Bishop Michael T. Martin: Are you waiting, or anticipating?

The difference between waiting and anticipating is huge. So in this season of Advent, the question is: Are we waiting for something, or are we anticipating something?

Andrew Tolkmith: Don’t let disasters be the only way to remember how to live

Natural disasters bring with them a certain mysterious power to recalibrate a person’s understanding of what humans are and what they are for. Values seem to get tossed in a whirlwind like the trees and powerlines in a hurricane – and in the aftermath, inexplicably, they just fall back into right order within the soul. Parents, brothers and sisters matter like never before. Neighbors matter like never before. The parish matters like never before. Giving thanks matters like never before.

Elizabeth Scalia: Like Adam and Eve, we are naked before the strange humility of God

After the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree, the Lord God called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.” Then He asked, “Who told you that you were naked?” (Gn 3:8-11).

Jaymie Stuart Wolfe: A faith that questions

The Scriptures are full of questions – by one count, more than 2,500 of them. The first is posed by the serpent in the garden of Eden, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden?’” (Gn 3:1). The last is mournfully cried out by seafarers in the mystical vision of the fall of Babylon recounted in the Book of Revelation, “What city was like the great city?” (Rv 18:18).

Lauretta Brown: Fear, trust and walking through the valley of the shadow of death

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

I recently took up the account of one priest who faced the reality of death and suffering in brutal prisons and learned to “fear no evil.”

Dr. Tod Worner: We do not understand – or need to

“Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.” – Fyodor Dostoevsky

In the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke we are introduced to the Virgin Mary. As the archangel Gabriel brilliantly illuminated the small and simple room, he told the young girl of fantastical things to come. The first words uttered in response by the trembling Christ-bearer, the young Mother of the Church, were “How can this be?”

Bishop Robert Reed: The ‘month of the dead’ brings its own strange refreshment

Those of us who have experienced the death of a loved one, even if we believe that she or he has gone to a better place, still find ourselves struggling with the parting. It’s hard to let go. Sometimes it’s made a little easier if we have been present for someone’s last days, and at the moment of their death, when we experience the whole strange (and often quite beautiful) mystery of living and dying being played out before our very eyes.

Sister Hosea Rupprecht: A canticle of praise for media technologies

As the temperature outside drops and the leaves turn brilliant colors, our thoughts turn toward the annual celebration of Thanksgiving. What a wonderful tradition we have as Americans to not only gather on this festive day with loved ones, but to have a special opportunity to thank almighty God for all the gifts He has bestowed on us as individuals, as families, as communities, as a nation, as a Church.