Today we light the second candle in our Advent wreath, known as the Bethlehem Candle. As I said in my homily last weekend, it symbolizes peace and preparation. It should invite us to a moment of reflection: are we making space within our hearts to welcome the Lord? Are we making preparations for the coming…
The Virgin Mary is among one of the greatest gifts that God has ever given to humanity. He knew that all of us needed a mother that we could turn to who would walk with us along the path of discipleship. He knew that we needed someone we could turn to who would help lead…
The passage that we have heard this morning in our Gospel comes at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. At the time, the things that Jesus was saying were viewed as being radical. Throughout the preceding chapters, He was telling His disciples and those who came to listen to Him about a new…
The Lord called Isaiah to be a prophet to the people of Israel at a critical time in their history. He was sent to not only warn them of their impending doom at the hands of the Assyrians but to also reassure them of the promise that God would restore them to glory and greatness.…
Today marks a very special day in the life of the Church. It’s a day when we not only begin a new liturgical year, but it is also a day when we begin an extraordinary time of grace. Today, we begin the Season of Advent, a season when we focus on waiting and hopeful expectation…
Tomorrow officially marks the end of the liturgical year; Sunday we begin the Season of Advent. Over the next couple of days, it might be quite beneficial for all of us to consider if there is some way we could foster a deepening of faith in this upcoming season. What is the Lord inviting us…
Mother Teresa once said: “Many today are starving for ordinary bread. But there is another kind of hunger – the hunger to be wanted, to be loved, to be recognized. Nakedness, too, is not just the want of clothes, but also about loss of dignity, purity, self-respect. And homelessness is not just want of a…
Over the last couple of weeks now in our Gospels, we have heard parables from Jesus that have focused on being prepared for the end times, stories that are meant to remind us of the importance of being prepared for when the Lord comes again. Last week, we heard the parable of the wise virgins…
As we see in our Gospel this morning, everyone in the time of Jesus wanted to know when the Messiah would come, they wanted to know when God was going to establish His Kingdom on earth. But Jesus’ response to those questions reveal the misconception that people had about the Kingdom of God, the misconception…
The end of the liturgical year is fast approaching; in fact, we are now only two weeks away from the Feast of Christ the King and the season of Advent will be beginning soon. Because of that, the readings for our Masses have become a little more eschatological, meaning they have started to focus on…
Fr. Tom Pringle 