Today’s response to the Psalm is, “To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.” As I begin this Advent season, I’m wondering how I will “lift my soul” to God between now and December 25th.
Readings for today: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120124.cfm
By Fr. Kevin
Oh sure, I’ll attend Mass and many of the special Advent events at St. Anne. Those will be good, but I’m sensing that something will be missing if that’s all I do. “Lifting my soul” seems to imply something different, something more, than what will happen on Sundays and at those Advent events.
Perhaps it is as simple as including this phrase in my daily prayers. “Lord, this morning, before I start my day, I lift my soul to you.” Maybe I can think of the phrase as I go about preparing for Christmas. “I lift my soul to you Lord, as I decorate this tree.”
How might you “lift your soul” to the baby Jesus?
Fr. Kevin
We resume our series of articles on the stained-glass windows that adorn our beautiful church and return to the windows located on the north wall (to your right, as you enter the church). Knowing a bit more about these beautiful works of art will, we hope, enhance your prayer and worship here at St. Anne.
The window closest to the back of the church celebrates
St. Katherine Drexel. Born in 1858, Katherine grew up on a
90-acre estate near Philadelphia and, while wealthy, the family taught her the value of charity. A family trip to the western United States first awakened in Katherine an awareness of indigenous American people and their struggles and, in an 1886 audience with Pope Leo XIII, was urged to become a missionary to minorities.
Reading about her life and work, her founding of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, and the many schools she founded can be inspirational.
St. Katherine truly lived out the passage from the parable of the Last Judgement in Matthew 25:40, “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”
What are you doing for “the least of these”?
