Epiphany of Our Lord 

January 5th 

Readings: The Epiphany of the Lord | USCCB 

Epiphany: the word literally means an appearance or manifestation, and typically refers to the appearance of a divine being. For Christians, the Feast of the Epiphany closes out the “Twelve Days of Christmas” and as part of the annual commemoration of the Nativity of our Lord, celebrates the appearance of the Son of God who was incarnate in the person of Jesus, taking on our humanity so that we might know God in a very personal and intimate way.  

Today’s Gospel reading recounts the familiar story of the magi from the east, who have followed a star since its rising and come to Jerusalem looking for the newborn King of the Jews. Although the religious experts whom Herod consults correctly identify Bethlehem as the birthplace of the one who is to shepherd the people of Israel, it is only the magi who continue on to find the child with his mother, and to give him homage. 

The irony here is that the magi were “foreigners,” “outsiders,” those we might least expect to be interested in or open to the appearance of the newborn king of the Jews. Their reception of this dramatic manifestation of God is in sharp contrast to Herod, who is blinded by ambition and paranoia, concerned only with the preservation of his own earthly power. These magi fulfill Isaiah’s proclamation from today’s first reading that nations and kings shall walk by the light of the Lord that has shone upon Jerusalem. They likewise illustrate the revelation given to Paul in the second reading, that Gentiles are “coheirs” and “copartners” in the promises of God. 

For us today, the Feast of Epiphany poses the question of whether we are open to the manifestations of God in our lives. Through the Incarnation, God has invited all of humanity to an encounter with divine mercy and love; but will we be like the magi who search and find God in unexpected places, or will we be like Herod, preoccupied with worldly desires and oblivious to the presence of God in our midst? Where will you look for an epiphany of God? In whom will you see a reflection of God’s face? How will you welcome God into your life?  

Kenneth D. Snyder, Ph.D. 

Associate Academic Dean 

The Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity 

January 1st 

Readings: Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God | USCCB 

Today’s Gospel reading takes us to the tender scene of the Nativity. We know it as imagined in countless paintings: the infant Christ lying in the manger, the shepherds coming in joy to worship, and Joseph and Mary gazing in wonder at the child who lies before them. Mary, like any new mother, cannot take her eyes off her new baby. Yet today’s other readings hint that Mary is not the only one gazing. The Psalmist prays: “May God have pity on us and bless us; / may he let his face shine upon us.” Similarly, the LORD tells Moses to bless the Israelites with the words “The LORD bless you and keep you! / The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! / The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!” These words remind us that even as Mary gazes at Christ, he also looks at her with a gaze that brings God’s blessing. 

In her recent volume of poetry, Dawn of this Hunger1, contemporary poet and Catholic convert Sally Read imagines mother and son in the first hours and days after Christ’s birth into the world. Read tells us that Mary is “transfixed by his skin” (14) and attentive to “the depths of his dark eyes” (16). Yet she also describes the infant Christ’s attention to Mary and his “insistence on her as the only beautiful, only visible thing” (14). Mary and Christ are lost in mutual attentiveness. Read writes: “This locked gaze is what keeps God and man together. It is true prayer” (16). 

Read hints that the true substance of prayer is not just a laundry list of petitions nor an anxious litany of worries, but something more like mutual attentiveness, simply being present with the Lord. Her insight echoes St. John Vianney’s experience: in praying before the tabernacle or in adoration, he explained, “I look at him, and he looks at me.” At the Nativity and ever after, Mary’s face is turned towards Christ, and her attention is her prayer. Christ likewise gazes with joy at Mary, the perfection of humanity. His face reveals the love of the Father for all of creation, and it brings blessing to Mary and to us, her children.  

Dr. Erika Kidd 

Associate Professor, Catholic Studies 

Sunday, Dec 29 

Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph | USCCB 

Nazareth, School of the Gospel 

Pope Paul VI in his address at the Basilica of Nazareth in 1964, reflected on Nazareth as a school for all Christians.  He paid attention to Jesus’ beginnings and his life in Nazareth as a school of the Gospel. There, he says, “we learn to observe, to listen, to meditate, and to penetrate the profound and mysterious meaning of that simple, humble, and lovely manifestation of the Son of God… Here we learn the method by which we can come to understand Christ.” 

The pope reflects in three lessons that are worth sharing as we celebrate the family of Nazareth and what it teaches us: 

Silence 

“The lesson of silence: may there return to us an appreciation of this stupendous and indispensable spiritual condition, deafened as we are by so much tumult, so much noise, so many voices of our chaotic and frenzied modern life. O silence of Nazareth, teach us recollection, reflection, and eagerness to heed the good inspirations and words of true teachers; teach us the need and value of preparation, of study, of meditation, of interior life, of secret prayer seen by God alone.” 

Domestic life 

“The lesson of domestic life: may Nazareth teach us the meaning of family life, its harmony of love, its simplicity and austere beauty, its sacred and inviolable character; may it teach us how sweet and irreplaceable is its training, how fundamental and incomparable its role on the social plane.” 

The meaning of work 

“The lesson of work: O Nazareth, home of “the carpenter’s son,” We want here to understand and to praise the austere and redeeming law of human labor, here to restore the consciousness of the dignity of labor, here to recall that work cannot be an end in itself.” 

As we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, we are invited to imitate those lessons practiced in the daily life of Jesus’ childhood home. Silence, a family life grounded in love and simplicity, and the meaning of work continue to be priorities for our families today.  They refer to our relation to God, to our relation to others and the way we contribute to the world and fulfill our own calling.  

The virtues to which the readings call us today are further instilled in our families when those lessons of Nazareth are taken at heart. And as in any school, all we need is to see with wonder, be open to receive and practice the teaching that is given.  

May we be good disciples of Nazareth.  

Marta Pereira
Associate Director, Campus Ministry 

Christmas Day 

Readings: The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas) | USCCB 

Let the light shine 

As a child, my anticipation of Christmas Day was intense – the gifts, the cousins I rarely saw, the once-a-year foods. All too quickly, though, the gifts were done, the cousins left, and dinnertime was back to humdrum tuna casserole. How could such a monumental cause for celebration be over so soon? 

Today’s Gospel reading reminds us that today is not a singular event to celebrate but a history-upending reality in which we are ongoing active participants. Yes, Christmas represents that moment when “true light” came into our world. But that same reading reminds us about the key role that John played – “He was not the light but came to testify to the light.” 

It can be tempting to overlook this aspect of the Christmas story. We are not simply passive beneficiaries of the true light; we are asked to bear witness to it. As Pope Francis puts it, “it is not enough to receive light, one must become light,” for each of us is called to receive “the divine light in order to manifest it with our whole life.” 

The Incarnation is God shouting to us, “You are loved.” And it is a love that can never be captured in a day or season, no matter how special the gifts, relatives, or food we rely on to mark the occasion when true light arrived. The significance of the occasion will be marked, in the end, by our lives. Do our lives reflect the reason we place so much significance on December 25? As a “weary world” contemplates that “holy night,” as the hymn says, do they see in us “a thrill of hope” for the breaking of a “new and glorious morn?” 

My prayer for you – and for me – is that we let the light shine in us and through us for the world to see, long after the cousins have headed home. 

Merry Christmas! 

Rob Vischer

President, University of St. Thomas

Readings: Third Sunday of Advent | USCCB 

Jesus accompanies us in our pain – Third Sunday of Advent 

Have you ever felt sad or anxious and a friend says to you, “cheer up and look on the bright side,” or “what you need to do to feel better is…”? Despite good intentions to take your pain away, you simply want to be heard and for someone to be with you in your pain.   

Today’s readings feel like a friend who tries to “make” you feel better. The prophet Zephaniah exhorts, “Be glad and exult with all your heart…fear not, be not discouraged!”  In his letter to the Philippians, St. Paul tells us to “rejoice!” and “have no anxiety at all.”  As much as I would like to “rejoice!” and “have no anxiety at all,” I’m struggling to do so. I am feeling a lot of sadness recently, and I don’t particularly feel like rejoicing. I just want to be accompanied in my pain.  

I offer this personal sharing to simply say we all hurt. And sometimes our hurt—due to devastating loss, relationship struggles, injustice, feeling overwhelmed, or whatever it may be—feels immune to being “glad.”   

Or is it?   

A closer look at today’s readings shows that persistent calls to “rejoice” and “have no anxiety at all” are not mere platitudes; they are always coupled with a radical and reassuring truth—“the LORD, your God, is in your midst.” This is deep cause to “be glad.”   

Jesus never came to take away our pain; Jesus came to be with us in it. When Emmanuel (“God with us”) comes to be with us in our pain, then our pain no longer overwhelms us. Through Jesus’ own dying and rising, he shows us that our pain, which he shares in, is never the end of the story, but the place where healing begins. Through accompanying us in our hurts, Christ will “renew you in his love.”   

Paul Krenzelok
Executive Director
Ignatian Spirituality Center 

Second Sunday of Advent 

Second Sunday of Advent | USCCB 

Salvation in every time, and in this time 

Today’s readings are all about God’s mercy and decisive action – in the past, in the future, and today. They inspire hope in suffering people. 

The Book of Baruch recalls the Babylonian Exile, a period of devastating loss and destruction for ancient Israel. But now, God is returning the people to their home, and re-fashioning them into a community of mercy and justice. Baruch calls Jerusalem (and us) to stand up and look for this joyful restoration. Likewise, today’s Psalm describes the overwhelming joy experienced by those rescued from exile and returned home. 

In a similar vein, Paul’s letter to the Philippians rejoices “that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:6) – even though Paul is writing from prison, and he will soon be executed.  

The Gospel of Luke brings this theme of joyful expectation to bear on a very specific place and time: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee . . . the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert” (Luke 3:1-2). Imagine if we said instead, “In the fourth year of the presidency of Joseph Biden, when Tim Walz was governor of Minnesota . . .” The word of God comes to this place and time?! Into this complicated political, social, historical moment?! Yes. 

What will God accomplish? John the Baptist announces a new era of forgiveness and mercy, echoing the prophet Isaiah: “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Isaiah 40:4-5). Oppressed people in both Isaiah’s and John’s time were longing for this salvation. 

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously quoted the same verses from Isaiah in his “I Have A Dream” speech, delivered in 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. King called his listeners to “the fierce urgency of now,” and repeated insistently, “now is the time” to end racial injustice. He urged his listeners on, even as he acknowledged that “some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations.” 

Jesus comes into our messy lives and our unjust, violent world – now.  

Lord Jesus, help me to be a part of your advent in our world, in a way that makes the oppressed rejoice. 

Dr. Cara Anthony
Theology Department 

First Sunday of Advent 

Readings 

God’s Promise of Peace 

The opening line for the first Sunday of Advent from the book of Jeremiah says, “The days are coming when I will fulfill the promise I made.” As we begin a new church year, we start with a promise from God. The promise is for the fullness of life, and for peace to reign among all peoples. That does not mean the troubles are over, however. In fact, the gospel for the same liturgy has Jesus giving warning signs about disruption, turmoil and roaring seas and waves among other things. In fact, he says “people will die of fright, in anticipation of what is coming upon the world for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” We will still have troubled times. In fact, of course, we are living in troubled times right now with various threats of escalation of war around the world. Many are unsettled and living in fear in our own country and communities. Some are filled with hope and others with fear and worry. And yet the promise of the Lord remains the same. In the Advent season, as we look forward to the celebration of the birth of Christ, we are reminded of the startling way that God promises to bring about that promise of peace. He does not come with thunderbolts or with an iron fist to shape us all up. Instead, he comes as a vulnerable little baby, born on the run, not even in his own home. And yet as he comes in that vulnerability, he brings the greatest power of all which is pure, merciful love. Let’s be on the lookout for that gift of love in the coming week in all whom we meet. 

Fr. Christopher Collins, SJ
Vice President for Mission