Give Your Best Gifts to Christ
Oftentimes, the very best of what I have to offer the Christ Child is not always noteworthy. Instead of gold, frankincense and myrrh, I have aspirations of self-promotion, selfishness of appeasing my desire for pleasure and comfort and negative speech and thought patterns. None of these seem appropriate for the baby.
Mirror the Love of the Holy Family
For familial love on this earth to be authentic, it ought to mirror the love of God as much as it can. Our meditation and measure for that is the Holy Family, whose feast we celebrate this weekend.
The Transforming Power of Peace
For peace to transform the world, it must transform us first. The peace of God is supernatural, and it must be formed in each individual life. As this Advent season draws to a close, consider your own transformation. Do you take time to listen to the voice of the Lord?
The Gift of Advent
We cannot remain on the surface of life. It will destroy us. We have to learn how to drink deeply of life’s wellsprings and stir up and listen to the desires God places in our hearts.
Advent: A Season of Discernment
Hearing the voice of the Lord in the distance demands action, but this isn’t only an invitation to turn away from personal choices and sins that may limit or even prevent God’s coming among us. And this turning — conversion — isn’t only about what we give up, it is really about accepting the gift that we are being offered.
What Matters Most
What is most pressing on your mind today? What is distracting you from prayer? Is what you are concerned about so important that you should let it distract you from the word of God?
The King’s Knight
What kind of a person must Francis have seen in Jesus … the one we see standing before Pilate at the beginning of his trial in today’s Gospel scene? A king ready for battle; a king worth defending with every ounce of energy until there’s nothing left. How do you see him?
Remain Vigilant for the Coming of Christ
Suffering, human failures and weakness, politicians, and even unfaithful priests are not who we are hopefully waiting for. Let us keep our hearts fixed on Christ, ready for whenever He calls, in the big moments of our lives, but most especially in the small hidden moments.
Something to Give, Everything to Trust
How easy to focus our concerns on the mighty and the games they play. How easy, too, for those in power to have inflated senses of their identity and role. Our eyes, our Lord recommends, ought to fall elsewhere.
We Are Companions on the Journey
If we look into the eyes of someone we only know as a fellow journey-person, brother, or sister in faith, what do we see, who do we see? There is a profound story beneath those eyes and in their soul.
Bounded by Our Spiritual Blindness
When we open ourselves to God’s grace, we can be healed of that blindness of spirit that sometimes prevents us from following Jesus with freedom and joy, which is an important part of discipleship.
Saving the World Through the Powerless
Jesus embraced a path of powerlessness. Although he is all-powerful, he came to conquer us not by force of arms but by the power of love and forgiveness.