December 7, 2003
Moving Mountains
"Celebrating
Our Ladyt"
One of the people to play a key role each Advent is Mary, the Mother
of Jesus. We celebrate two feasts of Mary this week: Monday is the Feast
of the Immaculate Conception where we recognize that Mary was conceived
without sin. (Note: To avoid arguments around the office cooler: This
doctrine is not about Mary conceiving Jesus. Mary’s parents
conceived her in the usual way -- only we believe that God
preserved her from sin from the moment of conception.)
On Friday, we
celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe -- Mary is the Patroness
of the Americas. Come, join in celebrating Mary’s place in our
lives!!.
At College?
At St. Brigid’s we like to stay in touch through
e-mail “letters from home.”
Once a person has an e-mail address at school (or if he/she uses a personal
address), please let us know what it is so we can include them when
we write.
Here's a handy college link so you
can send this info online.
e-mail Father Ralph:
Past Columns:
Nov30:
Advent Hope
Nov23: Giving
Thanks
Nov 2: A New
Look
Oct
26: Blessed Mother Teresa
Oct
19: The Future of Our Youth
Oct
12: In Hot Water
Oct
5: Fruits of the Millennium
Sept
28: Jesus Comes To St. Brigid's
Sept
21: The children will lead us
Sept
14: Triumph of the Cross
Sept
7: Nine-eleven: Two Years Later
August
31: Where the Summer went
August
24: Lessons from the Blackout
August
17: Here and There
August 10: Surrender
August 3: Reaping
Rewards
July 27:
What's your mission?
July 20:
From a Deserted Place
July 13: Nothing
for the Journey
July 6: God
at Home
June 29: Going
in Stages
June 22: Sommer
in the Summer
June 15: Our
Newest Priest Ordained
June 8: The
Feast of Pentecost
June 1: Beyond
First Communion
May 24: Felicidades
Manuel
May 18: Twenty
Years Later
May 11: Bows
for Peace
May 4: Upcoming
Ordinations
April 27: One
Heart One Mind
April 20: Amazingly
Graced Days
April 13: Ashes
to Palms
April
6: God Embedded
March
30: Pastoral Visits
March
23: Turning Tables
March
16: Transfiguring Imagination
March
9: Beasts and Angels
March
2: Lent and Imagination
Feb
23: Sorrow Far and Wide
Feb 16: Saints
Feb 9: Columbia
Lessons
Feb2: Giving
At A Difficult Time
Jan 26:
Penny Power & Catholic Schools
Jan19:
Yet Another Year
Jan 12:
Stealing Jesus
Jan5: The Wise Still Come
From Afar
Columns from 2002
One of the lasting memories I have from
a trip to the Holy Land is traveling by bus along a narrow road and looking
out the window to see only the gorge below. One wrong turn by the bus
driver and we’d have plunged to our deaths. Because I’ve grown
up on Long Island I wasn’t used to mountains and deep valleys, but
these are the features that the people of the Holy Land have lived with
for all time.
So in today’s readings when Baruch and
John the Baptist both mention that God will fill in the valleys and level
the mountains to make a straight path, it’s no big deal to me. But
it was a very big deal -- and attractive image - to people who had to
climb up the mountains and down into the valleys to get where they were
going -- with out a car or bus.While we might look at mountains and valleys
as things of beauty, those folks saw them as yet another set of life’s
dangers.
This Advent we face our own dangers -- there
are “mountains and valleys” that we wish God would smooth. On
the national level, we still hurt every day that we hear another of our
soldiers being killed overseas. Our children continue to suffer the effects
of poverty, prejudice, abortion, disease, hunger, lack of adequate housing,
etc. Our families face addictions and broken relationships. There are
so many ways that we feel that we walk “the valley of death.”
John the Baptist comes, certain that God’s
reign is about to begin. And he calls people to do their part in making
ready the way of the Lord. With all the busy-ness of these days before
Christmas it’s easy to forget what this season is truly about --
making ready the way of the Lord. That means changing how we speak to
one another -- more than it means changing decorations. It means choosing
to be patient and understanding -- more than it means choosing the right
colored necktie to give as a gift. It means listening to the quiet voice
of God in prayer, as God tries to get a word in between the Christmas
music.
Make ready the way of the Lord!
You are Person
