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Almost 14 billion years ago God knew what God would give the world as a Christmas present. God’s creative genius began fashioning the universe. (God was the first to make Christmas presents and fill them with love.) In his infinite loving plan, the incarnation of Christ became one seamless process of God’s self-giving and communication…

We sing Christmas carols, attend midnight Mass, and exchange gifts, because Mary gave birth to Jesus. Because of her, God Almighty appeared on earth—and Christ will come again in all his glory when we participate in birthing the Christ. How do we do this? The universe is heading toward its fulfillment when it will become…

The letter to the Hebrews claims “a body you have prepared for me.” Billions of years ago God prepared a body for his Son by creating a universe. Then in the fullness of time God’s power in material things came to a climax in the Incarnation of Jesus. On that first Christmas night the goodness,…

There are two parts to Advent, the final part beginning on December 17 and ending on Christmas. On these days the antiphon for the Magnificat in Evening Prayer addresses Christ with the seven Messianic titles. Sometimes this second part of Advent is called the “Golden Nights.” The O Antiphons have been around since the fourth…

Today’s Second Reading tells us that the “peace of God . . . will guard [our] hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Guarding?  Isn’t that for soldiers and police? But peace guarding our hearts? In another place in Scripture we read that Christ is our peace (Micah 5:4 and Eph. 2:14). Yes, Christ guards our…

There’s a prayer tucked into today’s Second Reading at Mass for this Second Sunday of Advent:  “And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and insight.” We all know persons who are difficult to love. They live in our own houses, among our coworkers, in our communities. We…

            Let’s make Advent an Advent-ure by becoming more aware of God’s coming. One way is to consider the three M’s of Advent. The first M stands for Memory. In the four weeks of Advent we pull out the Church’s scrapbook and look at the many persons and events leading up to the coming of…

“May the Lord make you increase and abound in love” is the prayer of today’s Second Reading. What does boundless love look like? Do you see a small child running to a grandparent to encircle legs in a hug? Or an adult son or daughter caring day after day for an elderly parent shriveled with…

  On this feast of Saint Andrew we hear Jesus inviting him, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” If we are fishers of people, what is our bait and hook? What do we do and say to attract persons to Christ? I feel the answer is simply bearing the mystery…

As a kid, I liked to climb a mountain of snow and yell “I’m king!” But when no one was around to hear my yell, was I really a king?  What makes Jesus a king?  We do. After all, you can’t be a king if you don’t have followers. We just celebrated the solemnity of…