One’s own experience of family is extremely important in one’s faith development. God calls us to a larger understanding of family than just our family of origin. Both these statements are true.

The readings this week are full of paradoxes about where to look for great things. 

On this Sunday we are asked to continue our Advent preparation, and to do so with a sense of joy.

Baruch proclaims that we will be remembered by God. Do I feel remembered? Do I feel led by God?

In his final public address, the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin said, “A dying person does not have time for the peripheral or the accidental. He or she is drawn to the essential, the important.”

The Feast of Christ the King recognizes the triumph of Jesus, the one who testified to the truth with his words and with his life.

In the Letter to the Hebrews Saint Paul contrasts two types of priesthood: one that is futile and one that is effective. How often do I feel my ministry is futile? In what ways am I effective?

In a book he authored before he became Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger wrote, “If one can say that hunger, love, and power are the forces that motivate man, then one can point out . . . that the three main forms of polytheism are the worship of bread, the worship of love, and the idolization of power.”

Do you give your whole self to God and neighbor? What makes it difficult to do so?

God promises to provide a “level road so that none shall stumble.” What stumbling blocks do I experience on my spiritual journey? Do I believe that God longs to remove them?