“A baby is God’s way of saying the world should go on.” My mother spoke this truth a thousand times while I was growing up. She said it every time we heard news of a friend or relative expecting a baby, but also each time the world darkened with terrible suffering or personal tragedy. She saw in each human life a great possibility: the prospect of new beginnings meeting the promise of hope.
Looking across a barren field on a frosty morning, I see an abstract quilt of colors and textures. Scraggily golden cornstalks, dark stripes of ploughed land, stripped grayed soybeans, dried-down alfalfa.
As another Advent is rapidly coming to an end, I hope and pray that you are in a better place to truly celebrate the birthday of the Messiah than you were back on Nov. 29 when we celebrated the first Sunday of Advent.
I want to start by wishing everyone a very happy belated Thanksgiving. I hope and pray that, in spite of how very different it was for most, your Thanksgiving was truly a time of giving thanks to God for all his many gifts and blessings.
In 1859, the radical abolitionist John Brown was executed for treason and murder after leading raids and uprisings. Raised in a Calvinist, anti-slavery home, he was so moved by an 1837 abolition meeting that he swore to dedicate his life to ending slavery. Many lives were lost – including three of his sons – as he launched his guerilla warfare.
An unexpected headline in the New York Times recently caught my eye: “A Disrupted Thanksgiving Leaves the Turkey Business Guessing.” The article that followed discussed a question that is, according to the author, on the tip of everyone’s tongue – “Just how many whole turkeys will Americans cook this year for a holiday whose wings have been clipped by the pandemic?”
Heavenly Father, in this time of Thanksgiving, in a year filled with so much turmoil, confusion, violence, angst, and COVID-19, let us pause in your presence truly knowing and feeling your loving embrace.
As we prepare for the Solemnity of Christ the King, it is with hope and faith in our Lord’s power and desire to bring healing to our world. He is the Divine Physician, and we know that his will is to heal; he is the Good Shepherd, and we know that his will is to lead, guide and protect his sheep.
In late May 2020, it was reported that liturgical composer David Haas was accused of sexual misconduct. Since then, Catholic news sources reported that allegations have come from 44 women regarding abusive sexual conduct from 1979 to 2019.
In a few short months, our country has faced a global pandemic, widespread protests, riots, wildfires and hurricanes.
