The Good Word

We are in the midst of Hanukkah the Jewish Festival of Lights which is celebrated beginning on the 25th of the Jewish month of Chislev for eight days This year the Festival which falls in late November to late December in our calendar is celebrated from December 1-9 This festival commemorates

Regular readers will recall that America published a special issue on the Bishops Synod on the Middle East in October Here we offer a reflection from one of the bishops who took part in the meeting Gregory Mansour Eparch of the Eparchy of Saint Maron The task before him was great but only Pete

For those of you with children you might want to check out this online and interactive Advent calendar that I located through a link on the Herald of Scotland website It has the 24 days of December prior to Christmas day on the calendar with information on typical Christmas symbols such as reinde

John the Baptist is a bracing sort of fellow eye-opening and not in the slap some Brut on the face kind of way In another blog post we will have to explore how it is that Brut has made a comeback ndash before you say anything it is related to Advent after all as those of us who grew up buyi

One interesting thing I found poking around the Common English Bible website was an Advent Blog Tour There are 25 bloggers each writing on a particular scripture passage for each day of December until Christmas Day None of these bloggers are Catholic and the Scripture passages on which they are c

I noted a while back that a new English translation of the Bible was published NT or in the process of being published OT and Apocrypha called the ldquo Common English Bible rdquo Like many biblical scholars I received a copy of the newly minted NT to consider and review Their website is

nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp The Gospel today is what we know as Matthew 4 18-22 nbsp This is an account of Jesus call to Peter and Andrew on the one hand and to James and John on the other – all four to follow me nbsp There are two observations about this story which deserve some reflection

Father Joseph Johnson in his homily for the First Sunday of nbsp Advent at the Cathedral of St Paul reflected on something that is very much in the air right now at least for me and those whom I know and read the continuing exteriorizing of life He chose to contrast the life of Facebook Twitter

Advent is preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ nbsp It is anticipation waiting Yet as the readings for the First Sunday in Advent demonstrate it is not simply the waiting for Christ at his first coming as a child in the manger but for his second coming at the end of time when all things

Knowing I could not master Wisdom but by the gift of God – and it is a gift of God to know to Whom I owe the gift – I turned to the Lord to entreat him Wisdom 8 20 Someday may all Americans be blessed to know to Whom to credit all our gifts John Kilgallen S J nbsp