Minute Meditations
The Incarnation Invites Us to Compassion
Pat McCloskey, OFM
December 26, 2018
We need to show compassion for those in need during this season and year-round. We miss the point of the Incarnation if we feel that feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless are activities for this season only. Educational theorist John Dewey said, “All education is about making connections.” We can never exhaust the connections that the Incarnation invites. Francis recognized this by linking this feast to extra generosity for humans in need, for oxen, asses, and even the lowly larks. The Incarnation of Jesus is a testament to God’s universal love and compassion.
The Incarnation Changes Everything
Pat McCloskey, OFM
December 23, 2018
The custom of setting up a Christmas crib in one’s home—not simply outside a church—reinforces the personal challenge represented by the Incarnation. The Incarnation changes everything in human history. We become different people because of it. In Francis’s day, many ...
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Invitation to Prayer
Pat McCloskey, OFM
December 21, 2018
One day when Francis was in a lonely place by himself, weeping for his misspent years in the bitterness of his heart, the joy of the Holy Spirit was infused into him and he was assured that all his sins ...
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A Celebration of the Jesus Vision
Thomas Moore
December 18, 2018
People usually think of Christmas as a traditional and sentimental festival, but not as a celebration of the Jesus vision it commemorates: a philosophy of profound reform. The child lying in the manger would become perhaps the most radical of ...
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Prepare the Way
Pat McCloskey, OFM
December 14, 2018
Then as he was walking through the forest joyfully singing in French and praising God, he was suddenly set upon by robbers. They threatened him and asked him who he was but he replied intrepidly with the prophetic words, “I ...
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What Waits in the Dark?
Paula D'Arcy
December 12, 2018
Ancient storytellers observed that the sun makes a journey every night. To their eyes, the sun slipped out of sight in the western sky and descended into the dark earth or ocean, only to reappear far to the east at ...
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Follow Christ in His Incarnation
Oscar Romero
December 10, 2018
This is the commitment of being a Christian: following Christ in his incarnation. And if Christ is God in his majesty who becomes a humble man even to dying like a slave on the cross and who lives with the ...
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