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The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph
Today’s readings Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family. We know who they are, but I wonder if we can relate? I wonder if we can wrap our minds around what this feast calls us to, namely, the holiness of all of our families, whatever those families may look like. There are all…
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Holy Innocents, Martyrs
Today’s readings Right here in the middle of the joy of the Christmas Octave, we have the feast of what seems to be an incredibly horrible event. All of the male children in the vicinity of Bethlehem two years old and younger are murdered by the jealous and, quite frankly, rather pathetic Herod. But not…
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The Nativity of the Lord: Mass During the Day
Today’s readings All during Advent, we have been yearning for the light. Advent reminds us that the world can sometimes be a very dark place, that war and terrorism and crime and disease and sin and death can really give us a beating, that very often we experience life much differently than God intended us to,…
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The Nativity of the Lord: Mass During the Night
Today’s readings We’ve all had the experience of being in a dark room, probably at night, and turning on a light. It’s blinding until we get used to it. There’s even a scene in the movie, Christmas Vacation, when Clark finally gets the Christmas lights to work and it’s so blinding that his neighbors, who have been…
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The Nativity of the Lord: Vigil Mass
Today’s readings Nazareth was a sleepy little town in the region of Galilee, a vast region with lots of wilderness and, like Nazareth, a few sleepy little towns. Galilee was in the nation of Israel, one of the small nations in the Roman Empire. Israel had its own king, but he was really just someone who kept…
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O Root of Jesse
Today’s readings In these late days of Advent, we pray the “O Antiphons.” These antiphons are the various titles of Jesus as found in Scripture. Today’s antiphon is “O Root of Jesse” and it is found as the antiphon for the Canticle of Mary in Vespers: “O Flower of Jesse’s stem, you have been raised up as…
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O Wisdom
Today’s readings That was quite a list of names, wasn’t it? It always strikes me that this list of characters, which is basically the human family tree of our Lord, is so much like any of our families’ history. Forty-two generations of the pilgrim people Israel led by people of greatness, and, well, people of…
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Monday of the Third Week of Advent
Today’s readings The whole progression of Advent is one that has always captured my imagination. I see Advent as a kind of dawning of a new day. Just as the day doesn’t come all at once, so Advent progresses and we see the coming of Jesus ever more gradually as we participate in each day’s…
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The Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday)
Today’s readings Today’s readings and liturgy call us to rejoice. That’s the reason for the rose-colored vestments and the more joyful tone of today’s readings. This is called Gaudete Sunday: gaudete being Latin for “rejoice,” the first word of today’s introit or proper entrance antiphon which says: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed the Lord is near.” Today…
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Saint John of the Cross
Today’s readings Today at Mass we hear from three prophets. A prophet, of course, is a person who helps us to see God. And during Advent these prophets help us to see God coming to be born in us. And we have to admit: lots of times we don’t see God. We’re either too busy to notice God,…
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