This is an excerpt from the introduction of Stretched: A Study for Lent and the Entire Christian Life by Christopher Richmann (1517 Publishing, 2026).
We can bring our troubles, griefs, sorrows, and sins to Jesus, who meets us smack dab in the middle of our messy mob.
Confession isn’t a detour in the liturgy. It’s the doorway.

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People have often tended, quite wrongly, to view me as saintly. I attribute that undeserved reputation to the fact I have always had a very strong sense of the kind of person I should be.
Jesus is faithful even when we are faithless. He is our Strength, and Song, and Salvation. He's all this for us because He is God, and God is love.
Even in our principled disagreements, we continue to pray for the unity of all, and invite the world to taste and see that the Lord is good.
Some form of the Rule of Benedict will not save or reinvigorate the church. The church already has what the church needs to do her work in the world: she has the Gospel.
Beware the lament, dear readers, that is not soothed with the good-goods of Jesus.
Jesus didn’t lie. He was called to preach to Israel. He would send His disciples out into the world. But that didn’t mean His message wasn’t for all.
You can talk to me about how Jesus is really forgiving and how you want me around, but what happens when things don’t change in a month?
There are some things that just go together. Walk through the aisles of a store and see colors harmonize with spring colors that paint the earth.
He reminds them how his love is truly marvelous and unconditional, but then, he looks them in the eyes, and says they ought to do better because of his love.
What on God’s green earth does dynamite, a chemical explosive, have to do with the Gospel of Christ?
Paul’s letter to the Romans is arguably the most masterful piece of writing in the New Testament.
Looking at our dining room table most days, you might think we were running a cartoon factory out of our house. Drawings. Everywhere.