Tagged: Daily Reflections

“Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John.” –Mark 1:9 Mass Readings: January 8 First: Isaiah 42:1-4,6-7;Resp: Psalm 29:1-4,3,9-10; Second: Acts 10:34-38; Gospel: Mark 1:7-11 Listen to the Mass Readings At the Jordan River, St. John the Baptist baptized thousands of people with a baptism of repentance. Repentance, or metanoia, was an 180-degree turn from sin. So what happened to those sins that those people left behind? Symbolically, the repented sins remained there, in the waters of the Jordan, after the people rose out of the water. Along comes Jesus, Who had no need...

The wise men “from the east arrived one day in Jerusalem inquiring, ‘Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We observed His star at its rising and have come to pay Him homage.’ At this news King Herod became greatly disturbed, and with him all Jerusalem.” –Matthew 2:1-3 Mass Readings: January 7 First: Isaiah 60:1-6; Resp: Psalm 72:1-2,7-8,10-13; Second: Ephesians 3:2-3,5-6; Gospel: Matthew 2:1-12 Listen to the Mass Readings Herod understood the significance of Jesus’ birth. He knew that he had to join the wise men and “go and offer [Jesus] homage too” (Mt 2:8). Jesus’ birth means we...

“The man who sins belongs to the devil.” –1 John 3:8 Mass Readings: January 4 First: 1 John 3:7-10; Resp: Psalm 98:1,7-9; Gospel: John 1:35-42 Listen to the Mass Readings Sin is: rebellion against God, rejecting Jesus, Who loves us so much that He died for us, being deceived, and therefore being manipulated and degraded, slavery and an abuse of freedom, often enjoyable for a while, deadly, pride, denying reality, belonging “to the devil, because the devil is a sinner from the beginning” (1 Jn 3:8), breaking our baptismal covenant, hurting ourselves and others, acting as the devil’s child (see...

“Everyone who has this hope based on Him keeps himself pure, as [Jesus] is pure.” –1 John 3:3 Mass Readings: January 3 First: Philippians 2:5-11;Resp: Psalm 113:1-8;Gospel: Matthew 1:18-23 Listen to the Mass Readings The Christmas season is a time when a greater number of people commit suicide. Many others are more discouraged than usual because of family breakdowns that intensify at Christmas. At the very time the Hope of the World has come to us at Christmas, greater numbers of people are “without hope…in the world” (Eph 2:12). Some difficult situations have persisted for so long that it’s hard...

“Tell us who you are.” –John 1:22 God asks us two questions, “Who is the liar?” (1 Jn 2:22) and “Who are you?” (Jn 1:19) The two questions often go together. Sometimes the liars are us because we lie about who we are. We are tempted to give the impression we’re the Messiah and the center of attraction. However, that’s a false impression and a lie. We are also tempted to answer the question, “Who are you?” with “what we do.” When someone asks, “Who are you?”, we answer, “I worked there” or “I do this.” These too are lies....