One of my favorite new singers/songwriters is Noah Kahan. I’m a little biased because, like me, he is originally from Vermont. In a fine song entitled “Stick Season,” he sings of his hope to “cancel out the darkness I inherited from dad.” This lyric articulates his painful recognition of a dark spiritual “inheritance” from his father, and his hope to be free of it. We all inherit some degree of evil from our earthly forebears. It’s easy to feel doomed to repeat their darknesses.

I craved four things as a teenager: success in sports, food, fun, and the attention of popular people. However, I noticed that as I acquired them, I was more unsatisfied than before. So, I’d strive even more energetically, achieve more, and the sense of emptiness was greater still. These four things started to feel like burdens or even curses. Soon after, I encountered Christ in my high school youth group. Experiencing his love was totally different than anything those four things previously produced. It produced a lasting happiness.

My parents’ garage is full of old junk that no longer serves any purpose in my life. As a 46-year-old man, I admit that’s pretty lame. Either due to my sentimentality or laziness (or both, probably), I just couldn’t get myself to throw things away. But a few days ago, by a grace of God, I thought: “I’ll hire my nephew Ryan to throw a bunch of my stuff away — he couldn’t care less about my junk!” And you know what? It worked.

What is the secret to sharing in God’s power to overcome our difficulties? Mary teaches us this in the prophecy of her pierced heart. This Sunday, the old man Simeon prophecies that when her son faces opposition, Mary’s soul will be pierced by a sword. The seemingly pointless agony of a mother helplessly watching her son be mocked, tortured, killed, and then cruelly desecrated in death by a spear — somehow this piercing of her heart releases a power by which “the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:35). What to make of this?

A young couple in my parish told me they were expecting their second child, a baby boy. I knew that their five-year old only child Emma had been desperately wanting to be a big sister for years, so I said, “Emma must have been so happy when you told her the news.” “Actually,” they said, “she burst into tears. She wanted a baby sister!” How often in life God wonderfully fulfills our desires and we are sad because we don’t approve of the way he does it. We want to control the gift and the delivery method.

Dear Family of God,

Why is the Marital Relationship important in our Lives here on earth and in the next?

God in Jesus is our true husband. He is the Bridegroom that is eternally faithful to His Bride, the Church, that is, all of us. Even when we are unfaithful, turning away from Him, committing adultery by worshiping other gods, He remains faithful to us. He does not abandon us.

In my second year of theology studies, I went to confession to a priest visiting the seminary for a three-day retreat. My heart wasn’t in it. I was going through the motions. I confessed my sins and waited for his response. The priest said, “For your penance, I’d like you to go into the chapel and repeat the words ‘You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased’ (Luke 3:22) until they mean something to you.” Easy penance, I thought.

For the past week, Our Holy Mother, the Church gave us St. John’s letter on all first readings on weekday Masses to reflect on. After encountering Jesus, the light of the world, he wants us to see and teaches us how to live in the light. Just like the Magi in our Gospel, after encountering Jesus, they went home in another way.

As a first-time pastor in a parish, I received a phone call one afternoon from a young married couple, “Father, our 2-year-old son drowned in our pool this morning. We are at the hospital. Please help us.” I sped over. The little boy was gone, his body cold, slightly blue, laid out on a bed. His parents were distraught and in shock. For the next few years, I walked with the couple along their difficult and painful road.

What is Christmas? Why we need Christmas or Christ’s Incarnation?

Christmas is the fulfillment of God’s promise in Genesis 3:15, that he will send a Redeemer, Son of a woman to fight against the Devil. “I will put enmity you (serpent) and the woman and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.”

Entering into expectation.

I love to think about a Jewish Grandmother or Grandfather – about 2,500 years ago – having their grandchild on their knee and telling them about the uniqueness of their identity. That they are God’s chosen people. That they have been set apart for a unique role to play in the healing and redemption of the world. And, that they are waiting.

Advent is preparation for the coming of the Lord as our Savoir or Judge. Mary Immaculate can help us best prepare for welcoming Jesus into our hearts, the way she was prepared by the Father to be a fit dwelling place of our Savior. (This year’s celebration of Immaculate Conception is on Monday 12/9.)

When I was a young priest, about one year after ordination, I was called to the hospital to anoint a dying mother of three young children. She had a painful, terminal cancer. After celebrating Last Rites with her, I said, “Don’t be afraid.” She looked me square in the eye from her hospital bed and said, “Oh Father, I am in a lot of pain, but I am not afraid. Something wonderful is about to happen.” A few days later she died.