Happy fourth Sunday of Lent! As we light the final purple candle, consider how far you’ve come on this journey. What preparations have you made for the coming of the Lord? What have you left to do? This week’s focus is love. Our reading is a famous one. John 3:16-19 zeros in on the whole reason we’re talking about any …
Joyful waiting…
Happy Gaudete Sunday! This week, we light the pink candle to symbolize our joy in the coming of Christ. The word gaudete comes from the Latin word meaning “rejoice.” We see it in Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again; rejoice!” (NABRE) What’s different about this Sunday, other than the priest’s garments and the pink …
Preparing our hearts
Happy second week of Advent! This second week carries a theme of preparation. As we wait on the prophecy of the Lord’s coming, we prepare our hearts. If the Lord came to earth today, would your heart be ready to receive him? It’s a weighty question, but one that prompts us to truly prepare ourselves spiritually. Isaiah 40: 3-5 uses …
Advent’s hope and promise
Welcome to the first week of Advent. I hope you’ve been able to implement some of the ideas I shared earlier about preparing for and celebrating Advent. If not, revisit those, and find something that brings more spirituality to these joyful days of waiting. The first week of Advent follows a theme of hope or promise. Just as the people …
Joy of Advent
Greetings and welcome to The Joy of Advent! So many times, our Advent season, the four weeks leading up to Christmas, are filled with angst about gift-giving, hosting gatherings and the like. But, for true Christians, Advent is a time of joy! Its name means “to come to.” We are waiting in hope and joy for the celebration of the …
“One Heart”
“One Heart, One Mind, One Faith” is focused on two of the most important parts of our faith: forgiveness and authority. In this scene, Jesus tells Peter that he forgives him, but Peter can’t seem to forgive himself. (I find that I’m a lot like Peter. Jesus forgives me, but I can’t seem to forgive myself at times.) Jesus starts …