Our Advent journey is one of lament and longing, a cry for that life which only God can give.

Inspired by Mary’s commitment and faith, each of us is invited to pray for the courage and faith to continue along the paths God has chosen for us.

These last days of the Church year call us to a certain sense of urgency because, as Paul reminded the Thessalonians, the Lord will return “as a thief in the night” (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6).

As we celebrate the memory of Saint Gertrude, let us pray for the grace to open our hearts to the consoling and transforming love of Christ’s own Heart that so indelibly shaped Gertrude’s life and teaching.

Darkness is not the end. The dawn will come and, with it, the Bridegroom who will invite us into eternal wedding banquet of the Reign of God.

Martin had taken to heart the words of the Gospel, “whatever you did for the least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40), and his life was never the same.

Like those leaders called out by Jesus and Malachi, we also have a special kind of covenantal relationship with those whom we are called to serve.

This is the day when each of us as Church can take a moment and reflect and look at one another and say, “Yes, this is right because this is who we are.”

While the love of God always comes first, our response to that love should take us outside of ourselves, as we are asked to share with others the love and compassion that we ourselves have received from God.

Because we do not know many details of the lives of Simon and Jude, we are left to reflect simply on what it means to be an apostle, sent by Christ into the world.

This Sunday’s Gospel invites us to ask ourselves some hard questions about how effectively we are applying the values of our faith tradition to our social obligations, especially in promoting peace and justice for all people.

This Sunday’s liturgy reminds us that we are being asked to do more than just “show up” at the banquet to which we have been invited.

The call to ministry is nothing more than to serve and to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of those entrusted to our care.

May we have the grace to open our minds and hearts, so that we can freely respond to what is being asked of us as we continue to live out our call to discipleship.

The landowner’s search for more and more laborers, regardless of the late hour, speaks to us of the way God continues to seek out and invite more and more “laborers” for his vineyard.

If God has been so generous in calling us—and forgiving us—despite our unworthiness, surely, we can also be generous in forgiving others.

It isn’t enough to simply talk about reconciliation and healing, we must do the hard work of forgiving, which, for disciples of Jesus, is just one aspect of taking up one’s cross and imitating Jesus himself.

Peter’s faith is more than intellectual knowledge; it is his relationship with Jesus. When he confesses that Jesus is the Christ, Peter is speaking out of his own deep, loving, and personal knowledge of who Jesus is.

The encounter with Jesus and the Canaanite woman marks pivotal moment in the story of our salvation, in large part because it opened up a space for us within the community of believers. 

For each of us, regardless of our unique vocation, to invitation to “Come”—to leave the safety of the boat—is there. But with that invitation is the promise that God will not allow the storms to overwhelm us.