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Sunday, September 21, 2025

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Holy Days

Advent

St. Ephrem on Mary, ‘a cause for wonder’

When I reflect on Mary, mother of God, often my admiration and gratitude for her life of fidelity, faith and wisdom cannot be expressed in ordinary words.
Advent

Advent themes in Gerard Manley Hopkin’s poem ‘God’s Grandeur’

Something about Advent, and the Christmas season that succeeds it (or, in the secular sphere, envelops it), draws the eye to beauty.
Advent

Kathleen Norris: Benedictine values during Advent

Waiting isn't easy, and yet Advent asks of us just that: to wait on the Lord.
Advent

During Advent, rediscover a place of rest with St. Edith Stein

The second reading for the Third Sunday of Advent is a place of personal resonance:
Advent

Justice, peace and the call of our baptism

Some awfully nice visions of the future are painted in this year’s readings for the Second Sunday of Advent -- peace and justice, primarily.
Advent

Telling the scriptural story of John the Baptist

The story of John the Baptist really begins when he ... But wait! His story is multifaceted in ways history often overlooked. How should it start?
Advent

Advent with Thomas Merton: Do not wait for Christ — he is here!

Waiting has always been a central theme of Advent. But who is it we wait for? The Messiah?
Lent

Holding out until the end

Imprisoned and in chains, St. Paul writes to his young companion Timothy, "I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith" (2 Tm 4:7). Indeed, the Acts of the Apostles and his letters recount the hardships Paul had to endure -- "beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, vigils, fasts" (2 Cor 6:5) -- as he traveled the Mediterranean world spreading the good news of Christianity.
Lent

The hard work of Lent

"You can do hard things."
Lent

Lenten meditation

Jesus, as I make the 40-day pilgrimage through Lent, I ask that my journey may always be at your side. My one Lenten goal, indeed the one goal of my life, is to enter into a relationship with you. What I do, the time I give to prayer, the sacrifices I make -- I ask that all may be done as a way of growing in my closeness to you, my friendship with you, my risen Lord.
Lent

This Lent, risk prayer

In college, I made Bluto Blutarsky from "Animal House" look like a choir boy. One night I got rip-roaring drunk, fell backward down a flight of stairs, split my head open. Spent the night in the hospital and got 12 stitches. My wild man act and partying was getting deadly dangerous.
Christmas

Faith and family traditions at Christmas

When I think of Christmas traditions, I have memories of "Posadas," "Pastorelas" or Nativity plays, "pesebres vivientes" or living nativities, the "Misa del Gallo" or midnight Masses, and the traditional Christmas carols that joyfully tell stories about the Holy Family.
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