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The Baptism of Jesus: Four Artworks

on January 11, 2026

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The Crucified Woman

THE CRUCIFIED WOMAN Did the Romans crucify women? Howard Lifshitz of Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem, Israel, writes: Crucifixion was widely practiced in the ancient Mediterranean and Babylonian worlds by most of these civilizations, except the Greeks and the Jews. The laws regulating crucifixion had been codified by the king and lawgiver, Hammurabi 1700 years before Jesus. Men and women were crucified for a wide variety of misdemeanors, from adultery to insurrectionary activity. Since traditionally women have been punished preeminently over men for adultery, Babylonian women no doubt bore the brunt of this punishment for sexual misdemeanor. In the history of torture techniques, crucifixion remains among the cruelest because of the protracted and incremental agony of the victim. Death on the cross took three and a half days to complete. The victim died of multiple causes: broken bones, lacerated limbs, asphyxiation when the weight of the hanging body crushed the lungs, strangulati...

Saint Ignatius of Loyola’s 14 Rules for the Discernment of Spirits

Saint Ignatius of Loyola (c. 1620-22) by Peter Paul Rubens SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA’S 14 RULES FOR THE DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS See: http://www.discerninghearts.com/catholic-podcasts/14-rules-discerning-spirits-different-movements-caused-soul/ —“The 14 Rules for Discerning of Spirits – ‘The Different Movements Which Are Caused In The Soul,’” The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, translated from the autograph by Father Elder Mullan, S.J., Discerning Hearts: Catholic Podcasts dedicated to those on the Spiritual Journey Understanding and learning the Ignatian rules for the discernment of spirits requires long experience. It takes time. A quick approach—though hardly infallible—is to apply the heuristic given below. DISCERNMENT OF GOD’S VOICE Someone who knows what God is like knows what his voice is like. As an exercise, write down a list of single words that describe what you think God’s voice is like (for example: gentle, patient, kind, forgiving, encoura...

Decanonization of Saint Josemaria Escriva

DECANONIZATION OF SAINT JOSEMARIA ESCRIVA The canonization on October 6, 2002 of Josemaria Escriva by John Paul II—also a saint, canonized by Papa Francesco on April 27, 2014—was one of the most controversial during the contemporary era. In 2002 The Irish Times observed, for example: “The man that Opus Dei members like to call ‘Our Father’ or ‘The Founder’ has been accused of being vain (he allegedly had the ‘de Balaguer’ tagged on to his name out of petty snobbery), fascist (he allegedly made anti-semitic remarks about the Holocaust, whilst his movement prospered greatly in Franco’s Spain), arrogant and ambitious, as well as having such a loathing for many of the liturgical changes introduced by Vatican Council II that he once considered joining the Greek Orthodox Church. “A number of Vatican commentators have also expressed reservations about his appropriateness as a candidate for sainthood, reservations which reached a crescendo 10 years ago on the occasion of Mon...

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The Baptism of Jesus: Four Artworks

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