Daily Archives: November 22, 2021

In the background

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I have to admit I don’t give much thought to “regular flu.” I get my annual vaccination and live as I am called. “Regular” flu is just in the background of living in this modern world. Clearly the pandemic is not “in the background.” When asked when the pandemic would end, Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, replied: “It doesn’t end. We just stop caring. Or we care a lot less. I think for most people, it just fades into the background of their lives.” Continue reading →

Memorial of St. Cecilia

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Today is the feast day of St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music and musicians. She is one of the most famous of the Roman martyrs with her name being recounted in the Litany of the Saints. She is also a saint, for whom her story was passed on in oral narrative and not compiled until the fifth or sixth centuries. But not is not uncommon given the ongoing persecutions of Chrisitians in the last centuries of the Roman Empire. Continue reading →

First Sunday in Advent

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This coming Sunday is the start of a new liturgical year (Year C) and the first Sunday in Advent. The gospel is apocalyptic and seems, at first glance, an odd way to begin to run-up to Christmas. But then Advent was never meant to be a “run-up” to Christmas. The previous Sunday celebrates the Solemnity of Christ the King which portends the “age to come.” Advent is no less striking in its meaning – celebrating the two turning of the ages: the revelation of the reign of God and the birth of the Messiah. It is apocalyptic, but it also is a call to vigilance.

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