Advent

Seeing Jesus

In my Bible class tonight, my teacher told a story about a monk who wanted to see Jesus before he died. While in prayer, Jesus said He would meet the man the next day. The following day, the monk awaited eagerly in his room to meet with Jesus. He didn’t attend Mass as usual. He […]

Lights Up

It was a pretty mild day today just before more cold weather. So, my dad and I got outside and did some Christmas decorating. We put the lights on the bushes. We put a little Charlie Brown tree on the porch from the cuttings we collected from the cabin. And we got a few other […]

What is Christmas

I watched an Advent video reflection from Dynamic Catholic hosted by Matthew Kelly. He had a definition for Christmas that to me was very profound and worth pondering, “Christmas is the most astounding collaboration between God and humanity. That’s what happens at Christmas. And God invites you and me to partake in that collaboration every […]

Recipe for Advent

Today is the beginning of Advent. At church, the priest talked about all the baking we have probably started to do and will continue over the next few weeks. Many people have secret recipes that they pull out this time of year to share those special goodies with their loved ones. This caught my attention […]

One Tribe

I had been wanting to see the movie “Black Panther” for a long time now. Tonight seemed like the perfect opportunity, so my brother, my dad, and I watched it. Overall, through the political nuances, I thought it had a great story line. The new king desired to right the wrongs of the past instead […]

Final Christmas Preparations

I stayed up way too late last night cutting out and baking pieces to make a gingerbread church, but I really enjoyed doing it. I thought of all the different times that I could remember making the church with friends, youth groups, and family. My sister came today and we all finally put up the […]

Drowsy Heart

This past week, I met with my prayer group. We read and discussed the Gospel reading for today – the First Sunday in advent. I heard it at church this morning and we read some of it at dinner tonight as part of a reflection. Each time, there was a particular phrase that stood out […]

Advent or Christmas

Because Christmas Day falls on a Monday this year, the church obligation is to attend a Mass on Saturday evening or Sunday morning to celebrate the 4th week of Advent, and also attend Mass on Sunday evening or Monday morning to celebrate the Christmas Holy Day. For a couple of weeks now, there has been […]

True Love and Joy

In church today, the priest addressed a couple of things on my mind. The first is that we – people – all have the same overarching desire to be known completely and loved fully and unconditionally by another person. But due to that fact that all other people are as imperfect as we are, that […]

Children in Church

When we attend church, we always sit in the back. This is also where the large baptismal font is located. The other morning during Mass, there was an adorable little boy just learning to walk who was holding on as he practiced walking around and around the font as his dad followed him. At the […]