Something with which most every believer can struggle is the felt nearness of God: how close up do I sense the Divine presence?
vincentian spirituality
Advent Receptivity (Matthew 3:1-12)
One way to hear the Advent Gospel message is to put ourselves in the shoes of all those people walking out to that desert to listen to John the Baptist.
“Practicing” The Faith (Malachi 3:19-20)
As with all literature, there are many words in the Scriptures that need interpretation, that second look to get at their more underlying meaning.
“Honor” The Hidden Life
Those years between Jesus’ adolescence and public ministry there’s only silence, only the anonymity of what writers have termed The Hidden Life.
Light Through Darkness
The Christmas truth is that God’s light suffuses the dimness of those times and in the end beats back the encroaching darkness.
The Future Pulls The Present
Advent (Ad: toward; Vent: coming), lays out the direction of the season. It doesn’t just celebrate the future but what of that future is being poured into the present.
The Kingdom Interpretation
The Kingdom Interpretation (Mk 12:44-48) To profess myself a Christian is to profess a desire – and that desire is to follow behind the Lord, Jesus Christ. Perhaps “follow behind” doesn’t quite get to the heart of it. It’s more accurately a “stepping into his...
Testifying
Testifying (Luke 9:1-2) Reading Luke’s account of the disciples being sent out, I put myself in the shoes of one of those 70 individuals directed to go forth and proclaim the Good News that in Jesus, God’s forgiving compassion is drawing near. How would I feel...
On Listening
“On Listening” (Luke 11: 16, 29-31) One of the most gratifying compliments is to hear that you listen well. It conveys another’s feeling that something of his or her inner self has gotten through, that not just the words but the deeper resonances of those words have...
The Ministry of Encouragement
The Ministry of Encouragement (Hebrews 12:1) There’s a wonderfully comforting image in the Letter to the Hebrews which has special application to us in Vincent’s Family. The author sets out to build up his struggling fellow believers and does this through a...
Sent Out
“Sent Out” (Isaiah 61:1-2) There was a documentary on TV about the Renaissance, that period of awakening in the history of Europe when a fresh energy flooded into the culture and triggered off a whole new view of the world. The reason for it, as the show presented,...
A Life Time of Answering
A Life Time of Answering (Mark 8:27-30) People have wondered about the surprising, almost jarring response Jesus makes to Peter right after this apostle gives the exact right answer to the question, “Who do you say I am?” His reply, “You are the Christ.” But Jesus...
