Deep Calls to Deep Announcing… The Last Waltz of the SLJs
As of this afternoon, John Foley, SJ, Bob Dufford, SJ, Dan Schutte, Roc O’Connor, SJ, and Tim Manion have agreed to gather in St. Louis for one last concert to celebrate our association over these past decades. Tom Kavanaugh & Roc will produce the concert whose date has yet to be determined. Tom, along […]
Merry Christmas! A Christmas Eve Homily for the Christmas Season…
Happy New Year to you all! And, since it is still the Christmas season (AHEM!), even though we’re constantly told it was over the day after Christmas sales ended, Merry Christmas! I was delighted to be asked to preside at the midnight Mass for the School Sisters of St. Francis (at 6:30 pm!). And wish to […]
4th Sunday Advent – “Messiah” Staged / Word & Music Contextualized in Gripping Manner…
This is not your grandmother’s version of the Messiah by G.F. Handel in any way, shape, or form. Here’s what one person wrote to describe the context set by the stage version: “There’s basically a businessman whose wife is cheating on him with his older brother. Also, his younger brother is a drug-addict pariah. One […]
2nd Sunday Advent –
Today is the feast of St. John of the Cross, a marvelous saint and doctor of the church. His form of mystical prayer seems to have more in common with those in the apophatic way. That is, he walked the path of refusing any image of God. As such, he differed dramatically from St. Ignatius of Loyola who embraced […]
2nd Sunday Advent – That Terribly Inconvenient Season of Road Construction…
There are two seasons in the midwest – winter and road construction. Road construction, like the one pictured above (near my new office), is horribly inconvenient… until it’s over, then it’s smooth sailing, as it were. And this pretty much what Sunday’s gospel addresses at several levels… Luke 3:5f “Every valley […]
2nd Sunday Advent – Taking the Fifth…
Actually, making my 5th try to upload today’s *&^$@ video. And I give up. Anyway… Here’s today’s reflection on “the wilderness, the desert, the desolate places…” Luke 3:2–4 …during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the […]
2nd Sunday Advent – (An Intro to Repentance [???])
Whaaaaaa? Repent? That’s for Lent! Exactly. Yet, how else might any of us receive the newborn Sovereign whom we celebrate at Christmas? Well, there’s always sentimentality… But, while that’s in vogue during the so-called Christmas [shopping] season (NOT ADVENT), it leaves us with a sugar high. Repentance means some kind of separation from our old […]
First Sunday Advent – An Irish-Existentialist Approach [3]
Chapter Seventeen from the Book of Wisdom Great are your judgments and hard to describe; therefore uninstructed souls have gone astray. 2 For when lawless people supposed that they held the holy nation in their power, they themselves lay as captives of darkness and prisoners of long night, shut in under their roofs, exiles from eternal […]
First Sunday Advent – An Irish-Existentialist Approach [2]
It is so important, I believe, to delve into the ways in which Luke makes connections between, say, Sunday’s gospel and the rest of his gospel, Acts of the Apostles, and the Septuagint (Greek version of the Hebrew Bible). Especially because Luke’s gospel is for Gentiles who otherwise wouldn’t know what Christians call the Old […]
First Sunday Advent – An Irish-Existentialist Approach [1]
Indeed, Advent prepares the church to remember and celebrate the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem – the First Coming. And, yes, Advent orients us toward the Second Coming of Christ on the Last Day. Necessary, but not sufficient. A modest proposal: Advent also and more importantly locates us in the midst of our lives now, today, […]
Deep Calls to Deep 