Today is the First Monday in Ordinary Time. A beginning, but not one that we really celebrate. Compared to the intensity of Advent—the color changes, the music, the familiar sermons about taking time for Advent—or the outright and overflowing joy…
Waiting for the Next Big Thing
Catholic Pop Culture of 2013
There are many vulgar and immoral things in today’s popular culture. As a good friend of mine said, “Television today is a moral cesspool.” I therefore understand the impulse and reaction of many who choose not to spend their free…
Pressed into Service
”Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles,” (Matthew 5:41). Your son comes home from his first day of Early Childhood all excited, “Guess what, Mommy, we get to go on all the…
Micro-Evangelization
A new year brings with it a chance to reflect on what went well in the past and what can be better in the future. If our goal is to evangelize our culture, how can we do it better than…
A Face Like Jesus’
In our face we can see the life we or others have lived. We might be able to tell if one has lived a faithful or a faithless existence. How much of a reflection of Christ are we to others? …
The Challenge of Evangelization
Last week on Christmas Eve my husband, young son, and I were on the road driving across Maryland to visit family. This meant that we were passing through the Baltimore area right about the time when Christmas Eve Masses begin,…
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…
Come to Me
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened. (Matthew 11:28) This Advent has provided me with a unique opportunity. While the world has been frantically focusing on shopping, decorating, and pushing the Christmas season out of the door…
What I Learned from the Year of Faith
The Year of Faith officially ended with coming of Advent this year. It was brought to us by Pope Benedict XVI and was a communal reflection for the whole Catholic Church. It was an opportunity for spiritual renewal, particularly in…
Receiving the Gift of Advent
Thanks to a quirk in the calendar, the season of Advent is now well underway. Hopefully we’ve have not broken our promises to ourselves to spend less time stressing about all the things we have to do, and spent more…