I have no real problem calling this gospel passage of Jesus’ 40 days in the desert by what Christians have called it for a very long time–“the temptations of Christ.” The devil, whatever you image that to be, is portrayed as the culprit, the one who enticed Jesus into sin then and the one who entices us into sin now. It’s much like the snake in the Genesis story we just heard. The snake is the antagonist who lured Adam ...
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In the secular world, we celebrate New Year’s on January 1st, but from a liturgical point of view, the first Sunday of Advent is the beginning of a new Church year. We say “good-bye” and “thank you” to the gospel writer Luke who has been our guide for the past year, and we buckle ourselves in and allow gospel writer Matthew to be our pilot for this new year.
The new liturgical year begins much in the same way as the ...
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About 25 years ago, I took up the hobby of stained glass making. The first thing I attempted to make, with my new-found hobby, was the “comedy and tragedy” masks you have probably all seen. It’s a laughing face alongside a frowning face based on ancient Greek theatre. It’s called “comedy and tragedy,” but my first attempt at stained glass was so bad, I named my creation, “tragedy and more tragedy.” However, I didn’t give up. Nothing I make, in ...
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Back in 2008, I remember being on a retreat in the foothills of California. Before being sent off to spend 8 hours by ourselves in nature, we were given a few instructions the night before. Since this was supposed to be solitary time, we were to go far enough into the forest and mountains that we couldn’t see another person. We were to draw a circle in the dirt with the heel of our shoe or with a stick, and ...
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What Advent Offers Us
We blinked, and it happened. The year has ended, and a new one begun, because for the Church, the arrival of the season of Advent marks the beginning of the new liturgical year. The Church asks that we live Advent in anticipation of and preparation for the arrival of the Christ child, born again as the Child in the Manger, even as we know Christ is with us now, even as we continue to await Christ’s second ...
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I remember being at a talk 30 years ago, given by John Shea, who was invited to speak at St. Paul’s University in Ottawa. John Shea is a theologian from Chicago, and the best storyteller I have ever heard. One of the things he said–and for some reason I remembered it 30 years later–was, “The key to gospel spirituality is not to look at Jesus but to look with Jesus. You’ll learn very little, if anything at all, by looking ...
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