Claire Smith

Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops, and Doctors of the Church

Scripture:

1 John 2:22-28
John 1:19-28

Reflection:

St. Basil and St. Gregory knew each other as children and rekindled their friendship while studying in Athens as adults. The two men became close friends who supported and challenged each other throughout their lives. After they finished their studies at the finest universities, they decided to devote themselves to a life of prayer as hermits. With input from Gregory, Basil composed a rule of life for monks, which still influences the monasteries in the Eastern Church, as well as Benedictine monks in the West.

Called to a more active life of service in the Church, they left the monastic life and were ordained priests, and eventually became bishops. St. Basil became Archbishop of Caesarea and St. Gregory became Bishop of Constantinople in what is modern day Turkey.

As bishops, both men were called upon to defend the Church from Arianism, one of the most damaging heresies; for it denied the divinity of Christ. St. Basil contributed to the Nicene Creed, which states that Jesus is “of one substance with the Father,” also expressed as “consubstantial.” In today’s first reading, written two hundred years earlier, the Apostle John could be speaking to the Arians when he said: “Anyone who denies the Son, does not have the Father, but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well.”

St. Basil and St. Gregory are Doctors of the Church because of their significant contributions to the Church’s teaching, as well as their holy lives. Their theological depth in responding to the heresy of Arianism, and their ministerial successes as bishops In contentious and polarized times (much like our own), came out of their deep prayer lives. Here is an excerpt of a prayer written by St. Gregory Nanzianzen:

For there is one longing, one groaning, that all things have for you.
All things pray to you that perceive your plan and offer you a silent hymn.

As 2025 begins, let us draw inspiration from St. Basil and St. Gregory for the new year. May we follow their example and ground all our relationships, and all our activities in prayer. As St. Gregory further prays:

In You, the One, all things abide, and all things run to you, Who are the end of all.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Patty Gillis is a retired Pastoral Minister. She serves on the Board of Directors at St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center in Detroit, Michigan. Patty is currently a member of the Laudato Si’ Vision Fulfillment Team and the Passionist Solidarity Network.

Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

Scripture:

Numbers 6:22-27
Galatians 4:4-7
Luke 2:16-21

Reflection:

Happy New Year!  

We begin this year with the beautiful, timeless blessing Moses shared with Aaron and the Israelites:

The LORD bless you and keep you!
The LORD let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you!
The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!

This passage is more than retelling a moment during the Exodus journey. This is our blessing, too. We begin the new year assured that God will be watching over us, caring for us and always loving us.

Today we celebrate the solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, the oldest Marian feast day in the calendar. Luke’s Gospel returns to the visit of the shepherds following Jesus’ birth. He writes that Mary “kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” This is one of three moments when Luke uses a similar phrase. The other two are when the angel Gabriel told Mary she would have a son, and when Jesus was 12 years old teaching in the temple. As a woman of great faith, she reflected and prayed over these and many other significant events during Jesus’ life.

Mary, like most mothers, would have questions, lots of questions, for her Son. No one else in the Gospels comes close to spending as much time with Jesus. She raised Him, introduced Him to Jewish law and practices, accompanied Him in His travels, witnessed His ministry, remained with Him as He suffered and died. She did not simply observe. She needed to understand Him. Just imagine the conversations between mother and son.

In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke tells us that Mary returned to Jerusalem with the apostles and disciples following Jesus’ ascension. I believe Mary would have been a spiritual director for the early church community. She would have guided them to a deeper understanding of Jesus’ teachings.

Let us pray that Mary, the Mother of God, will guide us in this new year to a deeper relationship with her Son.

Mike Owens is coordinator of the Passionist Alumni Association and a member of the Migration Commission of Holy Cross Province. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky. 

Scripture:

1 John 2:18-21
John 1:1-18

Reflection:

Children, it’s the final hour.   -1 John 2:18a

That’s the first line of today’s Liturgy of the Word.  “It’s the final hour.”

One thing that comes to my imagination is the writers and editors of the Lectionary all sitting around a big table, worn from working into the wee hours of the morning, empty carafes of coffee and donut crumbs laying all over the place.  Some guy is asleep under the table, I’m pretty sure.  “They’ll need to be reminded that it’s the last day of the year.  Let’s use I John 2:18.”

Perhaps they’re right.  Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas…. The time has raced by for me.  The Baptist’s cry of “Prepare Ye the Way” has now become “I hope you’ve prepared the way.”  And now I feel a lot like I imagine those editors: weary from a long stretch of preparation and service. 

And now it’s New Year’s Eve!  Party and dance and music and eggnog (with a little extra nog, please). 

Wait — where did 2022 go?  I had all these plans for things I was going to accomplish.  Where are my running shoes; I have to get in shape.  I promised 365 days ago!  Where’s my pencil; I need to finish composing that choral work on the Cross, which I started in February!  Where’s my paintbrush; the house…

But wait, there’s more!  As I sit and reflect on the past 365 days, I’m forced to ask myself some very, very hard questions: Did I make room for God?  Did I let Christ thrive in my heart?  Did I reach out in love and care to others?  Did I call to apologize to that person that now hates me?  Did I forgive that person that betrayed me?

Was I Jesus’ hands to those in my little part of the vineyard?

Were you?

Mistakes are part of living life as humans… but Jesus gives us the most basic instruction: “Love as I have loved.”  And, dear friends, if we can do that, we have a good shot at a wonderful New Year.

————

Dear God of beginnings and endings,
the Alpha and Omega,
thank you for the gift of every hour,
even this last one. 

Please grant us the grace to let go of our regrets and failures
so we may live the new dawn of tomorrow,
and birth your love to the world.  Amen.

Peace and love to you, today and forever.

Paul Puccinelli is Director of Liturgy & Music at St. Rita Parish in Sierra Madre, California, and a member of the retreat team at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center.

Scripture:

1 John 2:12-17
Luke 2:36-40

Reflection:

We look forward to Christmas, to the birth of the Child Jesus, for the feeling of anticipation in awaiting the arrival of the Savior of the world. We realize that as we age, we appreciate the joy of seeing others receiving gifts, rather than that anticipation from our youth of receiving. 

You may have experienced the feeling of anticipation – whether it is waiting for Christmas morning, a new birth, a new job, celebrating the vocation of marriage or the religious life. 

Yesterday we heard about the anticipation and reward of Simeon, who spent his life awaiting the fulfillment of the promise that one day he would see Christ – and the fulfillment of his promise was more than he expected as he not only met Christ but held him in his arms! Today we hear of Anna, a widowed woman who spent her entire life serving as a witness to Christ. 

Even though Anna was able to enjoy her marriage for only seven years, and was left childless and alone, she spent the rest of her life living the choice to serve God through her prayer and praise, in never-ending anticipation of his merciful grace. She specifically moved to Jerusalem so she could be near the temple! Anna’s sole purpose in life was to please God. She was a constant presence at the temple, in a state of fast and prayer. William Barclay once wrote: She had known sorrow, but she had not grown bitter. She was old, but she had never ceased to hope. She never ceased to worship. She never ceased to pray.

As Simeon received the Christ child and lifted him up to declare him as the long-awaited Messiah, Anna was there in the right place (the Temple) at the right time (as Simeon receives Christ in his arms). Anna now knows that her prayers of seeing Christ have been answered, and she continues her ministry in sharing what she has seen. 

One of the meanings of the name Anna is grace – how very, very appropriate. May God’s grace fill you as it did Anna, and may you have the dedication to our Lord, as did Anna, in service to the Almighty God in anticipation of his merciful reward. God bless you!

Patty Masson supports the Passionists from Spring, Texas.

Feast of the Holy Family

Scripture:

Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14
Colossians 3:12-21
Luke 2:41-52

Reflection:

Some years ago, I remember speaking with a priest from another town. I was acknowledging my discomfort (especially, as a celibate) with preaching on this Feast of the Holy Family. Cryptically, he responded, “Ah, don’t sweat it, Jack; people don’t expect much… tell a story, sprinkle a little spiritual pixie dust around, and you’ll be fine!”  Not only is the statement remarkably condescending, it is bad theology!

Maybe that is why extended families and friends can be a challenge at Christmas. You know, the Aunt Gertrude who introduces herself as a “recovering Catholic”. “Don’t get me wrong, Father, I’m a spiritual woman, I’m just not into religion.” Or belligerent Uncle Clarence, hovering over the punch bowl and fancying himself as master of religion and science… marveling at the wonder of technology and how it has finally, definitively, disproved the existence of God.

First of all, today’s feast is not so much a day set aside to honor families… It’s more an extension of the Christmas mystery: INCARNATION, the mystery of God becoming human, and what that means for us.

It’s not so much about becoming spiritual beings nearly as much as about becoming simple human beings.

I had a homiletics professor at Notre Dame who, at one class, thundered: Don’t sanitize Scripture! His contention was that we’re so uncomfortable with the loose ends and messy humanness of Sacred Scripture, we over-spiritualize it, we try to scrub up God’s word and sanitize, and we over-pietize it.

That, to me, is the very core of today’s liturgy. Raising children is never easy, in any culture, at any time.

In today’s “Finding in the Temple “narrative, Mary and Joseph have an adolescent, and the kid is missing, the child is lost… and whether physically, emotionally, spiritually — when any good parent becomes aware of the loss of their child, it is an occasion of worry, fear, blame, guilt, & most especially: heartbreak.

The consolation is that we will find him in the Temple, that is, we find the child back in our experience of God …compassion and tenderness, mercy, forgiveness, hope. Holy Family is not about perfection, and certainly not about some scrubbed-up and dumbed-down pious event. It’s about the mystery of Incarnation, a continuation of the Christmas mystery crashing into our lives, the coming together of human and divine, material and spiritual. Emmanuel. God with us.

Fr. Jack Conley, CP, is the local superior of St. Vincent Strambi Community in Chicago, Illinois.

Feast of the Holy Innocents

Scripture:

1 John 1:5-2:2
Matthew 2:13-18

Reflection:

A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation. -Matthew 2:18

We celebrate the Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs, today.  We are all aware of the brutal slaying of all the baby boys two years and under who lost their lives all because of a demonic king who acted maliciously in his attempt to kill Jesus and retain his kingship!   Unbeknownst to Herod, Jesus, Mary and Joseph had been warned in a dream to flee to Egypt to escape the blood bath that was about to happen.  It is so sad to see and hear how the innocent children in our midst today suffer unnecessary abuse and persecution.  It seems no matter the situation, whether it is war, poverty, domestic abuse, bullying, the children are the ones who suffer!

It seems to be harder to be a believer these days when we are surrounded by so much uncertainty, violence, unhappiness, gloom and doom brought about by the King Herods of our time.  We need to take time during this Christmas season to celebrate the birth of the newborn babe born in a lowly stable in Bethlehem. Maybe it’s time for us to reflect on the innocence of our own youth, however short or long ago it was, and get in touch again with the Believer in each of us.  In this way just maybe the chaos that seems to color our world so much will cease to have so much power over us, and Jesus’s light can shine forth from us. 

During this time of year we focus a lot on helping others whether it be food donations, toy drives, blanket collections and so many other ways to ease the plight of those in need.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we had the opportunity to go a step further and take the time to get to know some of those we so generously helped through our donations.  I am thinking more about the children who are suffering in so many ways in our neighborhoods, schools, churches, shelters, etc. Let us take time during this holy season and throughout the coming new year to spend time with the hurting children in our midst.  Through these action steps we may just recapture some of that innocence of our youth and move forward in spreading the joy and hope of the innocent who can teach us what we have lost.

In the first reading from 1John today, we read: ‘God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.”

May we be people who birth the light of Jesus, willing to recapture the innocence of our past and celebrate the good news of that blessed event that happened so long ago in a stable in Bethlehem!  Believe and rejoice!            

Have a Blessed Christmas season and a healthy, holy New Year!

Theresa Secord is a retired Pastoral Associate at St. Agnes Parish, Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

1 John 1:1-4
John 20:1a, 2-8

Reflection:

Today’s Gospel reading describes the tomb after Jesus had been resurrected. We believe through the gift from God of faith that this supernatural and amazing event has occurred. The apostles begin to see the reality of Scripture after the resurrection, especially once they receive the Holy Spirit – they are awakened in understanding to all that God has given them in the Word. Imagine the joy the apostles feel when John and Peter relay the news to others of their findings in the tomb.

Mary Magdalene suffered the pains of witnessing Christ’s crucifixion, and now she was so loved by Jesus that she is the first to witness the gift of His presence once again.

Now allow yourself to go back – back to that special manger with Mary and Joseph – to the birth of Christ, the newborn King. From the moment of His first breath, Jesus’ presence impacted many. This Advent season, we have again celebrated the gift of his birth as the prophecies unfolded and his life took shape.

What gifts do you choose to share with those around you? What amazing aspect of your life – your gifts from God – can you share with others? Open your heart during this beautiful season to portion a part of yourself to those around you.

We have waited through Advent in anticipation of His birth, and at Easter we will wait, once again, for the miracle of a different presence of Christ through the Resurrection.

Patty Masson resides in Spring, Texas.