Today’s Thoughts: As we celebrate this Sunday between Christmas and the New Year, we do so by honoring the gift of family, specifically the gift of the Holy Family. When we honor the Holy Family, we honor all families.
 
I have used this image and story before but as I reflected on our readings during this past week a favorite fictional character from TV came to mind. The character, Special Agent, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, from the show NCIS. During an episode years ago part of the story line was Abby’s struggle with family. She found out that she was adopted. In a very touching scene she goes to Gibbs and says that she doesn't know who she is now, and Gibbs' reply goes something like this, "Abby, family is more than science and DNA, family is about the people who care about you and you have a lot of people who care right here." To me it was a touching scene that reflected some of Gibbs' best wisdom but also it reflects the focus of our feast today.
 
We might look at the Holy Family and say how can the Holy Family be an example of family life? They were the perfect family, how can a family in today’s world even begin to measure up to them? They were special people, blessed in a unique way by God. Jesus is the Son of God. Mary came into the world without sin. An angel came to both Joseph and Mary. How can any family ever measure up to the Holy Family? Well, in a word by caring!
 
Gibbs was right the basic value of family is that family cares no matter what, and it doesn’t always come from DNA. Haven’t there been times when you have considered a person family even though they didn’t have your DNA? You considered them family because in some way they were present to you when you needed them to be. They cared about you, about people in your life, about your family.
 
All the stories we find in the scriptures about the Holy Family like our Gospel today about Mary’s Purification, Jesus’ Presentation and Simeon’s and Anna’s blessings, are about people who care about their relationships with God, with each other and for the people around them. The gift of the Holy Family is the grace of caring. Perhaps our challenge today is to remember the people who care, those we are connected to us by DNA and those we are not – perhaps all of whom we can call family!
 
Have a blessed Feast of the Holy Family and a Happy New Year everyone!

​Today’s Thoughts: Feast of St. Thomas Becket – We find ourselves listening to the story of Simeon in our Gospel from Luke today (Luke 2:22-35) and St. John in his First Letter (1John 2:3-11).
 
I have always liked the story of Simeon. It is a very tender scene. Tomorrow we will hear the other half of this story as we will encounter the story of Anna. Two people who have dedicated their lives to God waiting for this moment. You can hear the joy in their voices as they realize the purpose of their lives coming to completion, both embraced by the Holy Spirit graced with the gift of hope.
 
They like St. John in our first reading, do not sugar coat the message they tell it like it is – or should I say like it will be. There will be sorrow and struggle but also life. Rather than speak about the "rise and fall" Simeon speaks of the "fall and rise." The cross is part of Jesus' story, but it is not the end. Death leads to life, doubt is embraced by faith, sorrow and struggle turns to joy!
 
St. John puts it another way and it is something we should think about given this moment in history. John speaks of the one old and new commandment – to love as Jesus loves. According to John, the way we can be sure of our knowledge of Jesus is to keep his commandments. The person who claims, “I have known him,” without keeping his commandments, is a liar; in such a one there is no truth. In other words, if we don’t love others as Jesus did, we are liars!
 
Perhaps as we listen to Simeon and St. John today, we need to remember that in being a person of faith our direction in life is always "upwards." Hope means that no matter how difficult things seem to get, no matter what the struggle – God is always with us. If we can be patience like Simeon and if we follow the command of love, the light of God will always direct our way, death, doubt, struggle and sorrow will become life, faith and joy!
 
Have a blessed and holy Christmas Friday everyone!

​Today’s Thoughts: Today is the feast of the Holy Innocents. It has special meaning for me because when I took my vows as a Passionist my title was Paul Raymond of the Holy Innocents. I took the Holy Innocents as my title, because before entering the Passionists I worked as a social worker and my responsibilities were with abused and neglected children. I also worked with hard to place adoptive children. So, when I entered the Passionists I wanted to honor children particularly those often forgotten by or unwanted by the world. I thought what better way to honor and to remember the children I served, worked with and encountered by placing them and myself under the protection of the Holy Innocents.
 
There is not a day goes by that I don’t pause to remember many of the children that I encountered in my work. I often wonder what happened to them. Many of them were wonderful children who just need a chance to break the cycle of abuse and neglect. They were children with gifts who often didn’t get the chance to realize those gifts because of decisions that adults had made. I continue to commend them and children around the world to the care and protection of the Holy Innocents.
 
The Holy Innocents are martyrs and saints. These spirits of God who care for those often not cared for or forgotten. I remember today especially those children at our borders and around the world who are separated from their parents and forced to live sometimes even in cages but always alone. Through the celebration of the feast of the Holy Innocents today and through their always present spirits may we as a nation and a world come to value the gift of children and the gift of life.
 
Blessings upon all mothers and fathers who want to bring life into the world, blessings upon all expectant mothers and blessings upon all children today!
 
Have a blessed and holy Thursday everyone!

​Today’s Thoughts: Feast of St. John the Evangelist – “Beloved: What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touch with our hands concerns the Word of life….” The opening lines from the First Letter of St. John which was read at today mass, have always been comforting yet challenging words for me. They are certainly profound words today as we celebrate the feast of St. John, the apostle, evangelist and beloved friend of Jesus. As we often refer to him, the youngest of the apostle or at least the fastest as we hear in today’s Gospel (John 20:1a and 2-8).
 
John by tradition lived the longest and was not martyred as the rest of the apostles were. In his old age he became a prisoner in exile, a mystic, a hermit and certainly a profound writer of the story of Jesus. Unlike his fellow evangelists John’s story is steeped in images, stories not found in the other Gospels and personal expressions of faith. John’s story of Jesus soars to the heights of the mystery of God, thus John is often imaged as an eagle.
 
In some ways we are all like John, living our life, running ahead when we can, believing when we get the chance to enter the mystery. We use the stories of our lives to proclaim the presence of God. We have seen things; heard things and touched things and they have all been about and from God. We are all God’s beloved.
 
May the spirit of St. John bring out the mystic in all of us today. May we look beyond what we hear, see and touch to the presence of God born in each of us this day!
 
Have a great Wednesday everyone!

Today’s Thoughts: Here we are on the day after Christmas, the day after the wonderful scene of Mary holding her newborn infant in a cave just outside of Bethlehem. In today’s readings, the scene has shifted to a place outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem. It is not a tranquil scene but one of mob violence as they drag a young man out of the city to his death all because he believes. Stephen becomes the first martyr of the new church.
 
On Thursday we will celebrate the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the baby boys martyred by Herod because he was so afraid of the infant Jesus. My point here is that in these early days after Christmas two of the feasts we celebrate, St. Stephen and Holy Innocents, stand in stark contrast to Christmas and they do so as a reminder that being a person of faith, that believing, comes with a challenge, comes with resistance from the world.
 
Christmas is not a happy ever after story. It is the beginning of a journey of faith that will take us from a cave outside of Bethlehem to a hill outside of Jerusalem and beyond. Christmas is the beginning of a challenge to wake up every day and find Emmanuel, God with us, in our lives.
 
As we celebrate the feast of St. Stephen today, we are reminded that the world will not always see things as we do.  Sometimes the world’s reaction to what we believe will be harsh and at times even deadly. But like Stephen we are asked to believe, to trust and to know that God is with us.
 
In our prayers today we ask St. Stephen to help and protect all who are persecuted because of what they believe. We pray for peace among religions, peace in our world!
 
“Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.” (Thomas Merton)
 
Have a holy and blessed Tuesday everyone.

​Today’s Thoughts: Today’s Thoughts: Some thoughts for a Christmas Day…
 
“To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us - and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense grace from Him.
 
Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God. For the grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference.” (Thomas Merton)
 
“Just because something is impossible, doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.” (Dorothy Day)
 
“It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”
 
“For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.” (Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol)
 
“And the Grinch, with his grinch feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling. "How could it be so?
 
It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
It came without packages, boxes, or bags!"
 
He puzzled and puzzled till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.
 
Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.
Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more!” (Dr. Seuss' The Grinch)
 
“Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home.”  (G.K. Chesterton)
 
“For a child is born to us, a son is given to us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:5)
 
“We are all meant to be mothers of God...for God is always needing to be born.”
 
“Every creature is a word of God and is a book about God.”
 
“We are celebrating the feast of the Eternal Birth which God the Father has borne and never ceases to bear in all eternity…. But if it takes not place in me, what avails it? Everything lies in this, that it should take place in me.” (Meister Eckhart)
 
All of these thoughts have something to say about our celebration of Christmas. However, I think Eckhart, the great Dominican mystic of the Middle Ages, has his finger on the meaning of the Christmas feast we begin to celebrate today. Yes, Christ was born in history some 2,000 plus years ago and yes Christ will be born again at the Second Coming but what is most important for us is that Christ is born each day within us. As Eckhart says, “Everything lies in this, that [Christ’s birth] should take place in [us].” In other words, each day we need to take on the responsibility of giving birth to Jesus by the living of our lives. We should bring the presence of God to the world each day.
 
Over the next day or so if we are lucky, we will encounter children joyfully celebrating the gift of Christmas in song, in story, in pageant. We will experience them as angels, shepherds, Mary and Joseph. We will watch them place the child in the manager and proclaim, “Glory of God on high and Peace on Earth to all people of good will.” We will see the joy, the excitement, and nervousness on their faces. And after all is said, sung and done we will for a moment sense the true meaning of Christmas that God is with us!
 
My hope is that this Christmas, as you celebrate the mystery of the Christmas Eucharist, as you gather with family and perhaps friends, amid good food and choice drink, as presents are frantically opened and enjoyed you will look around at the faces of fellow parishioners, guests, friends and family and see the wonderful gift of God’s presence.
 
We are lucky people – no, we are blessed people because Emmanuel is born within us each day and all we need to do is believe!
 
“Let us draw from the crib the joy and deep peace that Jesus comes to bring to the world.” (Pope Francis)
 
A Blessed and Holy Christmas to all!

​Today’s Thoughts: It is truly an unusual day. We celebrate the Fourth Sunday of Advent this morning and then by late afternoon today, Christmas Eve, we will begin the celebration of Christmas. It makes it difficult for parishes as we move so quickly from Advent to Christmas. Mass schedules are often changed a little to accommodate the two celebrations and a question that is often asked is – “Will this mass fulfil my obligation for Sunday and Christmas?” It is truly an unusual day!
 
So, with that thought I would like to begin my homily by talking about a television program that was on a few years ago and you can still catch it at times in reruns called Scorpion. You might say, I am sticking with the theme of unusual. The premise of the show was inspired by a true story about a man named Walter O’Brien. Mr. O’Brian has an IQ of 195. In the show he brings together a group of friends who are also brilliant, gifted like himself, and they work as a team helping Homeland Security. Each person on the team has a special gift. In the show they solve problems not by fighting or the use of guns but with their intelligence.
 
However, this team of brilliant super intelligent people has one major flaw, they find it very difficult relating to ordinary people, people who are not as intelligent or gifted as themselves. So, they find a person named Paige who is not as intellectually brilliant or gifted as they are, you might say she is just ordinary, but she knows how to relate to people. Paige also has a gifted son, so the team promises to help Paige understand her son, if she helps the team to understand and relate to ordinary people.
 
This might seem like an odd way to begin a homily, but my point is that our readings today and at this time of year remind us of the human element in the story of the Incarnation. Yes, the Incarnation, God becoming human is a mystery, it is the impossible becoming possible. Time and time again this Advent we have heard how with God nothing is impossible. However, Mary’s yes; Joseph’s yes, the stories of Elizabeth, David from our first reading and others along the way are important to us because they remind us of the need to have faith, trust and hope in the presence of God. Like the character of Paige, an ordinary heroine in the Scorpion the ordinary heroes and heroines of our faith story help us to understand God’s plan for us! Mary, Elizabeth, Joseph, Zachariah, David are not the powerful, the extraordinary intelligent, the profoundly gifted – they are ordinary…..
 
Perhaps our challenge as we bring our Advent journey to a close and jump into the celebration of Christmas is to take a moment sometime this evening, tomorrow morning or early afternoon to acknowledge our ordinariness and yet know that we too can be God’s unexpected heroes and heroines who respond with a yes and bring God’s faith, hope, joy and love to a world that so desperately need it.
 
Have a faith filled Sunday everyone and don’t forget it is Sunday in the morning and Christmas late in the afternoon, two different celebrations, two different obligations. So, don’t forget to give God a little extra love and time today and/or tomorrow!

​Today’s Thoughts: “What then, will this child be? For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.” I have celebrated a few baptisms in my life as a priest and there is one thing, I do the same at each one. During my homily, I ask all gathered to consider asking themselves two questions as they celebrate the baptism of the child. When they get a chance during the party that usually follows the baptism, to hold the child for a moment, they are to ask themselves – First, what do they, wish, dream, hope for this child? Second, how will they help this wish, dream, hope to come true?
 
As I prayed with the Gospel (Luke 1: 57-66) this morning the picture that I painted above of a baptism came to mind. If you have ever taken a baby in your arms perhaps one of the first questions that came to your mind was – “What will become of this child?” The same question people asked at the circumcision of John. I think it is a natural question to ask when seeing a newborn. What will this child be? What gifts, what talents, does this child have? What kind of life will this child encounter, live? What lies ahead for this child?
 
Another thought when looking at a newborn is the fact that this child has come from God. I use an image in one of my mission talks of a newborn child coming into the world. The image is that when a child is born, the child, she or he comes directly from the hands of God. The last face before coming into the world a child sees is God’s. If the child could speak in words that we could understand she or he could tell us about God. Unfortunately, by the time the child can speak in words we understand she or he has forgotten what God looks like and like us, the child spends the rest of her or his life making the journey back to those hands of God. Just think the first hands to embrace us after we take our last breath will be God’s. The first face we will see will be God’s. In other words, the hands of God are with us at birth and throughout our life.
 
The story we find in the Gospel today about John’s circumcision is all our stories. When we came into the world people wondered what we would become. People looked at us with love and knew God’s hands were at work. Yet, unlike John we don’t know the end of our story. It is still being lived out; it still needs an ending. We know what John became. We know how John lived out God’s call. We know how John allowed God’s hands to be at work in his life.
 
Who then are we? How then are God’s hands at work in us? These are our questions for this day. These then are our questions for the celebration of Christmas. These are our questions for the beginning of a New Year.
 
Have a holy and blessed Saturday everyone!

​Today’s Thoughts: Mary's Magnificat one of the most beautiful prayers. It reflects her trust and faith in God. It reflects her commitment to God's plan for her. Each evening I pray this prayer hoping that as I live life, I can have the same trust, faith and commitment in and to God.
 
Think of the setting in our Gospel today. Mary finds herself at Elizabeth house having travel some 90 miles either on foot or by donkey. She carries a child in her womb that has been placed there through the most unusual of circumstances. She is betrothed to Joseph, but the child is not his. We might ask what does she have to be thankful for? For what can she praise God? Yet, her prayer is a prayer of praise. She praises God first and foremost for his love for her.
 
Both women in the scriptures today, Mary and Hannah, teach us about praise, commitment, trust, and faith. They are models of what it means to be a friend of God, of what it means to be beloved by God. They teach us true friendship and commitment.
 
Perhaps as we prepare in these final days before Christmas, we might look at our own friendship with God and renew our commitment to proclaim God's greatness in our life!
 
Have a blessed and holy Friday everyone!

​Today’s Thoughts: “How does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Words uttered by Elizabeth in today’s Gospel (Luke 1:39-45). Yet I think they are also words uttered by us at times when we recognize Mary’s presence in our life.
 
Yes, I firmly believe that I have been visited by Mary at moments in my life. Mary has come to me at times when I needed a mother’s presence either to comfort me or put me back on the straight and narrow. Times when I needed that hug or when I needed a stern but loving word to set me straight. Mary has come at times when the gift of family was strong and ever present and when I was alone and needed to know that family was still there.
 
Mary walks into our lives often and like Elizabeth we often recognize her presence and God’s presence at once because something inside us leaps for joy. However, there are other times when it takes us a little longer to recognize her presence and the presence of God. Sometimes it is long after they have visited us that we are able to acknowledge their presence.
 
Mary reminds us today that mothers are so important. They not only give us life. They carry us until we can face the world. They protect us. They nurture us. They teach us and they make Mary and Christ present to us throughout our lives!
 
Perhaps like Elizabeth today as we think of our own mothers, as we think about pregnant mothers, as we think about all mothers, we should remember how gifted we are that the mother of our Lord should come to us. We celebrate this day in gratitude for all the mothers!
 
Have a holy and blessed Thursday everyone.