The Penn Epistle is a Christian journal at the University of Pennsylvania dedicated to
sharing the words of Christ’s followers.
We accept all students at Penn and encourage you to explore what it means to be Christian through our pages.
recent posts
Till We Have Faces: Work and Identity Beyond the Penn Face
How C.S. Lewis’s forgotten masterpiece reveals the cost of living behind perfection and the freedom of finally facing ourselves. I’m sure most Penn students feel inundated with talk about Penn Face by now. Endless panels, wellness seminars, and workshops on the topic have made it almost more myth than menace; a familiar ghost we’ve learned…
Presence over Presents: Let The Rush Cease This Christmas
Christmas preparation often gets a bad rap. Some quotes that I found include Maya Angelou: “You can tell a lot about a person by the way he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.” [1] Cassandra Clare writes, “Waiting for a special occasion to kill me? Christmas is…
A Lesson From Those Striving for Perfection
This year, we’re collaborating with writers across the Augustine Collective, a network of student-led Christian journals, to bring you a series of short devotional articles during this season of Advent, the season of anticipation leading up to Christmas. Find this series also published by Cornell Claritas. by Deborah Aderibigbe, Cornell University “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance” – Matthew…
To the Weary, Broken, and the Lost.
In case you’re lost, I am, too. For four years in high school, I’ve been sprinting without knowing why or having a sense of direction. Thought I would know better in college, but turns out everyone—including myself—is lost, more than ever. The first few months I arrived at Penn, I was like a mad compass…
What is Holiday Joy? Reflections on Isaiah 35
This year, we’re collaborating with writers across the Augustine Collective, a network of student-led Christian journals, to bring you a series of short devotional articles during this season of Advent, the season of anticipation leading up to Christmas. Find this series also published by Cornell Claritas. by David Johansson, Cornell University “The wilderness and the dry land shall be…
An Eye Towards Eternity
With wonder, the people of Judea spread the story in hushed excitement. Not two centuries after the revolt of Judas Maccabeus, a time of subjugation had befallen the Jewish people; the centurions of the Great Babylon tread on the streets of Jerusalem. There were rumors, as there often are in times like these, of foreboding…
Do You Know God’s Voice?
This year, we’re collaborating with writers across the Augustine Collective, a network of student-led Christian journals, to bring you a series of short devotional articles during this season of Advent, the season of anticipation leading up to Christmas. Find this series also published by Cornell Claritas. by Frank Fang, Cornell University I used to think I did. Almost two…
Claritas x Epistle: Advent Introduction
This Advent season, we’re collaborating with writers across the Augustine Collective, a network of student-led Christian journals, to bring you a series of short devotional articles. Find this series also published by Cornell Claritas. We at the Penn Epistle and Cornell Claritas are very excited to announce a collaboration between our two journals for the Advent season. We’ll…
older posts
Why the Eucharist is Necessary for Salvation
Part I: The Jewish Passover When reading Scripture, if not read in the context of the Old Testament from a Jewish standpoint, one is not able to fully understand what and why Christ says what He says and does what He does. Christ reveals Himself to the Jewish people as God, not by explicitly telling…
Dance With the Joyful: Reflecting and Beholding Celebration
Christians are often caricatured as leading lives weighed down by rules, rituals, and restrictions—as if faith were little more than a joyless burden inherited through our family heritage. This stereotype paints believers as somber, withdrawn, or even depressed. Yet such a picture could not be further from the truth. At the very heart of Christianity…
Joyous: A Song of Seraphim
Joyous A psalm of Seraphim “Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be known in all the earth. Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel” –Isaiah 12:5-6 Antiphon: I sing to the LORD from the depths of…
Finding Extraordinary Truth in Ordinary Activities
A Reflection on Luke 24:13-35 Luke 24:13-35 tells the story of the road to Emmaus, where Jesus walks alongside two disciples, but they don’t recognize him until he breaks bread—finding the divine in ordinary conversation and a simple meal. When I was young, I didn’t know the holiness of breaking bread with loved ones. I…
The Habit of the Lesser Brothers
“And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation: and I will bring up sackcloth upon every back of yours, and baldness upon every head: and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the latter end thereof as a bitter day.” (Amos 8:10). “Therefore we…
I’m Christian and I watched KPop Demon Hunters—and You Should Too
This article contains heavy spoilers for the Netflix movie KPop Demon Hunters I’ve never heard my roommates create more noise than when we had a watchparty of the hit animated kids movie of the summer—KPop Demon Hunters. For half an hour after the film was over, we sang (and screamed) the movie’s soundtrack—the likes of…
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