The Fellowship of St. Columbanus

Spending Ash Wednesday ill in bed, I was unable to write an appropriate reflection for the Fellowship, or even attend mass. The only devotion I managed was reciting Psalm 103 in my little Authorized Version psalm book. Of course, I chose this psalm because I remembered that it echoed the line from Genesis, "Dust you are and to dust you shall return." (Gen. 3:19) Imagine my surprise, then, to realize when I reached verse 14 that in fact it read, "For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust." Polish priest imposing ashes (unknown, 1881) The Psalmist has taken a refrain from throughout the Old Testament, a reminder to mankind that we are mortal, that we are sinful, and that we must act accordingly, (see Eccl. 5:15, Ps. 104:29, Isa. 40, and Ps. 90) and turned it on its head. There is more to "Ashes to ashes and dust to dust" than only the command to "redeem the time, because the days are evil." (Eph. 5:16) There is another side: t...

Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46 I Corinthians 10:31-11:1 St. Mark 1:40-45 By: Matthew David Wiseman Leprosy is usually associated with what is called Hansen's Disease, and not without some reason. Both are highly contagious skin infections which have traditionally excluded people from society. However, even a cursory reading of today's lection from Leviticus makes it clear that the biblical leprosy is not the same as Hansen's Disease. There is no deformation of fingers and toes here, and the lesions are rather different from Hansen's. The truth is that there is no clear disease or pathology which these chapters of Leviticus describe. In fact, some Jewish commentators conclude from this that there is no such disease, but rather that leprosy was a special curse from God. Ikon of Christ cleansing the leper All of this only contributes to the strangeness of what is already, for modern readers, a very strange story in St. Mark chapter 1. In our socially conscious, ev...