... for its beginning, not its ending... In the secular world, Christmas ends on December 26th. Trees are thrown out to the curbs, people rush back to the stores to return unwanted gifts, and business-as-usual gets back on motion that make the celebration of the birth of Christ officially over. 

What do we cling to today that dilutes our relationship with Christ? What “Isaac” distracts us from focusing on him full-time. Could we sacrifice this lamb up on the altar as Abraham did with his son?

My college teacher of a salesmanship class once said, “The strongest human motivation is the desire to be superior. And if we’re naive enough to judge our superiority or equality by what we show on our backs or in our driveways, then we (literally) pay the price.

There are many things we can do to serve God, but not necessarily the one good thing God wants us to focus on. We're asked to do this and that. We run from one ministry to the next. Tuesday here, Sunday there. And who's laughing at us more than Satan!

Search “Public Scripture Reading” online, and you’ll find concerns about the lack of attention to it in non-Catholic services. But one way for non-Catholic preachers to better appreciate the value of public scripture reading their services is to visit a Catholic Mass.

Just as pro athletes fall into slumps, writers get writer's block, and our many great prophets had their dry spells, so does the lector hit these walls.

When we maintain our readiness for Christ’s return by living according to his will, we can “prevent” him from saying to us, “I never knew you.” Call it preventive maintenance of our relationship with him. 

We are all hybrid humans living on a right-to-left or “sheep-to-goat” scale. As we grow in our faith and love for Christ, we start to become more selfless and giving toward others, and less selfish or “goat-like.” We begin to live more on the right side of the scale of inhabitants who will be welcomed into God's kingdom.  

We can all recover from past mistakes. In Jane Fonda’s 2011 TED Talk, "Life’s Third Act," she stressed the need to review and study your first two acts of your life; to circle back to your young life and relive it on your terms today; to free yourself from your past and become the person you wished you would have been back then.

Though we’re not likely to ever see the face of our God in this life, his image can be found in our neighbor, the God we CAN see. We may have to dig a little sometimes to turn up that “God part” of a friend, neighbor or co-worker, but with a little loving effort it’s all doable and our discovery of it can be  a joyous experience.

Most of my past life was dominated by what St. Paul said in 1 Timothy 6: 7-10— Those who want to be rich fall into many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge them into ruin and destruction.

Pope Francis’ recent amendment to Canon Law allowing women to be instituted as lectors and acolytes has caused more media attention than church action. In most American dioceses, formal installment of these ministries has not been common. And since it’s only been open to men in the past, the extent to which women will pursue this accreditation will remain to be seen.  

As often as the rains and storms of our lives occur, we are always welcomed to climb aboard God’s saving graces through these times, be it for one day, forty days or more. Unlike the unrighteous and disobedient who mocked and ridiculed Noah, we can always be assured of being guided to safety as Noah and his family were.

A model of self-denial, Paul’s refusal of the rights and privileges allowed by his preaching was a far cry from our modern-day attitudes toward free and selfless service to others.

 Jesus said, I am the bread of life. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever (John 6:51).

When Jesus states the unpredictability of his return in the parable of the ten virgins, our death on earth will likely be unpredictable as well. And when our final day arrives, there will be no time left to “fill our lamps” with oil in preparation for eternity in heaven.

A danger with money is how it can divide us—as a society and certainly as parts of Christ’s body. Back in my "Jones Mania" days, I used to judge people who’d never make a first move toward anyone unless they were quite sure that the person was in a comparable financial bracket.

The outer impression of John the Baptist was not what drew crowds of people to him. It was his divinely gifted spiritual and emotional appeal that eclipsed his dress, eating habits and physical appearance. By separating himself from the culture and doing what God called him to do, he could speak with the zeal and clear language needed for the people to understand and respond to his urging to “make straight the way of the Lord.”

Whatever state of life we’re in: married or unmarried, happy or sad, powerful or weak, wealthy or poor, we must make the most of these states in the best way we know to serve and glorify God before the world in its present form passes away.

Fr. Michael Gaitley, in his work, 33 Days to Morning Glory: A Do-It-Yourself Retreat to Marian Consecration, refers to a "darkness" experienced by Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta when she founded her Missionaries of Charity congregation. The darkness, perhaps in the disappointments or lack of progress she may have originally hoped for.