Exploring the depth of our prayers
We’re entering our time of repentance, reflection, and renewal.
Seems like a lot of “re-” – right?
That’s because life runs in cycles. How wonderful that the Church understands this and runs her years in the same way!
Continue reading “Banished children of Eve”
When the days were completed for their purification
Luke 2:22
according to the law of Moses,
Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord.
Today I am reminded that Jesus Christ was a living, breathing person. Starting as a baby, later blossoming into our guide, prophet, model, and savior.
Perhaps that gives me hope for my own life, right? Because there sure are days when I feel hope is a far stretch.
I don’t remember my own baptism, since I was just an infant.
But I do ponder this miraculous event which binds me forever to my God.
The experience of Jesus was a bit different, being baptized at the beginning of his ministry. But indeed, that bound Him forever to the will of His Father.
Continue reading “Baptism of the Lord”
What a great celebration we have today!
Brothers and sisters:
Galatians 4:4
When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son,
born of a woman, born under the law,
to ransom those under the law,
so that we might receive adoption as sons.
What kind of God comes is incarnated as the child of a human? Well, our God.
Continue reading “Mary, the Mother of God”
Catholics tend to focus so much on Jesus and Mary that we forget the holiness of the family unit. But in fact, the family is the foundation of the Church and society at large.
It breaks my heart to see the diminishing of families through divorce and avoiding children. It feels like we’re destroying the purpose of being human.
So today we celebrate the Holy Family, and indeed, all families.
Continue reading “The Holy Family”
Today our God comes to join us here on earth, in human form.
Sure, God’s always with us, never separated. But since He’s invisible to our eyes, it can be tough to have a real relationship.
So God chose to join us at a particular time and place. Because He wanted to make it easier for us to understand the message.
Continue reading “He was born of the Virgin Mary”
I have no Hispanic background, so I wasn’t that aware of this amazing Feast we are blessed with today.
We’re commemorating the 1531 appearance of Our Lady to a peasant named Juan Diego in Mexico. Juan was sent to a place where roses were blooming – in the middle of winter – to gather them up and show them to his bishop.
Here is more of the amazing story.
Continue reading “Our Lady of Guadalupe”
I never knew that much about Our Lady of Loreto, so it was fascinating to learn about this new celebration just recently announced by Pope Francis. Squeezed in between the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (Dec 8) and Our Lady of Guadalupe (Dec 12), I’m getting the feeling that this first half of Advent is trying to remind us of the amazing role of Mary in our redemption.
It’s a pretty amazing story.
In the early church, people revered the house in which Mary was raised. It’s believed to be where she gave her fiat to Jesus’ conception, then lived with Joseph.
Continue reading “Our Lady of Loreto”
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception seems to throw off a lot of people. We understand that Jesus was conceived in a totally special and unique way, yet this isn’t about Jesus.
It’s about Mary!
Created as the Ark of the New Covenant, Mary was given this special blessing from the moment of HER conception.
Continue reading “Mary’s Immaculate Conception”
Today’s celebration is officially The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.
I think that Americans in particular are a bit uncomfortable with such grandiosity. After all, we rejected the rule of a King nearly 250 years ago!
And we certainly we didn’t want to form a new country under a king or queen! No, just a temporary presider … a president.
Continue reading “Christ, our King”