My apologies for not being able to present Jan. 5 or Jan. 12. During the "polar vortex" blizzard of January 5, my recorder remained on for over an hour. The next Sunday, I wasn't thinking ahead when Bishop Paprocki was the presider and homilist at the Mass where I usually record the homily. Consider the sober majesty of "the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world."

Lest you suppose that your family doesn't fit some kind of societal norm, remember that the Holy Family itself was far from typical.

In spite of the four-century struggle to state dogmatically who Jesus is, St. Paul, at the beginning of Christianity, demonstrates his awareness of Jesus as truly God and truly human.

Give me patience -- right now! We must turn from our demands of immediate results and allow our God to lead us into a new consciousness of how the Kingdom of God operates.

How is the "peaceable kingdom" to be achieved? Looking within is necessary.

Advent will most likely be a matter of our inner experience. We remember the significance of the passage from Romans in the dramatic life of St. Augustine.

Yes, Americans can appreciate the concept of kin(g)ship. We have a God who rules from the cross, where he intersects with all the griefs of the human condition. "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

The way to be in touch with eternity is to be absorbed in our present duty and to know why we are so devoted.

We are called to cultivate a sense of wonder that we are here in the first place. This wonder helps us enter into a deeper faith in the eternal life by which God is rightly praised.

Do we see life as a bunch of random happenings? Our loving God does not consider us as random occurrences. We may apply to ourselves the surprise which Zacchaeus felt when Jesus looked up into the tree and called him by name.