Category Archives: Sunday Morning

The Beacon

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By June 1944, the United States had been embroiled in a world war for some 2.5 years. From the earliest and darkest days of the war, the tide was beginning to turn. In the Pacific the might of the US Navy and Marine Corp had been assembled to capture and liberate the Marianas Islands of Guam, Tinian and Saipan – a vital and strategic step in the Pacific War.  The US 5th Fleet’s role was to guard the massive troop and supply ships mounting the amphibious landings. Meanwhile the Japanese Mobile Fleet was assembling its Plan Z/A-go for an all out naval engagement to cripple the invasion force and stem the tide of the war. Continue reading →

The Remnant

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Today’s first reading is from the Prophet Zephaniah. It is only three chapters long and it is filled with darkness, distress, destruction, death, doom, and despair. Yet, in the midst of all that – there is a message of hope, for a remnant of the people; people described as humble and lowly. People who take refuge in the Lord. People who remain faithful to God even as all around them crumbles and falls apart. A remnant who has already seen the Assyrian empire conquer most of the promise in the promised land. A remnant that can already see the Babylonian threat on the horizon. A remnant that even as they wonder how this all plays out in God’s plan, they are the faithful …. and hanging on. They recognize that they are blessed by God. It might be hard for us to see it, but they see it. And that challenges us just as the more famous beatitudes of today’s gospel also challenges us. Continue reading →

The Sweep of History

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Recently, I read “The History of Florida” by Michael Gannon, a professor emeritus at the University of Florida. The book is a monographic sweep through Florida history from the pre-Columbian landscape, the settling by native peoples, the arrival of the first European explorers, the history of ethnicity and immigration, and to the changing landscape of life and people that forms the great state we live in. So far I have also learned an amazing amount by the early Franciscan missionaries in Florida and Georgia in the 16th and 17th centuries. It put me in a “historical mindset” when looking at this week’s readings. Continue reading →

Testify

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Your average Catholic only needs to stand next to a born-again, evangelical Christian to understand how private we are about our life in faith.  Of course, you’re thinking, “All that public praying and witnessing, that’s their thing. Our faith was more discrete, more private, more, well…… more sophisticated than asking someone in the local WalMart if they had been saved. Ours is a faith steeped in tradition, liturgy, sacraments. This is how we serve the Lord.” Continue reading →

Your light has come

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“We three kings of Orient are. Bearing gifts we traverse so far, field and fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star.” So begins one of our familiar Christmas carols. At the end of the gospel account we are simply told that warned in a dream left by another way, not returning to Jerusalem and King Herod. They came expecting to find a newborn child within the settings of the royal court. They found a child born among the poor on the margins of life. The followed the light of a star to come before the One for whom the first reading proclaims: “Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance.” (Is 60:3) Now that the magi have encountered the Light of Christ, how will they walk into their unfolding future? What light will mark the pathway of their lives? I wonder if they no longer looked to the night sky for direction in their lives, but somehow looked to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for how to live. What did their encounter with the Christ Child reveal to them? Continue reading →

Heartbeats

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“Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Lk 2:19). I think there are times in our lives when the world comes at us relentlessly. There is a part of us that wants to understand the situations, dissect them, get to the core of it, so that we can be in control. In St. Luke’s telling of the coming of the Christ child, the events unfold at what may have been a frightening pace for Mary who was likely just a teenager. Once Mary gave her consent to God’s plan, the waves and tidal forces of salvation history swept her along at what must have been a dizzying pace.  The events of the Annunciation and Visitation – had something similar happened in my life, I don’t think I would have treasured all these things and pondered them in my heart. But she did. Continue reading →

Being Bethlehem

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I wasn’t too sure what to expect for my first Advent/Christmas in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. Certainly, the slum in which I lived was devoid of any of the commercial excess.  There were no malls, no black Friday, none of the things mark the run-up to Christmas.  Occasionally, you could hear Christmas carols, traditional and tribal, float out of one of the wood sheds/tin roofed stores.  But most of the familiar western signs and markers that Christmas was coming were missing. Continue reading →

It’s complicated

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When I was younger, I didn’t mind complicated and messy – especially things that were puzzles to explore, solve, or unravel. I enjoyed things that provided creative moments in which new, imaginative solutions might emerge. But alas, I am no longer as young as I once was. I feel a part within me that longs for quiet, uncomplicated, resolved, still interesting, but not so messy and complicated as before. Continue reading →

Joy

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I don’t normally have cause to travel around Christmas. I am here for the holidays with you! I pray that this holiday season is without winter storms roaring about. When you have to travel in such times, one can be quite happy that the airplane finally got off the ground. Once airborne, you were happy. A new round of happiness came when the pilot finally found smooth air. And even if it was 6 hours late, you are happy that you have arrived.  When you finally get off the plane, pass through security, and at last see your spouse, your kids, your parents or grandparents, your fiancé, or whomever you have longed to see…. that is not a new round of  happy. That is Joy.  You hear it in the tone and energy of the voices, the embraces, and the hugs.  And even when the reunion is right in the middle of everyone else’s way, when the reunion is clogging up the entire flow of foot traffic trying to get somewhere, you can’t help but notice even the most curmudgeon-y of travelers, however reluctantly, is giving evidence of a smile. Joy is embedded in the warp and woof, in the very fabric of relationships.  Just like Mary and Elizabeth. Continue reading →

A drop in the ocean

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We get lots of advice all through our lifetime.  For example: advice on the best schools, places to live and vacation, and places to dine. If you buy a book on Amazon, watch a movie on Netflix, or do anything online, they are quick to advise you on other books to purchase, movies to watch, or what’s next in your life. Such advice might change your evening plans, but won’t change your life. John the Baptist has some advice for us all: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” Continue reading →