I want to begin my Christmas 2020 reflection with the first four stanzas of the poem Esperanza by Alexis Valdés, a Cuban-American poet based in Miami, Florida. When the storm passes and the roads are tamed, and we are the...
This is a reflection on the Mass readings of Sunday, December 20, 2020. Today’s readings present us with two stories. The first is the story of David, the second King of Israel. Through his extraordinary efforts, David had finally brought...
A reflection on the Sunday readings for December 6, 2020 — the Second Sunday of Advent Today, December 6, is the feast of St. Nicholas, who is of course known in popular culture as Santa Claus. Santa Claus is the iconic...
A reflection on the Sunday readings for November 29, 2020 — the First Sunday of Advent This is the first Advent we have observed during a pandemic and this will be our first pandemic Christmas. What if I told you that...
This has been a Thanksgiving like no other. A national holiday that we otherwise celebrate with abandon is being observed with utmost caution, restraint, devoid of large family gatherings, and perhaps, even alone. A pandemic Thanksgiving – it almost sounds...
The Christian story began amidst great turmoil: The passion, suffering, and crucifixion of Jesus; the continuing doubts, even after the Resurrection; the long and brutal persecution; and the dispersal of believers across the Roman Empire. This was the context of...
A reflection on the Sunday readings for November 15, 2020 The latest data tells us that the richest 1% own more than half of the world’s wealth. In the United States, top 20% of Americans own 86% of the country’s wealth...
A reflection on the Sunday readings for November 8, 2020 These are not the easiest days for us, both as a nation and as a world. We find ourselves caught up in the mayhem and turmoil of a political contest different...
A reflection on the Sunday readings for November 1, 2020 All Saints’ Day has a very long and interesting history. While the exact origin of this feast is unclear, historians believe that it began organically at the end of the Christian...
A reflection on the Sunday readings for October 25, 2020 When couples approach me for marriage preparation, they must complete a pre-nuptial inventory form. One part of the inventory concerns the couple’s “spiritual assessment.” Among the questions in this segment is...
Fratelli Tutti is a signature encyclical—not only of Francis’s papacy, but for the Catholic Church. During a pandemic, when the world seems to be at a political, social, religious, and ecological tipping point, comes a papal encyclical on “fraternity” and...
A reflection on the Mass readings for the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time. At my parish, I am currently leading an eight-week series on St. John of the Cross. John’s poems are all brilliant, but the ones that are the...
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