On Priests and Penance

The recent events in the news have left us all a little shaken and perhaps more than a little discouraged. There is a particular kind of pain and sense of betrayal that we experience when our leaders in the church fail us so unbelievably. It’s hard for me not to feel immense shame and disappointment (not to mention rage) when I think of the conduct of some of my brother priests. 

So now what are we to do? Sometimes the only good that can come from times such as these is that they can bring us back to some basic truths, like the truth that only God is God. Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? Yet how easy is it for us to confuse God’s fidelity with that of His servants?

If these clergymen have failed us, then God has failed us too (or so we conclude). But we can never confuse the evils of men with the goodness of God. Priests are weak human beings. They are called to be in the person of Christ. But that doesn’t mean they are Christ. Only Christ is Christ; only God is God. No matter how disappointing it is when a priest falls (and it is), our faith was never meant to be in that priest. My faith is not in any priest (myself least of all); it is in the Priesthood of Jesus Christ. I am ashamed of my brother priests, and yet I remain proud to be a priest; because my priesthood is a sharing in the priesthood of Christ Himself, and that is always something to be proud of. The sins of priests don’t change the holiness of the priesthood, and the priesthood is holy because it belongs to Christ, not to any one of its sinful members.

The only advice I can give during these disturbing times is to keep your eyes on Christ (again, back to the basics). Unfaithful priests don’t change God’s faithfulness. He hasn’t given up on us; we cannot give up on Him. For myself, I can only ask God to make me worthy of His priesthood and to use my priesthood in any way He can to make reparation for the sins of my brother priests. Let us all keep our eyes on the High Priest, not on the low priests.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent: Week 4-Day 1

Well, the last week of Advent is a short one this year, and so this is my last Advent post for the year. In these final hours leading up to the celebration of Christmas, this is the thought I'd like to leave you with. We're all familiar, more or less, with the traditional story of Christmas, as given to us in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. There's another slightly different version of the birth of Jesus that we hear in the book of Revelation (chapter 12). This one describes His Mother as a woman clothed with the sun and with a crown of 12 stars on her head. It also describes the Devil in the form of a 7-headed dragon, waiting to devour the child about to be born from the Woman. But the child is taken up to God, and the woman flees to the wildness, where a place is prepared for her by God.

This version of the Christmas story is far more war-like and apocalyptic, but it speaks to the reality of what Christmas really is. Christmas in a certain sense is like the fairy tale that really happened. The dragon has taken the people of God captive, and so our King comes in the disguise of a humble baby to save His people from the dragon. Mary, the Woman with a crown of 12 stars, is like the noble princess who opens the gate to let in the King, the King who comes to save His people. As it says in the Christmas carol "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen", "Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day, to save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray." This is very much an act of war on God's part, because those are the lengths our King is willing to go to save His people.

As this Christmas is finally almost here, it is my sincere hope that my reflections this Advent have in some way helped you to enter into and prepare better for this Christmas, perhaps in a new way. Now that Christmas is very nearly upon us, it is also my hope that the joy of this Christmas strikes you in a new way. May you see with fresh eyes how great is the love of the King who comes for you this Christmas. And may you see how precious you are in His sight, that He moves heaven and earth, that He declares war on the dragon to save you this Christmas. This is the fairy tale that really happened. This is the love of our King. This is Christmas.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent Week 3-Day 7

Today I performed a funeral, which is a fairly common thing for me, but I don't recall ever having one quite this close to Christmas Day. I was reminded that even in our darkest hours, Christ comes to shine His light through our darkness. The only thing that can give us any kind of real hope when we lose someone we love is the knowledge that there is a world beyond this one, and therefore that death is truly not the end, thanks to the death of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hope can be an overused word from which we tend to strip away any real meaning (like faith and love, for that matter). But true hope is found only in the One who comes to defeat death, the One who gives us a real reason for hope, the One who gives us a life beyond this one. Christ is coming this Christmas to fill you with that hope; indeed, one of the major themes of Advent (yes, it's still Advent-it's not Christmas yet...) is the theme of hope - that we look forward to our deliverance, to our Savior, to the fulfillment of all our joy. But we do so precisely because we live now in the beautiful confidence and certainty of knowing that our Hope is indeed coming. Our hope is not in our own efforts or even in our trust in our fellow men; it is in the God who comes to us to defeat death itself, so that we can live forever.

This Christmas, where do you most need the hope that only Jesus can offer? Whether for yourself or for a loved one, for a past wound, for a present pain, or for a future fear, bring all of it to Jesus. Ask that He fill you with His hope, the only real kind of hope that there is. And this Christmas, live in the glorious freedom of knowing that Christ comes to defeat every source of darkness, even death itself.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent: Week 3-Day 6

My apologies for the technical difficulties I was having with this post. Should be all set now!

These last few days leading up to Christmas, there are certain antiphons used both at Mass, during the Alleluia, and during the Church's Evening Prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours. These antiphons are known as the "O" antiphons, because they all begin by addressing Our Lord with a different title and beginning with "O" ("O Wisdom", "O Saving Lord", "O Key of David", etc.). I made a video about these antiphons last year, which you can check out here. These antiphons are also the inspiration for the best known Advent hymn of all, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel".

The antiphon for today goes like this, "O King of all the nations, the only joy of every human heart; O Keystone of the mighty arch of man, come and save the creature you fashioned from the dust." Jesus is at once the sovereign Lord of all that is and at the same time the intimate joy of every individual heart. He is the King of the universe and the consolation of the lowliest soul. At Christmas, we celebrate that God is both of these things; He is the Lord of all and yet He comes to be with us in a very intimate way.

This Christmas, the King of all the nations comes to be the only joy of every human heart, including yours. As Our Lady lets in the King of all the nations to be the joy of her heart, let the same King into your life this Christmas. He comes not just for all the nations, but for you.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent: Week 3 - Day 5

Today the Church offers two options for today's First Reading. The first is from the Song of Songs, that short but beautiful book right in the middle of the Bible that uses the image of two lovers to paint a picture of the intensity of God's love for us. The passage from today says, "Hark! my lover - here he comes springing across the mountains, leaping across the hills...My lover speaks; he says to me, 'Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come!' " This reading captures the spirit of the anticipation with which we continue to wait for the coming of Christ, the lover of our souls, with all the anxious longing of a beloved waiting to be reunited with her lover.

At the same time, the words of the lover who is coming to his beloved also speaks of God's longing and desire for us. "Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come!" Not only do our hearts cry out to God , but His Heart cries out for us too. He sees us as His precious beloved, whom He invites to rise and go with Him. Though Advent and Christmas are fundamentally about God coming to us; they are also about us coming to God. Jesus is the lover who comes springing across the mountains and leaping across the hills to claim us as His own. But He does nothing against our will. He waits with all the patience of a lover who waits for his love to be accepted and embraced by the one he loves.

As Christmas comes ever closer, it is still not too late to prepare your heart for the coming of Christ. I invite you to take time to prayerfully reflect on the great love of the God who moves heaven and earth to come to you. Let your heart yearn for Him, and open wide the doors when He comes on Christmas Day, so that you may know how great is the Love that comes to you on that day.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent: Week 3-Day 4

The Gospel for today is the Annunciation - the angel Gabriel announcing the birth of Jesus to Mary. There is a beautiful homily written by St. Bernard, which he writes as though addressing it directly to Mary, as one who is anxiously waiting for her to consent to being the Mother of God. He says, "We too are waiting, O Lady, for your word of compassion; the sentence of condemnation weighs heavily upon us. The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if you consent." St. Bernard speaks on behalf of all humanity, which is still held in captivity under the weight of sin. We too, like him, await to be set free from our captivity. And our salvation will come indeed, if only Our Lady consents to the angel's message.

The homily builds, emphasizing that all creation awaits with ever-growing anticipation the answer that Mary will give. Saint Bernard encourages Mary not to hesitate but to answer quickly, for the salvation of the entire world depends on her word. Finally, the homily ends with the words of Mary's response, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word." With these precious words, it is as though the whole of creation breathes an immense sigh of the sweetest relief, knowing that our salvation is near at hand.

In these last few days leading up to Christmas, we too await with all creation the arrival of our Savior.
We too experience that same sense of growing anticipation, awaiting the word of our salvation to be spoken and knowing that immense relief when it finally comes. Like Our Lady, let us open our hearts to the arrival of her Son. Let us welcome Him into our life, as Mary did, inviting God's will to be accomplished in us, as it was in Mary, so that our Salvation may indeed arrive. Be it done to all of us according to His Word.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent: Week 3-Day 3

I'd like to revisit the role of John the Baptist during this Advent season. Yes, I've already spoken of him twice, but today I'd like to focus on today's Gospel, which tells of the first mention of his birth. The angel Gabriel appears to a man named Zechariah and announces that his wife, Elizabeth, will bear a son, despite the fact that she is too old to naturally conceive. Gabriel says that, "He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God."

There are many striking similarities between this announcement and that of the birth of Jesus to Mary. Both are given by the angel Gabriel. Both reveal a miraculous conception in the bodies of two women who, naturally speaking, should not able to procreate. Both make promise of the significant role that the Holy Spirit will play in making all this happen. And both tell of the spectacular influence that these two unborn babies will have on the rest of the world.

John the Baptist therefore, even from the first moment of his conception, foreshadows the coming of Christ. He is completely dedicated and given over to God even in his mother's womb. And indeed his entire life will be one that is completely dedicated to God and to pointing forward to Christ, who is to come after him. In these few remaining days of Advent, let us pray that we too may be filled with the Holy Spirit so that our entire life may be totally dedicated to God and given over to pointing others to Christ. Ask the Holy Spirit to come upon you in a new and powerful way, so that you may be transformed by the fire of His love and that that love may burn bright in your heart this Christmas, as it burned so powerfully in the life of John the Baptist, even from the moment of his conception.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent: Week 3-Day 2

Today I'd like to focus on a somewhat under-appreciated hero of the Christmas story, and that hero is St. Joseph. Yes, he is always included in Nativity sets etc., but I would suggest that we don't truly appreciate the role he plays in the birth of Christ. We have a fair amount of songs about Mary or from her perspective (some of which I like, some of which...I don't) and rightly so, but how many songs do we have from the very unique perspective of St. Joseph?

Joseph is entrusted with the extraordinarily unique task of protecting Mary and the baby Jesus. In today's Gospel the angel Gabriel appears to him to say, "Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife." When Jospeh discovers that Mary is with child and decides to divorce her quietly, we tend to interpret that action as Joseph suspecting Mary of infidelity and divorcing her out of his disappointment with her. However, therefore is an alternative interpretation which suggests that Joseph did in fact believe that Mary was telling the truth and that he wanted to divorce her because he felt himself to be unworthy. This interpretation makes more sense of the angel's words, "Do not be afraid". This poor humble carpenter is suddenly entrusted with the great task of protecting the Son of God and his mother. But he is always quick to rise to the occasion and follow God's will, in wherever it leads him and in whatever it asks of him.

Today I'd like to invite you to consider the unique role of St. Joseph and ask him to help you prepare for the coming of Christ this Christmas. He is a perfect example of how God likes to take the humble and the lowly and do great things with them. If we approach the coming of Christ with a humble heart like St. Joseph, willing to go wherever he leads, God can do great things with us too. This Christmas, let St. Joseph show you how to stay close to the Son of God and to his His mother, as he so intimately was.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent: Week 3 - Day 1

Today is Gaudete Sunday, a day set aside during the Advent season to acknowledge that even though we are still very much in Advent mode and still not yet in the full blown celebration of Christmas, we are getting closer and closer. "Gaudete" means "rejoice". This day reminds us that even though we are still awaiting the coming of Christ, we do so with joy. We rejoice on this day because we know that our Savior is getting closer to us, like the joyful exception of two lovers who will soon be reunited.

This is a good day to recall and reflect on the meeting of Mary and her cousin Elizabeth. At this beautiful meeting, John the Baptist, a mere infant in the womb of his mother Elizabeth, leaps for joy at the presence of Jesus, also an unborn baby in the womb of His mother. We too are called to leap for joy at the presence of Christ among us. Once again, the whole celebration of Christmas is that God Himself, our Savior, has come among us, and this is an occasion of great joy.

After this, Our Lady, filled with the Holy Spirit, says her famous "Magnificat", "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior." This Christmas, our souls too are meant to proclaim the greatness of the Lord. Our spirits too are made to rejoice in God our savior. On this day, invite the Holy Spirit to fill you with His presence, as He did Mary. Ask Him to fill you with the joy that only He can give, knowing that the One who comes to save us is near at hand. Our lover is coming to hold us close to His heart. Yes, we are still waiting; but we do so with great rejoicing, asking the Holy Spirit to help us proclaim the greatness of the Lord and rejoice in God our Savior, so that when He comes at Christmas, we too may leap for joy.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent: Week 2-Day 7

Well my timing has been shaky the past couple of days, but I'm back on track today (praise God). The opening prayer at mass today says, "May the splendor of your glory dawn in our hearts, we pray, almighty God, that all shadows of the night may be scattered and we may be shown to be children of light by the advent of your Only Begotten Son." Christ comes to us on Christmas Day like the dawn that rises and overcomes the darkness of night.

There are many "shadows" in our life that can haunt us and keep us in the darkness, keep us from fulling living that Christmas joy. Jesus comes to us to scatter these shadows, to defeat all the forces of evil and to send them far from us, so that we may be "children of light". In other words, He comes to us so that the darkness and the shadows of our life may no longer cast a cloud over us, but that we may live in the great freedom of the children of God and live only in His light, which overcomes all darkness.

As we draw closer and closer to Christmas, bring to Jesus the shadows in your life. Invite Him into every corner of your heart so that His dawn may dispel every shadow of darkness from you and that you may live only as a child of the light, knowing the intense, passionate freedom known only to the children of God. This Christmas, may the splendor of God's glory dawn in your heart, that all shadows of the night may be scattered and that you may be shown to be a child of the light by the advent of the Only Begotten Son of God.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent: Week 2 - Day 6

Well once again, this post turned out to be very late indeed; but here it is nonetheless. At Christmas we celebrate the Incarnation (no not reincarnation). The Incarnation is the act of God becoming man; God takes on our flesh and becomes one of us. The name Emmanuel means "God is with us". We celebrate the fact that God loves us too much to leave us alone. He loves us too much to stay comfy in heaven, while we suffer here below.  So great and so intimate is God's love for us that He wants to literally unite Himself with us. As a lover and beloved unite to become one flesh, God unites Himself to our mortal flesh and becomes one with us, out of His great love for us.

On Christmas Day we celebrate the great mystery that God and man have become one, in the person of Jesus Christ. God's love for us is so great that He pursues us from heaven all the way down to earth, to bring us back to His heart. In the remaining time leading up to Christmas, try to see the Incarnation as more than just an abstract theological teaching. Try to see it as the relentless pursuit of a God that loves us, or better yet, as the relentless pursuit of a God that loves you. Jesus wants to be one with you this Christmas; He wants to make His home with you. The Love that we all crave deep down comes to us on Christmas Day. In these remaining days of Advent, let your heart long for that Love; and when Christmas finally comes, let your heart rejoice at its coming.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent: Week 2-Day 5

Well I'm a bit late with this post, but nonetheless here it is. Today, the Church recognizes the feast of St. John of the Cross, who was known for his great emphasis on embracing suffering and uniting it to the cross of Jesus. Suffering is a reality of life, whether we choose to face it or not. St. John understood that the only way to overcome suffering is to embrace it. Only by seeing suffering as a way of drawing closer to Christ can we find meaning in suffering.

As we approach this Christmas season, we certainly do so with a spirit of joy and hope. However, it is always worth bearing in mind that's Christ's coming, while it is a source of great joy, will also lead to great suffering, for Jesus comes to die for us; it is only by His death on the cross that Jesus sets us free. Joy and suffering are therefore not always mutually exclusive. Christ alone, by His coming, shows us how to embrace suffering and find joy in the midst of it. Only when we are willing to suffer for Christ can we find great joy.

Our lives do not altogether stop for Christmas. There could be many things in our life that cause us suffering. The coming of Christ is the only thing that can give us hope and joy in the midst of that suffering. That doesn't mean we deny or negate the reality of suffering in our life; but it does mean that we can find meaning in it, if we allow Jesus to show us how. This year, when suffering comes your way, do not just ignore it or let it defeat you but rather invite Jesus into your suffering. Let Him carry your cross with you. He comes this Christmas to set you free, but only through the Cross. Do not run from that Cross, for that is the source of all our joy.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent: Week 2-Day 4

The First Reading from last Sunday begins with the word, "Comfort, give comfort to my people". From this passage, we have the beautiful hymn for Advent, "Comfort, Comfort, O My People". Isaiah assures us that our God is coming to bring us not condemnation but comfort. Similarly, Jesus says in today's Gospel, "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest."

Our hearts can often be restless. We can crave rest and comfort, perhaps in a particular way during this season, but we look to the wrong sources for that comfort, ultimately to things that leave us still feeling empty or restless. Jesus comes this Christmas to give us the comfort that we crave. He comes to give us the rest that we need. Nowhere else can we find the rest that we truly desire; as St. Augustine says, our hearts are restless until they rest in Christ. We will never find true comfort or rest by indulging our appetites or by distracting ourselves with entertainment or by seeking the approval or attention of others. If we find our comfort in anything other than Christ, our hearts remain restless.

Today is the feast of St. Lucy (I wrote a blog post about her last year). She has the twofold distinction of giving her body to Christ by remaining a virgin throughout her life and by dying for the name of Jesus. This young girl had the strength to give herself so heroically for Our Lord because her comfort was in Christ alone, not anything else that the world had to offer her. And so she gave Christ everything she had.

Christ wants to give you His comfort this Christmas. He wants you to find your rest in Him alone, so that your heart will no longer be restless. He comes this Christmas to give Himself to you, but He also invites you to give yourself to Him, as St. Lucy did, holding nothing back. Only then will you find the comfort that you so desperately crave.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent: Week 2-Day 3

Well today is the beautiful feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Last year, I did a YouTube video in honor of this day; you can check that out here . Without repeating everything I said in that video, I would like to focus on Our Lady of Guadalupe for today's reflection on Advent.

Part of the story of this apparition, which I summarize in the video, is that Mary appears to a young man named (now Saint) Juan Diego. She sends him to the bishop of Mexico to spread the message of her love and protection over the lands of the Americas. When the bishop requires proof from Juan Diego, that this is indeed the Mother of God who is appearing to him, Mary shows him where to find a large amount of roses, growing in the cold dead of winter; and he takes these miraculous roses back to the bishop as the proof he requires.

I mentioned in one of my posts last week the beautiful Advent/Christmas song "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming." Jesus is that Rose that blooms in the dead of winter. Mary is the one who brings that Rose to us. I know I spoke of her at length a few days ago, for the Immaculate Conception; but I'd just like to add to that by inviting you, in these days leading up to Christmas, to walk through these days with Mary. She above all knows what it means to prepare for the coming of her Son and to know the fullness of the joy that His coming brings. As she brings St. Juan Diego to the miraculous roses, growing in the dead of winter, let her bring you to the true Rose that blooms among us this Christmas. Imagine yourself taking the journey to Bethlehem with Mary, walking with her through the long, arduous road. And finally, imagine yourself with her when all her trials are rewarded by the miraculous birth of her Son. May the face of that Son shine upon you this Christmas, and may that Rose bloom in your heart.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent: Week 2 - Day 2

In today's First Reading from Isaiah (I'm telling you, he's got good stuff), the prophet says ,"Here is your God, he comes with vindication; With divine recompense he comes to save you." He goes on to describe the coming of God in beautiful detail and ends with the words, "Those whom the Lord has ransomed will return and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy; They will meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee."

This Christmas, our God is coming to save us. We celebrate the fact that our King is coming to save His people from everything that would hold us captive, whether its our sins, our guilt, our losses, our loneliness, our grief, or just our daily struggles. The coming of Christ is an occasion of great joy, as Isaiah describes. Anything that keeps you from receiving that great joy is exactly the thing from which Jesus wants to save you.

Christmas is about the King who comes to rescue His people from the forces of evil. During this Advent season, invite Jesus into those places in your life that are in need of rescuing, anything that keeps you captive, anything that keeps you from living the life full of the joy that God has in mind for you. Invite Jesus into whatever that is for you this Advent, and ask Him to free you from it this Christmas. God is coming to save you this Christmas. Let Him.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent: Week 2 - Day 1

"Prepare the way of the Lord"! We hear these words at Mass today both in the First Reading from Isaiah and in the Gospel. The Gospel describes the appearance of John the Baptist and his role as the one that Isaiah speaks of, the one who will go before the Lord at His coming, to prepare His way. John the Baptist does this in the most literal sense possible by calling people to conversion, to turn their hearts back to God. He also does this by pointing forward to the arrival of Christ. He says, "One mightier than I is coming after me."

John the Baptist becomes for us the very model of this Advent season. This season is about preparing the way of the Lord, and John shows us how to do that. First, we do it by making room for God in our
own life. This is the conversion to which John calls his audience, to turn away from sin and back to God. The best way for us to prepare for the coming of Christ this Christmas is to turn our hears back to Him and away from the things that stand in the way of our relationship with Him. This is something we don't just do once but that we keep doing over and over again. For every time we fall, God is waiting for us to turn back to Him.

The second way of preparing the way of the Lord is to point Jesus out to others, as John does. We can do this by reminding people of the true reason we celebrate Christmas. I'm all for the songs, movies, food, and presents, but underneath our celebration is there must be the true cause of our celebration: that our Savior has come, that God has become one of us. We prepare for the coming of Christ by opening our own hearts to God and by inviting others to do the same. We can't, however, give what we don't have, which is why it is necessary that we first make room for God in our own life.

This season is ticking by, but there are still two good weeks left until Christmas. I invite you to use that time to prepare the way for the Lord, so that when He comes he may find a place in our hearts and in the hearts of those around us.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent: Week 1 - Day 7

Hurry up and wait. During this season, we tend to do a lot of hurrying up, and we hate waiting. But the whole Advent season is about waiting, waiting because our Savior has not yet come. The response for the Psalm for today says, "Blessed are all who wait for the Lord." The Advent season reminds us that, despite the current explosion of all things Christmas in the world around us, we are still waiting for Christ to be born, we are still waiting for our Savior to come and set us free.

Every time we hear on the news of the latest tragedy, disaster, shooting, act of hatred, abuse, etc., it should be manifestly obvious that we live in a world that is in need of a Savior. Something should well up in our hearts in these moments that makes us want to cry out and say, "Yes, come Lord Jesus! Come, and save this world!" That is is the very heart of this season. The more we anticipate and prepare for an event, the more we get out of it. Children intuitively understand this about Christmas. It's precisely the waiting for the day and for the presents to arrive that adds to the excitement and celebration of the day itself.

In the same way, we are still waiting for Christ. We wait now so that we can embrace Him with all the more joy, as the greatest gift of all, on Christmas Day and the days after Christmas. The best way to prepare for Christmas is to develop in your heart a sense of waiting. With every sadness in your life or in the world around you, let your heart yearn for God to come and make things right. Jesus wants to come to you in a major way this Christmas. Bring to Him the ache in your heart and ask Him to come there this Christmas. Then all you have to do is wait.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent: Week 1-Day 6

Today is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. For a defense of this beautiful teaching of the Catholic Church, check out my two-part post on the subject from two years ago. For today's purposes,  I want to focus on the First Reading and the Gospel for today. The First Reading tells the very first promise of the coming of a Savior to redeem us from our sins. This is in Genesis 3, immediately after Adam and Eve have fallen and given in to the temptation of the devil. God says to the devil, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel." Jesus, of course, is the offspring who will strike at the devil's head, making "the woman" not Eve but Mary. Our Lady is the only one who is truly "at enmity" with Satan, meaning directly opposed; they are on totally opposite sides because she is without sin.

The Gospel for today is the Annunciation, in which the angel Gabriel famously calls Mary "full of grace". Only someone who is full of grace, completely overflowing with the life of God Himself, can truly be at enmity with Satan. But this grace is not something that Mary has earned for herself but is something that God, in choosing her to be the Mother of His Son, has freely and generously bestowed upon her.

You and I are also called to be at enmity with Satan; but every time we sin, we continue to make compromises with him. We, like Mary, need to be full of grace. This does not mean we strive to be perfect; that is ultimately contrary to God's will because it is relying on our own efforts apart from Him. Rather than striving to be perfect, we are simply called to be open and to receive, as Mary did -specifically, to be open to receiving the grace of God in our life. Sin gnaws away at the life of grace in us. The more we avoid sin, repent and confess our sins, and stay close to Christ, the more we open ourselves up to receive His grace.

This Advent, ask Our Lady to show you how to be open to God's grace in your life and to remove anything that is standing in His way. I pray that God will send His Holy Spirit upon you this Christmas in a new and powerful way. Don't worry about being perfect. Just keep your heart open to God, and let Him do the rest.

Pax Vobiscum

Advent: Week 1-Day 5

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven." These words from Our Lord in today's Gospel remind us that it is not enough for us to simply profess the name of Jesus if we deny Him by our lifestyle. He goes on to tell the parable of the two men who build there houses, one on sand and the other on rock. When the storms come, the man whose house is built on sand is blown away (literally, not figuratively); but the man whose house is built on rock remans firm, solid, and safe. 

The Christmas story as we know it only happens because Our Lady and St. Joseph follow the will of God in all things. They do what God tells them, and they follow His will most perfectly, no matter how hard and no matter what it requires from them. You and I can often try to resist God's will in our life, but we do so only to our own detriment. His will is the very thing that brings us our own freedom and salvation, just as the faithful obedience of Mary and Joseph brings the Source of all salvation into the world. 

When we surrender our will to God's, we are the like the wise man who builds his house on rock. If our life is built on anything else (our selfishness, our ego, our guilty pleasures, our sense of control, etc.), we will be like the man who builds his house on sand. And when the storms of our life threaten us, our foundation will not be strong enough to sustain us.

As you prepare your hearts for Christ this Christmas, ask yourself what you are building your life on? Make room for Jesus this Advent to be your one and only foundation. Build your life on Him, and follow His will in all things, like Our Lady and St. Joseph. Then even the worst storms of your life can't hurt you.

Pax Vobiscum 

Advent: Week 1-Day 4

Today is the feast of St. Nicholas, about whom I have already said quite a bit, both in a previous blog post from 2 years ago and in a video from last year. For a better appreciation of this wonderful saint, I would encourage you to go back and check those out; but since I have already said a fair amount about him in the past, for the purposes of this post I am going to focus instead on the readings for today.

The First Reading from Isaiah (remember him?) speaks of the coming of the Lord as a great feast of "juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines". Then the Gospel tells the story of Jesus multiplying the loaves and fish and feeding the multitude. In this Gospel, Jesus says, "I do not want to send them away hungry." Like the multitude, we too are hungry in a way that Jesus alone can satisfy. And like the multitude, Jesus does not want to send us away hungry.

It's significant that when Christ is born, He is born in a manger, in a feeding box for animals. The food with which Jesus feeds us is His very self. He alone can satisfy the deepest hunger of our hearts. And so even from the moment of His birth, He makes Himself our food. The feast that Isaiah speaks about isn't just food and wine. Our Savior comes to feed us with the great gift of Himself. And nowhere is this more true than in the Eucharist, when He literally feeds us with His own Body and Blood.

During this Advent season, I invite you to consider what are the deepest hungers of your heart and how are you filling that hunger with the wrong things? Only Jesus can fill that hunger. During Advent, remove the counterfeits in your life that take His place, and you'll be in a much better position to receive Him this Christmas. Jesus is coming to feed you. Do not fill yourself on anything less than Him.

Pax Vobiscum