Quotation of the Week “And thus when we want an authentic experience of communion with Christ, the church is often the last place we think of–it’s full of all those fallen people. Instead, we retreat from the church into private prayer. There we have only one sinner to account for, and we imagine that with a little fervent prayer we can get our act together and, at least for a few precious moments, live in a pure relationship with God. To me this is an abomination of its own, because it denies the scandal of the Cross. When Jesus comes to us, he comes to us not as a glorious Lord and savior, but as an impoverished, homeless infant, as a scandalous rabbi, as an executed criminal. Today he comes to us as a “sinner,†better, as a “sinful organism.†This is the scandal of his presence today–that he wishes to be identified with, to give his very name and reputation to this body of sinful people, the church. He wishes them to be known as his body, as his presence in the world.” From Mark Galli’s blog.