Category: Spiritual Seeds

After Christmas and Epiphany, the ‘Christmas story’ seems to have reached its conclusion. Perhaps, you have already disposed of your Christmas tree, removed decorations and lights, and put back in their box the various characters of the nativity scene. But what were all these for? The tree, the lights, the different characters in the nativity, […]

”Opening their treasures”, we heard today, ”they offered gifts”. We know .. the Wise Men brought gold, frankincense and myrrh. But you, what would you like to find in your parcel? A ‘renewed’ relationship with your parents? A more generous heart? A long-awaited reconciliation? Peace within the family? Maybe a grace, a big grace? All […]

The JUBILEE YEAR of HOPE has begun. On Christmas Eve Pope Francis opened the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica. Then for the first time ever, the Pope inaugurated a Holy Door in a prison in Rome. Today, he opens the Holy Door of his Cathedral, S. John Lateran. But we (you & me), what […]

In the night of Bethlehem, two children were born. One descending, one to ascend. One infant, one jubilant. One born poor, one made very rich. One born small, one to become great. One born naked, one with a wedding garment. One born lost, one to be found. One born a slave, one to be set […]

Today begins the Fourth week of Advent, which will end ‘prematurely’ on Tuesday evening, on Christmas Eve. What are we meant to do in these few remaining days of Advent? The first two weeks of Advent spoke of ‘history’ and ‘geography’, ‘time’ and ‘space’, ‘night’ and ‘desert’. It is there that the Saviour wants to […]

This is the third week of Advent, in 10 days is Christmas Eve! Over the past weeks, the Liturgy of the Church spoke of the ‘night’ (First week) and of the ‘desert’ (Second week) as existential places where the Saviour wants to come and meet us. On this Third Sunday of Advent the readings help […]

This is the second week of Advent. In less than 20 days Christmas would have arrived and gone! The point of these first weeks of Advent is to ‘locate’ us, to ‘place’ us in our reality, to ‘insert’ us in our own history so that Christ (Christmas) can actually find us! On Christmas night we […]

Advent has arrived. What for? What are we meant to do? A Carthusian monk breaks his sleep every night. He ‘rises up’ in time to be in his oratory at midnight and after some time in silent prayer he walks along the cloister to reach the Church for the Night Office, Matins and Lauds of […]

Last Thursday, 21st November, Pope Francis published a Letter on the importance of the study of Church history. You may think that he was writing to seminarians or priests… No, Church history is your history, we are the Church. When we study the history of the Church, we find a lot of imperfection and wounds, […]

Today’s Gospel announces the ‘end’ of all our ‘external’ points of reference, human as well as religious. But it is not the end! NO, it is the beginning of the Kingdom of God… The young girl, above at the piano, scarcely thirteen-year-old, is Mademoiselle Catez. The charming daughter of a French army officer, Elisabeth enjoyed […]