Liturgical Time

Third Sunday of Advent 2017

Allowing His Mystery To Shine Through Having reached the halfway point on our journey toward Christmas, we now celebrate the day on which we view every event from the perspective of joy. But if hope does not shine through that joy, then it is sterile folly. “Rejoice!” This exhortation is an important part of the… Read more »

Second Sunday of Advent 2017

To See the Invisible Continuing our Advent journey, let us now enter into what seems to be a paradox in the spiritual life, namely: to “see the Invisible.” Since the Second Sunday of Advent presents us with the voice as a basic element in helping us perceive what is imperceptible to our senses, it might… Read more »

First Sunday of Advent 2017

Go Against the Tide During this Advent season, let us meditate on the way in which God enters the lives of human beings: how he is incarnated and born on this earth and in the life of each one of us. Contemplating his descent into the human heart, we note that God reveals to us… Read more »

Fifth Sunday of Lent 2017

Ezekiel 37:12-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:1-45 “A Heart that Sees”   Who among us hasn’t experienced at least once the dismay of the Apostles during the storm at sea, when the Lord was asleep and it seemed as if their boat would sink? Who would not have cried out as they did in… Read more »

Fourth Sunday of Lent 2017

1 Samuel 16:1, 4, 6-7, 10-13; Psalm 23; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41 “A Heart that Sees”   The Lord looks at the heart, while human beings look at appearances–at least those of us who have not yet moved from darkness to light in Christ. Those who remain in the dark not only fail to see… Read more »

Third Sunday of Lent 2017

Exodus 17:3-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5:1-2, 5-8; Jn. 4:5-42 A “Revitalizing” Weariness   The Lord Jesus arrived in Samaria “tired from his journey” and stopped at Jacob’s Well. It seems odd that the Master, who never ceased to proclaim by word and deed the coming of the Kingdom of God, who was tireless in healing the… Read more »

Second Sunday of Lent 2017

Genesis 12:1-4; Psalm 33; 2 Timothy 1:8-10; Matthew 17:1-9 A Transfiguring Climb   Climb! Keep climbing! Never stop climbing! Let’s make it clear that it is not easy to take one’s first steps in the Lenten desert, just as it was not easy for Abram–who was called to leave his homeland and become a wayfarer–to… Read more »

First Sunday of Lent 2017

Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7; Psalm 51; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11 The “Fullness” of the Desert How many deserts we must cross to reach the “promised land” of freedom–a journey which invites us to bring to completion the person we are called to be, not the one who does whatever he/she pleases. The desert of daily problems;… Read more »