Light of the Word: Brief Reflections on the Sunday Readings

by Hans Urs von Balthasar

Publisher:

Ignatius

, 1993

Overview

This book seeks to present the common themes that connect all three of the readings for Sundays and feasts of the Lord in the three-year cycle of readings. Organized by each Sunday and feast day of the liturgical year for years A, B, and C, these reflections are meant to be theological and spiritual suggestions that the one who is preaching can develop further and from which he can select individual perspectives. Rather than seeking immediately concrete applications, Hans Urs von Balthasar attempts to elucidate the content which is immediately present in the passages.

Contents

Top Highlights

“For the believer who hears the account of the Passion, it has meaning only as a work of God’s love that will open out into Easter. But he dare not let this knowledge of the outcome sanitize all the realism of the way of the Cross by thinking ‘everything will turn out okay’, rather, he must enter into it as earnestly as possible. This is what God and, in his name, the Church, require.” (Pages 181–182)

“Only from the perspective of the Cross of Christ can he promise everyone ‘peace and mercy’ in the name of the Church (the ‘Israel of God’), peace and mercy ‘based on this rule of life’: that the victory over the world is found only in Jesus’ Cross and its impact on the Church and the world.” (Page 329)

“Yet it is not by means of a strange miracle outside us that God will accomplish healing, rather, God works from within us, just as an organism heals from the inside out.” (Page 153)

“All his action and being point to the future, to the being and action of Another; he himself is comprehensible only as a functional servant of another.” (Page 39)

“My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to finish his work” (Page 172)

Product Details

• Title: Light of the Word: Brief Reflections on the Sunday Readings
• Author: Hans Urs von Balthasar
• Publisher: Ignatius
• Print Publication Date: 1993
• Logos Release Date: 2019
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Catholic Church › Prayers and devotions; Bible › Liturgical lessons, English; Church year meditations
• ISBNs: 9780898704587, 0898704588
• Resource ID: LLS:LIGHTOFTHEWORD
• Resource Type: text.monograph.devotional
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-09-13T16:06:59Z

About Hans Urs von Balthasar

Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905–1988) was a Swiss theologian widely regarded as one of the greatest theologians and spiritual writers of modern times. Named a cardinal by Pope John Paul II, he died shortly before being formally inducted into the College of Cardinals. He wrote over one hundred books, including Prayer, Heart of the World, Mary for Today, Love Alone Is Credible, Mysterium Paschale and his major multi-volume theological works: The Glory of the Lord, Theo-Drama and Theo-Logic.