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.
Reel Homilies with Father Tim Anastos is free to watch, but it’s not free to produce! Generous donors make it possible for us to continue creating this content. If you enjoy Reel Homilies, please consider making a monthly tax-deductible gift. Spirit Juice Entertainment Group (SJEG) is the non-profit arm of Spirit Juice Studios. It is a 501(c)3 organization that relies on your support to continue creating original, authentically Catholic content that reaches thousands of people each week through our website and social media channels.
Start a new monthly donation and receive an array of Reel Homilies and Spirit Juice swag in gratitude for your generosity. For more information, please visit our Reel Homilies Support page.
To qualify, you must donate a minimum of $10 per month. All gifts in between will be rounded down to the nearest package amount. Please allow 6-8 weeks for your package to be shipped. Questions? Contact us at [email protected]. Your donation is tax-deductible within the United States, and we will provide a tax receipt for your records.
-
We Need Both
Watching food shows can be frustrating, you can see the food, but you can’t taste it, and it never truly satisfies.
In this Sunday’s Gospel, the disciples on the road to Emmaus experience something similar. Their hearts burn as Jesus opens the Scriptures, but they don’t fully recognize Him until the breaking of the bread.
That’s the invitation for us. We don’t just study Jesus, we receive Him. Scripture and the sacraments go together, and when they do, we encounter Him fully.
-
We Have A Savior
You may have noticed before on a street corner, on a college campus, or at a sports game, someone holding up a big sign that says, “John 3:16.” Well, that’s our gospel for this Sunday. We all know this gospel. “For God’s so loved the world that he gave his only son.” This is the ultimate mic drop that the entirety of the gospels is rolled up into this one passage…
-
Unoffendable
A Google review was left for me on my old parish’s website, and the Google Review said I avoid his masses. I should have been up in arms by it, trying to defend myself, but I was just sad, but I wasn’t offended. In the first reading for this Sunday, the apostles are called to go out and proclaim the good news to the world, and if they are rejected or persecuted, they shake the dust from their feet, not becoming…
