Vespers for Advent: A New Season Awaits

On this the eve of Advent, the first Vespers, I come before You, Lord. The journey has wearied me. And this season of hope, renewed hope, stretches like a vast desert before me. I know You will provide water, for You are the Living Water, the Source of all good.

I share for your reflection from Pope Benedict’s Angelus from 2007 (Dec. 2nd) the following:

"This Sunday is therefore a day specially suited to offering the entire Church and to all men and women of good will my second Encyclical, which I wanted to dedicate precisely to the theme of Christian hope. It is entitled Spe Salvi, because it opens with the expression "Spe salvi facti sumus - in hope we were saved" (Rm 8: 24). In this, as in other passages of the New Testament, the word "hope" is strictly connected with the word "faith". It is a gift that changes the life of the one who receives it, as the experience of so many men and women saints demonstrates. In what does this hope consist, so great and so "trustworthy", to make us say that in it we have "salvation"? In essence it consists in the knowledge of God, in the discovery of the heart of the good and merciful Father. Jesus, with his death on the Cross and his Resurrection, has revealed his Face to us, the face of a God so great in love as to communicate to us an uncrushable hope that not even death can break, because the life of the one who entrusts himself to this Father opens itself to the prospect of eternal beatitude.

The development of modern science has always confined faith and hope to the private and individual sphere, so that today it appears in a clear and sometimes dramatic way that man and the world need God - the true God! - otherwise, they remain deprived of hope. Science contributes much to the good of humanity, but it is not able to redeem it. Man is redeemed by love, which makes one's personal and social life good and beautiful. This is why the great hope, the full and definitive one, is guaranteed by God who is love, by God who has visited us and has given us life in Jesus, and who will return at the end of time. We hope in Christ, we await him! With Mary, his Mother, the Church goes to meet her Spouse: she does so with works of charity, because hope, like faith, is demonstrated in love.

A good Advent to all!"

Blood shed for Him

"Life sometimes leads us down paths we haven't chosen but which we must consent to out of love. This consent then becomes a source of grace, a way of union with God (...) each time we accept the conflicts and difficulties of life with faith in Christ and love for Him, the Holy Spirit rests upon us." - father jacques philippe Fire and Light: Learning to Receive the Gift of God p.16 "Tempestuous times, periods of trouble and worry, are bound to come, but our perception of reality is so distorted by negative emotions that we must wait for peace to return before changing any fundamental resolutions." (ibid, p.18)

Is The Tide Turning...?

Hello friends...It has been a while! 

I am excited to write again. As with anyone who has a love affair with writing, you know the ups and downs, the torrential output and the great stretches of desert faced by those who endeavor to write. It would seem that, after a long hiatus, the tide is finally turning. Alleluia! 

This grace of writing came by virtue of going on retreat with the Franciscans of Halifax during the last week of July 2022. 

I was also encouraged to keep penning the virtual verses of my life by Mal and Kara, who noted my absence.  A little encouragement, as it turns out, goes a long way.

The healing grace extended to me by God on this retreat amounts to what I consider a defining moment, a game-changer, in the last 14 years of ordained priesthood. 

I look forward to sharing that blessing with you over the next few posts.