Beneath all those stories was one question: What does love do when the easy words have run out? It remains. It visits. It keeps a road home open. And it remembers that the Body of Christ is diminished whenever one of its members has been left outside.
Help Us Keep the Door Open
One reason this week’s reflection on Our Lady of Sorrows remained free is that grief does not check a person’s budget before arriving. The same is true of the pastoral emails and messages, the Bible studies, the podcast, and the public witness we are building for people who need to encounter a thoughtful and compassionate Gospel.
I recently discovered that Substack had been hiding a discount button from its resident priest. Through Sunday, September 27 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern, you can receive 20 percent off your first year as a Supporting Contributor. The regular annual price is $99; the discounted first year is $79.20, or about $6.60 a month.
You will receive full Supporting Contributor access, including the ability to submit questions for Queries From the Margins and special pieces like Friday’s San Gennaro reflection. More importantly, your support gives this ministry the time and resources to keep its central work open to people who cannot afford to pay.
If $79.20 is within reach and this ministry has become part of your spiritual life, I am asking you to use the offer today. If the discounted price would still place strain on your finances, please stay without guilt. Your prayer, attention, comments, and shares are welcome here.
With Tremendous Gratitude,
This Week from Message From the Margins
She Was Blessed. And a Sword Still Pierced Her Heart.
Some grieving Christians have been handed one burden too many: the suspicion that suffering means they did not believe hard enough. Mary answers that cruelty simply by standing beneath the Cross. She was favored, faithful, and blessed among women, and the sword still pierced her heart. This reflection makes room for sorrow without explaining it away, then asks what love can still do when it cannot fix what has happened.
Can You Come Home?
After the persecution of Decius, Christians who had denied Christ wanted the Eucharist and their Church again. Cornelius and Cyprian insisted that failure did not have to mean permanent exile. Their story led us to a harder question for everyone already inside: Will somebody meet the returning person at the door? If the Church is truly the Body of Christ, an absent member leaves the whole Body missing something.
You Know the Pastry. But Do You Know the Saint?
Friday’s special reflection for Supporting Contributors traveled from a bishop visiting an imprisoned Christian to the hundredth anniversary of New York’s Feast of San Gennaro, with a stop for the St. Benedict crucifix I bought there as a teenager. There are pastries, questionable pronunciation, and a saint who reminds us to notice the person who cannot reach the celebration without us.
Also this week: Sunday’s homily asked who will put down their weapons first, and why forgiveness still costs something when the debt is real. On Monday, Lift High the Cross followed the hymn, the Scriptures, and the ancient Christian insistence that Christ’s victory looks like self-giving love rather than domination.
From the Archives
The Trinity Is Why You Belong
As we prepare to travel to Nicaea, this reflection begins with a college roommate’s surprisingly good question and asks why the Trinity belongs to ordinary Christian life. The answer leads away from an abstract diagram and toward communion, loneliness, and the astonishing claim that in Christ our humanity has been brought into the life of God.
Return to the Question of Belonging
The Real Reason Jesus Told Us to Care for the Poor
San Gennaro went to a prisoner because he recognized Christ there. This earlier essay asks why Jesus keeps returning to the poor, the stranger, the sick, and the imprisoned, then considers the cages that narrow a human life long before anyone sees a lock.
About That Emperor Waiting for the Bishops…
I had hoped to put How Did the Church Become the Church? The Road to Nicaea into your feed earlier this week. It did not arrive on the timetable I gave you, and I owe you that honesty rather than another optimistic date.
I am aiming for Monday. At the moment, however, Father and Figgy are writing this from a Starbucks. (Please don’t feel bad for me. It is my favorite place after a church, Citi Field, or Disney World, and Figgy is devouring a Pup Cup so life is good.) The internet is out at the chapel, and completing the podcast this weekend requires the use of my Super Duper Computer. I’m not yet sure how much the outage will complicate that work.
So Monday is the hope, but it is not another promise. I’ll let you know when the episode is truly ready.
The episode begins with a remarkable reversal. A generation of Christian leaders had watched Rome destroy churches, burn Scriptures, imprison clergy, and kill believers. Now the emperor wants the bishops at his palace, and he is arranging transportation. We will follow them through persecution, arguments over whether frightened Christians can be restored, Constantine’s favor, the dispute over Jesus Christ, the Council of Nicaea, and the unsettled aftermath. The emperor would like the Christians to agree. He may have underestimated the assignment.
I want the finished episode to be worth the wait. I will give you a new date when I can give it with confidence. Prior listening is not required, but Episode II: How Did the Church Become the Church? is the best runway into this story. You can also catch Episode III: The Stone Which the Builders Rejected while the emperor waits.
In the Week Ahead
I will be finishing The Road to Nicaea and preparing our first live Message From the Margins Bible study. On Tuesday, September 29 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, we will explore The Prodigal Son Like You’ve Never Heard Before together on Substack Live. Save the live Bible study here.
Rome preparations are also becoming wonderfully real. We now have permission to film inside the Basilica of San Clemente, where the history of the Church quite literally sits in layers beneath your feet, and a possible interview with a high ranking Cardinal who has special passion for people at the Margins. There will be much more to share as the plans take shape.
If one of this week’s reflections brought someone to mind, send it to them with a simple note. A person standing near the door may need to know that someone inside has noticed.
And Let Us Pray
Lord Jesus Christ, You saw Your mother beneath the Cross, welcomed the frightened and fallen, and made Your home among people the world was willing to leave outside.
Give us the courage to remain when sorrow cannot be explained. When an ashamed person begins the journey home, make us ready to meet them with honesty, wisdom, and mercy. When grievance has become a weapon in our hands, help us become the first to set it down. Send us toward the lonely, the imprisoned, and the person whose absence has become too easy to overlook.
Make Your Church a place where repentance has somewhere to lead, grief can speak without apology, and every member of Your Body is received as a gift.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Your Brother in Christ,
And Before You Go…
How can this community pray for you this week? Perhaps you are trying to come home, deciding whether to take the first step toward peace, carrying a grief that needs companionship, or simply waiting for someone to notice. Share as much or as little as you feel comfortable making visible in the comments. “Please pray for me” is enough. If you read another person’s request, please help us hold the door open by remembering them in prayer.
God of mercy, hear the prayers gathered in this community, including the needs for which words have not yet come. Give strength to those approaching a difficult threshold, faithful companions to those who are suffering, and grace enough for each next step. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.