Many of us prefer religion to rebirth. Religion gives structure. Rebirth demands surrender. Abram had to die to the security of his father’s house. Nicodemus had to die to the security of his religious status. Lent is about dying before Easter. Not emotionally. Not theatrically. Practically.

Last week we remembered Adam and Eve cast out of paradise. Humanity exiled. Creation fractured. We are born into a world bent away from God. Not personal blame for Adam’s act, but a shared wound. We feel it in our habits. We feel it in our desires. We feel it in the way we repeat what we swore we would never repeat.

Lessons: Joel 2:2-20; Ps 103; Romans 13:11-14:4; Mt 6:14-21 Forgiveness Sunday is not sentimental. It is not soft. It is not about being polite. It is surgical. We stand at the edge of Great Lent, and the Church will not let us walk in carrying poison. Listen to Jesus again. “If you forgive others the wrongs they have done to you, your Father in heaven will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive you.” There is no theological loophole t

This is the Sunday of the Last Judgment. That title alone is enough to make people uneasy. The lectionary does not soften the blow. It confronts us.

The Church is wise in how she prepares us for Lent. She does not begin with ashes. She does not begin with fasting rules. She does not begin with denial. She begins with stories. Stories that disarm us. Stories that refuse to let us remain at a safe distance. Stories that force us to ask where we are standing. On Prodigal Sunday, the Church gives us one of the most dangerous stories Jesus ever told. Dangerous not because it is unfamiliar, but because it is. Most of u

Today the Church places before us the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee. A publican, for those who may not know, is simply an old-fashioned word for a tax collector. This is one of the Sundays that prepares us for Lent. We call this season Pre-Lent, or Proetoimasía. It is a winding up. A season that already carries the emphases of Lent itself: humility, repentance, fasting, and honest self-examination. Before the great fast begins, the Church gives us time to get our

The Church does something wise before Lent begins. It slows us down. It refuses to rush toward discipline, fasting, or repentance without first tending to desire. In the Eastern tradition, this threshold season is called Proetoimasia. Preparation. Readiness of the heart.

Today we commemorate the Theophany. The word itself sounds distant, maybe even technical, but it is simple in meaning. A theophany is a divine manifestation. It names those moments when God does not remain hidden, when God presses into history and makes himself known. While this feast technically occurred a few days ago, the Church in her wisdom gives us time to sit with it. To notice what it is really saying to us. In our tradition, Theophany centers on the baptism of Christ

Christ is born into the world and into our lives not to leave things untouched, but to draw us back together. To gather what was scattered. To heal what was worn thin. To turn mourning into joy without denying the truth of grief.   We do not rush past this mystery. We stay long enough to be changed. We walk long enough to be gathered. We trust long enough to find our way home.

John tells us Jesus is the Word. The Word who always was. The Word who comes from the Father. The Word through whom creation itself comes into being. This is not poetry for poetry’s sake. John places Christ at the center of all reality. Genesis echoes in every line. Wisdom literature hums beneath the text. Early Christians heard this and recognized something bold. The Word who spoke to the prophets. The Word who wrestled Jacob. The Word who met Moses on Sinai. The Word who st

Lessons: Isaiah 7:10-16; Psalm 24; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25 This is the last Sunday of Advent. And by now, most of us are tired of waiting. Not the gentle waiting we romanticize in church language. Not the kind where candles glow softly and everything smells like pine and cinnamon. The waiting most people carry into this season is heavier than that. It is the waiting of people who have done everything they know how to do and still do not know what comes next. Waiting for

Lessons: Isaiah 35:1-10; Psalm 146; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11 Advent is a season of waiting. Not passive waiting, not distraction or delay, but a waiting that asks something of us. Advent waiting requires patience, and patience is never neutral. It is shaped by where we stand and what we are carrying. Today’s reading from James speaks directly into that space. “Be patient, then, my friends, until the Lord comes.” This is not gentle advice offered to people living comforta

Lessons: Isaiah 11:1-10; Psalm 72:1-15; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12   We enter this fifth week of Advent with a theme that feels almost tailor-made for the moment we’re living in. This is the week shaped by the ancient cry of the Church for the One who opens what is closed, who frees what is bound, who breaks through the places that feel sealed shut. Every reading today is speaking to hearts that feel stuck, strained, or carried to the edge.   And I don’t know that there h

This Advent reflection invites readers into three movements: wake, watch, and walk. Fr. Columba calls the church to break out of spiritual numbness, stay alert to God’s presence, and resist the pull of routine. He urges vigilance in a world marked by uncertainty and suffering, not with fear but with hope rooted in Christ’s promise to restore creation. Finally, he reminds us that the Christian walk is imperfect but always possible through grace. Advent becomes a season of smal

Christ the King does not rule from a throne of power but from a cross of mercy. This homily explores three movements in the readings. Christ gathers the scattered like a shepherd. Christ holds a shaking world as the still point of peace. Christ reveals his true reign through nonviolent love as he forgives from the cross. The kingdom grows through compassion, presence, and sacrificial love.

Advent trains us to look in two directions at once. We remember the first coming of Christ. We hold hope for the second. This season asks us to stay honest about the world we live in and the world God promised. That tension is holy. It keeps us awake.

Advent begins not with angels or shepherds but with Wisdom. Before the manger and the miracle, there is the Word that shaped creation, the voice that speaks order into chaos and gives meaning to life.

Preacher: Fr. Columba Lessons: Ecc 44:1-14 or Rev 7:9-17; Ps 149; Eph 1:(11-14)15-23; Lk 6:20-26(27-36) Today we celebrate the Feast of All Saints, and by happy coincidence, it aligns with All Souls Day. These two observances belong together, inviting us to remember the holy ones of every age, the martyrs and mystics, and the faithful who lived quiet, uncelebrated lives of love and devotion. In the early Church, there were so many saints, so many martyrs, and so many local fe

We did not gather this past Sunday, but I have found that even when the church is scattered, the Spirit is not idle. There are weeks when the work of worship happens in the heart rather than in the sanctuary.

Preacher: Fr. Columba Lessons: Gen 32:398,22-30; Ps 121; 2 Tim 3:14-4:5; Lk 18:1-8 Today’s Gospel gives us what is often called the parable of the unjust judge, or the parable of the widow and the judge. On the surface, it seems clear. Most people read it and immediately think it is about prayer. Keep praying. Do not give up. Bring your requests to God and stay faithful. And yes, that is part of it. But when you start digging deeper, when you read it in context and look at ho