From Season to Season

The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. —Luke 2:16-19 To honor Mary as the Theotokos , the Mother of God, is to celebrate the unique role that she has played (and continues to play) in God’s plan of salvation. Today, the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, and the Octave Day of Christmas, we also recall the circumcision and naming of Jesus on the eighth day after his birth (cf. Luke 2:21). In a special way, on New Year’s Day, the Church invites us to pray for peace: “It is Our desire that, every year, this commemoration [of “The Day of Peace”] be repeated as a hope and as a promise… that Peace with its just and beneficent equilibrium may dominate the development of events to come” (Blessed ...

During his 1964 pilgrimage to Nazareth, the city that was the home of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Blessed Pope Paul VI offered these words: Here we can learn to realize who Christ really is. And here we can sense and take account of the conditions and circumstances that surrounded and affected his life on earth: the places, the tenor of the times, the culture, the language, religious customs, in brief, everything which Jesus used to make himself known to the world. Here everything speaks to us, everything has meaning. Here we can learn the importance of spiritual discipline for all who wish to follow Christ and to live by the teachings of his Gospel. Blessed Pope Paul VI celebrates Mass in the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth on January 5, 1964 How I would like to return to my childhood and attend the simple yet profound school that is Nazareth! How wonderful to be close to Mary, learning again the lesson of the true meaning of life, learning again...

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God … And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth. —John 1:1–2, 14 The Gospel of the Christmas Mass “During the Day”   The Lord said to me: “You are my son; today I have begotten you.”   As unlikely as these words (the Entrance Antiphon for Christmas Mass  in the Night ) may seem, they are a powerful reminder that there is more to the celebration of Christmas than the birthday of Jesus. Every Christmas we celebrate the truth that God became a human being. This belief is so essential that to deny it or to try to explain it away is to give up  the  foundational belief of Christians. The Solemnity of Christmas invites us to pause and reflect on what these words really mean. It is one thing to simply profess the words “and by the Holy Spirit w...

The birth of Jesus is actually the climax of a story that began in the Garden of Eden and which continues into our own time. Jesus was born into an all-too-human family whose own story is filled with saints and sinners, the faithful and those who fell, and all types in between. And their experiences form an indispensable part of our understanding of who Jesus is and who we are as his followers: these ancestors of Jesus are also our spiritual ancestors and we owe them a debt of thanks.   Pope Francis reminded us of this in his General Audience on June 25, 2014: If we believe, if we know how to pray, if we acknowledge the Lord and can listen to his Word, if we feel him close to us and recognize him in our brothers and sisters, it is because others, before us, lived the faith and then transmitted it to us. We have received faith from our fathers and mothers, from our ancestors, and they have instructed us in it. " The Jesse Tree " from The Capuchins Bible (ca. 1180)...

How can we begin to grow and see in the events of life the hand of God, and see in each other the face of Christ? Saint. Paul suggests the answer: Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are in the earth. (Colossians 3:2) That is the secret. Look beyond and above the things of men and earth. It is there — paradoxically, surprisingly and unexpectedly — that we begin to see the hand of God in the events of daily life, the face of Christ dimly outlined among those whom we know and love. Stained glass window by Marc Chagall in All Saints Church in Tudely, England We have to seek constantly the transcendent, plunge more deeply into the mystery that is God, and worship him more reverently. Like him we must establish and deepen community life. We must refuse to be intimidated by opposition or oppression. We must seek every means of communicating freely with the peoples of today who, no matter under what political system they live, are sta...

Now the people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ. John answered them all saying, “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” Exhorting them in many other ways, he preached good news to the people. —Luke 3:15-18 On this Third Sunday of Advent, the Church gives us a very particular mandate: Rejoice! And, during these pre-Christmas days, it seems that there is joy all around us. And yet, the essayist William Stringfellow makes a poignant observation that should give us pause: “For the greeting card sentiment and sermonic rhetoric, I do not think that much rejoicing happens around Christmastime, least of all about the coming of the Lord. There ...

John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord.’” —Luke 1:3-4   We live in an age of hashtags, sound bites, and blogs, in a world of competing viewpoints and clamoring voices. It can sometimes be difficult to discern what is really worthy of our attention. This is especially true in these days as our nation looks toward the next presidential election and as we collectively try to make sense of the mass shootings in Colorado Springs and San Bernardino and the ongoing acts of terror here at home and in the Middle East. We place blame, make excuses, and dig into our ideological trenches, all-too-often losing sight of the many goods—and lives—that are sacrificed on the altars of politics and partisanship. If we settle for the mediocrity of sound bites and hal...

Behold, the Bridegroom is coming; come out to meet Christ the Lord.    —Communion Antiphon for the Common of Virgins (based on Matthew 25:6) These Advent days are a time of joyful expectation, a time for watching and waiting. The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids, the young women charged with waiting for the arrival of the bridegroom before for the wedding feast (see Matthew 25:1-13 ) is a fitting lesson for this holy season. Just like the women of the parable, we have a choice of preparing our lamps—our selves—to meet the Lord when he comes. We also, of course, have the option of living only in the moment, coasting along without paying attention to our responsibilities as disciples. On December 8, as we celebrate the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, the Church also remembers Saint Narcisa de Jesús Martillo Morán, a woman who dedicated her life to watching for the Lord’s Coming just like the wise Bridesmaids in the parable. Born in Nobol, Ecuador, in 18...

For me, Advent has always been a season of taking stock, looking back, and anticipating what lies ahead. Perhaps this is because the season usually begins so close to Thanksgiving and leads up to Christmas and the beginning of a new year. But, there is also something else about this season: the longer, colder nights, the lights of Advent wreaths and holiday decorations, and the reverie that goes along with familiar holiday movies, songs, and even a favorite Christmas ornament or family photo. Advent, however, is also a season of gratitude. As we look back in prayer and Scripture to the prophecies of Old Testament and the revelation of who Jesus was and is (which we hear in these early Advent days) and to the fulfillment of time when we will celebrate the second Advent of Christ, these days invite us to reflect on the gifts we been given. And, for me, an important part of that is considering how I have--or have not--passed those gifts on to others... "paying it forward," a...