"Faith"fully Yours

Here we are at the start of a new liturgical year, a chance to begin again.   As we know, each Advent season we open ourselves to receiving Christ in a new or re-newed way.   We await Christ’s coming in a three-fold way: ·         The coming of Christ in history as a child born to newlywed parents in very challenging circumstances.   This is the coming we recall in each crèche we place in our homes and churches. ·         The coming of Christ in our hearts.   I would guess that this is where we put much of our “prayer” energy in this season; preparing our hearts, making space for the Christ child to be born anew. ·         And thirdly, we await Christ’s final coming to bring a new heaven and a new earth with the ills of our earthly life resolved and peace and reconciliation in every corner. Today we enter this season with a fervent...

In Henri Nowen’s book Lifesigns he reminds us that the opposite of fear is love.   One scripture scholar notes that the exhortation “Be not afraid” is repeated 365 times in the Bible – once for every day of the year!   The Gospel for this past weekend [Matthew 10: 26 – 33 (in the Catholic tradition)] also encourages us to not be afraid.   As a person of faith, I believe that we do not need to be afraid and that there is a force of good in the universe far greater than anything I can imagine. Living by faith anchors us in love, which banishes fear.   The more we live in love, the less space there is for fear. And yet, so many live fearfully.   This is not the same as those people in our world who truly live in a place and/or situation where their life and loved ones are threatened regularly.   I am talking about so many who see the world through fear colored glasses, expecting that anything or anyone they do not understand is a threat.   ...

Today's post is a little long - I had the privilege of sharing the homily at Church and wanted to share my text in it's entirety: Last weekend I attended an Easter sunrise service with my family.  The preacher told some great stories and had good energy about spreading the Gospel.  However, he preached about the events of Jesus’ last days, beginning with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem right up to Jesus’ death at the hands of others.  He stopped at Holy Saturday – that empty space in time between death and resurrection.  He told us that of course we live most of our lives in Good Fridays and Holy Saturdays and didn’t move us to those Easter morning experiences we have all had. I left feeling somewhat empty or unfulfilled. As Christians we know we are living in the reign of God and we also know we are not.  Theologians refer to this as being about the reign of God already and not yet.  For me, this mystery is most evident in readings of th...

Have you gotten caught up in the “April the Giraffe” event?   It seems that this giraffe is pregnant and they have set up a “giraffe cam” for all to be able to tune in to the last weeks of her pregnancy through the birth and early days of the young giraffe (yet to be names!).   Some are avidly watching this in their every available moment, commenting freely about her movements, etc.   As an aside, I believe this is a great distraction from the many frightening cares of our world. I looked in on April last evening and she is very close to giving birth.   All her baby weight is now centered between her hips, making her very ungainly and awkward as she paces the birthing stall.   She looks as though she could split in two!   She is undergoing a seizmic shift and being rent for the sake of new life. This week, as we listen to the scriptures of Jesus arrest, death and ultimately his resurrection, we hear that at the time of Jesus’ death, the c...