Greek Words

An explanation for reflecting on Greek words… Read more

J.D. Salinger, perhaps best known for his book The Catcher in the Rye, wrote a lesser known work titled Franny and Zooey in which the main character (Franny) reads The Way of a Pilgrim and is dealing with the corresponding spiritual aftermath. It leads the reader wondering, “What is so special about this book The… Read more

A few years ago, I attended a cousin’s wedding in which the chosen Gospel passage was the well-known Beatitudes. After the priest finished proclaiming the Gospel, my only thought was “will he preach on the word ‘makarioi’?” That is the Greek word which begins each line of the beatitudes and most often gets translated “blessed”… Read more

One evening at a Catholic Young Adult gathering in Harrisburg, a lecture series produced by the Augustine Institute was presented to the group. During that video series led by Dr. Tim Gray, it was mentioned that the famous commandment “follow me” from Jesus to Peter,  and also the phrase “get behind me, Satan” were the… Read more

For the past few years, I have been quite obsessed with the phrase “joys and sorrows”. Anytime I see those two words together I make a note of it, whether in a book, on a billboard, or in an everyday conversation. Perhaps that is why I was moved by this word katanyxis after reading the… Read more

I can recall learning about this word for the first time during my senior year of college. The word struck me so much that I promised myself to use it as a title if I ever wrote a book. When I submitted my autobiographical essay during my application process with the Franciscans, I used this… Read more

One day during my New Testament course in undergrad, the professor began class by writing the word “ύπομονή” on the chalkboard. I remember him telling the class that this was the most important word in the New Testament. I knew so little Greek at the time that my guess was the most important word must… Read more

Resist not – ἀντιστῆναι Walter Wink is a theologian that I first discovered in my final semester of undergrad in a course titled The Askesis (practice) of Nonviolence. After graduation, I would eventually stumble upon his book Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way. It is a short little book that I have returned to often… Read more