As we continue our journey through Advent, the feast days continually celebrate great Saints who exemplify what it means for Christ to be born in our hearts. Today’s Saint, Juan Diego, was the man chosen by Mary to bring her message to the people of Mexico. What was it aboutContinue Reading
In the Gospel for today’s feast, we have the story of the Annunciation. Some people often mistake today’s feast with being about that story, that the immaculate conception is about Jesus being conceived in the womb of Mary. The Church does an interesting thing with dates though, it logically setsContinue Reading
As I was meditating on this gospel reading about mountains and valleys, I was reminded of a game we used to play as children. I grew up in the mountains of Virginia, and we would play “king of the mountain.” Whether from the top of a stack of hay, aContinue Reading
As I was meditating on the first reading, a particular verse kept catching my attention. This intriguing statement about the veil: “On this mountain, he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, The web that is woven over all nations.” That’s intriguing to me. Both readings have a EucharisticContinue Reading
Do you know who you are? I mean do you really know it? Sometimes we walk around defeated. We allow anxiety to fill our lives with dread and a sense of hopelessness. Why me? What is all of this for? In the Gospel it talks about a time of tribulations,Continue Reading
We often think of the Pilgrims and the Indians and a big turkey when we think of Thanksgiving. That event happened in the 1600s. But there was an earlier one, an earlier thanksgiving, that doesn’t get as much attention. In 1565, 50 years before the Plymouth Rock feast, there wasContinue Reading
I love puns and wordplay. Poetry and prose. The way skillful writers can take words and make them dance and become pregnant with meaning. Today’s first reading is full of them. One of them begins with a saying we know pretty well. When we see that clearly, something terrible isContinue Reading