Time To Listen & Hear “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” "Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." "His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” Mtt. 3:1-12

A Voice ... crying out ... in the wilderness ... Advent is such a precious time that is so often missed entirely. In these four weeks, our popular culture is busy getting into the Christmas spirit. All around us is filled with the sounds of Christmas. The "wilderness" of today is the market place filled with people - unable to hear that voice of Advent calling out. A wilderness is a place of space; a space to pray, to listen, to hear. Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight ... Everyone has a path marked out for their life. But do I know where it is taking me? Is it leading me ever deeper into the mystery of union with God? Or, has my path added many new side paths - involvements that increasingly leave little room for things spiritual? Is my chosen path leading me away from god's presence? Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees ... And what shall my response be ... this is a time to take an axe to the dead wood in our lives. These are days of discernment. What in my life is bearing fruit and what is taking up space and wasting my precious gift of time?  Once again I would like to recommend the Ignatian Prayer of Discernment here; as well as some of their other resources for Advent.

ADVENT SERIES WEEK TWO Repeat Series for Advent Based On the Lectio Divina Approach to Prayer
William Kurelek The Welcome at the  Country Mission	William Kurelek The Presentation to the Children	William Kurelek A Boathouse Man's Excuse
MONDAY <> LINK	WEDNESDAY <> LINK	FRIDAY <> LINK

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First Sunday of Advent - 2025

Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” Mtt 24:42

Time is something we take for granted, ours to use at our discretion. But there in lies the problem. We do not create time; we are only the managers of time. Time is a gift given by God, for a purpose. As servants of the landowner, a portion of the “garden of time” is assigned to us, wherein to plant the works of holiness and reap an abundant harvest, as best we can. The gospels are rich in this imagery, given by Jesus in his parables, to help us to learn and understand the purpose of our existence in time. So, what kind of servant am I? Misguided: – increasingly, the shroud of secularism is spreading over the mind of this generation. With man at the centre, time is exclusively ours to do with as we please. There is no other to which we must account. Negligent: – those who have been informed with a conscience that teaches us of responsibility for what happens in our time. Yet tomorrow seems to be the time of choice. Selfish: – yes, but time is limited so me first. Wise: – every day is my last day. At what works will I be found engaged when he comes to call me? The First Sunday of Advent begins a new year of grace; a new year to study the gospels and the works of holiness; a new gift of time. What lies ahead is hidden. Only one thing is certain - we will be asked for an accounting of this time spent.

Last Advent I posted a series of meditations based on the Lectio Divina method of prayer. I am including these again this Advent. The graphics used in these posts are of the paintings by William Kurelek found in his book, Northern Nativity.

 

ADVENT SERIES WEEK ONE Repeat Series for Advent Based On the Lectio Divina Approach to Prayer
William Kurelek The Nightwatchman's Christmas	William Kurelek A Farm Family's Adoration	William Kurelek The Holy Family as Indian
MONDAY <> LINK	WEDNESDAY <> LINK	FRIDAY <> LINK

THE ADVENT WREATH One of the symbols associated with Advent is the Advent Wreath. There are various traditions that describe its meaning and use. In the midst of all the Christmas decoration, having an Advent Wreath in the home helps keep us in touch with the spirituality of Advent. This in turn will prepare us to connect to the rich spiritual meaning of Christmas. Here is a sample of some of the ways you might use an Advent Wreath as part of your Advent prayer. /// link \\\

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Our Lord Jesus Christ King of the Universe - 2025

Feast of Christ the King was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925. It was only a few years since the end of the catastrophic First World War. The minds of many were in search of answers as to how such an evil had overtaken the world. In his encyclical, instituting the Feast of Christ the King, the pope said this - In the first Encyclical Letter which We addressed at the beginning of Our Pontificate to the Bishops of the universal Church, We referred to the chief causes of the difficulties under which mankind was laboring. And We remember saying that these manifold evils in the world were due to the fact that the majority of men had thrust Jesus Christ and his holy law out of their lives; that these had no place either in private affairs or in politics: and we said further, that as long as individuals and states refused to submit to the rule of our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations.  Men must look for the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ; and that We promised to do as far as lay in Our power. In the Kingdom of Christ, that is, it seemed to Us that peace could not be more effectually restored nor fixed upon a firmer basis than through the restoration of the Empire of Our Lord. Pope Pius XI in 1925: The Pope barely had finished identify the real cause of humanities failures which lead to the First World War than an even greater catastrophic Second World War broke out; which was followed by the Cold War in which the very existence of humanity lay teetering on the threat of all-out nuclear war. Has the world finally learned the lesson the Pope articulated in his Encyclical Letter? To answer this question let us listen again to the dialogue in today’s Gospel Reading. And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!" The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!"  One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!" Do we not hear the same challenges being hurled again Christ and His Church today? The words used to attack may be different, but they harbour the same cynical contempt. Now we hear - and where is the proof that there is any such God let alone that this man Jesus, even if he actually existed, was some kind of god?  And in mockery - you who worship this Jesus, what are you smoking, what are you drinking – a cocktail of make-believe?  And in derision - look at all that science and technology has done to save lives, who’s life has your religion saved lately? And that other voice heard now speaks;  “Lord, judge us not for such blasphemy hurled against you. Teach us the ways of your Kingdom of truth so that we make bring peace to our broken World.”  And the voice of Lord reply's: “I am with you always, and my truth has set you free. Remain in Me as I remain in you.” So ends this liturgical year and the choice put forward at the Cross of Jesus remains no less true for us today. The words of Pope Pius XI remain ever true; that the evils in the world are due to the fact that the majority of people have thrust Jesus Christ and his holy law out of their lives; that as long as individuals and states refused to submit to the rule of our Savior, there will be no real hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations or a person’s own life.  To who’s kingdom will we bind our hearts, the kingdom man’s futility or God’s Kingdom of Light and Peace? A new year is about to unfold before us. May our choice be certain, one without compromise.

Thirty-third Sunday of the Year - 2025

Commentary on the Sunday Gospel for  the Thirty-third Sunday, 2019 Dr. Brant Pitre, a Research Professor of Theology  at the Augustine Institute. View on Catholic Productions - LINK

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Thirty-first Sunday of the Year - 2025

Reading 1 Wisdom 11:22-12:2 Before the LORD the whole universe is as a grain from a balance  or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.  But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things;  and you overlook people's sins that they may repent.   For you love all things that are  and loathe nothing that you have made;  for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.  And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it;  or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you?   But you spare all things, because they are yours,  O LORD and lover of souls,  for your imperishable spirit is in all things!   Therefore you rebuke offenders little by little,  warn them and remind them of the sins they are committing,  that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you, O LORD!

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Thirtieth Sunday of the Year - 2025

Commentary on the Sunday Gospel for  the Thirtieth Sunday, 2019 Dr. Brant Pitre, a Research Professor of Theology  at the Augustine Institute. View on Catholic Productions - LINK

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Twenty-nineth Sunday of the Year - 2025

Oh no, here she comes again! Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? Luke 18:1-8 I was listening to a commentary on this text of scripture and it had a rather interesting explanation of what Jesus is literally saying about the woman in his parable. The translation we have here is from the NRSV translation and it reads “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for any human being, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.” But the literal Greek word actually says “lest she come and give me a black eye.” That’s what hypopiazō means. It’s a boxing term. This is one lady you do not want to mess with. Like in many of Jesus parables it has this attention-getting twist. Through the image of this parable, Jesus gives us another lesson on prayer, “… to pray always without becoming weary.” The question is never, will God hear my prayer, rather, when ( speedily ) and how ( justly ). I think it would be true to say, that everyone has given up on prayer a some time or other; either because it seems to be lost in time, or we fail to recognize and understand how it has been answered. In Mtt. 6:8, in the instruction on the "Our Father", Jesus reminds that the Father knows what we need, even before we ask. We start off in prayer with what we think is our need and how soon we need it. This is good to get prayer going. It is here that "faith" becomes all important. Faith dismisses the question of will God hear and answer my prayer, and turns it to a question of discernment, how is my prayer being answer? With this in mind some might be led to ask, why make petition in prayer to God at all? Since God already knows what is to be done, why pray? We pray, not to change God's mind, rather to change ours. We bring our small and limited grasp of the situation to prayer, so that it might be fulfilled, that is, filled up, expanded in ways far beyond what we would have imagined. When the man, who was born blind, reached out to Jesus to make him able to see, Jesus opened his eyes, not simply for him to have physical sight, but to see more deeply into the mystery of God's plan for his blindness, for his healing and for his new purpose in life. As Jesus passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.… John 9:1 Clearly, the disciples were incorrect in assuming this man's blindness was punishment for sin. Blindness can be a result of the imperfection of the natural order. Modern medicine has discovered ways to intervene in such conditions and in some cases restore sight. No doubt grace can be a part of such a process and people of faith recognize this and praise God for such knowledge given to man. But if praying for healing does not experience the recovery of sight, does this mean the prayers are rejected?  No, something greater is at work and we must continue in prayer to discover what. No prayer made in faith will be rejected. Knowing this, first brings peace to our hearts in our situation. Now this "prayer of faith", sets out to lead us ever deeper into the mystery of God's greater plan for us, and how this situation will bring glory to God and fulfillment far beyond all our imagining. The Christian Life rest on the foundation of prayer. Prayer rests on the foundation of Faith. When the Lord comes to answer our prayer, how will we know, how will we see him, unless through the "eyes of faith"? The Prayer of Faith will not fall silent.

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Twenty-eighth Sunday of the Year - 2025

This is Thanksgiving weekend in our country. Usually when we think of Thanksgiving, you have images of the bountiful harvest of the fruits of our land for which we come together to give thanks to God. But the image we have before us in today’s gospel is of a man giving thanks to God for quite a different reason. He is a man whose body was being ravaged by leprosy until he encountered Jesus who cured him. Leprosy, or Hansen's disease as it is also known, still exists today. It’s a bacterial decease affecting the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This may result in a lack of ability to feel pain, thus loss of parts of extremities due to repeated injuries or infection. But today it is curable by medication. In the ancient world leprosy was grouped in with other visible skin conditions and was most feared and dreaded. People with these conditions were forced to live apart from the general population, they must keep their distance while warning that they were leprous – unclean, unclean. In this gospel passage there are ten leprous men who are cured by Jesus resulting in two different responses by those cured. Nine simply return to life in their communities but with the thought that they are the luckiest men in town. But one has an entirely different response. Something greater than physical healing has happened to him – has been converted – he has encounter God, person-to-person. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then Jesus said to the Samaritan, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” In our first Reading Naaman when he saw that he was cured of leprosy proclaimed, "Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.” Why, because in those days only God could cure leprosy. Today the wonders of modern medicine leave us in awe over how it is able to cure us. Is our age not unlike the picture we have before us in this gospel passage? Is it not unlike the other nine in today’s gospel, simply to be content with the cure – no need to bring God into it? People of faith gather this weekend to give thanks to God. Even though we know that by our own natural resources we contribute much to our own well-being, we also know that without the guidance of the wisdom of God and his provident hand sustaining us our lives could quickly descend into ruin. Today, as God looks out at these church gatherings of people come before Him to give thanks – yet with so many empty pews – might we not hear again these words spoken by Jesus in today’s gospel: “So many lives have I filled with my blessings, so few have come back to give thanks. Where are all the others? And to us he says: “Go home to your celebrations now, knowing that it is by your faith in me I make all things well.”

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Twenty-seventh Sunday of the Year - 2025

Commentary on the Sunday Gospel for  the Twenty-seventh Sunday Dr. Brant Pitre, a Research Professor of Theology  at the Augustine Institute. View on Catholic Productions - LINK

Twenty-sixth Sunday of the Year - 2025

Recall last Sunday how Jesus, in Luke chapter 16, warned us that you cannot serve two masters, both God and money. Today’s gospel continues with Jesus warning of the dangers of wealth and its misuse and where we could end up if we are not wise and prudent about how we use it. In the early years of Jewish belief ideas of what was the make up of the afterlife is just developing. It was believed that all souls went to the same place called Sheol, the realm of the dead, where the good, the bad, those in-between all went to the same place. By the time of Christ, the idea had developed. Now within Sheol there is a separate place called Hades, the place of the damned. This is how Jesus uses the expression Hades – a place opposite to heaven, a place of anguish and flames – a place where the wicked go. Now even though there is a great chasm separating these two opposite realms those in Hades can see those in heaven which only adds to their suffering seeing what they have lost. So why is the rich man in hates? What does Jesus parable say about him; does it say he is an idolater, no;  does it say he breaks the Sabbath, no; does it say he stole from anyone, no; does it say he was a liar or and adulterer or a murderer, no none of these things commandments. All it says that he lived a life of luxury and gluttony, causing him to fail the second of Jesus’ two greatest commandments failing to love his neighbour who was languishing right there on his doorstep. He is in Hates for sins of omission. By this parable Jesus is warning of the great danger wealth poses, how it can lead to the sin of pride, a turning in on one’s self and leading to all manner of sins. It well might be that we could be failing to realize there are two categories of sins, sins of commission and sins of omission, what we fail to do. Some may think that because they believe that God exists, that they attend church and that they have not killed anyone that that is all there is to it. I’m in – think again. Let us revisit Matthew 25, I quoted last Sunday: Then he will say to those at his left hand, "You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, "Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' Then he will answer them, "Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." People today often talk about their "bucket list" all those things they want to experience, see and do before they die. A lot of work goes into planning and achieving the bucket list. Perhaps it would be well for us to spend less time on our bucket list and more time on our "to do" list, all those things yet to be done for which we will be held accountable on that day reckoning that surely is to come.

Twenty-fifth Sunday of the Year - 2025

In the Parable of the Unjust Steward in Luke 16, Jesus describes a very perplexing situation.  Rather than the dishonest steward in the Parable of the Unjust Steward being berated or punished for his treachery, he is lauded by his master for taking the initiative to acquire friends for himself, even by theft, knowing his master was going to release him from his duties.   What's more impressive about this parable of the unjust steward is that Jesus himself encourages his followers to be like this dishonest and unjust steward. What gives?  What is Jesus talking about?   > > > LINK TO VIDEO < < <

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Twenty--forth Sunday of the Year - 2025

If you may have noticed people walking around scratching their heads lately it could be that they are church-going Catholics trying to figure out what on earth has Jesus been saying to us in the gospels these last few Sundays. Last Sunday Jesus said we cannot be his disciple unless we hate the members of our family. Two weeks ago, Jesus warned that many may not make it to heaven. Sunday before that Jesus said, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!” and today Jesus gives us three parables that do not make sense. If this goes on, we may have no hair left to scratch. Let’s look at these three parables Jesus is using to teach us. Now the Scribes and the Pharisees are scandalized at Jesus welcoming and eating with sinners. Pharisees would have nothing to do with these “breakers of the law of God.” So Jesus answers with these two parables. The first is about a shepherd and his sheep; “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?" Well this will leave them scratching their heads because no one would do that, risk leave their whole herd to predators and thieves over one sheep. “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’  Again, no one would do that, they would look absolutely foolish, having a neighbourhood rejoicing over a lost loonie. Jesus has fashioned these examples to be counter intuitive to the extreme to demonstrate that when it comes to sinners God does not think like we do. Just the opposite.  “There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance”. God wants all his created humanity to be at home with Him in heaven. That is why God sent his Son into the world to bring every last one home. Jesus illustrates this with the story of the Prodigal Son which ends today’s gospel reading. The question for us today is where do I stand on the lost? Let them go to hell if they want to, they deserve it. Or am I here today in tears over those I know who no longer have any interest in anything having to do with God?  In this parable of the Prodigal Son there are three main characters. Which one do I most resemble?

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Twenty-third Sunday of the Year - 2025

If ever there was someone who wanted to put you to the test about your Christian faith, today's gospel text would make a perfect weapon. “Whoever comes to me and does not hate their father and mother, spouse and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even their life itself, cannot be my disciple.” So your Jesus wants you to hate your family – it says so right here. Now if you reply by saying that Jesus didn’t really say that or mean that, you create a whole lot of trouble for yourself. Would that not be true of anything the gospels quote Jesus as saying? Perhaps a little parable might help us here. Suppose you belonged to a family of a non-Christian religion. Your father is a strong, devote believer and he strictly demands that you follow this same religion and all its beliefs and practices. One day you come and announce that you are going to become a Catholic; you believe that Jesus is the son of God and that the Catholic Church is the true way to follow Christ. Your father tells you that if you do this, he will disown you, strip you of your inheritance and nothing more to do with you. And so you leave. In other words it all or nothing. In today's society, the worst thing you can do is promote hate. Hate crimes are of the worst kind of evil. Here Jesus is using hyperbole; which is an exaggerated statement or claim not meant to be taken literally. Like when Jesus said “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell.” Mk. 9:43 Jesus is not teaching hate, but he is teaching unconditional love. To be his disciple Jesus wants our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole mind with all our strength. The problem we face in the Church today is mediocrity – I like some of the things the Church teaches but certainly not everything. In Matthew’s account of this issue Jesus is warning that to follow Him unconditionally will have its challenges.  “A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; and anyone who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. Mtt. 10:36 Jesus wants our whole heart first and above all. Half-hearted faith will never last in today's world. It slowly drains away until it is all gone. The choice is now in our hands.

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Commentary on the Sunday Gospel for  the Twenty-third Sunday. Dr. Brant Pitre, a Research Professor of Theology  at the Augustine Institute. View on Catholic Productions - LINK

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