During Advent and Christmastide, which continues until the Baptism of the Lord, the Liturgy of the Church is rich with some of the most powerful readings of the year regarding the Incarnation, the plan of God to save man. For example, Pope St. Leo the Great writes a...
O come, Thou Wisdom from on high, Who orderest all things mightily; To us the path of knowledge show, And teach us in her ways to go. As we spoke of in the previous post, the cry of the ages was for a Redeemer to come and save us. The book of Sirach Chapter 24...
On December 8, 2020, on the feast of the immaculate conception, His Holiness, Pope Francis, issued an apostolic letter entitled Patris Corde. The Holy Father writes that “the aim of this Apostolic Letter is to increase our love for this great saint, to encourage us...
In his recent Apostolic Letter, Patris corde, Pope Francis told us, "God always finds a way to save us, provided we show the same creative courage as the carpenter of Nazareth, who was able to turn a problem into a possibility by trusting always in divine providence."...
Soaring numbers of cases of coronavirus, conflicts, and so many other problems, should we wonder if this is the end of the world? In the presentation (available here) by scripture scholar, Sister Anna Marie McGuan, RSM, the question of the end times is explored...
"You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand…Unless I wash you, you have no part with me."[i] “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God, and was going back to God, rose from...
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”[i] “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on...
The Liturgies of Advent, including the music, ring with the theme of staying awaking and watchful, ever ready to respond to the voice of the Bridegroom who is coming. In 1731, Bach wrote this cantata for the Mass for the 27th Sunday after Trinity. The cantata has...
Come Lord and help your people, bought with the price of your own blood, and bring us with your saints to glory everlasting.[i] In our last post, we wrote about the importance of recovering the capacity to see. With the philosopher Josef Pieper we considered the...
“Because this coming lies between the other two, it is like a road on which we travel from the first coming to the last…” We glean this line from the Office of Readings for Wednesday from the first week of Advent. Saint Bernard speaks about the “three comings of...