Advent

To approach this Gospel passage silently is a basic precaution. One misplaced word is enough to undermine the perfection of the Annunciation, which is the perfect balance of Blood and Wind, Flesh and Spirit. The astonished blood of a young girl who feels loved by the gaze of the Wind she had known all her… Read more »

A VOICE crying out in the desert No, Nothing but a voice, trying to find the right ways to broaden the expectations of people’s hearts. A humble witness to the Messiah’s arrival. Someone who prepares the conditions for it. The baptism administered by John is a fitting rite to put words like death, light and… Read more »

The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God No, it is more than just a beginning, it is a Principle; it is Genesis, it is life that, in order to be vital and vibrant, must always start afresh. It means forever returning to the state of raw material, like clay that is… Read more »

Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. No, we don’t know the mystery of when the time will come and that scares us. That’s why we live it with difficulty. Our thoughts often slip into the past and get lost there, allowing themselves to be bewitched by things that… Read more »

The unpredictable introduces amazing things into the fabric of an upright man’s daily existence. God, the Absolutely Unpredictable One, chooses the scandal of dwelling in a virgin and of disrupting Joseph’s sleep with divine visitations. Why he decides to enter the lives of the upright in startling ways remains a mystery. He bursts unpredictably into…

They have arrested the independent one. They have forced the desert into a cage. They have deprived the sky of its nights. They have stifled his cry of hope. In short, they have arrested John the Baptist. A restless lion, a caged lion, confused, humble, lost–John is no longer the person he…

John the Baptist flees the city, taking on the status of an exile so as to become the unmistakable sign of a new exile that not even Jerusalem can remedy: an exile of the heart. John is the prophet of the exiles of all times, of all people whose hearts are far away, yearning for…

The first Sunday of Advent invites us to turn our gaze to the heart of things–to creation, which is pleading for our care. In Noah’s time, and in our own as well, life needs to be cared for, tended. Christmas reveals this to us: a divine Child entrusts himself to the care and nurturing…

Experiencing the Impossible Lk. 1:39-45 «Faced with the angel’s announcement, Mary welcomed the improbable, the unforeseen, the impossible, because, after all, life is nothing but waiting without an object» (Simone Weil). In order for there to be an event, in order for the other–the surprising–to reveal itself for what it is, one must experience the… Read more »

What should we do? Luke 3, 10-18 “What should we do?” the crowds asked John the Baptizer. “What should we do?” is the question that each person ultimately asks him/herself as the need to find meaning in life becomes pressing. The Gospel excerpt for today’s Liturgy opens by specifying just what the verb to love… Read more »