December 9/Second Wednesday of Advent “Come to me, all you that are weary and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” ~ Matt 11.28 What are your burdens right now? There are the usual workaday worries — about the well-being of friends and family members, our job status, physical health, financial condition, spiritual state. The pandemic and the election…
Author: Betsy Cahill
Keeping Advent 10: Seeking and Hiding
December 8/Second Tuesday of AdventFeast of the Immaculate Conception The Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” He replied, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” ~ Gen 3.9-10 Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let…
Keeping Advent 9: Look Here!
December 7/Second Monday of Advent Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God.” ~ Isa 35.3-4 Who among us in these parlous times would not admit to the occasional weak hands and feeble knees? Who among us has not experienced, if…
Keeping Advent 8: Memento Mori
December 6/Second Sunday of Advent Since everything is to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness? ~ 2 Peter 3.11 The daily recording of the COVID-19 death toll has forced upon us an acute awareness of mortality. In the absence of a vaccine — now, thankfully, on…
Keeping Advent 7: Bringing in the Harvest
December 5/First Saturday of Advent When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few, so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” ~ Matt 9.36-38 However you…
Keeping Advent 6: Believing is Seeing
December 4/First Friday of Advent And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I can do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they said to him. Then he touched their eyes and said, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.” ~ Mt 9.28-29 When we had our house on the market a few years ago, I dreaded getting the…
Keeping Advent 5: Do the Right Thing
December 3/First Thursday of Advent Jesus said to his disciples: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” ~ Matt 7.21 How quick we are to trust in our own righteousness. We quietly congratulate ourselves on the faithfulness of our worship,…
Keeping Advent 4: The Gift of Presence
December 2/First Wednesday of Advent Moving on from there Jesus walked by the sea of Galilee, and going up onto the mountain he sat down there. Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he cured them. ~ Matt 15.29-30 A friend…
Keeping Advent 3: Wise Guys
December 1/First Tuesday of Advent “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.” ~ Luke 10.21 No matter how many times I read this passage from Luke, it always makes me feel a bit defensive. What’s wrong with…
Keeping Advent 2: Follow Me
November 30/First Monday of AdventFeast of Saint Andrew, Apostle Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ~ Matt. 4.18 On this Feast of St. Andrew, we can all produce a stack of reasons not to follow Christ — immediately or otherwise. So many of us are just hanging on as it is: trying to keep a job if we…