This Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent. That means we are in a new church year. Happy New Year, Church. Happy New Year, Pope Francis. Happy New Year to you all. And in this new church year, we have an amazing gospel for this Sunday. It is Jesus saying to us, “Please stay awake. You do not know when the Lord will come.” And so I think a great question to ask is, when your head hits the pillow and you’re going into dreamland, what’s the thing that keeps you up at night? Is it a relationship? Is it your family? Is it work? Is it studies? Is it trying to figure out when the Chicago Bears are actually gonna be good?
And hearing Jesus’ words in this new church year, can we think about him before we go to bed? Can we let the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit be the persons that we think about before we go to bed? And so, what do you think Jesus thought about when he was going to bed at night? What do you think kept him up at night? What do you think he thought about? I think the answer is obvious. He was thinking about you.
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Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
Today is a very solemn day. It is a day of mourning. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, he’ll be laid to rest. We pray for his soul. The thing that I remember most about him is how Pope John Paul II asked him when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, “What are you gonna do when you retire?” And Cardinal Ratzinger said, very simply, “I want to write a…
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Jesus Wants To Be With You
Sometimes the most healing thing someone can do isn’t fix our problems, it’s simply stay with us.
After one student’s life seemed to fall apart in a single day, a friend showed up in the middle of the night just to be there with her. That quiet presence changed everything.
In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus gives us the same promise: “I am with you always.” He doesn’t abandon us in suffering, failure, or loneliness. His desire is simply to remain with us, and for us to remain with Him. Because in the end, isolation is the absence of love, but being with Him is where healing begins
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Doomscrolling
Your thumbs might be stealing your soul. Doomscrolling is real, and it can slowly pull our attention, our peace, and our eyes away from what actually gives life.
In this Sunday’s Gospel, Peter begins to sink the moment he takes his eyes off Jesus. But when his focus returns to the Lord, he finds safety again.
That’s the invitation for us too. When we scroll endlessly, we’re often searching for relief from stress, anxiety, boredom, or exhaustion. But real relief isn’t found in our phones. It’s found in Jesus.
