I wish my mom had been like you (Paula Nelsen)

Put on love, that is, the bond of perfection.

--Colossians 3:14

    In 2013, TJ and I got a call from our son. He said, “Mom, this year has been a huge, historical year for LGBTQ people, with acceptance in the United States, so I’m going to march in the Seattle Pride Parade in celebration. I want you and Papa to go to the San Francisco Pride Parade in solidarity and support to celebrate with me.” 

   Well, TJ and I are generally quiet and shy types, so parades and large celebrations are not our style. But, since Sam asked us to do this, we of course said yes. That night, we did say a prayer together and asked for help on this. We each came up with a sign to wear on our chests. Mine said, “Christian Mom, Blessed with a Wonderful Gay Son” and TJ’s said, “I’m Old, White, a Republican and the Proud Father of a Gay Son.” 

   The next day we took the San Francisco bus, bright and early, before the crowds arrived. We found a perfect spot, right in the front, with a full view of the parade on Market Street. The parade began and we joined in, clapping and cheering on all the brave people marching and dancing and riding on floats. 

   Then, a strange thing happened. People marching in the parade were reading our signs. They stopped, did a double take, and would run over to us and say, “Oh my God, thank you!” and “Can I take a picture with the two of you and your signs? I want to send this to my mom!” or “I wish my parents could see you. May I please hug you?” or “My dad will not believe this. He hates me. Can I take our picture together?” and “Bless you for doing this! Can I please have a hug?” or “You have given me such hope. Thank you! I love you!” or “Wow, my mom and dad kicked me out. Maybe this photo will help.” and to TJ, “A Republican? Unbelievable!” A woman from the Dykes on Bikes group parked her huge motorcycle and walked up to me. We looked each other in the eyes and she said, “I wish my mom had been like you.” We hugged. 

   For six straight hours, this happened over and over and over. TJ and I had tears streaming down our faces all day as we smiled and hugged and signed love to floats, marchers and dancers. We were just two old people with handmade signs on our chests. It was a small part-time job to do for one day. But by showing love to these folks, we received love back, a thousandfold. 

   You just never know what surprises God has in store, whether it’s St. Thérèse de Lisieux, confined to the walls of a convent, praying her heart out for the missionaries, or the Vinnies, walking the streets of Marin City, visiting people and bringing love, or folks making coffee for friends to gather together, or opening up the church on a cold morning and lighting the candles for brothers and sisters to pray together. The list is endless. Christ is so happy to see us happy, as we do his work, together, beside him in the vineyard. 

--Paula Nelsen,
OLMC Communion Service,
July 9, 2024 

Image source: https://x.com/DrRonHolt/status/1004873848238424064

God lived in a family (Pope Francis)

   God, whom we often imagine to be beyond problems, came to live in our life and its problems. This is how he came to us. He did not come as a fully grown adult, but very little. He lived in a family, as the son of a mother and father. He spent most of his time there, growing, learning, in a life made up of ordinariness, hiddenness and silence. And he did not avoid difficulties. Rather, by choosing a family, a family that was “expert in suffering”, he says this to our families: If you are facing difficulties, I know what you are experiencing. I experienced it. I, my mother and my father, we experienced it so we could say to your family too: You are not alone! 

--Pope Francis,
December 31, 2024

Image source: John Everett Millais, Christ in the House of His Parents (1849-1850), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_in_the_House_of_His_Parents. For a fascinating, in-depth exploration of this “scandalous” painting by Fr. Patrick van der Vorst, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LFmUWmJPEE
Quotation source

Christ wants to be found by us in our families (St. Pope John Paul II / Haley Stewart)

It is in the Holy Family,
the original ‘Church in miniature,’
 that every Christian family must be reflected.

 --St. Pope John Paul II

     Caryll Houselander, a British spiritual writer, reminds us in her moving work The Reed of God that Christ wants to be found by us in our families. “We know by faith that Christ is in our own family; it is He whom we foster in our children. When you tell your child a story, when you play a game with your little son, you tell a story, you play a game with the Christ Child.” 

    And we know our Lord is hope incarnate. According to Josef Pieper, “the only answer” for man’s situation is hope. The only answer to our condition is our living hope, Jesus Christ. The domestic church is an incarnational symbol of hope made flesh, designed to reflect the Holy Family and educate us in sacrificial love. We cultivate it, guard it, and are called to action by it because at the center of it all is the Christ Child. He is the one at home before our hearths as we toil on... He is the one offering us the supernatural grace we need to have the virtue of hope. He is the one who takes us by the hand, leading us on this pilgrim journey and speaking hope to our weary souls, saying, “Take courage; I have conquered the world!” (John 16:33). 

    Any home where the domestic church becomes his throne will call out to a weary Church and the despairing world with the voice of hope and life. 

--Haley Stewart 

Image source: Nicholas Poussin, The Holy Family on the Steps (1648), https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Nicolas_Poussin_-_Holy_Family_on_the_Steps_-_WGA18323.jpg
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Let the more loving one be me (Dr. Tod Worner / W.H. Auden)

    My kids (even now that they are high schoolers) are still sorting things out. Of course, they are loving and giving and earnest, but they can also get stressed and selfish and moody. And, I guess, so can I. But there is no absence of love. From them. Or from me. 

    And it made me realize that the fullness of what it means to father or mother a child is to be strong and present, to love unconditionally, and to pay it forward. We have to smile when everyone is crabby, inquire when everyone is silent, and love when everyone is tapped out. It is not our place to count receipts or reconcile the ledger of kindness. Instead, it is our place to cheer and counsel, discipline and love infinitely regardless of the balance sheet. 

    Perhaps W.H. Auden said it best in his poem “The More Loving One”: 

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.
How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.
Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.
Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time. 

    Our children love us. That is certain. But our love for them—that endless well that never, ever runs dry—is infinite. So, as you lay eyes on your children tonight (or the next time you see them), don’t count the receipts, reconcile the ledger, or consult the balance sheet. Simply smile, take a breath, and say to yourself, “Let the more loving one be me.” 

--Dr. Tod Worner 

Image source: OLMC Advent Fair 2024 (photo courtesy of J. Bacon), https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=757996799699070&set=a.757479833084100
Quotation source

The Word calls us to relationship (For a Synodal Church / Fr. Patrick Michaels)

Reciprocal love is the place and form of encounter with God.

 --For a Synodal Church:
Communion, Participation, Mission

    Scripture is all about relationships. It is not possible to consider yourself a person of the Word and live isolated, cut off from other people or independent, isolated in your own independence. It’s not possible for people of the Word, for the Word calls us constantly to relationship – to relationship with God, yes, certainly, but to relationship with God through relationship with one another. Our relationships are God-based. If they are based in the Word, they are based in God. They are grounded in God’s love which is infinitely forgiving. 

 --Fr Patrick Michaels,
Homily, February 28, 2025

Image source: El Greco, The Holy Family with Mary Magdalen (16th c.), https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1926.247

Sunday Gospel Reflection, December 28, 2025: Put on love, that is, the bond of perfection...

Put on love, that is, the bond of perfection…

How do we live in relationship with God and other? 

    To live in relationship is to be blessed. This is the message of Psalm 128, which reminds us that to walk in God’s ways, to live the way God intends for us to live, is to embrace fully our relationship both with God and with other. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways, the psalmist reminds us: relationship is at the core of human existence, and our awe – our fear of the Lord – allows us to cross any barrier to achieve it. 

    This weekend we celebrate the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph with texts that remind us that relationship – family in its myriad forms – is a state or condition to be lived… and it takes work! Children, the Book of Sirach tells us, are to honor and revere their father as they obey a mother’s authority. Relationships change, they evolve, and yet we have no identity without them, just as we have no identity without God. And so, as Paul tells the Colossians, we must put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility gentleness, and patience, but over all these we must put on love. That love is the foundation of our relationship, the source of all other virtues combined, modeled in the death and rising of Jesus. Thus, what we live in relationship in our family is also meant to be lived in our identity as church, as we accept our subordination to God and to other as essential to the bond of love, the bond of perfection that keeps us together. 

    In Matthew’s Gospel, Joseph will need to ground himself in loving obedience as he listens once again to the angel of the Lord who instructs him to flee to Egypt with Mary and Jesus, and stay there until he is told otherwise. Out of love for his family, out of obedience to God, Joseph puts relationship first, that the prophecies about Jesus might be fulfilled. Jesus is blessed by his family as we are blessed with our relationship with God and with other. May we continue to live out that relationship as we walk in his ways, living the bond of perfection that is God’s love. 

This “vintage” post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

A return to wonder (Lucinda Franks / Ed Simon)

Christmas in Bethlehem…
A cold, clear night made brilliant
by a glorious star, the smell of incense,
shepherds and wise men falling to their knees
in adoration of the sweet baby,
the incarnation of perfect love.

 --Lucinda Franks

   What would appear to be a humble human birth is at the same time holy and miraculous, with animals laid down before the Lord, and the star of Bethlehem guiding the Magi to Christ’s cradle. 

   To wonder is to dwell in amazement, surprise and the miraculous. One can experience wonder when meditating upon the magnitude of the universe, or in contemplating Blake’s poetry or art. Wonder is when we apprehend the sublime and the magnificent in what we encounter every day, with both humility and delight. The wonder in the Christmas story is that something as human as a baby could also be something as foreign as God. 

   In thinking about the meaning of the nativity today, I find its most potent and radical message to be one not just of wonder, but of wonder as means of approaching difference, of experiencing and understanding the Other. As God, Christ is supposed to be radically foreign, but as Jesus he is intimately human. The theology of incarnation explains that union’s tension, but the broader philosophical implications concern how love must be inculcated by wonder at this paradox. The philosopher Simon Critchley, describing the contours for a “faith of the faithless,” writes that “Christ is the incarnation of love as an act of imagination… the imaginative projection of love onto all creatures.” 

   Wonder is the antidote to hatred, for wonder is fundamentally radical. Had Herod any sense of wonder for the exquisite singularity of all people, would the massacre of the innocents have commenced? If we had wonder at the individual universe that is each fellow human, at the cosmic complexity of other people, would we put refugees in cages? 

   We do not have to look far into the current state of the world to realize that this time requires a return to wonder — what I would call a “politics of wonder,” predicated on both empathy and celebration of difference. Those of us, religious believers or not, who understand the profound meaning of the nativity must fight on behalf of wonder and in the service of a future society that places wonder at its very center. 

--Ed Simon, “In Praise of Wonder”

Blessings at Christmas from
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Mill Valley!

Image source 1: https://ncbaptist.org/article/seeing-christmas-through-the-eyes-of-a-child/
Image source 2: Christmas Crèche, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Mill Valley, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=779997194165697&set=a.770843431747740
Quotation source 1
Quotation source 2

When is it time for love to be born? (Madeleine L'Engle)

This is no time for a child to be born,
With the earth betrayed by war & hate
And a comet slashing the sky to warn
That time runs out & the sun burns late. 

That was no time for a child to be born,
In a land in the crushing grip of Rome;
Honour & truth were trampled by scorn--
Yet here did the Saviour make his home. 

When is the time for love to be born?
The inn is full on the planet earth,
And by a comet the sky is torn--
Yet Love still takes the risk of birth. 

--Madeleine L’Engle

Blessings at Christmas
from Our Lady of Mount Carmel,
Mill Valley! 

Image source: Eric Dowdle, Nativity, https://altusfineart.com/blogs/news/20-inspiring-nativity-scenes-to-bring-the-christmas-spirit?srsltid=AfmBOoqu-MJWzl6iUggHGguyFSkykZ97DIcCpQUBYfI6XqnjiUK-PJK3
Poem source

God is still entering into our lives (Dorothy Day / Dr. Teresa Berger)

I’m so glad Jesus was born in a stable.
Because my soul is so much like a stable.
It’s poor and in unsatisfactory condition –
yet I believe that if Jesus can be born in a stable,
maybe he can also be born in me.

 --Dorothy Day 

    [W]hatever cultural warm and fuzzy feelings we have around Christmas, God becoming human and being born among animals was not a pretty sight. This Christmas I want to enter more deeply into that: into the communion of animals and angels who were there, but also into communion with all the beings who are outside the stable. 

   How to hold those two things in tension, I’m not sure. Maybe we’ll know more on December 26. But one thing I know: God is still entering into our lives and into this world. I am not worried about us not being able to encounter God on Christmas [2025]. God will be there. God will meet us in our needs. What we can bring is our own searching for the spaces in which God, once again, comes to us. 

--Dr. Teresa Berger,
Yale Divinity School

Image source: Louis Gumcy, Nativity (Haiti), https://www.etsy.com/listing/1814216938/haiti-christmas-holy-family-celebration?show_sold_out_detail=1&ref=nla_listing_details
Quotation source 1
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Where do I truly celebrate your birth? (Henri Nouwen)

O Lord, 

How hard it is to accept your way. You come to me as a small, powerless child born away from home. You live for me as a stranger in your own land. You die for me as a criminal outside the walls of the city, rejected by your own people, misunderstood by your friends, and feeling abandoned by your God. 

As I prepare to celebrate your birth, I am trying to feel loved, accepted, and at home in this world, and I am trying to overcome the feelings of alienation and separation that continue to assail me. But I wonder now if my deep sense of homelessness does not bring me closer to you than my occasional feelings of belonging. Where do I truly celebrate your birth: in a cozy home or in an unfamiliar house, among welcoming friends or among unknown strangers, with feelings of well-being or with feelings of loneliness? 

I do not have to run away from those experiences that are closest to yours. Just as you do not belong to this world, so I do not belong to this world. Every time I feel this way I have an occasion to be grateful and to embrace you better and taste more fully your joy and peace. 

Come, Lord Jesus, and be with me where I feel poorest. I trust that this is the place where you will find your manger and bring your light. Come, Lord Jesus, come. 

Amen. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Adoration of the Shepherds (1650), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoration_of_the_Shepherds_(Murillo,_Madrid)#/media/File:Adoration_of_the_Shepherds,_Murillo_(Prado_Museum).jpg
Quotation source

The world waits for a miracle (Lauren Daigle)

The world waits for a miracle
The heart longs for a little bit of hope
Oh come, oh come, Emmanuel
A child prays for peace on Earth
And she's calling out from a sea of hurt
Oh come, oh come, Emmanuel 

And can you hear the angels singing
Glory to the light of the world
Glory, the light of the world is here 

The drought breaks with the tears of a mother
A baby's cry is the sound of love
Come down, come down, Emmanuel
He is the song for the suffering
He is Messiah, the Prince of Peace has come
He has come, Emmanuel 

Glory to the light of the world
Glory to the light of the world
Glory to the light of the world
Glory to the light of the world

For all who wait
For all who hunger
For all who've prayed
For all who wonder

Behold your King
Behold Messiah
Emmanuel, Emmanuel 

Glory to the light of the world
Glory to the light of the world
Glory to the light of the world 

Behold your King
Behold Messiah
Emmanuel, Emmanuel 

The world waits for the miracle
The heart longs for a little bit of hope
Oh come, oh come Emmanuel 

To hear Lauren Daigle sing "Light of the World,” click here:

Image source: Kelly Lattimore, Tent City Nativity, available for purchase at: https://kellylatimoreicons.com/products/tent-city-nativity 
Video source

When I fully believe that I am loved (Henri Nouwen)

He did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him.

--Matthew 1:24

   The great spiritual task facing me is to so fully trust that I belong to God that I can be free in the world—free to speak even when my words are not received; free to act when my actions are criticized, ridiculed, or considered useless; free also to receive love from people and to be grateful for all the signs of God’s presence in the world. I am convinced that I will truly be able to love the world when I fully believe that I am loved far beyond its boundaries. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem, sculpted from sand is displayed in the Italian resort town of Jesolo, https://www.globalsistersreport.org/what-was-pregnancy-mary-mother-jesus
Quotation source

If God called you by name (OLMC Reflection)

Will you come and follow me
if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know
and never be the same?

--The Summons

   What would you do if God called you by name? Would you think you were dreaming? Or would you listen, paying close attention?  How would you respond if he asked you to do something unthinkable, something that might cause you to be teased, mocked, even scorned? 

   St. Joseph was very much summoned by God, or maybe a better word might be invited… invited by God to do something extraordinary. Matthew’s genealogy tells us that Joseph, the husband of Mary, was the son of Jacob, who was the son of Matthan, who was the son of Eleazar, and so on, all the way back to David. Joseph is thus a prime candidate to be the adoptive father of the heir God promises David, God’s servant, whose royal throne, God says, will be firm, forever. Jesus is his heir, an heir who will call God his Father. 

   We know that Joseph himself had strong models in faith, not only his ancestor David, but also, long before, his forefather Abraham. Both Abraham and David had deep faith in the Lord; when God calls each of them, they say yes. 

   Surely Abraham and David were inspirations to Joseph!  And so, when God calls Joseph (by name!) and tells him not to be afraid to take Mary into his home, (which would have been scandalous!), not to be afraid because it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived, Joseph says yes… not in words (he never speaks!) but in actions: he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and took his wife into his home. It’s extraordinary! 

   Joseph doesn’t know where God is taking him, but he listens to God's request. He will go, and will be transformed. Through his care and love for Jesus, God’s love is shown, God’s name is known. Joseph is not afraid to leave himself behind and focus on those around him first and foremost. What gives him the strength to say yes to this extraordinary invitation?  Faith.

   Joseph must have been a man of incredible faith and love, full of compassion. Matthew's gospel describes Joseph as a just man, a man of strong character. And he must love Mary tenderly; he is willing to care for her and her child -- their child. Joseph will do whatever it takes to protect them, taking them to Egypt to escape Herod, anxiously searching for the twelve-year-old Jesus when he disappears in Jerusalem, yet accepting that Jesus must be in his Father's house, always. 

    Thinking about the story of Joseph made me reflect on my own models in faith, first and foremost among them, my parents. My mom was a fraternal twin, and her twin brother Norman was a child with Down syndrome. My grandparents both died before I was nine years old. They had cared for Norman at home in the forties and fifties and sixties, at a time when this simply was not done. 

    When my grandparents each died, the question was, where would Norman go? One of his siblings lived in a studio apartment and worked full time, another already had four boys in a house of under 1000 square feet. My mom was willing… but so, importantly, was my dad. 

    My dad had always been a strong model of faith for me. I remember seeing him kneel by his bedside every night, praying, and teaching the three of us kids to pray as well, because prayer allowed him to remain in relationship with God, and he wanted us to know that joy. Dad was generous to a fault, giving away half the produce we grew in a giant garden, sharing what he had (though he had to feed six on a factory worker’s salary), sharing with friends and family members and even strangers. 

    But it was when Norman came to live with us that I saw my dad’s tremendous faith, faith in action, and the fruits of that faith in our household. I remember being more than a little uncomfortable with my uncle’s life with Down syndrome. He looked different and he could not speak clearly, though he loved to engage, so having friends over could be a bit complicated, as we “translated” his words so they could understand him. 

    But my dad was committed to making Norman’s life as unrestricted as possible. I remember him spending hours teaching Norman over and over to tie his own shoes, and to write his name in big block letters. Like St. Joseph, my dad had an extraordinary attitude of trust in the presence of God, listening to God's words, open to all God would reveal. He knew that he was not in control, but he allowed the Lord to work through him. 

    Henri Nouwen once wrote that, when Jesus talks about faith, he means first of all to trust unreservedly that you are loved, so that you can surrender in complete trust to the love of God revealed in you! My dad did that. He said yes when God summoned him to take on something difficult, and he could do this because of his great faith. Through his willingness to be open to change, to risk the easy comforts, he revealed God’s love to me in so many extraordinary ways. I try to live up to his example.

   Whose faith has helped you to open to God’s will? Who are your models in faith? Might you include St. Joseph, or the Virgin Mary, who also said yes? Are there folks in your own life, past or present, whose faith lets God’s love be shown? Think about that… and then share their stories, if you can, allowing that faith to enter your own heart, and then spreading it far and wide, that God’s life might be grown in our world… through our faith. 

--Suzanne,
OLMC Communion Service Reflection,
March 19, 2024

To hear John L. Bell’s hymn, “The Summons,” click on the video below: 

Image source: Gaetano Gandolfi, Joseph's Dream (c.1790), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_1:21#/media/File:'Joseph's_Dream',_painting_by_Gaetano_Gandolfi,_c._1790.jpg 
Video source

When we have to deal (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary,
your wife, into your home.

--Matthew 1:20

    God told Sarah and Abraham to set off to a land where you don’t know where you’re going. Real growth happens and real grace breaks in when we have to deal with what is other, foreign, different. What’s dark, unfamiliar, frightening, and uninvited will stretch us in ways that the familiar and secure cannot. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI,
Facebook, September 15, 2023

Image source: T’oros Roslin, Joseph’s Dream (Armenia, illumination, 1262), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Joseph%27s_dreams#/media/File:T'oros_Roslin_-_Joseph's_Dream_-_Walters_W53917R_-_Detail_A.jpg

Joseph trusted in the angel's words (Pope Francis)

   Joseph accepted Mary unconditionally. He trusted in the angel’s words. The nobility of Joseph’s heart is such that what he learned from the law he made dependent on charity. Today, in our world where psychological, verbal and physical violence towards women is so evident, Joseph appears as the figure of a respectful and sensitive man. Even though he does not understand the bigger picture, he makes a decision to protect Mary’s good name, her dignity and her life. In his hesitation about how best to act, God helped him by enlightening his judgment. 

    Often in life, things happen whose meaning we do not understand. Our first reaction is frequently one of disappointment and rebellion. Joseph set aside his own ideas in order to accept the course of events and, mysterious as they seemed, to embrace them, take responsibility for them and make them part of his own history. Unless we are reconciled with our own history, we will be unable to take a single step forward, for we will always remain hostage to our expectations and the disappointments that follow. 

--Pope Francis

Image source: The Dream of St. Joseph (anonymous, 18th c. Italy), https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/339759
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, December 21, 2025: The Lord himself will give you this sign...

The Lord himself will give you this sign…
 Do you trust enough to accept God’s plan? 

     Try to put yourself in Joseph’s shoes, just for a moment. In Matthew’s Gospel, Joseph has just learned that his betrothed, Mary has been found with child, and, knowing the child is not his, he is struggling to see a path forward. In his confusion, Joseph is bolstered by his own sense of what is right: unwilling to expose her to shame, he decides to divorce her quietly. What stops him? Well, it is true that he is visited in a dream by an angel of the Lord, but it is still up to Joseph himself to follow through on the angel’s command. Why might he do that? Remember that Joseph’s community has been seeking the face of the God of Jacob, as Psalm 24 notes, for centuries, and those who seek God’s face must stand open, ready to trust that one day God will fulfill the promise of Isaiah, the promise of a Messiah who will deliver the people of Israel. One can only imagine, therefore, that it is Joseph’s faith, his profound trust in the Lord’s promise, that allows him to believe the angel’s explanation of Jesus’ divine conception – for it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her – an echo of the prophet Isaiah who had long before revealed that the virgin shall conceive and bear a son… Hence, Joseph, son of David, accepts the angel’s reasoning because he is open, because he chooses to trust – to trust in the Scriptures, to trust in God, to trust in God’s promise. 

    What does this trust imply for those who seek God today? Paul reminds the Romans that (as Joseph was aware) through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, God promised to send his Son, Jesus, the very embodiment of the gospel or Good News. Jesus, descended from David according to the flesh, is the Messiah they have been seeking for so long, as revealed in his resurrection from the dead. So, too, must we recognize that our salvation lies in Jesus Christ: through him we have received the grace of apostleship, a call to belong to Christ, a call to be holy. To do so, we must first trust in God’s promise, seeking the face of God in the infant Jesus to come, Emmanuel, God-with-us, opening our hearts so that he may be born in us as he was born of Mary. Mary and Joseph understood the need to open in trust to God’s loving promise; do we? 

This "vintage" post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture Class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

The Sounds of Silence (Sandy Greenberg / Simon & Garfunkel)

Strengthen the hands that are feeble;
make firm the knees that are weak.

--Isaiah 35:3

   “Hello darkness, my old friend…” 

 

    Everybody knows the iconic Simon & Garfunkel song, but do you know the amazing story behind the first line of The Sounds of Silence? 

    It began 62 years ago, when Arthur “Art” Garfunkel, a Jewish kid from Queens, enrolled in Columbia University. During freshman orientation, Art met a student from Buffalo named Sandy Greenberg, and they immediately bonded over their shared passion for literature and music. Art and Sandy became roommates and best friends. With the idealism of youth, they promised to be there for each other no matter what. 

   Soon after starting college, Sandy was struck by tragedy. His vision became blurry and although doctors diagnosed it as temporary conjunctivitis, the problem grew worse. Finally after seeing a specialist, Sandy received the devastating news that severe glaucoma was destroying his optic nerves. The young man with such a bright future would soon be completely blind. 

   Sandy was devastated and fell into a deep depression. He gave up his dream of becoming a lawyer and moved back to Buffalo, where he worried about being a burden to his financially-struggling family. Consumed with shame and fear, Sandy cut off contact with his old friends, refusing to answer letters or return phone calls. 

   Then suddenly, to Sandy’s shock, his buddy Art showed up at the front door. He was not going to allow his best friend to give up on life, so he bought a ticket and flew up to Buffalo unannounced. Art convinced Sandy to give college another go, and promised that he would be right by his side to make sure he didn’t fall - literally or figuratively. 

   Art kept his promise, faithfully escorting Sandy around campus and effectively serving as his eyes. It was important to Art that even though Sandy had been plunged into a world of darkness, he should never feel alone. Art actually started calling himself “Darkness” to demonstrate his empathy with his friend. He’d say things like, “Darkness is going to read to you now.” Art organized his life around helping Sandy. 

   One day, Art was guiding Sandy through crowded Grand Central Station when he suddenly said he had to go and left his friend alone and petrified. Sandy stumbled, bumped into people, and fell, cutting a gash in his shin. After a couple of hellish hours, Sandy finally got on the right subway train. After exiting the station at 116th street, Sandy bumped into someone who quickly apologized - and Sandy immediately recognized Art’s voice! Turned out his trusty friend had followed him the whole way home, making sure he was safe and giving him the priceless gift of independence. Sandy later said, “That moment was the spark that caused me to live a completely different life, without fear, without doubt. For that I am tremendously grateful to my friend.” 

   Sandy graduated from Columbia and then earned graduate degrees at Harvard and Oxford. He married his high school sweetheart and became an extremely successful entrepreneur and philanthropist. While at Oxford, Sandy got a call from Art. This time Art was the one who needed help. He’d formed a folk rock duo with his high school pal Paul Simon, and they desperately needed $400 to record their first album. Sandy and his wife Sue had literally $404 in their bank account, but without hesitation Sandy gave his old friend what he needed. 

   Art and Paul's first album was not a success, but one of the songs, The Sounds of Silence, became a #1 hit a year later. The opening line echoed the way Sandy always greeted Art. Simon & Garfunkel went on to become one of the most beloved musical acts in history. 

   The two Columbia graduates, each of whom has added so much to the world in his own way, are still best friends. Art Garfunkel said that when he became friends with Sandy, “my real life emerged. I became a better guy in my own eyes, and began to see who I was - somebody who gives to a friend.” Sandy describes himself as “the luckiest man in the world.” 

--Adapted from Sandy Greenberg’s memoir:
Hello Darkness, My Old Friend:
How Daring Dreams and Unyielding Friendship
Turned One Man’s Blindness into
an Extraordinary Vision for Life

To hear Simon & Garfunkel’s beautiful song, “The Sounds of Silence,” click on the video below:

 

Image source: https://www.sustainabledeco.com/products/1965-columbia-simon-and-garfunkel-sounds-of-silence-vinyl-record-lp?srsltid=AfmBOop5-age330iEcrFNeT6iJbjbzst38TS6Zy0gE0sMMNIHK5sPJds
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We wait (Mary Ann Steutermann)

    In Advent, the four weeks of expectant waiting for the Christ child invite us to welcome that sense of “not yet but in the fullness of time” into our faith lives and challenge us to trust in “the slow work of God.” As Christians, we wait not just for the baby in the manger, which was a historical event in the distant past; we wait for that time when we can recognize God’s presence in all things at all times and in all places. [Certain] spiritual practices [can] be especially helpful in cultivating this sense of hopeful anticipation that keeps God in the driver’s seat and my own shortsighted need for control under wraps. 

    When I am stuck in traffic – or stuck in a situation in which I impatiently wait for some future development – I often think of my experience as one of “absence.” Being isolated into a small vehicle behind miles and miles of unmoving machinery feels very much like a “lacking.” I’m not where I want to be, I can’t do what I want to do, I won’t get to those I wish to see when I’d like. This “absence” of all I long for can feel very empty and barren. But when I remember that God is always “present,” not absent at all, the space in which I wait becomes filled with sacred possibility. 

    Centering prayer has been a helpful practice for me when I’m tempted to think that “not yet” is the same as “nothing at all.” When I meditate quietly, breathing in the silence of hopeful expectation, and return my focus to a sacred word or phrase, I am reminded that there is a substance to my waiting. The phrases I like to use most are simple ones, like “Holy God” or “Peace of Christ.” God is present in the generative emptiness of my surrender to him. There can be a powerful experience of grace in the waiting, and Advent is an ideal time to begin or recommit to this form of contemplative prayer. 

–Mary Ann Steutermann 

Image source: https://barneywiget.com/2016/07/05/stuck-in-traffic-whats-going-on-up-there/
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The goodness of God (Elizabeth Goudge / Henri Nouwen)

What is the scent of water? Renewal.
 The goodness of God coming down like dew.

 --Elizabeth Goudge

     The expectation of Advent is anchored in the event of God’s incarnation. The more I come in touch with what happened in the past, the more I come in touch with what is to come. The Gospel not only reminds me of what took place but also of what will take place. 

     In the contemplation of Christ’s first coming, I can discover the signs of his second coming. By looking back in meditation, I can look forward in expectation. By reflection, I can project; by conserving the memory of Christ’s birth, I can progress to the fulfillment of his kingdom. 

     I am struck by the fact that the prophets speaking about the future of Israel always kept reminding their people of God’s great works in the past. They could look forward with confidence because they could look backward with awe to Yahweh’s great deeds. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, The Heavenly and Earthly Trinities (c.1677), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarnation_%28Christianity%29#/media/File:Bartolom%C3%A9_Esteban_Murillo_-_The_Heavenly_and_Earthly_Trinities_-_1681-82.jpg
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Where are our blooming deserts? (Fr. James Martin)

    [I]n the future that God promises us, says Isaiah: “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing.” In God’s reign, everything can grow and everyone can flourish. 

   This is beautiful imagery, but it can feel far from where we are today. All we need do is look around and see the war in Ukraine, poverty in our inner cities and people still suffering and dying from Covid to know that we are far from Isaiah’s vision. How can we keep the faith in the midst of such misery? LGBTQ people also know what it means to live in hope and have their hopes dashed, often by the very church that encourages these hopes. Sometimes it’s hard to find signs of God’s presence among us. 

   That’s why Sunday’s Gospel passage, about John the Baptist, is so extraordinary. From his jail cell, John sends messengers to ask Jesus, “Are you the one?” In response, Jesus invites John to notice what is happening: the blind see, the deaf hear and the lame walk. 

   So a question for us today is: Where are our blooming deserts? Where are our rejoicing steppes? In other words, where are the signs of God’s presence in our daily lives? Advent is all about desire. Can you desire to notice these things? 

--Fr. James Martin,
Facebook, December 10, 2022

Image source: https://petertchattaway.substack.com/p/the-chosen-season-two-episode-four
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Losing sight of the mystery (St. Pope John Paul II)

The desert and the parched land will exult;
the steppe will rejoice and bloom.

--Isaiah 35:1

    The loss of contact with God's wise design is the deepest root of modern man's confusion; By living "as if God did not exist," man not only loses sight of the mystery of God, but also of the mystery of the world and the mystery of his own being. 

--Pope Saint John Paul II 

Image source: https://bcworldview.org/blossoms-in-the-barren-places/
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God speaks through the gritty and the humble (James T. Keane)

    The truth is attractive. John the Baptist speaks the truth, and they come flocking to him. He doesn’t seek glory for himself—in fact, he accepts that he must become less so that Jesus can become more. And he preaches not for his own gain, but to proclaim a future wonder just being born as Jesus begins his ministry. So his vehemence and the force of his message—come forth and confess your sins, because the kingdom is at hand—come through clearly and effectively. Good news about the future and forgiveness while you’re at it… not a bad deal. 

    We see that so often today, both in popular media and on the local level: the slick and clever message that doesn’t stick, doesn’t last; the preachers whom the writer Katelyn Beaty calls “celebrities for Jesus,” who are looking to make a buck and end up hurting Christians—and losing their way completely. 

    But then we look at the events we commemorate in the season in which we are now fully engaged: the Christ Child about to be born to the least likely of people in the most humble of circumstances. There’s no reason to be drawn to that person either, on the surface of it—and yet he attracts shepherds, kings, wise men, angels. And John the Baptist himself, eventually, someone who knew that God speaks most clearly through the gritty and the humble. That’s hot. 

--James T. Keane 

Image source: Mattia Preti (Il Cavaliere Calabrese), John the Baptist Preaching (1665), https://www.famsf.org/artworks/saint-john-the-baptist-preaching
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, December 14, 2025: Be patient, brothers and sisters...

Be patient, brothers and sisters...
What are you expecting? 

    In this Gaudate Sunday’s reading from Isaiah, the prophet offers those who have remained faithful in exile a portrait of God in his creative wonder, creating things anew, bringing what was lifeless back to life: The desert and the parched land will exult; the steppe will rejoice and bloom when your God comes to the earth to save you, bringing everlasting joy. Our limited human vision has a hard time imagining this miraculous renewal; we are afraid to hope, too scared to see our own limitations as possibilities – we can’t see with God’s eyes. We can’t really expect, only hope: hope in the fulfillment of the promise, hope that our own eyes will be opened, hope that our ears will be cleared… 

    Like John the Baptist in this Sunday’s Gospel from Matthew, we have built up so many expectations around the coming of Jesus. Like the Israelites before him, John thinks he knows what to expect: a Messiah who comes in a blaze of wrath, a powerhouse ready to take on the world! But Jesus is quick to point out that John and his followers just need to open their eyes: the prophecies are being filled right in front of them: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. Jesus doesn’t come to meet human expectations: he comes to fulfill God’s promise of salvation, bringing redemption to all who accept God’s invitation to relationship. 

    And what are we to do, as we wait? Trust, as the psalmist does, that God will keep his faith (Psalm 146), sustaining us, protecting us, raising us up, setting us free. Even if we really understood what that meant, it’s not easy to wait; waiting requires patience, as James tells his readers, repeating that word four times in this week’s short passage. Patience, patience, patience… It's not easy. 

    Alas, there is no “What to Expect” book for hearts waiting pregnantly for Jesus to come, and we can’t know what Jesus’s coming will bring to our lives. But we can be patient, trusting that the depth of our love will deepen our ability to wait, hearts firm, as we embody God's love for all, expectantly, with patience.

This “vintage” post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture Class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

When my body won't hold me anymore (The Avett Brothers)

When my body won't hold me anymore
And it finally lets me free
Will I be ready?
When my feet won't walk another mile
And my lips give their last kiss goodbye
Will my hands be steady when I lay down my fears, my hopes, and my doubts?
The rings on my fingers, and the keys to my house
With no hard feelings 

When the sun hangs low in the west
And the light in my chest won't be kept held at bay any longer
When the jealousy fades away
And it's ash and dust for cash and lust
And it's just hallelujah
And love in thought, love in the words
Love in the songs they sing in the church
And no hard feelings 

Lord knows, they haven't done much good for anyone
Kept me afraid and cold
With so much to have and hold
Mmm, hmm

When my body won't hold me anymore
And it finally lets me free
Where will I go?
Will the trade winds take me south through Georgia grain?
Or tropical rain? Or snow from the heavens?
Will I join with the ocean blue?
Or run into a savior true?
And shake hands laughing
And walk through the night, straight to the light
Holding the love I've known in my life
And no hard feelings 

Lord knows, they haven't done much good for anyone
Kept me afraid and cold
With so much to have and hold
Under the curving sky
I'm finally learning why
It matters for me and you
To say it and mean it too
For life and its loveliness
And all of its ugliness
Good as it's been to me 

I have no enemies
I have no enemies
I have no enemies
I have no enemies

To hear The Avett Brothers sing, “No Hard Feelings,” click on the video below. 

Image source: https://blog.adw.org/2017/12/walking-toward-the-light-in-advent/
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Unity in the mind and heart of God (Steve Goodier / Henri Nouwen)

We don’t get harmony when
everybody sings the same note.
Only notes that are different can harmonize.
 The same is true with people.

--Steve Goodier

    If you dare to believe that you are beloved before you are born, you may suddenly realize that your life is very, very special. You become conscious that you were sent here just for a short time, for twenty, forty, or eighty years, to discover and believe that you are a beloved child of God. The length of time doesn’t matter. 

    You are sent into this world to believe in yourself as God’s chosen one and then to help your brothers and sisters know that they are also Beloved Sons and Daughters of God who belong together. You’re sent into this world to be a people of reconciliation. You are sent to heal, to break down the walls between you and your neighbors, locally, nationally, and globally. 

    Before all distinctions, the separations, and the walls built on foundations of fear, there was a unity in the mind and heart of God. Out of that unity, you are sent into this world for a little while to claim that you and every other human being belongs to the same God of Love who lives from eternity to eternity. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: Vincent Van Gogh, Starry Night over the Rhône (1888), https://finearttutorials.com/guide/unity-in-art/
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Mary's sacred flesh (St. Hildegard of Bingen)

Today is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which celebrates the belief that Mary was preserved from original sin from birth, making her a uniquely pure vessel to bear Jesus.

The medieval mystic and composer St. Hildegard of Bingen captured the ecstasy of Mary’s response to God's invitation to bear his Son in her beautiful chant, “O virga mediatrix” (12th c.): 

Alleluia!
O virga mediatrix,
sancta viscera tua
mortem superaverunt
et venter tuus omnes creaturas illuminavit
in pulchro flore de suavissima integritate
clausi pudoris tui orto. 

Alleluia!
O branch and mediatrix,
your sacred flesh
has conquered death,
your womb all creatures illumined
in beauty’s bloom from that exquisite purity
of your enclosed modesty sprung forth. 

To hear St. Hildegard of Bingen’s spectacular “O Virgo mediatrix,” presented by Laurie Monahan and Barbara Thornton, click on the video below:

Happy Feast of the Annunciation!

Image source: Ukranian artist Ivanka Demchuk, Annunciation, https://stories.spu.edu/articles/from-the-reader-3
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