A homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 21, 2025
Isaiah 7:10-14, Romans 1:1-7, Matthew 1:18-24
We imperfect humans ask a lot of questions about our perfect Deity.
Many of them compare God’s persons and unlimited … everything … to our own limitations.
Nope; God is unnnnn-limited
A revisited homily for the Third Sunday of Advent, Dec. 14, 2025
Isaiah 35:1-6a, 10, James 5:7-10, Matthew 11:2-11
As of this belated writing, medium-size snowflakes are falling steadily but gently here at the Jersey Shore, piling up on cars and railings and bannisters and tree branches so heavily that mourning doves can’t grab the wood with their pink feet. It’s Nature’s insistence that we pause and rest.
And, today, to rejoice.
The other night, spending time with eighth-graders prepping for their Confirmation, I introduced the vast majority of them to the notion of Gaudete. And I remembered this homily from 2020, which I republish with some tiny updating and an apology to folks who don’t fancy reruns.
A homily for the Second Sunday of Advent, December 7, 2025
Isaiah 11:1-10, Romans 15:4-9, Matthew 3:1-12
Dictionary.com recently made a lot of people shake their heads in disbelief when the organization chose a number as the Word of the Year for 2025. Not even a number, really; it’s more of a number phrase, because it’s not pronounced in the familiar way it appears.
A homily for the First Sunday of Advent, November 30, 2025
Isaiah 2:1-5, Romans 13:11-14, Matthew 24:37-44
The folks who run Starbucks, Burger King, movie theaters and especially Cinnabon, among thousands of similar outfits, are geniuses.
They have made it impossible for even the most strong-willed among us to pass by their kiosks and shops without pining — yearning! — for their products. Regardless of how bad they may be for us.
A homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 22, 2024
Mi 5:1-4a, Heb 10:5-10, Lk 1:39-45
Hope.
Peace.
Joy.
Love.
All four candles of our Advent wreath are glowing today, the candles symbolizing hope, peace, joy and love. Our season of preparation to celebrate the Nativity of the Prince of Peace is nearly complete.
A homily for the Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete), December 15, 2024
Zep 3:14-18a, Phil 4:4-7, Lk 3:10-18
One winter holiday evening about 30 years ago, our extended family decided to go out light-peeping. As my sister-in-law suggested a few nearby places to check out, her son asked, “Can we go see The Hinges?”
The Hinges?
Kathy laughed and explained that, when she first saw how one house was decorated, she said it was lit up like the Hinges of Hell.
A homily for the Second Sunday of Advent, December 8, 2024
Bar 5:1-9, Phil 1:4-6, 8-11, Lk 3:1-6
It’s been said that God doesn’t create in straight lines, and anyone who’s ever taken more than a second to look at the shapes of ocean beaches, lakefronts, leaves and flowers and trees and and and … realizes that.
Even the wind gets the twisties.
So what’s the big deal with straightening roads and flattening the landscape? If God created this world all curvy-hilly-bumpy, why do the prophets make such a big deal about paving some sort of interstate highway system over God’s handiwork?
What’s wrong with leaving it as is?
Continue reading Linear
A homily for the First Sunday of Advent, December 1, 2024
Jer 33:14-16, 1 Thes 3:12—4:2, Lk 21:25-28, 34-36
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Ferris Bueller
It started with Black Friday, this fast-moving season of life, and this year, the December 25 deadline seems even sooner, because it is. A late Thanksgiving has compressed the frenetic shopping season to its second-shortest-possible iteration.
If we don’t buy, buy, buy, our big holiday may pass by, by, by. And yule be sorry (couldn’t resist).
Oh, wait.
What? Wait?
A homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 24, 2023
