December 5/First Saturday of Advent When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few, so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” ~ Matt 9.36-38 However you…
Keeping Advent 6: Believing is Seeing
December 4/First Friday of Advent And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I can do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they said to him. Then he touched their eyes and said, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.” ~ Mt 9.28-29 When we had our house on the market a few years ago, I dreaded getting the…
Keeping Advent 5: Do the Right Thing
December 3/First Thursday of Advent Jesus said to his disciples: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” ~ Matt 7.21 How quick we are to trust in our own righteousness. We quietly congratulate ourselves on the faithfulness of our worship,…
Keeping Advent 4: The Gift of Presence
December 2/First Wednesday of Advent Moving on from there Jesus walked by the sea of Galilee, and going up onto the mountain he sat down there. Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he cured them. ~ Matt 15.29-30 A friend…
Keeping Advent 3: Wise Guys
December 1/First Tuesday of Advent “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.” ~ Luke 10.21 No matter how many times I read this passage from Luke, it always makes me feel a bit defensive. What’s wrong with…
Keeping Advent 2: Follow Me
November 30/First Monday of AdventFeast of Saint Andrew, Apostle Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ~ Matt. 4.18 On this Feast of St. Andrew, we can all produce a stack of reasons not to follow Christ — immediately or otherwise. So many of us are just hanging on as it is: trying to keep a job if we…
Keeping Advent 1: Readiness is All
November 29/First Sunday of Advent Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. ~ Mark 13.33 For many of us, the pandemic has scrambled our sense of time. The lockdowns, the straitjacket of routine, the monotony of Zoom meetings, all make it difficult to distinguish one week from another. The absence of so-called “boundary events”…
Keeping Advent to begin November 29
The Advent season is a time of hopeful waiting, as we prepare our hearts for the coming of the Christ Child. Again this year, I will be offering daily Advent reflections by email. These brief meditations are accompanied by a prayer and a link to the day’s lectionary readings. The reflections will begin Sunday, November 29 and conclude on…
Easter Tidings 7: Embracing Doubt
April 19/Sunday of Divine Mercy “My Lord and My God!” ~ Jn 20.28 None of them believed, at first. The apostles dismissed the women’s reports as “nonsense.” They gave no credence to their fellows who saw Jesus in the countryside. Even the two who walked with Christ on the road to Emmaus did not realize who he was. And then…
Easter Tidings 6: Speaking Up, Speaking Out
April 18/Saturday in the Octave of Easter Peter and John said to them in reply, “We are not able not to speak about what we have seen and heard.” ~ Acts 4.20 Living as most of us do in countries where religious freedom is taken for granted, most of us haven’t faced violence or the government-sanctioned oppression of religion as…