1. This day and its meaning provided the opportunity for an anonymous author to write a poem for Sheer Thursday about Judas' betrayal of Jesus.
  2. St. Patrick was great but only because he was a slave to Christ.
  3. Patrick's breakthrough came when he began to leverage his knowledge of the native language and customs to build a bridge between Irish lore and the Christian mythos.
  4. This is the sound of freedom. The Eternal One died so that we who are dying might live eternally with him.
  5. A truly Lenten mindset sees the season as preparatory for the resurrection life of Easter as opposed to the mortification of Good Friday.
  6. The number forty calls to remembrance narratives of God’s great acts of redemption, but also our conformity to and participation in those narratives.
  7. We are the fruit that grows from the branch, which extends from the trunk of the tree, which is rooted in the soil that it grows out of, which is all Christ.
  8. The driving impulse of Lent isn’t so much “giving up” things as it is “putting on” something.
  9. He was rooted in his own tradition but gracious with others when they wanted to learn about his faith or their own.
  10. In a world—and even a church—full of distractions, thank God for Rod Rosenbladt. He pointed us to Jesus and Jesus alone.
  11. Christ's resurrection does not merely negate the bitterness of sin; it changes it into a source of divine sweetness, embodying the promise of a new life for us and a restored existence overshadowed by heavenly hope.
  12. My goal here isn’t to selfishly reflect on all the reasons I will miss Rod because I know that if you are reading this, you may miss this man, too.