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Christmas Weekday John 3:22-30 Friends, today’s Gospel focuses on John the Baptist. I think it’s fair to say that you cannot really understand Jesus without understanding John, which is precisely why all four Evangelists tell the story of the Baptist as a kind of overture to the story of Jesus. John did not draw attention to himself. Rather, he presented himself as a preparation, a forerunner, a prophet preparing the way of the Lord. He was summing up much of Israelite history but stressing that this history was open-ended, unfinished. And therefore, how powerful it was when, upon spying Jesus...

THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT LUKE 7:24-30 Friends, in today’s Gospel, once again the fiery and frightening character of John the Baptist bursts on the scene as the forerunner of Jesus. The opening line is important. Jesus asks the crowds, “What did you go out to the desert to see?” The desert is a place of simplicity and poverty, a place where illusions die, where reality is faced honestly and without compromise. The Bible frequently employs the desert as the setting for the discovery of bold and simple truths. Advent is, for us, a desert time. It brings us back to...

Todays readings recount the generosity of the widows, the MOST vulnerable, one about to die serving Elijah, the other giving Christ all she had. This Liturgy emphasizes how. As the Bishop says: "Your Being increases, in the Measure that You Give It Away" 14 min. must watch YouTube VideoTrust in the Lord

TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME LUKE 11:47-54 Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus launches a blistering attack on the scholars of the Law. The Son teaches, heals, preaches to, and forgives those who feel far from the mercy of God. He is the hand that the Father stretches out to sinners and to those who are lost. And by the same token, he is the judge of a sinful world. When the light of God’s forgiving love appears, the shadows of sin become all the deeper and more obvious. In light of him, there is nowhere to hide. And Jesus, the...

Bishop Barron’s guide to rediscovering Vatican IIThe Church is changing the world, not the other way around — that is the message of the Second Vatican Council.Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire apostolate has just published the Vatican II Collection. It presents the council’s four key documents with commentary by popes and by Bishop Barron. Reading through the documents made me think that what G.K. Chesterton said about Christianity could be said about Vatican II: The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.As Barron puts it: I believe that the...

Archbishop Wilton Gregory of the archdiocese of Atlanta will be saying Mass Sunday afternoon for a group promoting the acceptance and legitimization of homosexual acts and transgenderism. Fortunate and Faithful Families is one of several groups claiming to be Catholic, yet who are in open disagreement with Catholic teaching on homosexuality. It associates with dissident groups DignityUSA, New Ways Ministry and other Catholics openly criticical of Church doctrine. Fortunate Families' second annual retreat will be held at the chancery of the Atlanta archdiocese, with Abp. Gregory saying Mass and delivering the homily. The archbishop did the same last year at...