Isaiah writes, “(I)f you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness.” So too Jesus speaks of bestowing Beatitudes or Blessings and then telling us, “You are the light of the world.” “Just so, your light must shine before others.” “Give your light…
Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit. In the midst of rulers who devise division and hatred, Jesus is on a Spirited mission for community and love. “As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew.” “He said to them, “Come…
Jesus receives the Spirit in the form of a dove as John the Baptist gives witness, “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon him.” Doves periodically appeared in early art; from Mesopotamia and Syria to the Canaanites, Israelites, and Greeks. Doves have tended to represent love, romance,…
“Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem.” “Where is the newborn,” they wondered. Then, they “saw his star rising” “and stopped over the place where the child was.” “On entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother.” Then what? Might the Magi have forewarned the new parents about kids, ‘A child…
An angel said to Joseph in a dream, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod… is searching for the child to destroy him.” Who would want to destroy a child? What must be the anguish, the horror to be a parent who fears…
I think sometimes I shall never have a son. I’ve wondered why I am forsaken. I am forsaken of my legacy, a bestowing of my self, my property to an heir. How then shall I live on? How shall I show I made a difference in this world? What will be my mark, if…
Though I live in the desert, my senses bring in so much. I see the beauty of people and the verdant landscape. I see too their suffering and its depletion. I hear words of love spoken and laughter exclaimed. I hear too the cry of the poor their sobbing cascading. I feel the softness…
I have wondered if I am all alone in these feelings. Is it only me who feels suffocated? I struggle to breathe in this enclosure the world constructs for me. It feels like a tomb. They lay me in it from early on and expect I shall live in it, forever. But there is…