As the final hours of the year slip quietly toward midnight, something in us naturally slows down. This moment—this “hour”—has a way of gathering up everything that came before it: the joys and the disappointments, the surprises and the sorrows, the ordinary days that passed almost unnoticed. It invites us to look back with honesty and to look forward with hope.
Continue reading “A Moment to Pause, Give Thanks, and Begin Again”
Remember Your Dignity: A New Year Invitation
As we stand at the threshold of a new year, the Church offers us a quiet but powerful reminder, we are not who we once were. In Christ, we have been brought from death to life, from darkness into light, from old ways into a new creation. This is not poetic exaggeration—it is the deepest truth about us.
Continue reading “Your New Year Invitation”
A few days after Christmas, when the wrapping is gone and the house grows quieter, the mystery begins to deepen. As Catholics, we don’t rush past this moment. We linger. The Christmas Season stretches before us like a long inhale—from the Nativity through the Epiphany and into the Baptism of the Lord—inviting us to keep contemplating what God has done, the promise made…the ultimate pinky promise!
Continue reading “The Promise That Still Holds”
Today we celebrate the Holy Family—Jesus, Mary, and Joseph—and remember that God chose to enter the world not through power, but through a home. Their life in Nazareth shows us that family, in all its beauty and struggle, is a sacred place where love grows and holiness takes root.
Continue reading “Creating A Holy Family”
Today the Church celebrates Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist—the one tradition remembers as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” John’s life is marked by a closeness to Christ that feels almost startling in its intimacy. He was there on the mountaintop at the Transfiguration, beholding glory. He was there in the garden at Gethsemane, keeping watch in the shadows of fear. And at the Last Supper, he rested his head upon Jesus’ breast, listening to the heartbeat of God.
Continue reading “Learning to Live Beloved”
The day after Christmas often feels quieter. The wrapping paper is gone, the house is still, and the world seems to exhale. But today’s canticle from Daniel reminds us that heaven and earth are anything but silent. Creation itself is singing.
Continue reading “When All Creation Sings”
On Christmas, Isaiah’s ancient promise feels startlingly fresh: “A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse.” Out of what looked dead, cut down, and hopeless, God brings forth new life. A tender shoot. A fragile bud. A Messiah who carries the Spirit in all its fullness—wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, holy awe.
Continue reading “When the Shoot Blossoms”
On this holy night, the Church gives us a canticle that feels like a deep breath before dawn—Philippians 2:6–11, the great hymn of Christ’s self-emptying love. It’s the story beneath every Nativity scene, the truth hidden in the quiet of Bethlehem: the eternal Word, born of the Father before time began, emptied himself for our sake.
Continue reading “The Night of Christ’s Descent”
In these final days of Advent, I keep returning to Mary’s song in Luke’s Gospel, the Magnificat, her great cry of joy and surrender. It is, in so many ways, the perfect Advent prayer. Before Jesus is born, before the shepherds arrive, before the world knows what God is doing, Mary stands in the quiet of her own hidden life and proclaims:
Continue reading “Your Magnificat: An Advent Reflection with Mary”
Advent is a season of waiting, of longing, of preparing our hearts for the coming of Christ. In the quiet rhythm of prayer, two petitions from the Liturgy of the Hours have struck me with fresh urgency:
“Bring low the mountains of our pride,
— and fill up the valleys of our weakness.
Lord, may your kingdom come.”
“Break down the wall of hatred that divides the nations,
— and make level for mankind the paths to peace.
Lord, may your kingdom come.”
Smitten With Goodness 