Holiness for the Working Day

The healing time of lent

Ash Wednesday 2026

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A and Valentine's Day 2026

This Lent, we step into a type of Groundhog Day and discover that the real loop is not time, but of the heart. Like Phil Connors, we can drift through repetition, chasing comfort and distraction, or we can let repetition become formation. Lent is not a diet, a productivity plan, or spiritual biohacking. It is a training camp for love. It is the joyful adventure of waking up to the ordinary day and choosing to grow in it. It is the season where the mind is reawakened, attention is purified, and sanctifying grace elevates our natural powers so we can truly know Christ and love like Him. This is the school of love, where virtue is formed through daily practice, where the fog lifts, where the intellect comes alive, and where the loop breaks not because circumstances change, but because we do as we journey to Easter.

This is the last talk in the meditation series on Surrender.

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled: Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen. From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen. He said to them, "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him. He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him. He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.

This episode explores the fear that sits beneath both creativity and ordinary life, the quiet conviction that we are not enough, that if we stop producing we might disappear. Beginning with Tolkien's line about fearing "so small a thing," the reflection moves through impostor syndrome, perfectionism, and what John Barth called Scheherazade's terror, the belief that silence equals death. From there, it opens onto the Christian paradox that freedom does not come from control, but from surrender. Drawing on Tolkien's idea of eucatastrophe, the sudden turn when grace intervenes after our strength is spent, the episode argues that real creativity, real peace, and real joy emerge only when we let go and place our lives fully in God's hands. It closes with a quiet, moving image of childlike joy at a graveside, a reminder that surrender is not weakness but courage, and that resting in God is the only place fear finally loosens its grip.

2nd Sunday in Ordinary time, Year A

John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one of whom I said, 'A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.' I did not know him, but the reason why I came baptizing with water was that he might be made known to Israel." John testified further, saying, "I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon him. I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.' Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God."

What if the reason we feel anxious, blocked, and exhausted is not a lack of effort, but a refusal to surrender? This episode weaves poetry, ancient myth, modern culture, and Christian wisdom into a single question: where does real creativity and real peace actually come from? From the Greek Muses and Plato's divine madness, through Homer and Shakespeare, to Augustine, Aquinas, Tolkien, and Christ in Gethsemane, this talk challenges the modern instinct to control, perform, and self-create. If you feel restless, afraid to let go, or stuck trying to hold your life together, this episode invites you to listen closely, because peace does not come from mastery, it comes from trust.

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord 2026