Perspectives

Finding a new perspective during these final days of Advent

There are many different Advents. Ad-venting is a challenge, if we are locked into one frame of reference.
Sacred signs at the kitchen table

Lighting the Advent wreath each night for prayers before dinner has long been my family’s tradition. The flickering candlelight growing brighter with each passing week mirrors the interplay of darkness and light we see outside our kitchen window at this time of year.
Glad I didn’t win the lottery

I bought a few tickets in the recent big lottery. Before the numbers were pulled, visions of sugarplums danced through my head.
The challenge of Advent

At no time of the year is Christian faith more under siege by the secular, anti-Christian and consumerist world than in the Advent season. This is the time of year which is make-or-break for the purveyors of want rather than need. The pressure to entice us to its false values is at its highest.
‘Welcome, Father; we’ve been waiting for you’

I've always kept in mind a very special memory of a former parishioner that took place on the day I arrived in that parish long ago.
Ordained at tumultuous time, priest of 50 years reflects

Fifty years ago, my classmates here present and I were all asking the same question amid a world that was in turmoil. Before our ordination to the priesthood in 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated; right after our ordination, Sen. Robert Kennedy was assassinated.
The hidden horror of abortion

I went to see the new movie “Gosnell” recently. I asked a few friends if they wanted to join me. All responses were negative, with a few offering that they’d never heard of it and one suggesting that seeing Bradley Cooper in “A Star is Born” would make for a much sweeter evening.
Missionary who is native of Diocese celebrates St. Romero in El Salvador

The canonization of Óscar Arnulfo Romero, martyred archbishop of San Salvador, was a true fiesta in the rural parish of Monte San Juan, El Salvador, where I work as a Maryknoll lay missioner.
Understanding trauma

I recently attended some training on “trauma-informed care.” It was quite eye-opening.
Local Catholics reflect on attending Encuentro

I was privileged to be part of the five-member delegation from the Diocese of Albany to the National V Encuentro, held Sept. 20-23 in Gaylord, Tx. We joined more than 3,000 Hispanic ministry leaders who participated in the event, representing 159 dioceses and national Catholic organizations and groups.

The Evangelist - The Official Publication of the Diocese of Albany