Imaginative Prayer
Maybe you’ve heard about the nativity scene plenty, and seen it depicted endlessly. Do you really think you’ve entered as deeply into that mystery as you can? There’s more! The Holy Spirit is never exhausted. It’s the same with all of Scripture. This isn’t a collection of abstract ideas; these are stories of real…
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is…
The Resourcefulness of God
The Lord doesn’t need a perfect moment to do what he does. He can use—and has used — all the secular events and moments in history to bring about his plan. The detours and decisions and even things that feel like inconveniences — he’ll work with it all. And it’s not that he’s just done this once or twice…
Third Sunday of Advent
The crowds asked John the Baptist, “What should we do?” He said to them in reply, “Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise.” Even tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to him, “Teacher, what should we do?” He answered them, “Stop collecting…
Our Father is Faithful
As a people and a Church, we have a common patrimony and inheritance of promises kept. Over time, salvation history involves real people and real stories—God breaks into history. Think Elizabeth and Zachariah. Simeon. Anna. We are part of this story, living in salvation history. We must remember that God…
Second Sunday of Advent
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of…
Give God Time
God doesn’t make empty promises. But for many people…there are promises they won’t see fulfilled in their lifetimes. In receiving his promises, we also have to receive his timeline. What does it look like to let God take his time? Start with stillness; sit in it; talk to him about it; think about when God has fulfilled…
Hope for a Hard Life
The lived experience of most people is: life is hard. We’re still in this valley of tears. We live it, but might not be relating it in a way that’s helpful…we just drag it around. Enter: Advent. A season of hope and of promises fulfilled. Expectant hope, with confidence that the Lord is good and is at work for our good…