Dec 25, 2021

Readings:
Sirach 3:2–6, 12–14
Psalm 128:1–5
Colossians 3:12–21
Luke 2:41–52

Why did Jesus choose to become a baby born of a mother and father and to spend all but His last years living in an ordinary human family? In part, to reveal God’s plan to make all people live as one “holy family” in His Church...

Dec 18, 2021

Readings:
Micah 5:1–4
Psalm 80:2–3, 15–16, 18–19
Hebrews 5:5–10
Luke 1:39–45

On this last Sunday before Christmas, the Church’s Liturgy reveals the true identity of our Redeemer:

He is, as today’s First Reading says, the “ruler . . . whose origin is from . . . ancient times.” He will come from...

Dec 4, 2021

Readings:
Baruch 5:1–9
Psalm 126:1–6
Philippians 1:4–6, 8–11
Luke 3:1–6

Today’s Psalm paints a dreamlike scene—a road filled with liberated captives heading home to Zion (Jerusalem), mouths filled with laughter, tongues rejoicing.

It’s a glorious picture from Israel’s past, a “new exodus,”...

Nov 27, 2021

Readings:
Jeremiah 33:14-16
Psalm 25:4-5,8-10,14
1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2
Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

Every Advent, the Liturgy of the Word gives our sense of time a reorientation. There’s a deliberate tension in the next four weeks’ readings—between promise and fulfillment, expectation and deliverance, between looking...

Nov 20, 2021

Daniel 7:13-14
Psalm 93:1-2,5
Revelation 1:5-8
John 18:33-37

What’s the truth Jesus comes to bear witness to in this last Gospel of the Church’s year?

It’s the truth that in Jesus God keeps the promise He made to David of an everlasting kingdom, of an heir who would be His Son, “the first born, highest of the...