advent

The least of us are greater even than that John because of our baptism in Christ.

Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Mt 11:11).

Jesus shared that there has been no greater than John the Baptist. John is a bridge from the Old Covenant to the New. To say that John and Jesus played significant roles in ushering in the Kingdom of heaven is an understatement. For they both preached the same message of repentance, of the need for all to recognize how and where they had turned away from and needed to turn back to God. This is a key invitation for us as well during the preparatory seasons of Advent and Lent. May we have the ears to hear!

John lived a life of asceticism giving all to God, rejecting the material comforts of his time, choosing to live in the wilderness, and relying solely on the divine providence of God. He followed in the line of the prophets and he did so with full-throated confidence and fearlessness. Many were moved by his words and came to repent. John though ministered not to put himself on a pedestal, his role was to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah. He was to assist in ushering in the Kingdom of heaven, as he himself was not the Kingdom. John knew well, Jesus was to increase and he was to decrease (cf. Jn 3:30). John’s words of speaking truth to power also led to his martyrdom. The death of John signaled the time for Jesus’ public ministry to begin.

Jesus recognized the contribution and place of John in his Father’s plan, yet he also shared how “the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” The reason Jesus made this claim was that John’s baptism was one of repentance. The Baptism Jesus instituted was one of a new life of communion. Through our being baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we have been given a new life and are incorporated into his Mystical Body.

Through our Baptism, we, in participation with Jesus, become priests, prophets, and kings. Through the gift of the common priesthood, we are to sacrifice our time, giving of ourselves in prayer, worship, and service; our talent, embracing the unique gifts God has given us to share; and our treasure, being good stewards of the blessings God has given.

As prophets, we are to speak the word of God, speak truth to power as John and Jesus did, we are to be the voice of the voiceless and stand for up for the human dignity of all those who are vulnerable or mistreated from the moment of conception, through each stage of life, until natural death.

We are to be servant kings, resisting the temptation to seek our own power, glory, fame, and riches, and instead surrender ourselves to the will of our Father, and like his Son wash the feet of those in need. There is no service of our brothers or sisters that we ought to feel is beneath us in reaching out in love, which is to will the good of each other.

Advent is our time to repent, to recommit, to rediscover the wonderful relationship we are invited to embrace and are called to share: The infinite, divine love of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, whose name we have been baptized in.

Advent is also an opportunity to slow down and remember why we do what we do. Each time we pass the baptismal font we bless ourselves with the Sign of the Cross. We are invited to resist the temptation of dipping in our fingers and continuing to move ahead on the fly. Instead, may we stop, dip our fingers and intentionally make the Sign of the Cross calling to mind each person of the Trinity.

This practice also provides us the opportunity to recommit ourselves to our baptismal vows, to renounce Satan and all evil, to affirm our commitment to the Trinity, Jesus Christ our Lord, and one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. Just as we do this when we enter, we may repeat the gesture and brief meditation when we depart. We leave as bearers of the Christ who we have received at Mass to go forth into our realm of influence to love one another as Jesus loves us, with an all-embracing, unconditional love!

Photo: Last minute touch ups the eve before opening Holy Cross again for public Mass after completion of our renovation.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, December 11, 2025

Walking with Jesus will help us to experience the joy of the Father and the Holy Spirit.

“All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him” (Lk 10:22).

God the Father knows God the Son and God the Son knows God the Father. They do not just know about each other, they know each other with a deep intimacy that is far beyond our human comprehension. Contemplating this reality can fill us with hope especially when we come to realize that Jesus is the Son of God who has come into our lives so that we can participate in the trinitarian communion of the Father and the Son and the love shared between them, who Jesus “rejoiced in” (Lk 10:21), the Holy Spirit!

Jesus has come as an agent of reconciliation, to restore our relationship with God, to undo the effects of the sin of separation that has so ruptured and wounded our relationship with him, each other, and his creation. Our hope this Advent is that we can come not just to a better understanding of God, but to restore our relationship with God and grow in intimacy with him through our participation in the life of his Son. Doing so, will also help us to do the same in our present relationships. Healing can happen when each of us are open to the Holy Spirit.

May the Advent season not get away from us before it even starts because of the external distractions from the material, commercial, and everyday busyness, nor from the everyday internal mental and psychological challenges that threaten. Choosing to be still, to breathe deep, and spend some time in God’s gift of creation, to enter into his natural rhythm, and bask in the wonder and vast expanse of it all can help us to step away from the distractions for even a little bit. In those moments we can find rest, reset, and react less. Reacting less helps relationships to heal.

I have done a lot of traveling in my life, but wherever I have gone, spending a year in the Bronx, six months in Los Angeles, a summer on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations, growing up and living in Connecticut for my first thirty years, or the last thirty years here in Florida, I have sought to spend time looking up at the sky. When I allow days to pass and I do not do so, I feel different and not for the better.

All of creation echoes the wonder and adoration of the gift that the season of Advent offers: Jesus, who became one with us in our humanity so we can become one with him in his divinity, invites us to participate in a deeper walk with his Father, the creator of heaven and earth, the one who knit us together in our mother’s womb, and who knows us better than we know ourselves! Please spend some time with God today in quiet reflection and allow him to love you where you are and as you are and rejoice in the Holy Spirit! Then share that joy with those in your lives.

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Photo: Walking on the way to our church hall for a meeting, turned back, and looked up. Wow. God is so good!

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, December 2, 2025

We begin another Advent to watch and pray for Jesus’ coming.

As the earth turned again one more time on its axis last night, and the shadows began to fall, night slowly crept over each part of our planet. Our sacred text, our sacred word, is not only written in the Bible, but the finger of God has traced his word across all of the earth, the galaxy, the universe, the whole of the created order. God continues to write and sing us his love song. The ground, foundation, and source of creation and our very being is the outpouring of the Trinitarian Love expressed between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

As the sun appeared to us to set, and night gently made its way across our minuscule earth in this part of the Milky Way last night, the vigil began and so also began the new liturgical year and we now find ourselves in the season of Advent. We heard or will hear again today the words of Jesus urging us to: “Stay awake” (Mt 24:42).

Paul in the second reading also sounds the alarm, for, “it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep” (Romans 13:11). Traditionally, the readings of the first two weeks of Advent focus on our watching for the second coming of Jesus. We are to watch and pray, to step away from the triggers of reacting. This Advent we are invited to slow down, observe how the daily cycle of day to night and night to day repeats itself. In doing so, we can enter into that daily rhythm of breathing, watching, and praying so that we can be more aware and more alert for the signs of his coming, like a watchman standing guard over the city. Then instead of reacting, we can choose to act according to God’s will.

During Advent, we also prepare in the final two weeks to remember again the first humble coming of Jesus, the Incarnation, in which the infinite Son of God took on flesh at his miraculous conception in the womb of Mary and became man. Fully God and fully man, Jesus experienced our human condition in the most vulnerable of settings. We are a people of memory, though we often forget, that is why we hear the story again of the simple birth of our savior, who many rejected even then, saying there was no room for him in the inn. Do we make room for Jesus to come to be present in our daily lives?

The third way we prepare for the coming of Jesus during Advent, is in our everyday experiences. We who have much in the way of material comfort need to remember, how God heard the cry of the poor and saved his people by sending Moses to free them from their bondage in Egypt. He sent judges and prophets to guide his people, and he sent his Son to be born in poverty, to free us from our bondage to anyone and anything that is not from him, anything that will lead us astray.

“God, in Christ, has come to set right a world gone wrong” (Grunow, 174). We have been made for God and nothing with fill our deepest desire to be in relationship with him. There is so much that attempts to lead us away from God. We can and do try to fill our deepest longings by grasping for anything but God and find ourselves dissatisfied time and again. We can’t save ourselves. The greatest willpower, discipline, and persistence is not enough. We need God, we need a savior. Let us remember this Advent who we are, whose we are, and who we are called to be. As we prepare for Jesus’ second coming and prepare to remember and celebrate his birth, may we also remember to set aside some time to enter into the rhythm of creation, to allow our hearts to beat in time with Jesus’ Sacred Heart.

We have been created by Love to love. As gently as the night gave way to the morning rays of the sun this morning, may we live and move more gently upon this earth. May our thoughts, words, and actions be filtered through the holy hepa filter of the Holy Spirit. So that we filter out that which is not, and accept that which is, of God. As we prepare well, we will not need to know the time or the hour, because we will know our Savior and so will be ready. Let us then awake, watch, and pray.

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Photo: Ready or not, Sunday Vigil here at Holy Cross, Advent has begun!

The Word on Fire Bible: The Gospels. Park Ridge, Illinois: Word on Fire, 2020.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, November 30, 2025

May we receive God’s light and love, so to dispel any darkness, and walk in his peace.

“In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace” (cf Luke 1:78-79).

This promise of the Holy Spirit is spoken by the father of John the Baptist, Zechariah, as his ability to speak has returned to him after he confirmed that his son, as Elizabeth stated was to be called John. This evening at the Christmas Vigil we will begin to celebrate whaat we have been preparing all Advent to celebrate – the fulfillment of those beautiful words. The fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the Judges, David, and the Prophets. We will celebrate that the Son of God is Emmanuel, God with us. He is the fulfillment of the promises preserved in the Old Testament and he is to be a light to the nations.

The words of Luke were as relevant to those he wrote to in his day as they are to us as well in our day. God’s tender compassion has surrounded us and has been a part of us since before our conception. He knows the number of hairs on our head and he knows each one of us by name. Totally transcendent, infinite beyond our beyond our wildest imagination, comprehension, beyond all space and time, while at the same time, God knows each one of us more intimately than we know ourselves. He cares for us, guides us, and invites us to experience his joy and the fulfillment of who he has created us to be.

The ultimate love that God expresses is that he invites us to be in relationship with him and we are given the choice to say “no” or “yes”. He gives us the freedom to choose anything but him. Some would say, he should just make us follow him. That would not be love, but oppression and tyranny. The invitation to receive the light of God is a gentle one, and when we say “yes”, he enters our life and begins to heal and transform us from within to the level and pace we are willing to accept. The choice remains, we can recede back into the darkness or continue to walk into his brilliant light.

When we accept the invitation of relationship and follow God’s guidance we will better be able to identify the darkness and the lies of the enemy that cloud our discernment and keep us from experiencing the fullness of his grace. Choosing to allow the light to dawn in every aspect of our being, our wounds, our prejudices, our defense mechanisms, our false comforts, all those areas where we deny the truth or where we are supporting false realities or apparent goods, will help us to let go of unhealthy attachments so that we will be free to receive his light and love.

May we continue to repent and prepare our hearts and minds as we celebrate the gift of the incarnation one more time. Let us, “who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,” not hide or withdraw from God’s invitation, and instead walk into the “dawn from on high,” so that God may “guide our feet into the way of peace.” The closer we are to God, the more we experience his love and his peace, that peace that surpasses all understanding, and having received, then we are better able to share his love, light, and peace with others each day of the Christmas season and into the new year.

Photo: Morning Rosary walk experiencing the dawn from on high at the end of a winter retreat back in January, 2023.

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, December 24, 2024

“John is his name.”

Zechariah had not spoken since the time he encountered the angel Gabriel. Gabriel shared with Zechariah that his wife Elizabeth, though barren and past childbearing age, would give birth to a son and his name would be called John. The time for the fulfillment of Gabriel’s prediction had now come to pass, Elizabeth gave birth, and with friends and relatives gathered around on the eighth day for his circumcision and naming. Elizabeth announced that her son will be named John. Those with her balked, “There is no one among your relatives who has this name” (Lk 1:61).

There may also be some hesitancy because John, or יוֹחָנָן, Yôḥanan in Hebrew, means one who is graced by God. Who did Elizabeth think she was naming her son by this sacred name? They then appealed to Zechariah. He would support his wife by writing on a tablet that “John is his name.” Zechariah confirmed Elizabeth’s words and: “Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God” (Lk 1:63-64).

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Zechariah spoke what we call today the Benedictus or Canticle of Zechariah, the beginning lines of which read: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; for he has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty Savior, born of the house of his servant David” (Lk 1:68-69).

Zechariah did not proclaim that John was the Messiah. As Christians, we believe that Micah prophesied that John was to be the herald of the Messiah. He prepared the way for the coming of the Lord. The Benedictus, like the Magnificat, is a song of great promise. This is why the Church proclaims that they are to be prayed every day in the recitation of the Book of Christian Prayer or the Liturgy of the Hours. We are living in the time of its fulfillment.

The year 2024 A.D. does not stand for after the death of Jesus, it stands for anno domini, in the year of our Lord. We live in the in between times of Jesus’ first coming as we prepare for his next coming. We live in great joy because we can prepare to receive Jesus everyday. This is why St. Paul wrote to the Philippians, we are “to rejoice always.” No matter the external circumstances or internal angst, our Lord Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God is at hand, to forgive and heal us, accompany and deliver us, give us guidance and strength!

In the midst of continuing violence, war, polarization, endless forms and acts of dehumanization, fear, and growing anxiety, we will celebrate again this Wednesday. We will celebrate Christmas, the reality that the Son of God agreed to be sent close to us, to become human, to die, and conquer death so that he can be with us and lead us into eternity. John helped to prepare the way to receive Jesus by calling people to repentance. May we seek his intercession as we remember his birth today to prepare well in these final days of Advent so to better remember and celebrate again the reason for the season. Our Savior has come. Sin, suffering, and death do not have the final answer. Jesus does.

May we heed the call of John and Jesus to repent so that we may receive God’s forgiveness and grace and be freed from our entanglements with sin. May we let go of anything that separates us from our relationship with God and resist the temptation to curve in upon ourselves which leads us to death. Let us turn away from our pride and the false promise of self sufficiency and instead depend upon and place our trust in Jesus who offers us life. Each and every day, with the courage of John, let us prepare the way of the Lord and “give people knowledge of salvation” that Jesus is at hand so that God may “guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Photo: St. Elizabeth and John the Baptist by Krysten Brown, The Saints Project

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, December 23, 2024 A.D.

“Blessed are you who believe.”

If you attend Mass daily or pray with the daily Mass readings, you may wonder, “Didn’t I just hear or read this account?” You would be correct, as this was the same Gospel reading as Saturday morning’s daily Mass. The difference comes in with the other readings.

The first reading from Micah may seem a bit obscure and we might be moved to question what does this have to do with getting ready for the coming of Jesus? Bethlehem would be our first clue. Bethlehem is the city of the birth of David. Micah shared that, “from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel; whose origin is from of old, from ancient times” (Micah 5:1). Micah is prophesying that the messiah will be no mere shadow of David, nor a mighty judge like Samson. This one has his origins “from of old”, beyond time. This messiah will be God with us. Both Matthew and Luke pick up on this in their nativity accounts (Matthew 2:1-2 and Luke 2:4-20) that we will read on Christmas.

So what about Ephrathah? Jews from the time of Jacob until those practicing today would pick up the reference to Ephrathah right away as being the burial place of Rachel the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, and beloved wife of Jacob. Though not the birth mother of the twelve sons of Jacob, Rachel was considered the matriarch, the mother of Israel. Jacob’s name, after wrestling with the Lord all night, was changed to Israel.

Echoes of Rachel being the mother of Israel also arose from the prophet Jeremiah when he wrote of her by name as weeping over her the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians. And yet, God sends comforting words through the prophet: “There is hope for your future – oracle of the LORD – your children shall return to your own territory” (Jeremiah 31:15-17).

We can see with the early Church Fathers that David was the premier king of Israel while at the same time he was foreshadowing Jesus the one “from of old” as Micah predicted. Rachel is a foreshadowing of Mary, the mother of Jesus, the mother of the Twelve Apostles, the fulfillment of the gathering in of the lost twelve tribes of Israel and the mother of the Church. She, like Rachel, would also suffer at the death of her children, but also be the intercessor for them through her suffering.

Mary is the new Rachel and also the new Eve because Mary’s obedience unties the knots of Eve’s disobedience. As we learned in the second reading to the Hebrews, God has no pleasure in sacrifice but takes pleasure in those doing his will. God delights not sacrifice but obedience. Mary, before becoming the mother of the Messiah, the mother of God, was obedient with her “yes” at the Annunciation. As Jesus said, the one who does the will of his Father was his mother (cf. Matthew 12:46-50). Who followed the will of the Father better than Mary?

Very soon after her “yes”, and the conception of Jesus in her womb, Mary went in haste to see Elizabeth. Each celebrating the gift of new life in each of their wombs. And how is Mary greeted by her elder cousin? With reverence, which was unheard of. The youth revered the elder family members during Jesus’ time. After hearing the words of Mary’s greeting, experiencing her son leaping in her womb, Elizabeth is moved by the Holy Spirit to proclaim blessing upon Mary: “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Luke 1:42). Elizabeth does so with great joy, “crying out in a loud voice.” 

May Elizabeth and Mary’s joy reach into the depths of our souls. May we be open to believe.

May we believe that Jesus is the Son of God who became man. That Jesus came into the world not just to be a great rabbi and teacher, not just to perform miracles and cast out demons, nor just to be the messiah, that Jesus came not just to live, but that he came to die, to give his life for us, and in so doing become our savior. This birth we are about to celebrate was just a foreshadowing of his impending death.

As Bishop Fulton Sheen wrote, “He was laid in a stranger’s stable at the beginning, and a stranger’s grave at the end… He was wrapped in swaddling bands in His birthplace, He was again laid in swaddling clothes in His tomb… It was not so much that His Birth cast a shadow on His life, and thus led to his death; it was rather that the Cross was there from the beginning, and cast its shadow backward to his birth…” (The Life of Christ).

Jesus, as the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, is inviting us in these final days of Advent to do as he, Mary, and Elizabeth did, to follow the will of his Father. What joy we too will experience when we open ourselves up to the reality of the gift that God has given us, his Son, and so rejoice with Elizabeth and Mary that we too have a part to play in salvation history!

Photo: May these words and picture help you to experience some quiet time to pray and ponder about the connection between the birth and death of Jesus and the life he has called us to live.

Source for Bishop Sheen quote and background information from Dr. Brant Pitre, Mass Readings Explained, The Fourth Sunday of Advent Year C, Christmas and the Cross

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, December 22, 2024

Let us rejoice, as Elizabeth and Mary did, that God is among us.

Mary “traveled to the hill country in haste” (Lk 1:39) and when she and Elizabeth got together they rejoiced in the gift of new life that God had blessed them both with. We are to rejoice too, as we remember the gift of the conception and birth of Jesus. Jesus invites us to experience a new life. What we are about to celebrate in a few days had never happened before in human history. The Son of God, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, fully divine, became a human being, fully human, just like one of us. That affirms that we are not junk, not someone’s trash to be kicked around. Our life has purpose and meaning because we are loved by God more than we can ever imagine!

We are all invited to be recreated, each and every day. Have you ever wanted a fresh start, a do-over? Well, here you go. Don’t believe any negative mind noise or other people who will actually tell you in subtle or overt ways that you are worthless or nothing. Not true! Just by our very being, the reality that we exist, says something. We have been created in the image and likeness of God and we have been created by Love to receive and to share the love we have received. We are a living craving hunger and desire to be in communion with God and one another. This is true for the atheist and the believer alike. We are called to will the good of the other as other and as they are, unconditionally. If we haven’t been all that loving lately, today is a new day to take Jesus’ hand and begin anew.

We are about to celebrate a baby’s birth. Not just any child, but the One who has always been. The Son became so vulnerable as he took on flesh as an embryo, developed as an unborn fetus, and was born as an infant, and wrapped in swaddling clothes. Mary’s Son would continue to grow, mature, and thirty-three years later, return to an even more vulnerable position on the Cross, beaten, scourged, naked, and crucified. He was born and tabernacled, made his dwelling, among us, to be one with us, so that when he mounted the cross he took our sin upon himself. Original Sin did not destroy us. We were wounded, but by his stripes, the scourging that Jesus endured for us, we have been healed. Then he conquered even death, that we could have life and have it to the full, now and into all eternity.

Jesus was born for us and he is still with us that we might not only be shown a better way but to know him, who is the Way. Jesus became vulnerable for us, being authentically who God called him to be, even when that meant rejection, time, and time again. May we too be willing to be vulnerable, to risk, to share with others who we are, free of masks and pretense. May we be present, and also walk and accompany one another.

Being there for our family and friends is important, and if we take our Christianity seriously, we must come to acknowledge, in concrete ways, person to person, that we are all brothers and sisters. Just as the sun shines on the good and the bad alike, Jesus died for us all. After his Resurrection and Ascension into heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit, the Love shared between the Father and the Son, to empower us to live as he did, in communion with his Father, to better actualize our communion with one another.

Mary and Elizabeth celebrated the joy of new life. They rejoiced over the miracles each of them experienced in being able to conceive sons. May we not only share in their joy of the gift of life, but also realize what they realized all too soon, that life goes by too fast. Both sons died a brutal death, and yet God brought about a greater good from their willingness to sacrifice their lives. John and Jesus gave us a new beginning for humanity.

Let us not take the gift of the life that we have been given, any moment, for granted. May we be open like Elizabeth and Mary to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. Let us let the people we care about know that we love them. A simple call, a card, and/or a walk can make a huge difference. Especially when in the moment of connection, we are present to each other as if no one else existed in that moment. For those for whom we may be estranged in any way, may Jesus, the Prince of Peace, help us to face those conflicts and guide us through the challenges that have kept us at a distance. May we not wait until it is too late to seek healing and reconciliation.

Making time to rest in and receive the Father’s love, we will be more open to being respectful, kind, understanding, and caring in our interactions with each person we encounter in these final days of Advent. When we catch the eye of another, offer a smile. In that simple gesture, we say to another that we care enough about them to acknowledge that they exist and that they have worth. Let the joy of Mary and Elizabeth catch like wildfire in us this Advent and let us share with haste the joy of Jesus we have experienced in our lives!

Photo: Stainglassed window of the visitation from Shutterstock.

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, December 21, 2024

Mary’s, “yes” brought joy to the world.

Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her (Lk 1:38).

Whether this is the first or thousandth time we have read or heard this verse, the more important question for us is how many times have we said to God, “May it be done to me according to your word”? How would it be for us to begin each day with this prayer and then at the end of the day reflect on how well we have heard and answered yes to God’s will?

Mary’s “yes” changed the course of human history. Her willingness to bear the Son of God allowed him to come close. He entered our wounded, human condition to offer us healing, forgiveness, and to lead us home to communion with his Father and each other. Jesus is the gift that keeps giving – and we receive his gift each time we, as did Mary, say “yes” to him. When we do so, we become less, as he becomes more, and the kingdom of God continues to expand.

Along with Mary, the “yes” that we make is not a one-time, “yes,” but we are to affirm a daily, moment by moment “yes”. As St Paul wrote to the Church of Thessalonica, we are to: “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 16-17). We are able to rejoice always and pray without ceasing when we say, “yes,” to God by developing and sustaining our relationship with him such that even when we experience pain, suffering, and struggles, we are not overcome or overwhelmed. When we allow Jesus to be close, we can even feel joy in the midst of them. He does not abandon us to random fate. He is our source, our refuge, and our strength, present to us in all that we experience.

Our prayers of petition for ourselves and intercession for others are another “yes” to God’s will because they are an “admission of one’s own helplessness” (Lohfink 2014, 240). Prayer is a, “no,” to pride. We cannot get through this life on our own, nor are we meant to for apart from God we can do nothing. We are all interconnected and interdependent and God is the foundation and source of our very being, and with God all things are possible.

Our willingness to ask for help and to help others are also practical ways of saying “yes” to God. There is no such thing as a “Lone Ranger Christian”. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto. Two by two, just as Jesus sent his disciples. Prayer is a “yes” to our acknowledgment that we need Jesus to guide and help us, also to save us from ourselves! Service is a “yes” to the love we have received from him and a willingness to share this love with and receive it from others.

We are to rejoice as we are readying to begin this fourth week of Advent because we draw ever closer to celebrating the birth of Jesus who is Emmanuel, God with us. May we have the grace to experience his love in our time of meditation, prayer and serving one another. This reality was made possible by the handmaid of the Lord.

Photo: May we say with Mary, “May it be done to me according to your word” and rejoice! Accessed from Our Lady Help of Christians Catholic Church.

Lohfink, Gerhard. No Irrelevant Jesus: On Jesus and the Church Today. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2014.

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, December 20, 2024

Mary and Joseph, a yes to God and a yes to life.

Joseph heard the news that Mary, his betrothed, was with child. He clearly knew the child was not biologically his. Scripture does not account for the thoughts or emotions of Joseph, but whatever inner turmoil he did have, he came to a decision that would not expose Mary to shame. He was not going to make a public spectacle of Mary, but instead decided to divorce her quietly. Before he made his final decision though, Joseph made an excellent choice regarding the discernment of serious matters. He slept on the idea before acting.

During Joseph’s sleep, the angel of the Lord delivered a message. “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Mt 1:20-21). When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home (Mt 1:24).

From their encounter with God’s messengers, both Mary and Joseph trusted in God’s will, and “that has made all the difference” to quote Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken.” Because of Mary and Joseph’s “yes” to God and to family, the Son of God became man and opened up heaven for us in the humanity he assumed.

God often works in the same way when dealing with us. What may appear to be absurd, unimaginable, or downright impossible, is indeed possible when we align our will with God’s will. This is the week of Joy in Advent.

The source of joy does not come from external experiences but from an encounter with and acceptance of God’s invitation. Joy is an experience of communion with the love of God. This has been given to us in greater measure because Jesus became one with us, and so upon his ascension into heaven, we too can experience the loving communion he experiences with his Father. We also experience the love of the Holy Spirit in our encounter with family and friends, this exchange of giving and receiving of ourselves in conversation, shared experiences, and in resolving challenges and conflicts together.

Mary and Joseph both received incredible news, that neither of them fully comprehended. They could have easily responded in a different way. Instead, they trusted in God, they chose family, and because they did, we can rejoice not just during this week but as we heard from the past Sunday from Paul, we are to rejoice always!

Mary and Joseph followed God’s lead and were willing to allow their unborn child, Jesus, to come to full term. Because they were willing to risk public ridicule and worse, Jesus entered into our human condition. There may be a difficult situation we are dealing with, we may feel we are on our own, and that there is no way out, and/or no help on the horizon. God will make a way and reveal it to us through his Son. We may not understand either, but like Mary and Joseph, let us trust in God, one another, and experience that we are not alone.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, please intercede on our behalf this Advent Season such that we may better be able to resist the temptation of taking each of our family members for granted, but instead choose to be appreciative and thankful for one another. Help us to react less and breathe deeply more. Help us to be more understanding, patient, and willing to forgive, such that even though we have experienced past hurts, conflicts, disagreements, and different points of view, we may ultimately experience time and again the joy of being there for one another, through thick and thin.

Photo: Stained glass window of the betrothal of Joseph and Mary, from the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Connellsville, PA by Nancy Bauer.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, December 18, 2024

This Advent, more anxiety and stress or more joy and peace?

“Rejoice in the Lord always, I shall say it again rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4)

There is a running theme in each of our readings and why we call today, Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is the Latin word for rejoice. We rejoice because we are half way through Advent, and Christmas, our celebration of the incarnation, is only eleven days away. We are also called to rejoice because as St. Paul wrote to the Philippians that we can rejoice always!

Can we really?

Yes, because Paul is not inviting us to rejoice, he is commanding us to do so and he did so not only once but twice. But how can we actually rejoice always? One way is to distinguish between happiness and joy. When we are happy it is because we are reacting to a pleasurable experience that we find good. Yet, what often happens when the experience goes away… so with it goes our happiness. We then seek more of the same to fill that need to be happy and we need more and more of what stimulation we seek. Our happiness can linger on a bit or return as we call to mind the memory of the experience, but even then, the memory will fade after a bit.

Joy is not dependent on external experiences. Joy is dependent on our closeness to God and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within us. That is why even when we experience challenges, trials, and conflicts, we can still feel joy. The key is where we put our focus. Focusing on the externals, we will sink.  Keeping our eyes on Jesus, like Peter, we will walk on water! As long as we stay close to Jesus, we will experience his joy within. 

Paul gives us to recipe for rejoicing always when he says, “Have no anxiety about anything”. As soon as we experience the first stirrings of anxiety, we are to turn to God in prayer and thanksgiving and let our “requests be made known to God.” I first remember experiencing this when I was in my late teens. I had been experiencing a period of desolation and anxiety about the future ahead beyond high school. I had recently purchased a Bible and one evening opened it at random to Luke 12:22: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life and what you are to eat, or about your body and what you will wear.”

Then I heard God letting me know that I would never win the lottery but he would continue to provide me with the means to work. He would provide for and take care of me. Having heard these words in the quiet of my heart, I then returned to reading the whole section about placing our dependence and complete trust in God. A feeling of not only joy but peace welled up within, and the anxiety and insecurity I went into the reading of the Bible with dissipated. Light and darkness, love and hate, nor anxiety and trust, cannot exist at the same time and in the same place. We actually can choose which we want to experience.

The word anxiety comes from the Greek merimnaō. Biblical scholar, Dr. Brant Pitre describes Paul’s usage of merimnaō as, “an imperative; it’s not just a suggestion. And he’s saying not to have it about anything. Now this Greek word merimnaō is closely related to the verb for ‘to remember’. So when a person is anxious about something, it keeps coming to their mind. They remember it” (Dr. Brant Pitre).

What we place our focus on is what governs our thoughts and also has a tremendous influence on what we feel. If we are consistently attentive to what we are stressed about, like a dog drilling down, worrying on a bone, we are going to be anxious – always. The other side is just as true. The more we focus on Jesus, breathe, receive, rest, and abide in his love for us, and we consistently place our trust in him in all situations, the good as well as the bad, we will move closer to aspiring to Paul’s command to, “Rejoice in the Lord always”.

We will also rejoice more often when we are willing to make time to stop and think about what we are grateful for. It is so easy to get caught up in the busy, in our work as well as our perceived recreation, pass out at the end of the day, and start over again the next. Taking time to wind down each evening away from channel or social media surfing, we could instead choose to truly relax and let go by being still, quiet and reflecting upon the day to see where God has been blessing us, where we have said, “yes” to his invitation and where we have said, ‘no.”

Calling to mind what we are thankful for and having the humility to ask Jesus for help to correct or sins and missteps, also deepens our relationship with him and rekindles the awareness of the love of the Holy Spirit within us. What then wells up again from his eternal spring is not only joy but God’s peace, that peace that surpasses all understanding. Knowing and experiencing that God is close, that his Son is at hand, will help us to experience more regularly the love that is shared between them, the Holy Spirit.

Being filled with the joy, love, and peace of God to overflowing will then move us to share what we have received with others in very practical ways. In giving and sharing the joy, love, and peace that we have received, does not diminish in any way the what we have received. Instead, our giving only increases the joy, love, and peace God has given us. Not a bad way to spend our final days of Advent which will lead us into celebrating the miracle of Emmanuel – God with us, always. And because he is, let us rejoice always!!!

Photo: A different Advent. We were preparing for Jesus to come to bring JoAnn home to heaven. Because we had a better idea of the time and hour, we were able to appreciate each moment we had together. God blessed us with his joy, love, and peace to overflowing. I still look upon the last six months we had together as a blessing.

Dr. Brant Pitre. “Anxiety and Gratitude” from his video commentary: The Mass Readings Explained.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, December 15, 2024