Carol J. Dempsey

Scripture for Life: To act prophetically is to speak truth to power, knowing that the prophetic word is always a graced word, no matter how foreboding or harsh that word may have to be. 

Scripture for Life: Laying on of hands for healing occurs numerous times in the New Testament. Interpretations associate this gesture with the transfer of power for physical and spiritual wholeness. In light of quantum physics, this is better understood as the transference of energy.

Scripture for Life: To be an Easter people means to do the work of Easter: to work against injustices, to shake up the status quo, to welcome the marginalized and to embrace all creation with healing love.

The question is this: Have we who are believers forgotten the Holy One and in doing so, have we forgotten who we truly are?

Scripture for Life: The litmus test for people of any faith and spirituality today is the measure of how deep their active compassion is for the "other" among them which also includes non-human life, the new migrants of climate change.

Scripture for Life: Models of leadership that do not function wisely, justly and compassionately to serve both human and non-human life need to be deconstructed and either transformed or dismantled altogether.

Scripture for Life: The seasons of spring and Easter invite us to become liberated from toxic theology whose spiritual effects anesthetize us to unjust crucifixions happening daily in our world today.

Scripture for Life: This Sunday's readings present a way forward for those seeking to live alternatively to the dominant social model of power, prestige, status, control and the colonization of others.

Scripture for Life - Deeply embedded in today's readings is a message of hope and an opportunity to move beyond our God metaphors so that we can embrace life in a fuller way for the full flourishing of all creation.

Scripture for Life: For the two-thirds of the globe's population living in poverty, with many impoverished people living in "the land of plenty," today's Gospel offers a word of hope.

Scripture for Life: In dialogue with the divine, Jesus expresses his desire for those whom he loves, namely, that they also share in the same divine oneness that he shares in with his God.

Scripture for Life: For those of us who dare to act prophetically like Jeremiah and Jesus in our world hungering for hope, vision and justice, we have the promise of presence — "I am with you to deliver you," says the holy one, whose power working within us continually empowers us for the work to be done.

Scripture for Life: The Gospel reading focuses on love: love of God, love of self and love of neighbor. But what is love? And who is our neighbor?

Scripture for Life: When laws and traditions become ends unto themselves, "doctrine" used to sustain mausoleums built with bricks and mortar reflective of times past, then the Spirit will have difficulty in renewing the face of the earth.

Scripture for Life: Recognizing the contributions that quantum physics has made to spirituality, perhaps a new understanding of Trinity is energy, that which exists at the center of all created matter.

Scripture for Life: Central to the "prophetic" is its ability to expose realities that many people, especially leaders, would like not to see or face.

Scripture for Life: Rarely do we take time to think about and explore the rhetoric and imagery for "God" in Scripture and lectionary texts.

Scripture for Life: This Sunday’s readings invite everyone to and into the margins, if some of us are not already there. To be Christian in the context of the Gospel is to embrace life on the margins.

Scripture for Life: The gift of Easter and Pentecost, the gift of the Christ, is peace, which is a gift of the Spirit. Peace, the hope of all creation, is the gift given, now waiting for humanity to bring it to fruition.

Scripture for Life: Dare we allow the stones that encase and entomb the spirit be rolled away so that the spirit can be the life-giving force and transformative energy it is meant to be?