“The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.” These words from today’s gospel touched something deep within me. Recently I have felt like many of us are people sitting in darkness. We are tired and worn and it is often easier to see what is getting worse than it is to see what is getting better. Day after day the news is full of stories of deterioration, of systems we depend on that are hovering near the ...
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All four gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, have their own version of Jesus being baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s rendition of the story, a voice from heaven—the voice of God—says to the crowd, “This is my beloved Son,” or Jesus himself hears the voice say, “You are my beloved Son.” The version we heard today, from John’s Gospel, is not a story about Jesus or the crowd hearing the voice of God, but ...
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My brother-in-law prefers to celebrate his “birthday” in AA to celebrating his traditional birthday. His last one was his 35th. Most of us just celebrate one birthday. Shortly before that day our mother knew what was about to happen when her water broke. That is the “water” that is involved in the ceremony of Baptism. In my childhood catechism some 70 years ago, the element of water was for cleansing Original Sin and restoring an individual relationship with God. St. ...
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When I hear the word Epiphany, I automatically think of the Feast of Epiphany, the story of the Wisemen who came from the East to seek and to pay homage to the newborn king, Jesus. In secular terms, the word epiphany means a moment of sudden revelation or insight. We’ve all had epiphanies of one kind or another. (One day you looked in the mirror and realized you weren’t 22 anymore and had lost the ability to turn people’s heads. ...
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When I was a child our Christmas tree went up either on or just before December 24th, and came down January 6th, a day referred to by my parents as Old Christmas Day. Likely unbeknownst to them, my parents were in sync with the rhythm of the Church in their preparation for, and celebration of, Christmas. Despite the fact that the coloured lights that have graced our communities for most of December (or longer) have, mainly, been extinguished, for the ...
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Christmas has changed significantly for me since I was old enough to remember Christmases. One Christmas Eve when I was three or four years old, I recall driving from Musquash to Saint John in the middle of a snowstorm to attend mass, imagining I was Santa Claus flying through the snowy night sky. To adult me, this would represent a harrowing, steering-wheel clenched fiasco, but the four year-old in me remembers it as magical.
I have another distinct memory of one ...
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That very first Christmas has a little bit of detective work built into it. It’s not a “who did it?” as much as it is a treasure hunt. The treasure is, obviously, Jesus. He is not playing hard-to-get, but the shepherds still have to unravel the clues the Angel of the Lord gave them if they are to find the Messiah. At this point, they don’t know that their lives and the life of the world will be forever changed. ...
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The traditional Christmas, as I remember, was very family focused when I grew up. Christmas was for children when Santa came once a year, bringing toys for boys and girls to play with and to be happy. It was a very peaceful and joyous time.
As time went on, it became that gift exchanging was a tradition, gifts were giving to everyone in the family and to your friends. We also started to expect gifts from family and friends. Gifts were expected and who would ...
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Once again, the first reading is interesting. The Prophet Isaiah has something to offer us on our faith journey, but like all Old Testament readings, this reading needs some explaining, some context.
It’s a story about Ahaz, the king of Judah, and it take place about 730 years before the birth of Jesus. Israel to the north and Judah to the south (where Ahaz is king) are sister countries. Between these two countries is where you find God’s Chosen People, the Jews, living. The archenemy ...
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(This reflection comes from Sr. Ilia Delio a Franciscan sister, a scientist, a theologian, and one of the great spiritual minds of our time. I don’t dare redact a single word. Enjoy.) Fr. Phil
We moderns love Christmas with all the lights, gifts and good cheer of friends and family. It has become, in a sense, the ‘Feast of Relational Holism.’ To celebrate Christmas is to share life with another, for that is what God has done, shared divine life with created ...
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