3rd Sunday of Advent 2025 - Joy in stillness

On the first Sunday of Advent, our Scripture readings urged us to be mindful of the need to prepare well during this holy season. On the Second Sunday, last week, we heard John the Baptist urge us to repent—to prepare for the Lord’s coming by turning away from our sins, detaching from world distractions, and making straight the pathways in our lives for God.

On this third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday—we are presented with images of joy—the joyful exultation of Israel as God’s promises are fulfilled, and the Lord pointing to the example of John the Baptist, who leapt for joy in his mother’s womb at the drawing near of the savior. Jesus sends John’s disciples to tell the good news to John, now in prison, that the signs of the Messiah’s coming were now being fulfilled by Jesus. Even in prison, this would have brough John joy.

Joy, it is the deep longing of the human heart. Each one of us longs for joy. No one ever complained about having too much joy in their lives. Rather, the opposite is true, we tire of the joyless, and often jump from one pursuit to the next looking for that elusive joy. 

The brilliant Christian author, C.S. Lewis well-known for his “Chronicles of Narnia” books like “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” also wrote a sort of spiritual autobiography, in which he details his conversion to Christianity from Atheism—a book titled “Surprised by Joy”. In it, Lewis describes how every human being who has ever existed desires joy—we crave it; each of us are on an eternal quest for lasting joy.  Yet, joy, Lewis admits, is the most elusive of the virtues: we are all searching for it, but few seem to find enduring joy.  The authentically and fully joyful person is rare.  

Lewis explains that joy is often so elusive and hard to find because so many people are looking for joy “out there”—as if joy can be acquired if I just obtain the right object, or the right amount of cash in my bank account, in some earthly thing or activity or set of circumstances 

This is why our culture always seems so exhausted once Christmas is over. Our consumeristic, materialistic culture is convinced that joy can be purchased and found in material things like playstations, iphones, televisions, new wardrobes, and the like.

Lewis writes, “No, “Joy does not come from out there,” Lewis says, rather “Joy comes from in here.”  Joy comes into the heart when we are in right relationship with God—joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.  Only when the heart is firmly planted in Christ and doing the works of Christ, will the fruit of joy truly bloom.

Joy is most elusive, but there are a group of people who have discovered Joy. The saints! If you’ve ever met a truly holy person, they are filled with joy. The saints show us that joy is truly found in the Lord. They sing along with Psalm 16: “[Lord] you make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy.”

The saints also show us what is required to tend the soil of one’s heart so that joy may bloom. In the saints, we see that joy is cultivated primarily in two ways. 

Firstly, why are the saints so joyful? Because they have learned to live for others. They show us that joy is cultivated not through selfish accumulation, but by giving oneself away in service. Joy is not found in stuffing yourself to the gills day after day, but in feeding the hungry. Joy is not found with meticulously assembling the perfect wardrobe by keep up with the newest fashions, but by clothing the naked. Joy is not found in mindlessly doom scrolling on your phone and trying to convince people that you have the perfect life on social media, but disciplining and structuring your life around intentional generosity and self-sacrifice. They show us that the way of Christ—putting the teachings of Christ in practice, particularly those lessons of charity—is the pathway to joy.

So, firstly, the saints cultivate joy through self-sacrificial good works. Secondly, they show us the indispensability of prayer. And when I say prayer, I’m not just talking about rattling off an our father or hail mary once a day if you remember to do so, or saying grace before meals. Those prayers are important, however, the prayer of the saints is practice by quieting the mind and the soul, seeking God in the stillness of one’s soul. The saints practice prayer to such an extent that they learn to encounter the living God who makes His dwelling in the soul of the baptized. Prayer, for the saints becomes a living fountain of joy. 

This week in OCIA we talked about one of the great teachers of prayer, St. Theresa of Avila, the great Carmelite mystic and one of the four female doctors of the Church. Doctor, by the way, doesn’t mean that she was a medical doctor. The word ‘doctor’ means learned one—someone with something to teach. And the doctors of the Church are the ones learned in the faith and the spiritual life. St. Theresa of Avila is a doctor of the Church because what she has to teach us about prayer.

The doctor of prayer, St. Theresa wrote extensively on prayer and the spiritual life. Her masterpiece on prayer, called “The Interior Castle” was written for those who want to make serious progress in the spiritual life and the practice of prayer. Though it was written over 500 years ago, the language is easy to understand and quite accessible—you should check it out.

Throughout the chapters of her book, Theresa describes how the human soul is like a mansion. And as we enter deeper and deeper into the mansion of the soul, we come experience a purer and purer encounter with God. The journey through the inner mansion of the soul is transformative; we are changed as we grow nearer to God—we grow in joy, in purity of love and intension, detachment from sin, we grow in simplicity, and willingness to suffer for the sake of others. Growth in prayer, growth in holiness, brings growth in joy, as we grow nearer and nearer to God—the source of all joy.

The season of Advent, especially today, Gaudete Sunday, has this character, of seeking to enter more deeply into communion with God, seeking the joy and fullness of life that only He can bring, the joy that the soul longs for.

Throughout her writing, Theresa repeatedly emphasizes that it is not only we who long for God, but God who longs for us, and God desires union with each one of us. And that union doesn’t just begin when our earthly life comes to an end, Yes, we are meant for union with God in eternity, but that experience and growth in communion with God is to start now, in this earthly life—again through prayer, and the life of charity.

We will be happier, more joyful and fulfilled, when we make the inner journey, stripping away all that keeps us from that encounter with Christ, who draws near to us, and makes his dwelling among us, in our very souls. Gaudete in domino semper, rejoice in the Lord always. Dominus enim prope est. Indeed, the Lord is near. 

A week and a half now before Christmas, let us make good use of the time we have been given, to draw near to the Lord who has drawn near to us, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

2nd Week of Advent 2025 - Wednesday - God's promise of renewal

In the first reading, God promises strength for his people. Isaiah says, “They that hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar as with eagles’ wings: They will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint.”

To Isaiah’s original audience, this promise was not a vague spiritual encouragement. It was a concrete proclamation spoken into one of the darkest chapters of Israel’s history. Recall that this promise was being given to a people exiled in Babylon. The Jews had lost their land, lost their Temple, lost their monarchy, lost their identity as a nation, and wondered if God had abandoned them. They were a defeated people with no political leverage and no military strength. They experienced the exhaustion of futile existence and defeat.

But to these people, God assured them: I will restore you, I will rejuvenate you. Your defeat will not get the final word. Hope in the Lord, he will come for you. God remains faithful despite appearances. 

Throughout Advent, we read these promises from Isaiah to understand the spiritual state of humanity awaiting the savior. Israel’s exile was the consequence of their persistent unfaithfulness—idolatry, injustice, hard-heartedness. The loss of the Temple, the land, the kingship, and the city was not just political—it was identity-shattering.

The promises of Isaiah are not just significant for historical Israel, but for all of humanity. God would restore what was lost through sin, he would restore dignity, identity, mission, renewing the human heart enabling us to become the people God made us to be. 

In the Gospel today, Jesus identifies himself as the one who brings the strength and rejuvenation Israel and all of humanity longed for. “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” Rest. Rejuvenation. New strength. Renewal. Jesus is the answer to humanities longing. He is the font of new life.

We know how the burdens of life and the demands of mission of the Gospel can be quite demanding and exhausting. Raising a family in the faith, being faithful to the demands of our particular vocation, caring for the poor in all the ways God is calling us, fighting against temptation and worldly distraction. Sharing the Gospel to a world that mocks us, hates us, persecutes us. The Christian pilgrimage can be exhausting.

But during Advent, we are to take the time to renew our hope and trust in the Lord, quieting down, turning away from worldly distraction, so that we can be rejuvenated, strengthened when the Lord comes. 

The Christian life isn’t just about gritting our teeth, relying on our own talents, pushing through on our own, but learning to hope in the Lord in times of difficulty. Those who hope in the Lord will be strengthened. Those who turn to the Lord will have strength for the long haul, strength to do small things with great love, strength to embrace great challenges, for the building up of the Church, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls

 

Trusting in the God who renews the strength of His people and who calls us to find rest in Him, let us offer our prayers.

That during this Advent season, the Church may deepen her hope in the Lord and draw renewed strength from Christ, who restores what sin has broken, and for renewal in our parish.

That all who serve the poor, fight against injustice, experience Christian persecution or witness to the Gospel in difficult environments may receive fresh strength from the Lord to continue doing good without growing weary.

That parents, spouses, and caregivers, may be strengthened by God’s grace to persevere with patience, love, and hope amid life’s demands.

For all of the sick, and that those who feel burdened, defeated, or forgotten—may find renewal in Christ.

That all who have walked the pilgrimage of faith and now rest from their labors may rejoice in the fullness of the Kingdom prepared for them.

God of strength, You renew the hearts of those who hope in You. Hear the prayers we place before You and grant us the grace to find in Christ our rest, our renewal, and our salvation. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

December 8, 2025 - Immaculate Conception - Behold your mother

 On Calvary, on Good Friday, from the Cross, Jesus gave a commandment to his followers. With his final breaths, he said, “Behold your mother”. Behold your mother. Even in his agony, he was thinking of his mother Mary. And he commanded that we do the same. One of the dimensions of the Christian life, part of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ, is to behold Mary, to behold her. After all, Jesus told us to do so.

We behold Mary in a number of ways. We depict her in art. Mary, the mother of Jesus, and our mother in faith, has been depicted in art, in paintings, statues, stained glass windows, murals and mosaics, more than any person in human history. She was even painted on the walls of the catacombs. 

We behold our mother by considering her faith—meditating on her countless virtues. We meditate upon how she responded to God with humility and trust at her annunciation. We meditate upon how she went in haste out of charity to her cousin Elizabeth who had become pregnant in her old age. We meditate upon how Mary rejoiced at the birth of Christ in the poor stable of Bethlehem—how she faithfully brought Jesus to the temple and pondered the words of Simeon who foretold how her heart would be pierced by swords of sorrow. We meditate upon her strength, as she stood at the cross of Christ, her only son, consoling Him as only a mother’s presence can. 

Beholding our mother by meditating upon her faith and virtues is always fruit for us—how we, like her are called to respond to God, the mission and role God has for us in salvation in history. 

We also behold our mother by considering the special graces given to her by God. And today we celebrate one of those graces, one of those special favors and privileges that God chose to bestow on Mary. 

Today, beholding her, we look, not to the end of her earthly life, not to a moment when she was influential during the ministry of Jesus or even his childhood or infancy when she birthed him and nursed him. We look to a moment even before Mary was an infant herself, born of her parents Joachim and Anne. We behold our mother, today--looking to the very first moment of Mary’s existence as a human person, her conception in the womb of her mother. 

And beholding her at the first moment of her existence, we are taught that God did something he had never done before, and never will do again. He made her immaculate. 

By virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, savior of the human race, God preserved Mary from the stain of original sin from the moment of her conception. That’s what it means to be immaculate—to have been made without stain.

Could God do this? Of course. He is God. Nothing is impossible for God. God is all-powerful. To say God couldn’t do that is to assert that he is not Almighty. But he is. He could make her immaculate if he so chose. And he did. And Christians have believed that He did since the beginning of the Church.

In the early church we see the great Fathers teaching about Mary’s Immaculate Conception. Hippolytus around 235 writes, ““She was the ark formed of incorruptible wood. For by this is signified that His tabernacle was exempt from putridity and corruption.” St. Ephraem around 370 writes, “[Jesus], Thou alone and thy Mother are in all things fair, there is no flaw in thee and no stain in thy Mother.”

The bishop and doctor of the Church, St. Ambrose, whose feast was yesterday, December 7, in 388 “Mary, a Virgin not only undefiled but a Virgin whom grace has made inviolate, free of every stain of sin.” 

Why did God make Mary this way? Because he wanted to—he saw it fitting—to make Mary immaculate—to prepare a worthy Mother for His Son. He made her Immaculate so that the Word might take his sinless flesh from the sinless flesh of an immaculate mother.

We honor and obey God by doing what we have been taught by Jesus Himself—we behold our mother. So make sure you do. Love her. Get to know her. Imitate her virtues. Turn to her in prayer. Behold her today and all days. Don’t let a day go by without beholding her in some way. For Jesus commanded it so. He gave her to us to be our mother also, a mother filled with special graces to help us be the people God made us to be—to use the graces he has bestowed on us in His service, for the building up of the church, for the mission of the Gospel, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

December 03 2025 (school mass) - St. Francis Xavier - Purpose

 

On just the third weekday of Advent this year, we wear not Advent purple, but white, as we celebrate the obligatory memorial of a saint of the Church, St. Francis Xavier: a reminder, that the purpose of the season of Advent is to make us saints. The purpose of Advent prayer, Advent Symbols and songs, Advent charitable-giving, is to make us saints.

St. Francis Xavier was filled with zeal for helping others prepare their hearts to receive Christ. Francis Xavier was a Jesuit priest sent by the founder of his Order, St. Ignatius of Loyola, to spread the Gospel to the people of India, Japan, and the Philippines who did not believe in Christ. In the course of only 10 years of teaching people about Jesus, he baptized over 80,000 people.

Why did Francis Xavier leave his home and travel to the far reaches of the world? As we heard in the Gospel today, Jesus gave a command to his followers: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

God the Father sent his Son into the world so that none of us would perish. And Jesus sends his followers to continue that mission: to help people believe that Jesus is truly the Son of God, and by becoming his followers we come to eternal life.

Again, that’s why I’m here, that’s why your teachers are employed here, that’s why Corpus Christi Academy is here, that’s why St. Clare parish is here, to help you believe in and follow Jesus.

During the season of Advent, each of us does well to consider what we must do to follow Jesus more faithfully, to understand his teachings and the purpose for which he came into the world, and to make our hearts more like his: loving, peaceful, joyful, devoted to doing the will of the Father. St. Francis Xavier was led by the Lord to preach and teach to India, Japan, and the Philippines.

Where might God be leading each of us? God how are you calling me to use my gifts to build up your kingdom? To lead others to you? How by my words and actions are you calling me to better witness to your goodness, truth, beauty, and love? What sins are you still at work to save me from? How are you calling me to make my heart more like Christ’s for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

1st Week of Advent 2025 - Monday - The Centurion's Advent Faith

 “"Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.” On this first weekday of Advent we read the powerful Gospel passage of the faith of the Centurion. The Centurion, a non-Jew, like us, believed that Jesus had the power to heal.

Out of all of the Gospels, why does Mother Church present us with this Gospel in particular on the first weekday of Advent?

Advent starts with desire: the ache for God to come close, to save, to heal, to set things right. The Centurion’s simple cry—“Lord… only say the word”—is the voice of every human heart waiting for Christ. Advent begins not with the instruction to make sure we buy the right presents or decorate our homes with the right amount of tinsel, but with a plea for mercy—humble longing, confident trust, and the recognition that we cannot save ourselves.

The fact that the Centurion is a Gentile is a signal that Christ came for all nations. So, On Day 1 of Advent, the Church reminds us: The Messiah is for the whole world. This echoes a constant theme we’ll hear from Isaiah throughout this season: of all nations streaming toward the mountain of the Lord.

The Centurion believes without seeing — Advent is a season of unseen hope. Jesus does not go to the house. He speaks a word. The servant is healed. Advent involves this kind of faith: a willingness to trust God before the fulfillment is visible, to believe the promises before the manger is filled, to hope for what we do not yet see.

And yet, this exchange between Jesus and the Centurion certainly foreshadows Christmas, at which we celebrate that God enters under our roof—not because we are worthy, but because He is merciful. 

Hence, the Centurion teaches us how to wait for Christ: with humility, with faith, with hope in God’s power to save, with a universal vision of a Messiah for all people, with the readiness to welcome Him under our roof

It is the whole spirituality of Advent packed into a single moment of great faith.

As the Lord enters our roof in the celebration of Mass today, in Word and Sacrament, may we learn from the humble Centurion in preparing well for Christmas for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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With humble trust in the Lord who speaks the saving word, let us present our prayers and petitions.

As we begin a new liturgical year and the season of Advent, we pray for the gifts of hope, peace, joy, and love to fill the Church, the world, and our hearts.  Let us pray to the Lord.

That Christ may guide the minds of those who govern us to promote authentic peace and justice according to God’s Holy Will. Let us pray to the Lord.

For the protection of our armed forces, police, and firemen and all those who risk their lives to preserve our security and freedom. For peace in those war-torn areas of the world and God’s protection of persecuted Christians. Let us pray to the Lord.

That, like the Centurion’s servant, those in need of healing—physical, emotional, or spiritual—may experience the saving word of Christ spoken over their lives. Let us pray to the Lord.

That as we receive the Lord in Word and Sacrament today, we may welcome Him with humble longing, confident trust, and a renewed desire to prepare well for Christmas.

For our beloved dead: That those who awaited the Lord in faith may now behold the fulfillment of every promise in the Kingdom of heaven.

God our Father, in Your mercy You sent Your Son as Savior of All nations. Hear these prayers we bring with faith, and grant us the grace to welcome Christ under our roof with humility and hope. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

1st Sunday of Advent 2025 - Preparing Well

 Happy Advent Everyone.

The most important things in life require some preparation, don’t they? When parents discover they are expecting a new child, they prepare a room for the child and a crib—clothes are purchased, a baby shower is thrown. When a couple becomes engaged for marriage, they prepare, they plan. They meet with the priest for marriage preparation, they attend a pre-cana day, the reception is planned, the wedding garments are acquired, a home is made ready. 

Similarly, when a young man realizes his call to the priesthood, his seminary formation involves nine years of theological training, experience in different ministerial settings like visiting the sick in hospitals and nursing homes, visiting the imprisoned, learning how to craft a homily, teach in the classroom, and celebrate the sacraments.

We prepare for big tests, big presentations and tasks at our jobs. We prepare emotionally to tell someone difficult news; we prepare our wills for the end of our lives. A priest friend of mine would often say, “everything prepares us for something else.” 

Often the sufferings of the past and present help to prepare us for some future task that will require mature faith and endurance. St. Paul even says that our sufferings prepare us to console others who suffer.

The two most important feasts of the Liturgical Year are so important that they both have entire seasons to prepare for them. The season of Lent prepares us for easter, and the season of Advent which begins today prepares us for Christmas.

So how does Advent prepare us for Christmas? Well, certainly by helping us focus our time. We have 4 weeks to prepare. 4 weeks to space out the physical preparations, the shopping, the planning of parties and gatherings, the decorating, the baking of Christmas cookies.

But more importantly, yes? Are the spiritual preparations. Through the Advent scriptures and liturgies and Advent symbols Mother Church helps us to prepare our minds, hearts, and souls for the celebration of the birth of the Christ-Child?

On each of the four Sundays of Advent we read from the book of the prophet Isaiah. Throughout Advent we hear Isaiah’s message for God’s people to practice justice, the need for repentance, the reality of judgment, God’s promise of salvation and proclamation of mercy; Isaiah urges God’s people during times of darkness to practice faith and hope. 

All of those lessons are important to meditate upon, but Isaiah is read during Advent particularly because the book of Isaiah contains Scripture’s clearest proclamations of the coming of the Messiah. God will intervene in history. History filled with so much strife and chaos, war and oppression, injustice and sadness. And Isaiah proclaims the promise that the Messiah will enter history to bring mankind the peace and reconciliation and salvation that our hearts long for. 

If possible, during Advent spend time each day with the Church’s scripture reading, meditating on Isaiah’s promises. If you can’t make it to mass throughout the week, the scripture readings are available on the US Bishop’s website every day. You can even sign-up to have them emailed to you every day. 

Reading through the daily scripture readings will help you to be spiritually prepared for Christmas.

Active, intentional preparation is vital, so vital, that Our Gospel contains a message about preparation from Our Lord Himself. In this passage from near the end of Matthew’s Gospel, teaching in Jerusalem during Holy Week, Jesus teaches about the consequences for not being prepared.

He says the people of Noah’s day were not preparing for what was to come, but, instead they were eating, drinking and having a good time, preoccupied with earthly matters and so were unprepared and unrepentant when the flood came. Moses and his family were spared the flood because they were listening to God, they prepared for the flood by listening to the instructions of God, building the ark, battening the hatches, preparing for this mighty act of God which would cleanse the earth of wickedness.

Similarly now during Advent, Christians need to take time to listen to God. The rest of the world is busy busy busy with all of the physical preparations for Christmas. But Christians don’t just prepare like the rest of the world, we prepare spiritually as well which will enable us to experience deeply the flood of grace at Christmas, which the world will ignore.

Here the Lord gives us a warning and our marching orders for Advent. “Stay awake” he says. Make sure you are prepared for God wanting to break-in to your lives. Make sure you are engaging in sufficient prayer, reflection on the Word of God, acts of charity and repentance of sin.

It is certainly appropriate during the season of Advent to make a good confession. For what better way to prepare our soul for the Lord coming more deeply into our lives, than by confessing and receiving absolution for those sins which weigh us down, our failures to love the Lord as we should.

“You know the time;” Paul says,  “it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.” What are the spiritual practices that will awaken you from whatever spiritual lethargy has crept into your life? What do you need to do to remain spiritually awake throughout Advent? Today is a great day to come up with a good spiritual plan for Advent: what will your Advent spiritual reading consist of, when will you make your Advent confession, what are the good works you intend to engage in (even if that just means baking a plate of cookies for the lonely widow next door). 

We will never regret the time given to the Lord to prepare spiritually for his coming, to prioritize faith during this busy season, to prepare room for him to live and dwell in you this Christmas, for the glory of God and salvation.

32nd Week of Ordinary Time 2025 - Friday - Beauty of the Natural World and Vigilance for the Coming of Christ

 

In the 5^th century, the great Doctor of the Church Saint Augustine wrote about how the beauty of creation points to the one who created them. “Question the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air, amply spread around everywhere, question the beauty of the sky, question the serried ranks of the stars, question the sun making the day glorious with its bright beams, question the moon tempering the darkness of the following night with its shining rays, question the animals that move in the waters, that amble about on dry land, that fly in the air; their souls hidden, their bodies evident; the visible bodies needing to be controlled, the invisible souls controlling them; question all these things. They all answer you, 'Here we are, look ; we're beautiful.' Their beauty is their confession. Who made these beautiful changeable things, if not one who is beautiful and unchangeable?”

It is good to behold the beauty of the world, but everything beautiful in this world points beyond itself.

Both our first reading and psalm speak too of how examining creation points to the existence and glory of the creator. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.” The reading from Wisdom suggests that you have to be a fool to study the works of creation and not to come to the belief in God.

Before we pat ourselves on the back for being more enlightened than the fool who disbelieves in God, Wisdom also admits how easily it is to be distracted by the things of creation: “They are distracted by what they see, because the things seen are fair.” We know how easily it is to become distracted and wrapped up with earthly things that we neglect heavenly things.

Jesus gives the same warning in the Gospel: “They were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building…” and were consequently unprepared for the coming of the Son of Man.

None of those things is sinful in itself — but people became so absorbed in everyday life that they lost sight of the coming judgment and God’s presence.

This warning of the Lord is important for all of us. At all times, we must be spiritually ready, detached, and alert — not lulled into complacency—by our earthly endeavors.

The Alleluia verse commanded this: “Stand erect and raise your heads, because your redemption is at hand.” Christians must constantly lift our eyes from earthly things, to ensure that our efforts are being dedicated to the things of God: infusing our minds with the light of God’s wisdom through study of our faith and reading of the scriptures, sufficient prayer and meditation, and intentional acts of charity for the good of others.

We do well to examine how we use our time, to ensure that the ordinary is not keeping us from seeking and pursuing the extraordinary, the natural is not keeping us from seeking the supernatural, that earthly beauty is not keeping us from seeking the source of that beauty—for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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 Trusting in the God who reveals His glory through all creation and calls us to lift our eyes toward our redemption, we bring our prayers before Him.

 For the Church throughout the world: that she remain faithful in pointing humanity to God and to be vigilant and ready for the coming of the Son of Man.

 For our world, so often distracted by material pursuits: that hearts may be turned away from what is passing and lifted toward what is eternal.

 For all who are burdened by illness, anxiety, or distraction: that Christ may raise their heads, strengthen their hope, and make His nearness known to them.

 For those who cannot see God’s goodness because of suffering or hardship: that the Lord may illuminate their lives with signs of His love and care. Let us pray to the Lord.

 During this month of November, we continue to pray for all of the faithful departed:  that having sought the face of God in this life, they may behold the fullness of His beauty in the life to come. Let us pray to the Lord.

 Heavenly Father, source of all beauty and author of all creation, hear our prayers, guide our hearts, and keep us ever ready for the coming of your Son. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.