“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.”

”We must have confidence in God, Who is what He always has been, and we must not be disheartened because things turn out contrary to us.” - Saint Philip

Scripture Text:  (IS 30:19-21, 23-26)

Thus says the Lord GOD,

the Holy One of Israel:

O people of Zion, who dwell in Jerusalem,

no more will you weep;

He will be gracious to you when you cry out,

as soon as he hears he will answer you.

The Lord will give you the bread you need

and the water for which you thirst.

No longer will your Teacher hide himself,

but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher,

While from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears:

“This is the way; walk in it,”

when you would turn to the right or to the left.

He will give rain for the seed

that you sow in the ground,

And the wheat that the soil produces

will be rich and abundant.

On that day your flock will be given pasture

and the lamb will graze in spacious meadows;

The oxen and the asses that till the ground

will eat silage tossed to them

with shovel and pitchfork.

Upon every high mountain and lofty hill

there will be streams of running water.

On the day of the great slaughter,

when the towers fall,

The light of the moon will be like that of the sun

and the light of the sun will be seven times greater

like the light of seven days.

On the day the LORD binds up the wounds of his people,

he will heal the bruises left by his blows.

We can't be happy just thinking about what it is we are hoping for, we have to think about what it is that God hopes of us. He wants us to follow him, just like he did the apostles. He tells us through Isaiah: «This is the way, walk in it» (Is 30:21). God hopes of us that we will give witness, each one in his own particular situation and circumstances that «the kingdom of heaven is near» (Mt 10:7).


If there is too much noise in your life and you can’t hear that still small voice, it’s time to practice a bit of silence. If you’re moving too quickly to make a course correction or take a step closer to Jesus, it’s time to slow down. If you are hanging on to a pattern of sin or a festering resentment, now is the time to cast it aside and be set free through Confession.

Be still, and listen for God’s gracious voice.

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”

We must meditate before, during and after everything we do. The prophet says: "I will pray, and then I will understand." This is the way we can easily overcome the countless difficulties we have to face day after day, which, after all, are part of our work. In meditation we find the strength to bring Christ to birth in ourselves and in others. - Saint Charles Borromeo

Scripture Text: ( IS 29:17-24)
Thus says the Lord GOD:
But a very little while,
and Lebanon shall be changed into an orchard,
and the orchard be regarded as a forest!
On that day the deaf shall hear
the words of a book;
And out of gloom and darkness,
the eyes of the blind shall see.
The lowly will ever find joy in the LORD,
and the poor rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
For the tyrant will be no more
and the arrogant will have gone;
All who are alert to do evil will be cut off,
those whose mere word condemns a man,
Who ensnare his defender at the gate,
and leave the just man with an empty claim.
Therefore thus says the LORD,
the God of the house of Jacob,
who redeemed Abraham:
Now Jacob shall have nothing to be ashamed of,
nor shall his face grow pale.
When his children see
the work of my hands in his midst,
They shall keep my name holy;
they shall reverence the Holy One of Jacob,
and be in awe of the God of Israel.
Those who err in spirit shall acquire understanding,
and those who find fault shall receive instruction.

Describing the longed-for age of the Messiah, the prophet Isaiah conveys wonderful promises about what will happen when God finally brings his redemption. The deaf will hear, the blind will see, the poor will rejoice, and tyrants will be overthrown. Even the very landscape will be altered!

But among these grand promises is a more personal one that can touch each and every one of us today: the gift of understanding. And what a gift this is! We all know how easy it can be to “err in spirit,” to “find fault,” and to condemn someone “with a mere word” (Isaiah 29:24, 21). Judgmental behaviors like these involve “standing over” someone and looking down on him or her. As such, they are the direct opposite of understanding.

To understand is to “stand under.” It is to offer people our support and to look up to them with deep respect. Every person deserves to be treated this way, with respect and understanding, because everyone is made in the image of God. It may be hard to detect in some, but if we ask the Lord to open our eyes and we purify our hearts through the Sacrament of Confession, we will be able to discern traces of God’s handiwork in even the most difficult people around us. And seeing them in this new light, we will understand them a little better.

“I'm not at all contemptuous of comforts, but they have their place and it is not first.”

"How many of us, myself included, have lost our bearings; we are no longer attentive to the world in which we live; we don't care; we don't protect what God created for everyone, and we end up unable even to care for one another!" – Pope Francis (Homily July 8, 2013)

Gospel Text: (MT 7:21, 24-27)
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the Kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
And everyone who listens to these words of mine
but does not act on them
will be like a fool who built his house on sand.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”

What is your “house” built on? Is your “house” built on your family? Your friends? Your desires? Your job? Material possessions? Yourself?

Or is your “house” built on your relationship with God?

What is the foundation of your entire life? The all familiar children’s story of the Three Little Pigs comes to mind (humor me). The first little pig built his house out of straw, because it was the easiest thing to do. The second little pig built his house out of sticks, a little bit better but still not built to last. The third little pig built his house out of bricks, a good strong and solid foundation. Everything was fine until the wolf came along and as we all know he blew in the house of the straw and sticks, but he could not blow in the house of bricks. So we are not the three little pigs, but the enemy works similarly in our lives as the wolf did. When our foundation is built on rock, on our Lord, the enemy cannot blow our house in and we cannot be shaken. But if we are not rooted in this Love that comes from and is Jesus Christ, our foundations will crumble. It seems that our society today is and tells us to build “our house” on success, fame, wealth and material goods. These are all passing things, things that will not withstand the storms of our lives. When things get tough, tragedy approaches or we are faced with difficulties, without a solid foundation on God, we will fall apart.

It is a fact, however, that many believe and do not “do”. Saint James' letter exposes it in an impressive way: «Be doers of the Word and not just hearers, lest you deceive yourselves» (1:22); «Faith without deeds: it is totally dead» (2:17); «So, just as the body is dead without its spirit, so faith without deeds is also dead» (2:26). Saint Matthew rejects such a way of going about one's faith, in an unforgettable way, when he says: «Not everyone who says to me: Lord! Lord! will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my heavenly Father» (7:21).

It is therefore necessary to listen and to do; in this way we build on rock and not on sand.

"God gives, but man must open his hand."

'I have never worried about our temporal affairs, and I have seen by experience that God has always provided for us. When we were two, Providence provided enough for two; for four when we were four; and when our number increased the needs of all were supplied, thus verifying the divine promise: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matt. vi. 33.) "Be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on." (Matt. vi. 25.)' - St. Paul of the Cross

Gospel Text: (Mt 15,29-37):
Jesus went to the shore of Lake Galilee, and then went up into the hills where he sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing the dumb, the blind, the lame, the crippled, and many with other infirmities. The people carried them to the feet of Jesus, and he healed them. All were astonished when they saw the dumb speaking, the lame walking, the crippled healed and the blind able to see; so they glorified the God of Israel.

Jesus called his disciples and said to them, «I am filled with compassion for these people; they have already followed me for three days and now have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away fasting, or they may faint on the way». His disciples said to him, «And where shall we find enough bread in this wilderness to feed such a crowd?». Jesus said to them, «How many loaves do you have?». They answered, «Seven, and a few small fish». So Jesus ordered the people to sit on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves and the small fish and gave thanks to God. He broke them and gave them to his disciples, who distributed them to the people.

They all ate and were satisfied, and the leftover broken pieces filled seven wicker baskets.

What an odd story the gospel is today. These people have been following Jesus for three days, and in that span of time have had nothing to eat. Their desire to be with Jesus has overcome even their basic desire for food. They follow after Jesus with reckless abandon, at great personal cost to themselves. These people must be crazy. Or are they?

Perhaps for us this should be a reality check. How much do we desire to follow Jesus? Do we desire him enough to seek him even when we are hungry? Busy? Tired? What kind of things are we willing to give up in order to follow Jesus? What kind of things aren’t we willing to give up?

If this story tells us anything, it is that Jesus will provide for us. If we are willing to make sacrifices to go where Jesus may be leading, he won’t forget us, he won’t allow us to perish in pursuit of him. Jesus will give us what we need to carry on after him. He feeds the crowds out of just seven loafs and two fish. Imagine what he can do with the small amount we have to offer. Our path may not be easy, and will probably be wrought with a certain amount of suffering, but it will not be in vain. Jesus will lead us to heaven if we are willing to follow him above every other desire.

“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”

If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. – C.S. Lewis

Gospel Text: (LK 10:21-24)
Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said,
“I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to the childlike.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
No one knows who the Son is except the Father,
and who the Father is except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”

Turning to the disciples in private he said,
“Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.
For I say to you,
many prophets and kings desired to see what you see,
but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”

Joy is an attitude which goes together with hope. It has to be difficult for a person who has no hope, to be happy. And, what is it that we Christians put our hope in? The coming of the Messiah and of his Kingdom, in which justice and peace will bloom; a new reality where «the wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard will rest beside the kid, the calf and the lion cub will lead them» (Is 11:6). The kingdom we are waiting for is making its way day by day, and we have to know how to discover its presence amongst us. For the world we live in, so lacking in peace and harmony, in justice and love, how necessary the hope of us Christians is! A hope that does not come from natural optimism nor false illusion, but from God himself.

However, Christian hope, which is light and heat for the world, will only be had by that ones who are simple and humble of heart, because God has hidden knowledge and the mystery of his kingdom's love from the wise and expert, that is to say, from the ones who are blinded by pride in their own scholarship.

Christ deniers will continue to taunt Christians with the question: “If Jesus is the Messiah, where is the peace and justice that is supposed to accompany the messianic age?” In faith and hope, we answer that the promises have only BEGUN to be fulfilled; we have experienced that beginning, and we continue to pray, as Jesus taught us, “Thy kingdom come.” The point of Advent, and the season’s reading, is to help us face up to the remaining gap between promise and fulfillment and to nurture the hope that the peace we still hunger for lies in the further manifestation of our risen Lord. The spectacular missionary work of St. Francis Xavier, whose feast we celebrate today, was energized by this kind of faith and hope. The promised “outside help” depends on our cooperation with our Creator and our acknowledgment that we can’t do this on our own small strength.

"If you wish to fly high, start from the bottom. - Humility is the foundation of the entire spiritual edifice.”

“The humble person is open to being corrected, whereas the arrogant is clearly closed to it. Proud people are supremely confident in their own opinions and insights. No one can admonish them successfully: not a peer, not a local superior, not even the pope himself. They know - and that is the end of the matter. Filled as they are with their own views, the arrogant lack the capacity to see another view.” - Fr Thomas Dubay, S.M.

Gospel Text: (MT 8:5-11)

When Jesus entered Capernaum,

a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying,

“Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.”

He said to him, “I will come and cure him.”

The centurion said in reply,

“Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof;

only say the word and my servant will be healed.

For I too am a man subject to authority,

with soldiers subject to me.

And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes;

and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes;

and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him,

“Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.

I say to you, many will come from the east and the west,

and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven.”

Sometimes, it’s hard to have faith. We are rational, scientific, and want tangible proof or explanations for everything. But the centurion in today’s gospel reading was not like this - he had incredible faith.

Many of us, myself included, seem to think we know what we need but the fact of the matter is, we might not know what we really need, or when something should happen. We must have faith that Jesus has the right answers and the right timing. As scary as it is, we need to trust that our loving God will take care of us, because He knows what’s best for us. As the song lyric goes, some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.

After the centurion told Jesus about his ill servant, Jesus said that He would come and cure him. The centurion was humbled and said, “Lord, I am not worthy…but only say the word and my servant will be healed”. Catholics say similar words every Sunday before communion, but maybe we need to think about this more often. It’s so easy to become arrogant and think highly of ourselves, but we need to remember to humble ourselves in recognition of God. We are all sinners. We all fall down. We all struggle. Are we worthy of Someone so loving, so merciful, so awesome? Jesus thinks so. Even though we fall, we have a Father who loves us more than we can imagine. And he is calling us to put faith in Him. This is what the centurion did. He trusted that Jesus could heal his servant even though they weren’t even in the same room. He had faith. And look what happened: his servant was healed.

So today, we are called to humble ourselves and reflect on the faith we have in Jesus. Let's approach Christ confidently, and, at the same time, make the centurion's prayer our own.

Nobody's a natural. - You work hard to get “good” and then work to get “better.”

“If you believe you can accomplish everything by "cramming" at the eleventh hour, by all means, don't lift a finger now. But you may think twice about beginning to build your ark once it has already started raining”

Gospel Text: (MT 24:37-44)

Jesus said to his disciples:

“As it was in the days of Noah,

so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

In those days before the flood,

they were eating and drinking,

marrying and giving in marriage,

up to the day that Noah entered the ark.

They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away.

So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man.

Two men will be out in the field;

one will be taken, and one will be left.

Two women will be grinding at the mill;

one will be taken, and one will be left.

Therefore, stay awake!

For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.

Be sure of this: if the master of the house

had known the hour of night when the thief was coming,

he would have stayed awake

and not let his house be broken into.

So too, you also must be prepared,

for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”

To receive the grace God is offering us this Advent let us reflect on whether we put God first in our life always. If God is not first, we are missing out.

Many people do not like Christmas because their wishes for happiness are never fulfilled and many are happy when Christmas has passed. It is a time of year when some people are lonely or depressed and they try to fill up that loneliness with things. They do not give the impression of having received the grace that God is offering. Are they seeking the grace of God or instead seeking something worldly that will never satisfy like the grace God gives? Nothing in this world will fill the longing in our hearts. Only Jesus will fill our emptiness.

To receive the grace God offers us this Advent an examination of conscience is necessary and that is why celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation is important. As we examine our consciences we recognize may things about ourselves and where we fall short, because we all fall short. We need to ask for mercy in the Sacrament with a priest so that our hearts can become a manger to receive Jesus.

At the end of this month we will hear a lot of talk of New Year resolutions. But now, Advent, is the time for making a resolution, a resolution to live more like Jesus whose birth we are about to celebrate. Jesus is the light of the world and Advent is a time to come out of the darkness and walk in the light.