Dana Owens

Reflecting on the meaning of the Latin word merced, “price paid,” I cannot help but to think of redemptive work accomplished by the life and suffering of Jesus Christ. Jesus, Incarnate Divine, brought back what humanity lost: spiritual freedom.

Being family with the Creator is neither an automatic status nor purchasable commodity. According to Jesus, we must earn this spiritual state of being by “living the will of God.”

Why would it be helpful to think with one’s eyes closed? The hopeful expectation is that one might be able to see what is in one’s heart, because seeing the physical and materialistic reality has been limited by closing one’s eyes.

We often keep God outside of our life or at a certain distance. But the problem with this attitude is that true happiness and inner joy also stay away from us because they come to us accompanied by God…

The resurrection of Jesus reveals that we are spiritual beings whose true life begins in heaven, as designed by God.

People at the time of Jesus expected Jesus to be the king of their physical realm. However, Jesus is the king of the spiritual realm, which is already present within us…

People choose things that are not helpful or even harmful to them despite having obvious, better choices. This could be due to greed, overwhelming emotion, or ignorance. Yet, there is a deeper challenge to humans: we are born in a materialistic reality and raised by its principles.

Being truthful to oneself is the key to being faithful. In other words, believing in something or some being faithfully could only be possible when one’s heart is authentic and transparent.