News - December 2021 RSS Feed

Christmas is about Jesus! It is about the incarnation, the enfleshment of the divine and eternal Son of God. It is about God entering into our chaos and restoring it from within. He who is outside of time enters into time to redeem it...

We have come to the final week of Advent, and Christmas is right around the corner. We thank the Lord for a blessed Advent, and like John, we leap for joy as we welcome the fruit of Mary’s womb, our long expected Messiah. From the 8th century Christians have expressed this hope in the coming of Christ by proclaiming what today is known as the “O Antiphons.” These are antiphons that introduce the Magnificat canticle of Evening Prayer from December 17-23. These antiphons are very appropriate for these last days of Advent because they connect the coming of Christ with the fulfillment of the prophecies about the Messiah which we have been reading about in our liturgies...

The Third Sunday of Advent is always celebrated as “Gaudete Sunday” or “Rejoice Sunday.” This comes from the first word of the Introit or Entrance Antiphon for today’s Mass: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near” (Phil 4: 4-5). We are reminded of the imminence of the Lord’s coming and our closeness to the feast of the Lord’s Nativity, which Advent anticipates. These words also open our Second reading for this weekend...

How else can we best welcome the one who is coming in glory and power at the eschaton unless we first receive him in the lowliness of the manger on bended knees? How do we best prepare for the birth of the Messiah, the one to whom the choir of angels sing, than by daily lowering ourselves so that he might increase in us? [Read more]