The Baptism of the Lord Jesus teaches us something about the theology of geography. There are many places where water for baptism could be found in the land of Israel. Why was Jesus baptized by John ...

My dad grew up with two relatives who were eccentric, to say the least. One was an uncle who showed up periodically to sleep on the front porch — often deciding that clothing was an unnecessary ...

Pope St. John Paul II, in his 2002 Apostolic Letter, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, proposed adding a fourth quintet of mysteries to be contemplated when praying the Rosary: the Luminous Mysteries. Leaving ...

Remember the day of your baptism? It's highly unlikely, but your parents and godparents and an assortment of relatives probably do. Perhaps they remember the event itself, or the party, or something ...

"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). This verse is from the Gospel of Matthew, one of the three synoptic Gospels in the New Testament of the Bible, and is about the ...

Along with yesterday’s feast of the Epiphany and the wedding at Cana, today’s feast, the Baptism of the Lord, is one of the three epiphanies of Jesus’ humanity, according to the early Church Fathers.

"Before the earliest Christians were lowered into the water, they turned and spoke to the enemy." This piece argues that baptism was never a quiet ceremony — it was a public change of allegiance, a ...

Today we hear Luke’s account of Jesus’ baptism. The surrounding passages can help to contextualize the Gospel and reflect on its significance as the birth of Jesus’ public ministry. The beginning of ...

To many Christians the baptism of Jesus seems almost as much of an enigma as it did to the Baptist. It serves as a precedent for our own baptism. It also forms an introduction to Christ’s ministry.

Rather than narrating the back-story of John or a relating a history establishing the lineage of Jesus, the beginning of Mark’s gospel cuts straight to the chase. It is like a gurney waiting in the ...