Why be a Christian? Part 3

The final chapter of Timothy Radcliffe’s work is about stopping, recollecting ourselves and, strange as it might seem, playing games. It is about Sabbath rest.  In Christ, we learn to reclaim the sweetness of time, the otium sanctum—the sacredness of rest.  And this is our obligation for, as we hear in Genesis, God rested on the…

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Why be a Christian? Part 2

Endurance Joy in this life is mixed with pain. Yet our joy sustains us through it all, teaching us patience.   As St Augustine says: “Let us sing Alleluia here below while we are still anxious, so that we may sing it one day there above when we are free from care…Let us sing Alleluia, not…

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Why be a Christian? Part 1

Timothy Radcliffe OP begins What is the Point of Being a Christian? (2009) with the words of Cardinal Shard, “[t]o be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda nor even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery.  It means to live in such a way that one’s life would make…

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