Christ is in our own family (Haley Stewart)

   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 [Catholic philosopher 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:  Sir James Jebusa Shannon, Contes de la jungle (1895), https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/12552
Quotation source

What makes families holy (Bishop Robert Barron)

  God, through our families, is giving us the people he wants us to love. Part of what makes families holy is that we have this capacity to love, not just the people we have chosen to be with, but the people whom God has given us to love. 

--Bishop Robert Barron 

Image source: https://sandyallnock.com/nativity-sketches/
Quotation source

To carry Our Lord in our arms (St. Francis de Sales)

   The glorious St. Simeon was very happy to carry Him as did Our Lady. We do this when we endure with love the labors and pains He sends us, that is to say, when the love which we bear to the Law of God makes us find his yoke easy and pleasing, so that we love these pains and labors, and gather sweetness in the midst of bitterness. This is nothing else but to carry Our Lord in our arms. Now, if we carry Him in this way, He will, without doubt, Himself carry us. 

 --St. Francis de Sales,

Treatise on the Love of God 

Image source: Alexey Yegorov, Simeon the Righteous (ca. 1830-1840), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simeon_%28Gospel_of_Luke%29#/media/File:Yegorov-Simeon_the_Righteous.jpg

Sunday Gospel Reflection, December 31, 2023: Descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky...

Descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky…

What does the family of God look like?  

   When, in Luke’s Gospel, Mary and Joseph take the baby Jesus to the temple to present him to the Lord, they are reaffirming their participation in the extraordinary covenant which God has repeatedly established with God’s people. As we know from the story of Abram (later Abraham) in Genesis, God, who created us out of love, showers blessings on those who are open to his invitation. Abraham trusts that the Lord will make his own issue, his future son Isaac, his heir, but God’s promise is more extraordinary still: Abraham’s descendants, the Book of Hebrews tells us, will be as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sands on the seashore. Faithful to God’s covenant, Abraham is in right relationship with God; that righteousness (or right relationship) is born of God’s love for his own, a covenant love, Psalm 105 tells us, that the Lord remembers forever, even though humankind may forget it. 

    The Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph is a celebration of the covenant, of the love relationship between humankind and God, of the ties that bind us to God as well as to one another. The Incarnation – Jesus, divine yet born in all his humanity to very human parents – is the ultimate manifestation of God’s covenant, as the prophet Simeon recognizes upon taking the child Jesus into his arms: my eyes have seen your salvation, Simeon says. The presence of Simeon and the prophetess Anna in this scene reinforce the familial nature of the event, as their voices reaffirm that the invitation of God to covenant creates a family, a love relationship, that goes beyond the immediately biological. The Holy Family is our family; God’s love for us is parental, loving, compassionate. The Feast of the Holy Family reminds us of our place in God’s family, and celebrates the love that is ours thanks to the extraordinary invitation of the Lord to join him as witnesses to the redemption available to all humankind. 

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

God comes into the world in littleness (Bishop Robert Barron / Pope Francis)

The good news of Christmas
is that God himself pushed into the 
dysfunctional and ambiguous family of man.

 --Bishop Robert Barron 

    That is where God is, in littleness. This is the message: God does not rise up in grandeur, but lowers himself into littleness. Littleness is the path that he chose to draw near to us, to touch our hearts, to save us and to bring us back to what really matters. 

   Brothers and sisters, standing before the crib, we contemplate what is central, beyond all the lights and decorations, which are beautiful. We contemplate the child. In his littleness, God is completely present. Let us acknowledge this: “Baby Jesus, you are God, the God who becomes a child.” Let us be amazed by this scandalous truth. The One who embraces the universe needs to be held in another’s arms. The One who created the sun needs to be warmed. Tenderness incarnate needs to be coddled. Infinite love has a miniscule heart that beats softly. The eternal Word is an “infant”, a speechless child. The Bread of life needs to be nourished. The Creator of the world has no home. Today, all is turned upside down: God comes into the world in littleness. His grandeur appears in littleness. 

--Pope Francis, December 24, 2021 

Image source: Georges de la Tour, Le Nouveau-Né (ca. 1645-1648), with an analysis of this painting: https://churchofthevine.org/youth/2020/12/28/the-light-of-the-world
Quotation source 1
Quotation source 2 (and full text of Pope Francis’ beautiful homily)

Christmas is a feast without finish (Sr. Joan Chittister)

 
   There is a child in each of us waiting to be born again. It is to those looking for life that the figure of the Christ, a child, beckons. Christmas is not for children. It is for those who refuse to give up and grow old, for those to whom life comes newly and with purpose each and every day, for those who can let yesterday go so that life can be full of new possibility always, for those who are agitated with newness whatever their age. Life is for the living, for those in whom Christmas is a feast without finish, a celebration of the constancy of change, a call to begin once more the journey to human joy and holy meaning. 

--Sr. Joan Chittister, In Search of Belief 

Image source: Nativity mural, Batahola Norte Community Center, Managua, Nicaragua, https://thejesusquestion.org/2015/12/25/more-nativity-paintings-from-around-the-world/?fbclid=IwAR2Ge8faBzsd_d25b5u4MA240zzxtIcL4SKuYohReNmPS9931r9ezxvlPR4

Unveiling the extraordinary (Winston Churchill / John O'Donohue)

Christmas is a season not only
of rejoicing but of reflection.

--Winston Churchill 

      At Christmas, time deepens. The Celtic imagination knew that time is eternity in disguise. They embraced the day as a sacred space. Christmas reminds us to glory in the simplicity and wonder of one day; it unveils the extraordinary that our hurried lives conceal and neglect. 

--John O’Donohue 

Blessings at Christmas from
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Mill Valley!
May you witness the extraordinary! 

Image source 1: Nativity, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Mill Valley, Christmas 2022, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=5930613866999986&set=a.5924799217581451 

Image source 2: Nativity found on an ancient Roman sarcophagus in Milan, Italy (4th c.), https://oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2017/12/stilichos-sarcophagus.html 

Quotation 1 source 

Quotation 2 source

We wait for the birth of Jesus (St. Mother Teresa of Kolkata / Tish Harrison Warren)

It is Christmas every time 

you let God love others through you.
 

--St. Mother Teresa of Kolkata 

   Mary’s story recalls that joy can’t be gotten cheaply. The pain of the world cannot be papered over in a sentimental display of tamed little angels and a cute, chubby baby Jesus. The emptiness in the world and in our own lives can’t be filled with enough hurry or buying power or likes or retweets. We wait for the birth of Jesus, who was called Emmanuel, God with us. We wait with Mary for our hunger to be filled. 

--Tish Harrison Warren 

To hear the incredible a cappella ensemble Kings Return sing O Holy Night on this very holy night, click on the video below: 

Image source 1: The Jesse Tree, Christmas Eve, 2022, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Mill Valley, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=5930613513666688&set=a.5924799217581451
Image source 2: Still from The Shepherd, the pilot for The Chosen, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paOjgZZDads
Quotation 1 source
Quotation 2 source
Video source

Being loved like that (Mary Howe)

Even if I don’t see it again—nor ever feel it
I know it is—and that if once it hailed me
it ever does—
And so it is myself I want to turn in that direction
not as towards a place, but it was a tilting
within myself,
as one turns a mirror to flash the light to where
it isn’t—I was blinded like that—and swam
in what shone at me
only able to endure it by being no one and so
specifically myself I thought I’d die
from being loved like that. 

--Mary Howe, Annunciation 

Image source 1: Angel Zárraga, Anonciación, https://fineart.ha.com/itm/fine-art-painting-american/modern-1900-1949-/angel-zarraga-mexican-1886-1946-the-annunciationoil-on-canvas21-1-4-x-25-3-4-inches-540-x-654-cm-signed/a/5004-33215.s
Image source 2:  Manuscript Illumination with the Annunciation in an Initial R, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/466086
Poem source

Because she said yes (Fr. Patrick Michaels)

      Mary made it possible, through her choice, to bring salvation to all humankind. All people have hope because she said yes. God prepared her to say yes, but she had to act on it, just as salvation continues to unfold through Jesus Christ who loves us, and it is dependent on [our] choices, the choice to say yes to God’s plan, to God’s will, to God’s love. 

     Mary did. So can we. 

 --Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Homily, September 8, 2023 

Image source: Pedro Berruguete, La Anunciación (15th c.), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annunciation_in_Christian_art#/media/File:La_Anunciaci%C3%B3n_(Pedro_Berruguete).jpg

Christmas is saying yes. (Henri Nouwen)

    Somehow, I realized that songs, music, good feelings, beautiful liturgies, nice presents, big dinners, and many sweet words do not make Christmas. Christmas is saying "yes" to something beyond all emotions and feelings. Christmas is saying "yes" to a hope based on God's initiative, which has nothing to do with what I think or feel. Christmas is believing that the salvation of the world is God's work and not mine. Things will never look just right or feel just right. If they did, someone would be lying... But it is into this broken world that a child is born who is called Son of the Most High, Prince of Peace, Savior. 

     Thank you, Lord, that you came independently of my feelings and thoughts. Your heart is greater than mine. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: He Qi, Annunciation, https://www.heqiart.com/store/p45/01_Annunciation_Artist_Proof.html
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, December 24, 2023: May it be done unto me according to your word...

May it be done unto me according to your word…

Will you say yes? 

    In the Second Book of Samuel, God makes it clear to King David that it is God who is responsible for his position in life: It was I who took you from the pasture and from the care of the flock to be commander of my people Israel, the Lord says. David wants to build a house for God (because the ark of the God dwells in a tent!), but God says he will establish a house for David. The Lord promises that David’s house and kingdom shall endure forever in a peace that will last, without further disturbance. Later, the psalmist will sing Psalm 89 in order to remind the Lord of this promise: For you have said, My kindness is established forever; in heaven, you have confirmed your faithfulness. Christians will later read the story of David and the ark of the covenant as a promise of a future Messiah sent to bring salvation to Israel. 

    That promise is fulfilled, of course, in the person of Jesus, born of a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David. Mary surely knew of the Lord’s promise to her people; when the angel Gabriel tells her in Luke’s Gospel that she will conceive in her womb and bear a son, Mary simply tries to figure out how she will fit into God’s promise: How can this be? she asks. Once the angel has reassured her, however, Mary says yes: May it be done unto me according to your word. Mary does not choose to be the mother of the Most High; God chooses her, sending the Holy Spirit to come upon her. But Mary says yes!

    Like David, like Mary, we need to accept and recognize the action of the Spirit within us; this is the focus of the Advent season. As Paul tells the Romans, the revelation of the mystery is now manifested and made known to all nations. God is there in their midst, in other words; the gospel is the fulfillment of the promise made to David and effected after Mary’s yes. God’s plan has been fulfilled as God intended, and the good news has been proclaimed to all peoples. We too have a role in revealing God’s infinite love to our world. Will we say yes? How will we allow the Lord to work through us, today and every day? How will we make his love manifest in our world? 

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

My soul magnifies the Lord (Bishop Robert Barron)

   [This week] we heard the Magnificat—Mary’s great hymn of praise to YHWH. 

   The hymn commences with the simple declaration, "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord." Or, as many other translations have it, "My soul magnifies the Lord." Mary announces here that her whole being is ordered to the glorification of God. Her ego wants nothing for itself; it wants only to be an occasion for giving honor to God. But since God needs nothing, whatever glory Mary gives to him returns to her benefit, so that she is magnified in the very act of magnifying him. In giving herself away fully to God, Mary becomes a superabundant source of life; indeed, she becomes pregnant with God. 

    This odd and wonderful rhythm of magnifying and being magnified is the key to understanding everything about Mary, from her divine motherhood, to her Assumption and Immaculate Conception, to her mission in the life of the Church. 

   Reflect: Think about times when you have given yourself away to God and became a source of life for someone. Or, if this hasn’t happened to you, how can you submit to God now and trust that his plan will lead to abundant life? 

--Bishop Robert Barron, 

Gospel Reflection, December 22, 2020 

Image source: https://aleteia.org/2018/12/01/did-you-know-that-mary-and-jesus-shared-an-organ/

Joy is our gift to the world (Jack Kornfeld)

    Yes, compassion is important; but joy is also important—it is what the French philosopher André Gide called “a moral obligation.” Our gift to the world comes as much through our being and presence, our smile and touch, our sense of possibility and the mystery of human life, as it does in the specifics of what we do. Wherever we go, we can be a beacon of well-being, love, and care that not only touches but uplifts those whom we encounter. 

--Jack Kornfield 

Image source: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/wellness/g4355/grandma-health-benefits/
Quotation source

Are we joyful Christians? (W.C. Jones / Pope Francis)

   The joy of brightening other lives
becomes for us the magic of the holidays.

--W. C. Jones 

    The joy of the Christian is not a fleeting emotion or a simple human optimism, but the certainty of being able to face every situation under God’s loving gaze, with the courage and strength that come from him. Even in the midst of many tribulations, the saints experienced this joy and bore witness to it. Without joy, faith becomes a rigorous and oppressive exercise, and runs the risk of ailing with sadness. Let us ask ourselves this: are we joyful Christians? Am I a joyful Christian or not? Do we spread joy or are we dull, sad people, with a funeral face? Remember that there is no holiness without joy! 

--Pope Francis, August 2, 2023

Image source 1: https://www.stfrancisa2.com/reconnect-day-12/
Image source 2: https://www.gominno.com/parents/4-reasons-to-start-an-advent-candle-tradition-with-your-family/ 
Quotation source 1
Quotation source 2

The love of joys unknown (Johann Sebastian Bach & Robert Bridges)

British poet Robert Bridges provided the words we associate with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (Cantata 147). The poem reminds us of the great joy we experience when we allow ourselves to be drawn by Jesus into the glorious and salvific love of God. 

In 2011, a Japanese company produced a delightful recording of this piece performed on a giant wooden xylophone set up in the woods of Kyushu, Japan. 

          Jesu, joy of man's desiring,
         Holy wisdom, love most bright;
         Drawn by Thee, our souls aspiring
         Soar to uncreated light. 

         Word of God, our flesh that fashioned, 

         With the fire of life impassioned, 

         Striving still to truth unknown, 

         Soaring, dying round Thy throne. 

         Through the way where hope is guiding, 

         Hark, what peaceful music rings; 

         Where the flock, in Thee confiding, 

         Drink of joy from deathless springs. 

         Theirs is beauty's fairest pleasure; 

         Theirs is wisdom's holiest treasure. 

         Thou dost ever lead Thine own 

         In the love of joys unknown. 

To hear (and watch!) Bach's composition performed on the giant wooden xylophone, click on the video below:

Image source 1: The Visitation, Ein Karem, https://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/saints/marysvisitationofelizabeth/
Video source

Attract them by joy (St. Katherine Drexel)

   We must attract them by joy, in order to lead them to the source, the heart of Christ. 

  --St. Katharine Drexel 

Image source: https://studyprayserve.com/2017/04/18/daily-mass-filled-with-joy-catholic-inspiration/
Quotation source

Be a telescope (John Piper)

   There are two kinds of magnifying: microscope magnifying and telescope magnifying. The one makes a small thing look bigger than it is. The other makes a big thing begin to look as big as it really is. 

   We are not called to be microscopes. We are called to be telescopes. Christians are not called to be con-men who magnify their product out of all proportion to reality, when they know the competitor’s product is far superior. There is nothing and nobody superior to God. And so the calling of those who love God is to make his greatness begin to look as great as it really is. 

   The whole duty of the Christian can be summed up in this: feel, think, and act in a way that will make God look as great as he really is. Be a telescope for the world of the infinite starry wealth of the glory of God. 

--John Piper 

Image source: https://denvercatholic.org/the-heavens-declare-the-glory-of-god/
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, December 17, 2023: My soul rejoices in my God...

My soul rejoices in my God…

If the Lord is active in your life,

how can you not be filled with joy? 

    As the Book of the Prophet Isaiah nears its end, the people who have been in exile in Babylon are at last returning home. Isaiah reassures the people, bringing glad tidings to the poor, proclaiming liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, and announcing a year of favor from the Lord. God is active and working in their midst, in other words; they have but to trust in the power of God to redeem them in the midst of destruction. Isaiah, clothed with encouragement and strength by the Lord, communicates a promise of spiritual redemption to the people, one in which they, with him, rejoice! 

    John the Baptist’s promise of one who is coming after me is similarly intended to uplift the people of his time. Jesus is, as the evangelist John writes, the light to which John the Baptist came to testify. Unfortunately, the priests, Levites, and Pharisees do not believe they are in the dark: they have a clear idea of who the Messiah will be, and they will not recognize Jesus. But some will hear John’s call to conversion and fidelity, and will put their faith in the one already among them whom they do not recognize, Jesus, the Word of God, the light, sent to redeem a fallen world. And then? They will, like Mary in Luke’s Gospel, rejoice in their God. Mary’s canticle is a direct response to the wonder of the Incarnation taking place within her, for she knows that God has mercy on those who fear him, in every generation, and she thus proclaims the greatness of the Lord, joy-filled at all that is to come. 

    Rejoice always, Paul writes to the Thessalonians. Do not quench the Spirit. For the Lord Jesus Christ has come to save us; he has died and risen for our sake, revealing the depth of God’s love for us – we must not be sad or feel our situation is hopeless. And the Lord’s activity is ongoing: may the God of peace make you perfectly holy, and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for Jesus’ second coming. We can rely upon God – he will accomplish all – through the work of the Holy Spirit in our midst. And if the Lord is active in your life, how can you help but be filled with joy? So, rejoice… rejoice always! 

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

i'm just only a baptist preacher (Lucille Clifton)

somebody coming in blackness
like a star
and the world be a great bush
on his head
and his eyes be fire
in the city
and his mouth be true as time 

he be calling the people brother
even in the prison
even in the jail 

i’m just only a baptist preacher
somebody bigger than me coming
in blackness like a star 

--Lucille Clifton, john 

Image source 1: Kehinde Wiley’s Saint John the Baptist (2014), https://nmaahc.si.edu/kehinde-wiley 
Image source 2: Lippo Memmi, Saint John the Baptist (ca. 1325), tempera on panel, https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.434.html
Poem source (and recording of the author reading her work)

A Prayer for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Patroness of the Americas, you remind us not only of God’s ongoing presence among us, but of that fact that God looks like us, talks like us and meets us where we are at. Guide us as we work to be attentive to the lowly in the way that you cared for Juan Diego and his family. Inspire in us his faithfulness and courage, that we, too, may trust in God’s providence and care. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. Saint Juan Diego, pray for us. 

 Image source:  Juan de Sáenz, Virgen de Guadalupe con las cuatro apariciones (1777),   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Guadalupe

Prayer source

Heaven is where you are joined to everyone, perfectly (Fr. Patrick Michaels)

    The expression of our faith gives God’s love flesh, and this is because of what we hope for, a hope for what is reserved for us in heaven, a hope for that eternal life we long for. 

    We can check ourselves on a daily basis, to see if our hearts are open in faith to the one who is going to save. Do we trust that he will? (We may have our days where we are not so sure, but that’s on us, not on him.) When we can actually say to ourselves, yes, I believe that he did come and did save us, this then opens us to many more things in the day that would not be present otherwise. We then have the capacity to love people past our own limitations. And that is all for the hope of what he has promised. 

    You see, the love draws people to us here, and draws us to them in union. That’s the hope. As children, we tended to imagine eternal life as an individual thing: you have your own house that you furnish however you like, and that you live in, alone. That’s not heaven. (It might be hell, but it’s not heaven.). Heaven is where you are joined to everyone, perfectly. And faith in Jesus Christ each day opens our hearts to love for one another, which begins to build our hope for eternal life. 

--Adapted (slightly) from Fr. Pat’s homily,
Wednesday, September 6, 2023 

Image source: Simon O’Rourke, Giant Hand of Vyrnwy, Lake Vyrnwy, Wales, https://paulcoletravels.com/2020/12/31/the-real-life-giant-hidden-in-the-welsh-woods/
Quotation source

A humble but courageous witness (Pope Francis)

   The witness of John the Baptist helps us to go forward in our witness of life. The purity of his proclamation, his courage in proclaiming the truth were able to reawaken the expectation and hope in the Messiah that had long been dormant. Today too, Jesus’ disciples are called to be his humble but courageous witnesses in order to rekindle hope, to make it understood that, despite everything, the Kingdom of God continues to be built day by day with the power of the Holy Spirit. 

--Pope Francis, August 29, 2023 

Image source: Annibale Carracci, Saint John the Baptist in a landscape pointing at the figure of Christ (oil on copper), https://www.artnet.com/artists/annibale-carracci/saint-john-the-baptist-in-a-landscape-pointing-at-jJPo5fKYSMmPdcL7qeJ2pA2

In heaven (St. Anselm of Canterbury)

   No one will have any other desire in heaven than what God wills; and the desire of one will be the desire of all; and the desire of all and of each one will also be the desire of God.

--St. Anselm of Canterbury 

Image source: Hieronymus Bosch, Ascent of the Blessed (detail) (ca/ 1500–1504). https://uscatholic.org/articles/202212/what-catholics-get-wrong-about-heaven/
Quotation source

A spotless and pure abode for our Lord (Karl Adam / Joe Heschmeyer)

But all the sublimity of Mary’s moral personality,
all the depth of her virginal devotion,
and all the strength of her faith culminate
in the word which she spoke to the angel:
‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord,
be it done unto me according to thy word.’
These were no common, everyday words…
They were words out of the depths and recesses of a soul
that was pure and noble beyond all earthly measure,
words that were her being, her expression, her achievement… 

– Karl Adam 

    The Virgin Mary is given more graces than any creature in history, because she has the most special and unique role, as the hinge of the Incarnation, the woman from whom Jesus Christ takes flesh, the woman who conceives, bears, births, and raises Jesus Christ, mothering him, serving him, and following him even to the cross. For nine months, she was his sanctuary and his earthly Temple. 

   God preserves her from sin, so that the Ark of the New Covenant will be a spotless and pure abode for our Lord. In exchange for the much that she has been given, much is expected. This is fulfilled in her ready responsiveness to Christ, but it doesn’t stop with the end of her earthly life. After all, the Virgin Mary is given to the world for all of us, because she’s given to the world for the sake of Jesus’ mission. And that mission is ongoing. So it is because God chose Mary from all eternity, purified her, and brought about the Incarnation (and our subsequent salvation) through her free cooperation that we can count on her to continue to give freely and generously from the wealth of graces which she has received. Santa Maria, Immaculata, ora pro nobis! 

--Joe Heschmeyer

Today is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary! 

Image source: Master of 1456, Madonna on a Crescent Moon (15th c.), https://catholicstrength.com/2016/12/06/the-biblical-basis-for-marys-immaculate-conception/

Quotation source 1
Quotation source 2

Sunday Gospel Reflection, December 10, 2023: What sort of persons ought you to be?

What sort of persons ought you to be?

What do we do while we’re waiting for the fullness of the kingdom? 

    It was constantly startling for people to realize that, no matter how badly they understood God’s plan (and acted on that misunderstanding), God was always there waiting for them on the other end of history, ready to see God’s plan through God’s way, no matter the timeline the people might have imagined. The prophet Isaiah gives voice to the comfort God offers to God’s people: speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end. Their return home will be triumphal, with valleys filled and mountains made low, so that the glory of the Lord might be revealed. The people of Israel are ready to be restored to their own land, and to recognize the power of the Lord God in their midst, a power that is given expression, as Psalm 85 assures us, in the form of God’s kindness and truth and justice enveloping the people completely. They must open, however, and listen: I will hear what God proclaims, the psalmist says. Openness to the Lord is essential to restoration, and to salvation. 

    John the Baptist would similarly assure the people of his time of the imminent coming of the Messiah: One mightier than I is coming after me; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit, John proclaims in Mark’s Gospel. How can the people prepare the way of the Lord? They must open themselves to God, letting go of all that stands in the way of his coming, all that might obstruct their view. The people, who have hoped for a Messiah, can start with a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, for sin is precisely what keeps us from being open to the Lord. And long after Jesus’ death and rising, the early Christian community still struggled; this time, it was the Lord’s second coming that they longed for. No one knows when that day will come, the Second Letter of Peter reminds them, for the day of the Lord will come like a thief. To prepare, they must conduct themselves in holiness and devotion, living for the promise that is theirs. 

   Like the people of Peter’s time, we are not yet ready for the fullness of the kingdom, but how we behave in this life is an expression of our participation in that kingdom here and now. We too await new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. But we need not worry, for the Lord is patient with us, and God will see God’s plan through when we are ready, when we are all, as one, fully open to his love. Then, kindness and truth shall meet; justice and peace shall kiss, for all will be joined in that eternal, perfect union – without obstacles or barriers – that is heaven. 

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

The meaning of these Advent days (St. Bernard of Clairvaux)

    Steep yourselves in the meaning of these Advent days. And above all, pay heed to him who is approaching; think whence he comes and whither it is he advances; consider his purpose in coming, the ripeness of the times, the route he may choose for his approach… The Universal Church would not celebrate this Advent time with such solemnity of devotion did it not contain within it some great mystery. 

--St. Bernard of Clairvaux 

Image source: Neapolitan Crèche, Art Institute of Chicago. For an Advent calendar based on this image, visit: https://shop.artic.edu/products/140036. See also: https://enfilade18thc.com/2015/11/29/exhibition-neapolitan-creche-at-the-art-institute-of-chicago/
Quotation source

O come, o come, Emmanuel (Rev. Tish Harrison Warren)

   In church, congregants sing a well-known Advent hymn that begins, “O come, o come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel.” We recall that we require ransom and rescue. Another year has gone by and we still live in a world in need of mending. We have learned anew through these long years that a virus can suddenly change our lives, that our illusions of control and predictability are fragile and faulty, that lies are often mistaken as truth, that we cannot keep ourselves or those we love from pain, that the wreckage of poverty, injustice and darkness persist. This is the very world of heartbreak, Christians say each year, into which Christ came and will come again. 

--Rev. Tish Harrison Warren 

Image source: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/christmas-carols-o-come-o-come-emmanuel
Quotation source

Jesus chose to name you (Fr. Malcolm Guite)

In honor of the 41st Anniversary of our pastor Fr. Pat’s ordination to the priesthood, we share Fr. Malcolm Guite’s sonnet entitled, “St. Peter,” written for the 30th anniversary of his own “priesting.” 

Impulsive master of misunderstanding

You comfort me with all your big mistakes;

Jumping the ship before you make the landing,

Placing the bet before you know the stakes.

I love the way you step out without knowing,

The way you sometimes speak before you think,

The way your broken faith is always growing,

The way he holds you even when you sink.

Born to a world that always tried to shame you,

Your shaky ego vulnerable to shame,

I love the way that Jesus chose to name you,

Before you knew how to deserve that name.

And in the end your Saviour let you prove

That each denial is undone by love. 

Best wishes on your anniversary, Fr. Pat!

We are so grateful for your vocation, your faith,

and your incredible service to our parish! 

Image source 1: El Greco, Apostle St. Peter (ca.1610-1614), https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/El_Greco_-_St._Peter_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Image source 2: Fr. Pat during his sabbatical, 2022, https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2217052465143602&set=pb.100005166090077.-2207520000&type=3

Poem source

Open, free, flexible, receptive (Henri Nouwen)

    “In the beginner’s mind there is no thought ‘I have attained something.’ All self-centered thoughts limit our vast mind. When we have no thought of achievement, no thought of self, we are true beginners. Then we can really learn something. The beginner’s mind is the mind of compassion. When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless.” 

    I like these words. Also very important for Advent. Open, free, flexible, receptive. That is the attitude that makes us ready. I realize that in Zen you are not expecting anything or anyone. Still, it seems that all the things Shunryu Suzuki tells his students are important for Christians to hear and realize. Isn’t a beginner’s mind, a mind without the thought “I have attained something,” a mind opened for grace? Isn’t that the mind of children who marvel at all they see? Isn’t that the mind not filled with worries for tomorrow but alert and awake in the present moment? 

--Henri Nouwen, quoting (¶1) Shunryu Suzuki 

Image source: https://www.musikalessons.com/blog/2016/03/suzuki-violin-balanced-approach/
Quotation source

The fullness of Advent (Hans Urs von Balthasar)

    It’s always Advent until our life’s end on the earth, always Christmas in the hiddenness of heaven… So let us hold on patiently in the darkness, in the blessed fullness of our Advent. 

--Hans Urs von Balthasar,

You Crown the Year with Your Goodness

Image source 1: Marsha Kirschbaum, Abbott’s Lagoon, Point Reyes National Seashore, https://marinmagazine.com/explore/outdoors/going-stargazing-experience-the-wonders-of-marins-night-sky-this-fall/ 

Image source 2: https://aleteia.org/2016/11/26/preparing-for-the-light-of-christmas-in-the-darkness-of-advent/