This is the eighth entry in the Bible Junkies Online Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles The first entry nbsp covered some of the major critical technical and background issues that will concern us as we read through and comment on the Acts The second post found here considered the prologue

Saturday 7 p m Though neither of us yet knows ineluctable forces are already moving young Anthony and me toward our terrifying rendezvous I have baptisms after the Spanish language Mass Gregorio has lit the large Paschal Candle which stands on its impressive sculpted stand near the font Four

We know nothing of Lila rsquo s parents We meet her in a home for migrant workers where for the most part she is ignored and neglected In the opening words of nbsp Lila nbsp Marilynne Robinson rsquo s new novel ldquo The child was just there on the stoop in the dark hugging herself against

My Mother can still recite the blessing in German nbsp She learned it as a child for New Year rsquo s Day when folks in Rush County in central Kansas would go from house to house offering a benediction in return for food drink or coinIch w nsche Euch Gl ck zum neuen Jahr Gesundheit Frie

No one can love us like family, and no one can hurt like family.

One soldier and then another imitated the one who came among us as an infant.