With Christmas season over for this Liturgical Year, our readings this Sunday offer us three invitations. First, we are invited to be servants. The first reading [Is 49:3, 5-6] says, “You are my servant.” Later it says, “I will make you the light of the nations, that my salvation may …
The Mass is important because, by the words of Jesus Christ, spoken at the altar, bread and wine become His Body and Blood. The Church teaches us that, as the context for that wonderful event, the prayers of the Mass are inspired by the Holy Spirit (CCC 1124). Think about …
This is my Beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. What human mother or father, or child for that matter, would not hear parental pride in God’s voice at this moment of Jesus’s baptism? His is the voice of a loving, encouraging, and protective parent speaking to his son …
Most of us have been baptized, if not as infants, then as little children. But what does baptism mean? We know that baptism brings forgiveness of sins and makes us citizens of the kingdom of God. In chapter 3 of St. Matthew’s gospel, we hear about the preaching of St. John the …
The word Epiphany comes from the Greek epiphaneia which means appearance, manifestation. The word evolved to mean an appearance or manifestation of a divine entity. Christ manifests His divine nature as Lord and Savior in His words and miracles, but there are three “ah-ha” moments, that the Church recalls as …
There are four central beliefs in Christianity that directly involve the Blessed Virgin Mary; Mary was conceived in Her mother’s womb in a right relationship with God, that is, without original sin (CCC490ff). Mary was a virgin throughout her life (CCC 499ff). At the end of her life she was …
