Do you enjoy being visited? Mary and Elizabeth visit each other in order to proclaim that God has visited his people.

How do we find joy in being reminded over and over that we are merely human beings? PRECISELY in embracing our identity as human beings.

Sorry, the first upload was the wrong format.

Sorry about the screechy recording from last week. What voices do we listen to?

This year we observe the briefest Advent possible. Seize the moment and consider what a coating of ice and snow has to say to us about God, our beginnings, and our fulfillments.

This is relatively lengthy, starting as it does with an issue I'm going to be talking about for several weeks: dismal weekend Mass attendance. -- My time in London helped me to consider the matter of kingship; I think I have some helpful insights.

I was sick and this homily was very brief. I believe that this was the Gospel of "the widow's mite."

"Love God with all your heart" -- this is the first and greatest commandment. But it is certainly not the first commandment of which we have a practical grasp. Let us consider how we learn to love.

Those of us who use computers must be impressed with the visual nature of the interaction between ourselves and these devices. We equate seeing with understanding. The word of God today encourages us in our understanding. As Hebrews declares today, God understands us, not because he is standing by and looking on from a distance, but because in Jesus he experienced the effects of living in the obscurity of a sinful world.

After an uneventful air trip, I am in London where I worked as a deacon in the summer of 1982. I arrived at the parish for the 9:00 am Mass with three minutes to spare. I have located an internet cafe, from which I am sending this message. I am walking around the old neighborhood. Both of the hospitals where I worked have undergone great changes. The parish church has a completely remodeled interior, in keeping with guidelines on providing for baptism of adults by immersion. I will write some more after I have done some more.