Pray To God Today

One of the hardest things to define is what makes a family a family and who belongs in it? Is it your relatives by blood? Your friends who you choose? Your immediate family? Your community? There are many definitions of what a family is and how people identify to and with a particular family. Yet, each family will have its fun and laughter, unique traditions, its sufferings and fights, its deaths and births. The Holy Family is of no exception. From the very get-go of the family, they were faced with struggles and suffering, with joys and surprises. They are a family that experienced much that you and yours experience too.   They were a family who’s lives were marked by; great surprises, and tribulations. Visited by shepherds and magi, being refugees to be safe from evil and killings. The Holy Family had a rough start. However, we find the key to their holiness written in the letter from St. Paul today. In writing his letter to the community in Colossal, St. Paul writes t...

It is pretty amazing as Catholics to celebrate Christmas. We remember that the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the King of Kings, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace came down from heaven and became a human child.  “The time came…” the Gospel says, for the long expected king of the world to take on human flesh. So often we forget that our faith is rooted in that little child born in a manger over 2000 years ago and not based merely on some philosophical idea. We have a faith rooted in a historical event in which salvation took on flesh. Today, as we remember Christ being born in that manger, we must recall too that in doing so, he experienced  the full human experience. He was born, dependent on others, crying and hungry. In his life he experienced pain and happiness, friendship and betrayal, loneliness and inclusion.  He shared our journey; he experienced the joys and the darkness that is in the world. But he came to dispel that darkness, that sin and des...

Every year I always find I get the song, ‘ White Christmas’ stuck in my head, especially the jazzy version done by Michael Bublé. Of course this wonderful song rings all the louder in my head as the snow gently falls on a cold winters day. For me, it simply wouldn’t be Christmas without the snow on the ground and being frozen to my core. I am always dreaming of a ‘white Christmas’, and the wonderful time of year it is.      As we celebrate the fourth Sunday of Advent, we are focused on the role, response, and figure of Joseph. Here is a man who has not a single word spoken in the entire bible, who works as the silent protector of the Son of God. In todays gospel, Joseph had decided to divorce Mary, since she was with a child that was easily known not to be his. Divorce in that time was as easy as writing a note and presenting it to the woman's father. As he had just made up his mind, an angel of the lord intervened in a dream and changed his life.      ...

Th e season of Advent is that four week journey in which we remember the threefold coming of Christ. We look to the past, and are reminded of the physical reality of his birth– that our faith is rooted in reality and not some philosophical ideology. We look forward to the future with the second coming at the end of days, when the promise of the risen Lord is fulfilled. Finally, we look to the present moment, when gathered as a community of faith, Christ becomes truly present in the Bread and Wine we eat and drink. The Gospel for the second and third Sunday of Advent is always about John the Baptist and his essential role to “make straight the path” before the Lord comes. The first reading offers us a description of the Lord who comes, he is the one who has wisdom and understanding, who has the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the power of bringing fear of the lord. He is the mighty one, the righteous one, the peaceful one. He is the king of the universe who c...

As we enter the final week of the semester assignment and essay due dates are just around the corner. It becomes a hectic time of the year in which it seems like we quickly run our of time for everything. And so all our assignments, essays and studying happens the night before the due date or exam day. Today we begin a new year in the church. We will begin to hear proclamations from the Gospel of Matthew. Written for a Jewish community around 85 AD, the Gospel of Matthew situates Jesus in line with the great prophets of the past, especially Moses. Today, we hear Jesus speaking of the unexpected events of old and of the future. The  great flood, he reminds the disciples, was unexpected by the people of the age.  Noah, the great man of God, was made known of it, and built the boat. So to, the second coming of Christ is unexpected– it will catch us off guard and we will only realize it while it happens. As we wait for the second coming, the Gospel tells us,  we should b...

Today, on the last Sunday of the liturgical year, we celebrate the great solemnity of Jesus Christ, the King of the universe. As the year draws to a close and we begin advent next weekend, we are reminded again that it is truly Christ who is in charge. Everything in this universe is under the power of our just and loving God and there is nothing stronger or more powerful than our king, not even death. On first glance it is rather peculiar as to why the church has for today's feast the Gospel of the crucified Christ speaking those lovely words, “ Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” But it is precisely on that cross that Christ establishes his kingship and performs the ultimate act of sacrifice for our salvation. On that cross he humbly gave of himself for each and everyone of us, while also forgiving those who have put him to death. His is a kingdom of forgiveness and of self-sacrifice. His is a kingdom of love, of unification and a place of eternal dwelling...

As we get closer and closer to the end of the Liturgical year, the Gospels begin to focus on the end of times, the Second Coming of Jesus. Today, Jesus highlights some pretty tragic and unfortunate events that are to come, some of which are not unlike the natural disasters and wars that many have tangible experience of today. But among all the fights, disasters and plagues, Jesus highlights one important thing, “This will give you an opportunity to testify.. [of] the words and wisdom which I give you.” As Catholics this is the core of who we are; to proclaim Christ to the nations. Today is World Day of the Poor. In the letter he wrote highlighting the theme of this year’s day, Pope Francis wrote, “If the disciples of the Lord Jesus wish to be genuine evangelizers , they must sow tangible seeds of hope.” The central message of Jesus is one of hope, and this is a hope that we all know and believe in as disciples. Our mission then is to offer this hope, to others and not keep it to ours...

I was talking to a non-churched friend the other day and as we talked religion, the reality of heaven came up. At one point, he looked at me and said, “But heaven is simply just earth, with a little sprinkles on top! What good is that?!” Ever since that conversation I haven’t stopped thinking about how this couldn’t be further from the truth.      As Catholics, November is a month where we remember all the faithful departed. We began the month with All Souls Day, but that same solemnity and prayerfulness should be carried out throughout the entire month. As we go about our lives this month, we are called to pray for those who have died, remember them, and pray that God may open the gates of paradise for them. This time of year is also a great reminder for all of us of the most important belief of our faith– the resurrection of the dead and life with God in heaven. As Catholics we know that we will be with our God, in a perfect harmony when our earthly existence is don...

To fully understand today’s Gospel, one should go and reread Luke 18: 18-23. The story of Zacchaeus which we hear today is to contrast that rich man who had kept all the precepts of the faith, but would not give up his possessions to follow the way Jesus was establishing.  Today we hear of Zacchaeus, a tax-collector, who had a particular interest in Jesus, just like that rich man in Luke 18.  However the difference between the two men lies in the fact that Zacchaeus was willing to give everything for Christ.  In the eyes of the world, Zacchaeus was a sinner, a thief who charged more money than needed so he could gain from it.  He was a man who was seen as a ‘traitor’ since he worked for the Romans, who were the Jewish captors.  But we see that in order to follow Christ, Zacchaeus does just the opposite. He is willing to be selfless, to be detached from money and material possessions so that he can be attached to the author of our salvation. He was not your ...

     In today’s Gospel we hear the proud Pharisee pray, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” In his prayer he compares himself to many other people and contrasts himself with all the great things he has done. This Pharisee was obsessed with finding his self-worth in comparing his life to others. He had a higher standing, so he thought, because he was supposedly more faithful than everyone else. In comparing ourselves to others, we lose who we truly are. We become so focused on others, on their lives, and we become egotistic.      To contrast this attitude, Jesus presents us with the example of the same tax collector mentioned above, who was so ashamed of his sins that he could only muster up the words, “ God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” He had come to God in prayer, not in pride and self-acclamation, but in being wh...