Reflections by Dr. James Howell

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Latest Reflection by Dr. Howell

What’s Next? – Fear for My Country, Frustrations with People

What’s Next? – Fear for My Country, Frustrations with People

When I asked what people wanted me to talk about in this email space, several expressed fears for the country, and their exasperation over the way others think and feel. Our United Methodist Publishing House asked me to write a book on Religion and Politics. I said...

What’s Next? – Fear for My Country, Frustrations with People

August 31, 2026

When I asked what people wanted me to talk about in this email space, several expressed fears for the country, and their exasperation over the way others think and feel. Our United...

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Church Matters

Embracing Mystery

Good Questions

How to Become Spiritual

Oh the Places You'll Go

Prayer

And His Name Shall Be Call-ed

Advent Hope 2025

Church Matters 2025

Prepare Him Room

Reading Luke Together

Real Relationship 2026

March 12, 2026

A Real Relationship → God and America

Hi, friends. I enjoyed our How to Read the Bible, and How to Pray series. I hope it meant something to you. In thinking on what to do next, I keep pondering a pivotal date we’ll come upon this summer:...

March 9, 2026

A Real Relationship #19 – Wrestling with God and God’s Bible

Today will wind up what I have to share on the overall theme of Reading the Bible. Mind you, reading the Bible is a lifetime task, privilege, challenge, and great joy – so we’re not done. Actually eve...

March 5, 2026

A Real Relationship #18 – Not Safe to Pray Alone?

Last week I promised to share with you places you can find the words of others which you can employ as your own words to God. I am not sure what Rabbi Abraham Heschel means when he wrote “It is not sa...

March 2, 2026

A Real Relationship #17 – Context, Context, Context

My friend and great scholar Ben Witherington loves to say “A text without its context is a pretext for a prooftext.” We read the Bible slowly – and go slowly enough to pay attention to who lives next ...

February 26, 2026

A Real Relationship #16 – Borrowed Words

While I know God welcomes my sighs and groans as prayers that are plenty eloquent, I do try to find good words, expressive words, my best and most authentic words when I speak with God. Sometimes that...

February 23, 2026

A Real Relationship #15 – The Princely Kiss?

As Lent has begun, I pause to reflect on what we’ve covered over the past two months in thinking together about How to Read the Bible. The biggest takeaway, for me, has to be a bit simplistic, and yet...

February 19, 2026

A Real Relationship #14 – ASH WEDNESDAY

Such a fitting day to consider Bible Reading and Prayer. We begin Lent and the rest of our lives with a quiet, prayerful, solemn service of prayer. We tell God we are sorry our lives are out of sync w...

February 16, 2026

A Real Relationship #13 – 4 of the Ps

What have you found digging into Scripture? Have any of you tried the Ps I’ve suggested? Psalm 127 begins “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” A good verse if you’re a...

February 12, 2026

A Real Relationship #12 – Prayer as Love and Mystery

As Valentine’s Day draws near, I love the way Jesus, when he spoke of what our connection with him and with God is like, he spoke of love. He was expanding on and embodying what was at the heart of th...

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May 6, 2019

Church Matters: Good Friday

Every year on Good Friday, I keep an eye on the clock, trying to answer the old hymn’s question, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” Earlier this morning, at 6 am, Jesus endured a mock trial...

December 21, 2020

The Mystery of Advent: Longest Night

The Winter Solstice. The longest night. In school, we learned about the tilt of the earth, the angle of the sun’s light, how the days grow shorter and the nights longer. That’s science. What we know d...

December 14, 2020

The Mystery of Advent: Warmth of Divine Love

The mystery of Advent and Christmas might best be understood as the question asked and answered by Walter Kasper, the great German theologian and friend of Pope Francis: “Why did God become a human be...

December 7, 2020

The Mystery of Advent: Quiet

Jerusha Neal, who will be my guest for my Wednesday Bible reflection time in 9 days, wrote a fascinating book about Mary, the mother of our Lord. So very wisely, she looks closely at the way the churc...

November 30, 2020

The Mystery of Advent: Saving 2020

Advent began… yesterday! I love the way two plot lines interweave for us during December each year. It’s Christmas, so all the lights, tinsel, bows, chestnuts, stockings. My favorite podcast I’ve hear...

November 16, 2020

Embracing Mystery: Children and Slaves

We have romanticized and indulged childhood in modern times; but in Paul’s world, childhood was far from glamorous. Most children endured poor health, barely enough food, no medicines or braces,...

November 9, 2020

Embracing Mystery: Drunk or Filled?

“Look carefully how you walk, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time” (Ephesians 5:15). Sometimes when Lisa and I are hiking, we have to be careful where we walk. A rock here, a...

November 2, 2020

Embracing Mystery: Speaking Truth with Love

Paul’s on a roll at the end of Ephesians 4. “Putting away falsehood, let every one speak the truth with his neighbor” (Ephesians 4:25). What’s the climactic line in “A Few Good Men”? “You can’t handle...

October 5, 2020

Embracing Mystery: Work in Progress

Ephesians 2:17: “Christ came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.” Given the way we divide ourselves up, in a denomination or by race or as voters, I bet most o...

September 3, 2020

Embracing Mystery: Diagram this sentence!

And so we plunge into a beautiful, profound and hopeful book of the Bible: Ephesians. After identifying himself as the writer of the letter (ancient people signed at the beginning, not the end, which ...

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December 29, 2022

Good Questions: The Turn of the Year

What a peculiar year 2022 has been – but then I guess every year brings its unanticipated turns of events, personal surprises, news that baffles, hurts you didn’t see coming, and joys you sure didn’t ...

December 22, 2022

My Christmas Message

When I sit down to type out these emails, I try to picture different faces of folks I think / hope are reading. I rifle through so many stories I’ve heard people tell me about their lives, their dream...

December 19, 2022

Good Questions: Why Does Mary Matter?

Protestants, I suspect because they are so determined not to be Catholic, pay insufficient attention to Mary. Yes, she’s there in all the manger scenes, and she plays a sweet role in kid pageants. But...

December 15, 2022

Good Questions: Was Baby Jesus God?

As we did earlier in our Good Questions series, we ask Who is Jesus and Why does he matter? We saw it’s not just his teachings or touching the untouchables or even his death and resurrection. It’s his...

December 12, 2022

Good Questions: Was Mary Really a Virgin?

The creed we declare (or mutter) week by week states that Jesus was “conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary.” Was it really so? Does it matter? Giving mental assent to this, being quite...

December 8, 2022

Good Questions: Why did Jesus come when and where he did?

In our Good Questions series, we asked a common question: Why did God wait so long to come? To that we can add: why come in such an obscure place and time? Hard to ask God these questions… Of course, ...

December 5, 2022

Good Questions: Is Jesus the Reason for the Season?

I have a great fondness, both personal and theological, for Christmas decorations, especially the lights. Some childhood warmth is evoked, and there’s no lovelier image on earth of Christ as the “ligh...

November 30, 2022

Good Questions: Does God as Trinity matter?

A hard question that might make you dizzy is How can God be three in one? Is the doctrine of the Trinity understandable? Or does it matter? Talk about Good Questions / No Easy Answers! Don’t just shru...

November 28, 2022

Good Questions: Why Bother with the Old Testament?

So many good people I know never read from the Old Testament. I suppose I should be happy if they read any Bible at all. But I suspect that a thicket of misconceptions blind people to the marvelous tr...

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November 20, 2023

How to Become… Joyful

So for 3 months we’ve been exploring how to become spiritual – or more spiritual. I hope you’re still with me, and are getting the hang of the spiritual life not being a swoosh of emotion or a wide gr...

November 16, 2023

How to become… a Spiritual Reader (part 2)

So let us speak of more distinctly spiritual reading. Would-be spiritual people are always looking for material, which I applaud. Remember that reading can be one more check-mark activity, versus sett...

November 13, 2023

How to Become… a Spiritual Reader (part 1)

Before we get to Joy, there’s this. You may be waiting for me to recommend a book or two. Reading matters in the spiritual life. Selectivity in what you read matters – especially since we read, not ju...

November 9, 2023

How to be… Holy (part 3!)

In our last 2 emails, we have spoken of holiness as the ever elusive but prized goal of the spiritual life. Just as holiness can’t be left off the spiritual life, or treated as something you might get...

November 6, 2023

How to Become… Holy (part 2)

What are the habits and practices that, over time, might create space for the dawning of holiness in your life? Holiness isn’t a bunch of rules you’d better adhere to. Holiness isn’t avoiding pleasure...

November 2, 2023

How to become… Holy (part 1)

My last 2 topics in this series are Holiness and Joy. Don’t think they’re relegated to bringing up the rear. Holiness and Joy are the ultimate goals of the spiritual life, the twin fruits, the beautif...

October 30, 2023

How to Pray and Pray Again on this Journey

In our last 2 emails, we have explored the basics of prayer. But being aware of how to pray is useless unless – yes, you actually pray. And the only way to pray is… to pray. You show up. And you show ...

October 26, 2023

How to ask God for Help! on this Journey

The Help! in Anne Lamott’s Help, Thanks, Wow seems obvious – but is it? Lots of people aren’t regular prayers until they or someone they love has fallen into a deep hole. Do we merely ask God to help ...

October 23, 2023

How to Grow in Prayer on this Journey

Prayer is the centerpiece of the spiritual life, the axis around which it all turns. But I can’t simply say “Pray!” or “Pray more!” Certainly, the only way to pray is to pray. You show up before God, ...

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August 24, 2023

Oh the Places You’ll Go: the Cave of Machpelah

Somehow, in my many travels to Israel, I had never made it to Hebron – until this summer. Lisa and I got a driver to take us twenty miles or so south of Bethlehem. It’s a tense region, with Palestinia...

August 21, 2023

Oh the Places You’ll Go: the Jerusalem Food Market

A great challenge and delight when travelling, around the country, around the world, or even to the other side of town, is food. Experimental eating and fumbled pronunciations are the order of the day...

August 15, 2023

Oh the Places You’ll Go: Praying or Spectating? (part 2)

In our last installment, I spoke of famous holy places of prayer where it is exceedingly difficult to pray. It’s way easier for me to pray in a place like the stone pit in St. Peter in Gallicantu in J...

August 10, 2023

Oh the Places You’ll Go: Praying or Spectating? (part 1)

If you ask Christians who’ve never been to the Holy Land, but think about it, and hope to go one day, Where would you want to pray while you are in Jerusalem? Where would you expect to have a profound...

August 7, 2023

Oh the Places You’ll Go: the Holy Land

I spent 23 days of my recent sabbatical in the Holy Land. I’ve lost count (hoping that doesn’t sound elitist!)… as I’ve had the great privilege of going to Israel maybe 25 times in my life, usually wi...

August 1, 2023

Oh the Places You’ll Go: Liverpool and Tupelo

I love the way Church creates not just religious beauty, but secular beauty as well – if the distinction even makes sense. In February, I was treated to a personal, guided tour of Elvis Presley’s chil...

July 27, 2023

Oh the Places You’ll Go: Luther, Bonhoeffer Residences

Our choir is hatching plans to sing on tour in Germany next year – and I am thinking I might intersect with them on a pilgrimage I would lead to places where Martin Luther and Dietrich Bonhoeffer live...

July 24, 2023

Oh the Places You’ll Go: Destination – Home?

You don’t think of your own home as a destination, an “oh the place you’ll go,” unless you’re homesick, or unless it’s the place that used to be your home. I envy friends, and a few relatives who have...

July 18, 2023

Oh the Places You’ll Go: Amazement Parks?

I love the way the Gospels tell us, quite a few times, that the people who saw and heard Jesus were “amazed.” It’s the only sensible response to the genius, craziness and wonder that Jesus was and is ...

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January 29, 2018

Prayer: A Sigh

There is so much to love and savor about the life of Martin Luther – but then there are the embarrassments: his ferocious invective against Catholics, and his demeaning of the Jews are just plain emba...

December 11, 2023

And His Name Shall be Call-ed: Divine Hero

“And his name shall be call-ed Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God.” The Hebrew lurking beneath “Mighty God” is fascinating: el gibbor. The first word, el, is “God,” but might be parsed as an adjective, “...

December 7, 2023

And His Name Shall be Call-ed: Mighty God

And his name shall be call-ed Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God. Surely “Mighty God” is the most obvious and self-explanatory of all conceivable names for God. How much might did it take to touch off th...

December 4, 2023

And His Name Shall be Call-ed: Wonderful Counselor

And his name shall be call-ed: Wonderful Counselor. {I love this version of Handel with only children’s voices!) Counselor? Ancient Israelites didn’t have therapists to listen to, advise or medicate t...

November 30, 2023

And His Name Shall be Call-ed: Planner of Wonders

And his name shall be call-ed: Wonderful Counselor. What a name! I hear not just a choir singing Handel, but the newish hymn “His Name is Wonderful” too. Isaiah envisions the birth of a child. Not har...

November 27, 2023

And His Name Shall be Call-ed: Emmanuel

A few weeks ago, my friend Rob Fuquay, a North Carolina guy who’s now senior pastor of St. Luke United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, reached out to me asking if I had any suggested resources on Is...

December 30, 2025

Advent Hope/A Real Relationship!

Two things I’d share with you today, the fifth day of Christmas, the 62nd anniversary of my own baptism (long story…), the fourth day of Kwanzaa (which I come to appreciate more year by year) – a lot ...

December 22, 2025

Advent Hope #7 – Jesus

Of course, we come finally to the central character of our story, the one who really mattered for the rest of the characters, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Herod, the shepherds, the magi, Joseph and Mary (and...

December 18, 2025

Advent Hope #6 – Mary

I am moved by Mary. I’d not thought much about her for decades. Yes, somebody had to bear and deliver the Christ child. And then she makes the occasional cameo appearance in the Gospels. I’d visited a...

December 15, 2025

Advent Hope #5 – Joseph

Mary had a fiancée, which is way too fancy and romantic a word. There were no wedding planners, photo shoots or engraved invitations. They simply were betrothed, committed to marriage. Without picturi...

December 11, 2025

Advent Hope #4 – King Herod

We don’t find Elizabeth or John the Baptist on Christmas cards or manger scenes. Thankfully, we also don’t see much of King Herod – although he does slip into a pageant or two. Who’s been more vilifie...

December 8, 2025

Advent Hope #3 – Elizabeth

Mary’s pregnancy and delivery are prefigured and kept in good company by her cousin Elizabeth – who’s way past her prime, and thought to be beyond her childbearing years. Was it a miracle? Or just suc...

December 4, 2025

Advent Hope #2 – Isaiah ‘twas foretold it

When our New Testament writers tried to make sense of the birth of Jesus, they sorted through the many scrolls that were what we think of as the Old Testament books of the Bible, and unrolled Isaiah –...

December 1, 2025

Advent Hope #1 – A Head Start on 2026!

In early 2026, my plan – my dream – is to guide us together through some very practical ways to go about our two foundational activities as Christians: reading the Bible, and praying. Of course, they ...

November 24, 2025

Church Matters #18 – Come, Ye Thankful People

There are a handful of hymns I associate with Thanksgiving, and they remind us of what may be our most crucial habit and privilege: being grateful. We are summoned by God, and by one another to “Come,...

November 20, 2025

Church Matters #17 – The Church Out There

In these emails about church, I’ve said more than once that the early church was born and thrived during a long season where everyone loathed their government, when most of the population was intimida...

November 17, 2025

Church Matters # 16 – Someone’s prayin’, Lord

I’ve always admired and found surprising comfort in Thomas Merton’s striking assertion about Gethsemani, the abbey in rural Kentucky where he lived the last 27 years (to the day) of his life – calling...

November 13, 2025

Church Matters #15 – No Greater Peculiarity

I’m unsure whether to shiver or to laugh when I recall Anthony Trollope’s witty sarcasm in his novel Barchester Towers: “There is no greater hardship inflicted on mankind than the necessity of listeni...

November 10, 2025

Church Matters #14 – Connection

You back out of your driveway to go to church, and wave to your Lutheran neighbor getting into his car to go to his church. Or at lunch after worship you see a finely dressed family at the table next ...

November 6, 2025

Church Matters #13 – Finding, Being With the Lost

The single most unusual thing about the early Church wasn’t their belief in Jesus – as startling and even scandalous as that was for even the most religious people of the day. What blew outsiders’ min...

November 3, 2025

Church Matters #12 – the Love Never Stops

Last week, we spoke of one of the four key pillars of the Church: fellowship, or love and care for our church family, mutual support. The Greek word koinonia, meaning sharing everything in common, cap...

October 30, 2025

Church Matters #11 – What’s Wrong with the Church?

A couple of weeks before I began work as pastor of a medium-sized church in the suburbs of Charlotte, the lay leader called me to say “We’ve organized a bunch of meetings in people’s homes during your...

October 27, 2025

Church Matters # 10 – See How They Love

What does the Church do? We worship, we learn, we reach out – and we care for one another. Most churches excel at this. It’s harder, the larger the church – but I hear from our people that we do well ...

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December 23, 2024

Prepare Him Room: Advent with Luke #11 – A Girl was in Labor

The day before the day before. I envision Mary and Joseph on the last leg of their travels. The final day’s journey southward toward Bethlehem is very hilly and rocky. They would pass the glorious hol...

December 19, 2024

Prepare Him Room: Advent with Luke #10 – Shepherds Quake

You may have heard shepherds were poor, at the bottom of the economic/respect ladder. Maybe. Some were humble laborers – but so were most people living in Palestine back then. Some were a bit wealthie...

December 16, 2024

Prepare Him Room: Advent with Luke #9 – A Decree Went Out

Probably because I had a charismatic high school history teacher who loved ancient Rome, and then a mesmerizing college professor who gave spellbinding lectures on the Romans, I’ve been obsessed with ...

December 12, 2024

Prepare Him Room: Advent with Luke #8 – The Visitation

I was surprised and then delighted by the great Richard Rohr’s thought, when commenting on Mary’s journey from her home in Nazareth to visit her relative Elizabeth, 100 miles away, and on foot while p...

December 9, 2024

Prepare Him Room: Advent with Luke #7 – Mary’s Calling

Mary moves me so – during Advent and at Christmas, of course, but always. No one was closer to Jesus. No one understood his utter humanity better. No one felt the weight of caring for and nurturing hi...

December 5, 2024

Prepare Him Room: Advent with Luke #6 – Born of the Virgin?

How surprised was Mary, and then Luke’s first readers when Gabriel materialized? They believed in angels but didn’t encounter them very often. The bigger surprise? Luke emphasizes that she is a virgin...

December 2, 2024

Prepare Him Room: Advent with Luke #5 – Humble Everydayness

Today, Nazareth is a bustling, crowded city, population 80,000, two-thirds Muslim and one-third Christian – and they get along famously! Back in Bible times though, Nazareth barely qualified as a vill...

November 27, 2024

Prepare Him Room: My Thanksgiving Message to You!

As Thanksgiving is upon us, you should know how very deeply grateful I am for you, that you read what I send, that you care about who we are as God’s people and the responsibilities and joys God entru...

November 25, 2024

Prepare Him Room: Advent with Luke #5 – Blessed be the Lord

I love the way Scripture is so very different from and much richer than even a page-turner of a novel. You read the novel, you’re done. But with Scripture, you’re never done – or it’s never done with ...

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September 16, 2025

Reading Luke/Acts Together #82 – Paul Winds Up in Rome

I have what feels like a terrible confession to make: I wish I loved the last 7 chapters of Acts. But this long section feels long-winded and repetitive. Mind you, there’s lots of action: riots, shipw...

September 11, 2025

Reading Luke/Acts Together #81 – 9/11, and Paul meets James

The anniversary of 9/11. Hard to believe it’s been 24 years. Unless you’re very young, you have some vivid recollection of where you were, what transpired in your circle, and how it all felt that day....

September 8, 2025

Reading Luke/Acts Together #80 – What Broke Paul’s Heart

I wonder if they’ll ever make a quality TV series about the journeys of Paul. Just in chapter 21, you have so many intriguing, picturesque details. The scenery would be stunning, as they are skipping ...

September 2, 2025

Reading Luke/Acts Together # 79 – The Last Time I Saw your Face

The second, long section of Acts 20 describes for us Paul’s departure from Ephesus. When we visit Ephesus today, the shoreline is four miles from the city which in Paul’s day was next to the water – t...

August 28, 2025

Reading Luke/Acts Together #78 – Lucky falls from the window

Paul’s movements are narrated in Acts, chapter 20. He stayed over the winter for three months in Corinth – during which time he wrote Romans! I try to imagine him shivering on a cold, blustery day, pa...

August 25, 2025

Reading Luke/Acts Together #77 – Wonders of the World

Read the high drama in Acts 19:23-41. Ephesus was the zenith of ancient culture, featuring one of the seven Wonders of the World: the temple to the fertility goddess Artemis. Little remains of this Wo...

August 21, 2025

Reading Luke/Acts Together #76 – It’s a Dialogue

Acts 19:8-22 continues the chronicle of Paul’s time in Ephesus – which stretched to nearly 3 years. That’s a long time. We think of Paul as peripatetic, bags packed, covering a lot of ground – which h...

August 18, 2025

Reading Luke/Acts Together #75 – the Holy Spirit

Acts 19:1-7 lets us listen in on one of countless moments in the earliest days of Christianity when the very best of the believers were still trying to figure things out. Paul arrives in Ephesus, one ...

August 14, 2025

Reading Luke/Acts Together #74 – A New Kind of Couple

Moving on from Athens, Paul comes to Corinth, which today features fabulous ruins from ancient times. Near the theater we notice a grey limestone pavement slab with an inscription: “Erastus in return ...

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March 12, 2026

A Real Relationship → God and America

Hi, friends. I enjoyed our How to Read the Bible, and How to Pray series. I hope it meant something to you. In thinking on what to do next, I keep pondering a pivotal date we’ll come upon this summer:...

March 9, 2026

A Real Relationship #19 – Wrestling with God and God’s Bible

Today will wind up what I have to share on the overall theme of Reading the Bible. Mind you, reading the Bible is a lifetime task, privilege, challenge, and great joy – so we’re not done. Actually eve...

March 5, 2026

A Real Relationship #18 – Not Safe to Pray Alone?

Last week I promised to share with you places you can find the words of others which you can employ as your own words to God. I am not sure what Rabbi Abraham Heschel means when he wrote “It is not sa...

March 2, 2026

A Real Relationship #17 – Context, Context, Context

My friend and great scholar Ben Witherington loves to say “A text without its context is a pretext for a prooftext.” We read the Bible slowly – and go slowly enough to pay attention to who lives next ...

February 26, 2026

A Real Relationship #16 – Borrowed Words

While I know God welcomes my sighs and groans as prayers that are plenty eloquent, I do try to find good words, expressive words, my best and most authentic words when I speak with God. Sometimes that...

February 23, 2026

A Real Relationship #15 – The Princely Kiss?

As Lent has begun, I pause to reflect on what we’ve covered over the past two months in thinking together about How to Read the Bible. The biggest takeaway, for me, has to be a bit simplistic, and yet...

February 19, 2026

A Real Relationship #14 – ASH WEDNESDAY

Such a fitting day to consider Bible Reading and Prayer. We begin Lent and the rest of our lives with a quiet, prayerful, solemn service of prayer. We tell God we are sorry our lives are out of sync w...

February 16, 2026

A Real Relationship #13 – 4 of the Ps

What have you found digging into Scripture? Have any of you tried the Ps I’ve suggested? Psalm 127 begins “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” A good verse if you’re a...

February 12, 2026

A Real Relationship #12 – Prayer as Love and Mystery

As Valentine’s Day draws near, I love the way Jesus, when he spoke of what our connection with him and with God is like, he spoke of love. He was expanding on and embodying what was at the heart of th...

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