Tagged: Daily Reflections

“What I say to you, I say to all: Be on guard!” ––Mark 13:37 Welcome to Advent. Christmas is near! Advent is a time of preparation for the coming of the Lord. We begin a new liturgical year with anticipation and hope. This sounds encouraging, but “we are sinful; all of us have become like unclean men, all our good deeds are like polluted rags” (Is 64:4-5). It hurts to look in the mirror! Fortunately, God refuses to abandon His wounded children. “Yet, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay and You the potter: we are all...

“Remember, I am coming soon! Happy the man who heeds the prophetic message of this book!” —Revelation 22:7 Today, on the last day of the Church’s year, the Church proclaims to us the last chapter of the Bible. The Bible begins in an earthly paradise and ends in a heavenly paradise. The heavenly paradise is not only the restoration of the earthly paradise, but its fulfillment. The heavenly paradise has a river of life-giving water flowing down the middle of its streets (Rv 22:1-2). On both sides of the river grow fruit-bearing trees of life (Rv 22:2). In the heavenly...

“The heavens and the earth will pass away, but My words will not pass.” —Luke 21:33 Imagine you thought today was Thanksgiving Day and you wondered where the turkey was. Then you found out you were the “turkey.” Did anyone ever call you at 3AM and ask if they woke you? These are situations where people have no sense of time. This time warp is even worse in spiritual reality. Some people think they have years to live but really they have only minutes. Others expect our civilization and lifestyle to last forever, although history indicates just the opposite. Some...

“When these things begin to happen, stand up straight and raise your heads, for your ransom is near at hand.”—Luke 21:28 Today’s Scriptures seem gloomy and stark at first reading. But reading them with an eye toward justice helps. “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons. She is a cage for every unclean spirit, a cage for every filthy and disgusting bird” (Rv 18:2). “A powerful angel picked up a stone like a huge millstone and hurled it into the sea and said: ‘Babylon the great city shall be cast down like this,...

“I will give you words and a wisdom which none of your adversaries can take exception to or contradict.” –Luke 21:15 Under the most overwhelming circumstances — in the face of death, on trial, betrayed by our families — we will be given a supernatural wisdom. We won’t know what we’re going to say before we say it (Lk 21:14). We’ll be surprised at the words of wisdom and of courage which will come out of our mouths. We’ll even be able to sing God’s praises in the face of destruction (Rv 15:3). We won’t be the only ones surprised...