Matthew 3:1-12, Second Sunday of Advent I. I wonder if some of you have made it to the Caravaggio exhibition here at the National Gallery. There is a painting there, on loan from the National Gallery of Ireland, that has an interesting Jesuit connection. The Taking of Christ by Caravaggio hung for many years in…
Category: Season: Advent
Reflections on Christmas with Kierkegaard and Meister Eckhart – Remmon Barbaza
Sometimes, something is so well-written that it deserves to be shared even if it isn’t a homily. When both teacher and students know that the center of their study is neither the one nor the other, but rather the matter at hand; when their whole attention is drawn to what lies before both of them;…
Wake-Up Call – Rudolf Horst, SVD
Matthew 3:1-12, Second Sunday of Advent Oh my God – what a Gospel! Like a lion roaring in the wilderness, so John the Baptist castigates those who came to him, especially the religious leaders. Are we not looking forward to Christmas, sing Christmas songs, put up a Belen with a cute Baby Jesus? And then…
Addiction – Jett Villarin, SJ
Matthew 3:1-12, Second Sunday of Advent What might God be telling us these days? Perhaps he is saying something to us through the populism that we see on the rise, the popular disenchantment with the established order, and the growing disconnection between the powerless and those who have been known to wield economic and…
Prayer, and then silence…- Mark Aloysius, SJ
John 17:11B-21, Feast of St Edmund Campion Perhaps the most well known piece of writing by Edmund Campion is a letter he wrote to the Privy Council in 1580, often referred to as Campion’s Brag. Allow me to read to you a well-known part of it: And touching our Society, be it known to you…
Un-busy-ing – Mark Aloysius, SJ
Matthew 24:37-44, First Sunday of Advent I. Have you ever heard the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by the Russian composer Rachmaninov? This rhapsody begins with a tune that I am sure all of you have heard, Caprice 24 by Paganini. In this first part of the rhapsody, we hear such a vibrant…
Watchful – Arnel Aquino, SJ
Matthew 24:37-44, First Sunday of Advent I grew up in Davao with my mom and lola constantly referring to the end of the world. After an earthquake, or news of a typhoon in Manila, or a big fire, they’d sermonize, “Ayan, malapit na ang end of the world. Galit na ang Diyos sa mga kasalanan ng…
Finding Noah’s Ark – Johnny Go, SJ
Matthew 24:37-44, First Sunday of Advent For many of us these days, despair is a real temptation. Some of us have actually sworn to keep away from our newsfeed and just get ourselves inebriated in premature Christmas carols. Can the news in the country, in the US, and in the world get any worse? And…
Who is the God you are waiting for? – Francis Alvarez, SJ
Matthew 24:37-44, First Sunday of Advent Twenty-eight days before Christmas! Some people begin numbering the days to December 25 as soon as the “ber” months arrive. Last year, I chanced upon a website that started a Christmas countdown on December 26. But I wonder: Would people be as excited for Christmas if our Gospel today…
Another Advent – Rudolf Horst, SVD
Matthew 24:37-44, First Sunday of Advent We have entered another Advent Season. Why? Why does the Church lead us along the same path every year, repeating the same seasons, even the same readings? Is it for lack of creativity and imagination? No, the Church is always young, and never runs out of creativity. In every…
Have A Defiant Christmas – Francis Alvarez, SJ
“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14). One December morning in 1863, at home on Brattle Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts – not very far from where we are tonight – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow heard the church bells ringing, and he wrote: I…
Rejoice, The Lord is Near – Jojo Magadia, SJ
Luke 3:10-18 (Third Sunday of Advent) The presepio displays in the churches of Rome during the advent and Christmas seasons is a tradition that many have grown to love. The presepio is simply what we would call the belen, the nativity scene whose basic characters are Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus lying in a…
One Lost Sheep 