The green exit sign (Pope Francis / Fr. William Brown)

John the Baptist teaches us… that each of us,
through service, consistency, humility, witness of life
 – and always by God’s grace –
can be a lamp that shines and helps others
find the way on which to meet Jesus.

--Pope Francis

    About thirty years ago , I asked the seventh grade students at St. Pius School in Redwood City about the church, which was a sort of round edifice, like Our Lady of Mount Carmel. I asked the students to tell me, in their own opinion, What are some of the most important things that you see when you come into a church? Some of them said, The altar. Some of them said, The crucifix, or, the tabernacle. They mentioned things that are important to us for our faith. 

    Then one boy raised his hand and he said, For me, the most important thing is the green exit sign. And I thought, What? There was laughter among his fellow students, but he explained: At the end of the Mass, we are sent forth on mission. He didn’t say it exactly like this, but his message was, We hear words of mission and commission: Go and glorify God with your lives. Go in peace; the Mass is ended. Go and spread the Gospel by everything that you say and do. 

    So his words always come to my mind whenever I see a green exit sign in any church. That is what John the Baptist is all about, too. He is a sign pointing toward Jesus. He tells the people who come to him, I am just a voice in the desert. I’m merely a prophet. I’m pointing the way to someone who is much more important than I. He is so great, he is so central, he is so magnificent, that I’m not even worthy to untie the sandals on his feet. So don’t follow me, John the Baptist says, Follow him! 

    And when Jesus comes, when John sees him at the Jordan river, John will utter those words that we use at every Mass: Behold, the Lamb of God! Behold him who takes away the sins of the world. He does! Jesus does take away our sins. Jesus does strengthen us in holiness and comfort us and make us more like him. And then, he sends us out under that exit sign, to be his Body in the world. 

--Fr. William Brown,
OLMC, Homily, June 24, 2025

Image source: OLMC Catholic Church, https://www.facebook.com/mountcarmelmv
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To repent (Sr. Joan Chittister / St. John Climacus)

Silence frees us to learn,
to become, to reflect,
to respond, and to repent.

--Sr. Joan Chittister 

        To repent is not to look downwards at my own shortcomings, but upwards at God’s love. It is not to look backwards with self-reproach, but forward with trustfulness. It is to see not what I have failed to be, but what by the grace of Christ I might yet become. 

–St. John Climacus 

Image source: Courtney Mattison, large scale coral reef sculpture, https://www.tupeloquarterly.com/visual-art/courtney-mattison-what-will-become/
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Become a powerful agent of transformation (John O'Donohue)

   The way you look at things is not simply a private matter. Your outlook actually and concretely affects what goes on. When you give in to helplessness, you collude with despair and add to it. When you take back your power and choose to see the possibilities for healing and transformation, your creativity awakens and flows to become an active force of renewal and encouragement in the world. 

    In this way, even in your own hidden life, you can become a powerful agent of transformation in a broken, darkened world. There is a huge force field that opens when intention focuses and directs itself toward transformation. 

--John O’Donohue,
Benedictus – To Bless the Space Between Us

Image source: Horace Pippin, Holy Mountain III (1945). Look carefully at this remarkable painting. It contains some very unsettling elements. Yet it is God’s holy mountain that the artist chose to foreground. Read more here: https://artandtheology.org/2017/01/16/mlk-pippin-and-the-holy-mountain/
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, December 7, 2025: There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain!

There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain!
Are we ready for new life? 

    When, in Matthew’s Gospel, John the Baptist preaches in the desert of Judea, he attracts all kinds of interest, even though his message is not an easy one: Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!, he cries. In biblical texts, the desert is often a place of transformation, barren, yet open to new life coming forth, a place where metanoia (conversion) is possible. To repent – as those coming for baptism must learn – is to see with clear vision the sins of the past, to acknowledge the divisions one has created, to mourn them and then rise from them: only then can new life come forth from that which has been barren. 

   This world in which what seemed dead will bear fruit is clear in the beautiful poetry of the prophet Isaiah, who foretells that a shoot will sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots, a bud shall blossom -- Jesus, the Son of God. In this description of the Messianic promise, Isaiah describes a remarkable transformation, a new world where justice and faithfulness trump wickedness, and enemies can come together in peace – wolf and lamb, leopard and kid – for there shall be no harm or ruin on this holy mountain, God says. Isaiah’s message of new life is echoed in Psalm 72: Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace forever. 

    Yet this transformed world is still not ours. Paul tells the Romans that by endurance and by the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope, fostering the kind of harmony that Isaiah describes, where all can glorify God with one accord. For harmony refers, musically, to two notes sung at the same time that resonate with one another. Likewise, our reading of the Scriptures teaches us that all we do affects those around us: Welcome one another, then, Paul says, as Christ welcomed you. In our quest for new life, may we strive above all for harmony, remaining open to the transformation to which we are called during this season of Advent, heeding John’s call to repent, turning from sin to love, letting that love circumscribe our existence, and glorifying God as we do. 

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

Answering God's call (Colleen Gibson, SSJ / Sarah Probst Miller DVM)

Witnessing someone embody their true calling is unmistakable.
In a society where commitment is confounding,
answering God’s call to authenticity is an astounding act. 

In an age of uncertainty,
answering such a call is risky.
It requires the courage and vulnerability
to growing relationship with God
so that you can be and become who you are.
When all is said and done,
it means standing with Jesus
when the whole world asks “why?”
and simply and sincerely responding
“How could I not?”

--Colleen Gibson, SSJ 

The Holy Spirit cannot be stopped. 

There are times for holy noes. There are times for holy yesses. 

And I would guess each of you have experienced both where you knew that waking, taking action, and being present--or not—was absolutely, exactly where you were called. 

And you moved into that moment 

with this knowing, with this grace, 

accompanied by the Holy Spirit. 

And entered into a flow 

where you felt yourself a vessel 

through which the Holy Spirit could move and breathe and live. 

Our holy noes, our holy yesses 

equate to a life lived, 

awoken by the Divine. 

--Sarah Probst Miller, DVM

 

   Tomorrow, December 4th, Our Lady of Mount Carmel pastor Fr. Patrick Michaels will celebrate the 43rd anniversary of his Ordination to the Priesthood. As he continues on his well-earned vacation through Europe, his parishioners here in Mill Valley wish to express their profound gratitude for his manifold service to our church, to our community, to the Archdiocese of San Francisco, and to each of us individually. 

   Fr. Pat’s gifts are legendary – from the artistic, musical, and culinary, to his “golden tongue” as a homilist and his extraordinary sense of liturgy – and we are profoundly grateful that, when the Lord called him so many years ago, Fr. Pat gave a resounding Yes! Fr. Pat embodies his true calling, accompanied by the Holy Spirit, daily, giving witness to his profound faith as he reveals God’s love to our world. 

It's already December 4th in Europe, so…
Happy Anniversary, Fr. Pat!
Enjoy your vacation and come home safe and soon!
You are missed, but we know
you are in one of your happiest places on the planet. 

Image source 1: Jorge Cocco Santángelo, The Right Side (2021), available for purchase at: https://jorgecocco.com/product/the-right-side/
Image source 2: OLMC pastor, Fr. Patrick Michaels, on retreat in Assisi, November 2025. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=3105012203014286&set=pcb.3105053069676866
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True encounter with Christ (Thomas Merton)

    True encounter with Christ liberates something in us, a power we did not know we had a hope, a capacity for life, a resilience, encounter an ability to bounce back when we thought we were completely defeated, a capacity to grow and change, a power of creative transformation. 

--Thomas Merton 

Image source: https://www.oursundayvisitor.com/encountering-christ-inclusion-and-conversion/
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God is determined to make room (Natalia Imperatori-Lee)

      In the Incarnation, God, too, makes room. God is determined to make room. Room for light in the darkness. Room for joy in our sadness. Room for triumph in our defeats. Room for peace in our broken, war-torn world. God is determined to make space among the ruins for celebration, to make possible within our vulnerability a sense of safety. God is determined to make room in the darkness that surrounds us for an inextinguishable light. 

     How are we being called to make room in our lives? For forgiveness of ourselves or others? For peace amid our anxious thoughts? For justice for the most excluded among us? Are we determined like God to make room for good in this world filled with suffering? 

--Natalia Imperatori-Lee 

Image source: https://www.jesusnotjesus.org/be-kind/questioning-jesus-what-good-is-a-light-if-its-not-plugged-in
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