In the day's Mass readings, James asks us to "be patient" like the farmer who is waiting on the new life of crops. So how do we heed James' advice and be patient when God sometimes moves at the pace of a farmer's crop?
Perspective: To be Filipino American Catholic means to wrestle with a complex, oppressive history, knowing your faith sustains you. It also can mean to walk away from practicing a faith that was shared so aggressively.
Commentary: During Advent, we focus so much on the expectant hope and joy that comes with anticipating the birth of Jesus because it is deeply uncomfortable to focus on the essential context that Jesus is born into a broken, unjust world.
Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: How the wealthy avoid paying taxes; Supreme Court looking into parents using school vouchers; music played on the heavenly pipe organ
Scripture for Life: The thing about genuine conversion or metanoia is that we can't plan it. It is God's offer in a particular moment of history — a grace of insight that shakes us up and turns us around. All we can do is be open to it.
We say: Let us use Advent to recommit ourselves to eliminating systemic oppression in the U.S. and to push the church toward being better allies to communities constantly under the threat of violence.
Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Newly gerrymandered state legislatures; Dr. Oz running for Senate; health care provisions in the Build Back Better bill.
Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Some threats to democracy are less violent than others, but just as damaging; Trump-endorsed candidates quit, tread water; U.S. bishops compliment José Gomez.
The season of Advent has a finite beginning and end, but Advent as an experience is ongoing. It is always unfolding because we are being called continuously to be Christ bearers in the world — a world that is infused with the beauty and wonder of God.
