Penance, Preparation, Patience, Perseverance… Advent – It blends together a penitential spirit, very similar to Lent, a liturgical theme of preparation for the Second and Final Coming of the Lord, called the Parousia, and a joyful theme of patience as we get ready to re-live the birth in Bethlehem. And...
Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Palestine, stands face-to-face with the Lord of the universe. Pilate is agitated by the circumstances, but thinking clearly because it’s still early. Jesus is exhausted from the first twelve hours of his passion, but his eyes glow with the love and determination that had...
Among the many memories of my youth I clearly remember the moment when it first dawned on me that when I died the world would go on happily without me. The thought came as an unpleasant shock, which no one else seemed particularly interested in sharing with me. ‘When I...
Every week, in our Liturgy of the Word, we meet new people. We see them interacting with one another, we listen to them speak, we admire them, pity them, are attracted to them or repulsed by them. Some are close to God, some are far from him, some repent, and...
The Book of Genesis tells us that “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27). The New Testament book of 1 John tells us that “God loved us first that we might love Him.” (1...