~~~SisterSea~~~

Please Note: Our community only meets every two weeks.  So although it is the Fourth Sunday of Advent, we celebrated our Christmas liturgy.  Therefore, the following Readings are those for Christmas. First Reading:   Isaiah 9:2-7 Responsorial Psalm:   Psalm 98 Second Reading:   Titus 2:11-14 Gospel:   Luke 2:1-14 Over the past month, there has been so much hype about the so-called Mayan Prophecy─ so much speculation on whether the Mayans got it right or wrong or is modern science smarter than so-called primitive superstition.   Then there are people who wish to eliminate the religious aspects of Christmas and emphasize the more generalized and I might add, commercial, aspect.   What the Mayan calendar represents is a religious cycle─ a cycle’s end always precedes a new beginning.   For us, Advent and the season of Christmas are the beginning parts of our Christian religious cycle.   When we eliminate the religious aspec...

12 December 2012 First Reading: Luke 1:46-55 Psalm:   Adapted from the poem Great Mother's Words by Rita Adan Gospel Reading: John: 15: 9-12 Today’s homily is a bit different.   It does not address the readings directly.   Rather, I want to talk about the love in action that Our Lady demonstrates.   If we look at the three most famous and celebrated appearances of our Blessed Mother, we begin to see a pattern. When she appeared to Bernadette, France had fallen on hard times.   Bernadette was the eldest of four surviving children of a miller and his wife.   Her family like the country had also fallen on hard times and would have been homeless if one of her mother’s relatives had not let them live for free in a one-room basement, nicknamed "the dungeon." Our Lady appeared to three peasant children in Portugal during a time of internal and external political turmoil.   We know that times of turmoil always have a detrimental effect on t...