The Incarnation and the Family

Readings for December 29, 2013: Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph Every year right after Christmas, we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family. There is an important reason for this. It’s easy to think the…

Sobering Thoughts for the New Year

After great anticipation, preparation and perhaps a few tears…Christmas day is over. We can now sit for a bit, catch our breath, and reflect back on the joy we have just shared. While you sit back and relax, let me…

Tiny Heart, Whose Blood Will Save Us

Merry Christmas, everyone! It’s Christmas, the season when we remember the birth of our Lord.  He came into this world and we are filled with joy!  We remember the words of the angels: Gloria in excelsis Deo!  How happy are…

Action, Intention, and the Incarnation

Does what I do matter? We are now celebrating the Feast of the Incarnation.  It is the mystery of God become Man – Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man. This mystery is so immense that it took several centuries…

The Deeper Meaning of Christmas

Readings for December 25, 2013: Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas) In the days of Caesar Augustus, an era of peace was established in the Mediterranean world after centuries of strife.  But this peace was forged by the…

Your Unspeakable Kin

Who’s yours?  You know, the relative, distant or near, who is an unending source of embarrassment or shame for “the family”? Everybody’s got one, maybe two.  The great, great, great uncle who was a horse thief, the cousin twice removed…

Evangelizing with St. Nicholas

One of the challenges in the parish where I work is families seeing the value in coming together with other families and doing something for others.   I have tried a few things in the past and they were not very…

The Christmas Story’s Best Supporting Actor

Readings for December 22, 2013: Fourth Sunday of Advent In the drama of the incarnation, Jesus is, of course, the star.  That’s the way it is at every birth.  All eyes are on the baby.  The co-star, though, is definitely…

Santa and the Baptizer

Advent is the season of preparation. Four weeks of tending our spiritual house, cleaning our spiritual closets, and dusting off our commitment to our faith in anticipation of Christmas. Christmas, the day we celebrate in Christ’s birth. We celebrate because…

The ART of Giving: Samples of the ARTwork

The Art of Giving donation opportunity to help needy children is still  going on. My two daughters contributed artwork for the cause and I thought I would share them with you here. Here is Katie’s drawing of St. Joseph with…