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In: faith, family, God, haley, Hannah, Jesus, Julie, love, Mary, moira, Mother, new, peace, sarah, year

Tomorrow is the first day of 2016.  My wife and I went to Mass tonight in celebration of Mary the Mother of God, and in thanksgiving for all the gifts and blessings that God has bestowed on us this year.  Our life has been filled with many amazing events.  GodContinue Reading

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In: 3, days, Eucharist, Father, house, Jesus, Joseph, lost, love, Mary, sacrament, temple

A Reflection on the Readings for the Feast of the Holy Family 12/27/2015 The other day I went to the school to pick up my daughter.  I stood outside waiting for her for a while.  Parent after parent left with their kids.  The parking lot was now empty.  I beganContinue Reading

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In: Advent, christ, Christmas, confession, Elijah, Eucharist, Fuller, Jesus, John, prepare, Purify, Reconciliation, Refiner, sacramental, sacraments, the, Way

It’s two days before Christmas and the story continues with more about John the Baptist and his birth.  The Old Testament reading has some interesting imagery in it though.  It talks of sending a messenger before him, to prepare the way.  Then it says the Lord will come suddenly intoContinue Reading

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In: church, court, dove, Father, fidelity, God, Jesus, life, love, lyric, mate, monogamous, pigeon, poetry, rock, song, woo, young

Tomorrow’s Gospel is a beautiful repeat of the reading for Sunday.  Though one could go on into a great deal of depth into this reading, I find myself being drawn instead to the first reading, from the beautiful and poetic Song of Songs.  One would be making a grave mistakeContinue Reading

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In: Aaron, Ark, bread, Elizabeth, High, Jesus, Joyful, Mana, Mary, mystery, overshadow, priest, Rod, rosary, visitation

Tomorrow is the last Sunday before Christmas.  The Gospel reading is a familiar scene.  Mary has travelled to see her cousin Elizabeth.  When Mary approaches Elizabeth, Elizabeth exclaims “how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”  We Catholics get a lot ofContinue Reading

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In: Advent, angel, betrothed, come, Gabriel, home, hope, Jesus, Joseph, love, Mary

Based on the readings for December 18th, Advent 2016 We have lost a sense in modern society of how important betrothal is.  In today’s society we think of engagement as simply testing the waters.   What we call engagement in modern terms is what people a couple decades ago would haveContinue Reading

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In: authority, Jesus, King, liberation, political, prophet, ruler, scepter, slave, social, staff

There is a phrase that caught my eye when looking at the readings for tomorrow’s daily Mass.  It’s a strange one to my 21st century American mind.  “The scepter shall never depart from Judah, or the mace from between his legs”  In our culture a mace is either a weaponContinue Reading