There's something about New Year's that inspires hope in me. Every year, during those first seven of the Twelve Days of Christmas, I find myself actively and enthusastically contemplating the start of a new year. No matter how tattered (or forgotten) last year's resolutions are, I am confident that this year will be different. Maybe it's the glow from the Christmas lights, but snarky and cynical shadows of how well last year's resolutions went don't have a chance. It's a New Year, and in some wa...

Today while being prepped for a long dental procedure, my dentist began talking about preparing for Christmas. Having grown up in an Asian country, he told me that even though a non-Christian he had often visited various Catholic churches at Christmastime, attracted by the lights and decorations. As I settled into the dentist chair I listened to this kind, conscientious man. He talked about life and how he was trying to achieve a sort of perfection, a release from the hold that anger, envy, disa...

The Christmas season is filled with anticipation for some, loneliness for others, and for still others, stress generated by impossible deadlines on their "To Do” and “To Buy” lists. For all of us, however, the four weeks of Advent can help us reflect on our relationship with the sacred reality of TIME.As we wait for the celebration of Christmas, the Advent Liturgy and hymns often remind us: “The Lord does not delay his promise as some regard ‘delay,’ but he is patient with you, not wishing...

The question of what makes a movie ideal for Christmas, the day we commemorate and celebrate Jesus’ birth, is subjective. It often depends completely on the audience—among my Facebook friends, for instance, the 1988 thriller Die Hard came out as an unlikely favorite when I recently posted this question. But come to think of it, John McTiernan’s action movie starring Bruce Willis has all the right elements: It starts at a Christmas party and includes danger, a pregnant woman, bad guys, reconci...

Advent holds a very special place in my heart. In the Advent liturgy we are able to experience with all our senses the haunting beauty of this time of ardent longing and waiting. The smells of pine wreaths and burning wax, the plaintive melodies of Advent hymns, the promise-filled prophecies and Old Testament readings, the great Advent figures – they all urge us to focus on what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. In four short weeks we learn to wait, to hope, to be quiet, to prepare. How appr...

"Then I looked, and there was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion! And with him were one hundred forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads" (Revelation 14:1).The one hundred forty-four thousand standing on Mount Zion... A new song only they could sing... The wedding of the Lamb. The heavenly Jerusalem...To be honest, these are not my "everyday" thoughts. Yet this is who I am, who we are. Politics, problems, and plans seem more real, more in the moment, mo...