We consider the strong feelings surrounding the reading from these scrolls in the books of Nehemiah and Luke. Awareness of our feelings keeps us in touch with our full humanity and our relationship with the Creator. Our being subject to our feelings is a fact which we can carry to our sense of wonder over Jesus, God become human.

"Jesus approved of marriage" -- this is like saying "Jesus approved of sunshine." In the analogy of the Church as the Body of Christ, all Christians in their various states of life contribute to the well-being of the whole body.

Solidarity with the human race is what Jesus expresses, both in his birth at the beginning of the Christmas season, and in his baptism on its last day. We are called to exercise solidarity with one another as well, for the sake of securing justice.

Making your child a public figure in infancy is probably not what you want to do. The Christ Child, on the other hand, was a public figure from birth, because of his identity as the unique Savior of all the nations of the earth.

All of us, by reason of our baptism, are living out our call to holiness. There are some highly visible vocations (e.g. priesthood) which we need to pay special attention to. All of us, living out the universal call, act with freedom so that, with the help of God's grace, "what we shall later be" can joyfully surprise us.

http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/daniel/daniel13.htm The lady who attacked Pope Benedict and injured Cardinal Etchegaray happens to be named Susanna. So we have another, quite different story of "Susanna and the Elders" from the one referenced in the above link. On Sunday, December 27, at the last Mass, I made ready to record, and I didn't recognize that the device was signaling that I had "hold" on. Some time today I will record an audio summary of my homily for Holy Family.

The Christmas Curmudgeon of the 21st century asks: What does it mean when people say, "I can't believe that Christmas is here already!"? It may be a good experience for us to perceive the recurrence of great feast days and to lift our gaze to the eternal truths that they reveal to us.

"Your redemption is at hand." Instead of denying the fact that each of us faces a moment of ultimate truth before God, we who acknowledge our God as the Lord of all time and history look forward to God's work of fulfilling all of creation.

"You say I am a king." We are challenged to imagine a different sort of kingship in the Son of God who in ruling us has become the ultimate servant.