Boy, how time flies.  It seems that we have just finished the Christmas Season and celebrated the New Year and already, Lent is looming.  Ash Wednesday and Lent begin in just four weeks from this coming Wednesday.  January is almost half over; tomorrow is the 15^th of January – can you believe it!?!  As we return to Ordinary Time over these next few weeks, we are reminded that God has ordered time for our salvation.  Our lives have a purpose – each of us has a sacred calling from God […]

An epiphany is an event where something hidden is revealed.  Most of us experienced this recently as we opened our Christmas gifts.  In our family, we gather around the Christmas tree that is surrounded by countless gifts for all.  The youngest children who are able to do so take turns finding a gift for everyone in the room and then we open them together.  Of course, we old folks wait as the children open their gifts because we don’t want to miss the excitement as they tear away the wrapping […]

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, with time to celebrate with family and friends.  As usual, I joined my brother, Will, and his family for Christmas and, like Simeon who took Jesus into his arms, I was blessed to hold my latest great niece, Whitney, once again.  It was so precious to see her, now two months old.  I’ll be baptizing her here next Saturday; what a privilege that will be!  This is a very sacred time of the year as we reflect on the great mystery of […]

Have you ever noticed that we human beings have a seemingly infinite capacity to complicate things?  It’s like we have a built-in aversion to the simple.  We often take the simplest situation and we make it a complicated affair.  As they say, we make mountains out of molehills.  And, when we do, we often miss the real point.  But, when you get the heart of it, often the greatest experiences of life, and the greatest insights, have a way of turning out to be very simple.  Take Christmas, for example.  […]

It is so good to see all of you here this evening, on this the most holy of all nights.  And, so many of you are here as families, parents, grandparents and children.  So, you all remember the moment when it was time to name your child.  It was an exciting time, to be sure.  We just had this in our family as one of my nephews and his wife were preparing to give birth.  They kept the name secret; we didn’t learn his name until he was born.   And, […]