This coming Sunday is the start of a new liturgical year (Year C) and the first Sunday in Advent. In the two previous posts we placed the Sunday gospel in the context of the Advent Season and in Scripture. Today we can begin to consider some of the details. Continue reading
Yesterday’s post In the Background, has lingered with me since I wrote the piece. In that post, 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.” I wonder what part of my life and experience has faded into the background of life. Continue reading
As many of you know, I am a graduate of the United States Naval Academy – and we are coming to that time of year: the annual Army-Navy Football Classic. Army is having a great year with a 7-3 record and putting lots of points on the board. Navy is 2-8 and ….. it is not one of our best years. But when I was a freshman (aka “plebe” in USNA slang) our record was 1-8, but all was redeemed and made whole with a victory over Army. So, despite our record and the apparent prowess of the Black Knights of the Hudson, hope springs eternal!
Continue readingHere in the last week of the liturgical year (cycle B), the gospel for the day is taken from Luke 21:5-11. The text speaks of the coming destruction of the Temple (vv.5-6), signs of the end (vv.7-11), and then in verses 12 and following describes the persecutions that will follow. But pause at this moment and consider how you understood what was meant when you just read, “signs of the end.” If you are like most people you probably inserted “signs of the end times.” In our age we often take the apocalyptic sense of a reading to mean the end of time, the second coming, and all that has been portrayed in popular culture, movies, books, and even some scriptural commentaries. But Luke simply describes what follows the destruction of the Temple as “the time of Gentiles” (Luke 21:24) Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the start of a new liturgical year (Year C) and the first Sunday in Advent. In yesterday’s post we placed the Sunday gospel in the context of the Advent Season. Today we can find its place in the context of Scripture.This reading is taken from Luke’s gospel just following Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Jesus’ confrontation with the authorities in the Temple (which began back at 19:47, the cleansing of the Temple) now shifts to the future tense. Continue reading
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
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
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.
I suspect if I asked most people, “Who is the King?” the answer might well come back “Elvis.” There is just part of us that lives in a pop-culture world. Besides, we Americans aren’t too keen on kings. After all, we fought a Revolutionary War to rid ourselves of English monarchs. Of course, we remain fascinated by them. Just look at the television ratings for royal weddings. Continue reading
Is it our hope for the future, or our fear of creating the very thing that will destroy us? Welcome to the world of science fiction, si-fi. Science fiction (SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life. Continue reading
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