Read this in a heavy Yiddish accent: “And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.” – Elizabeth to Mary. It makes the whole scene come alive, …
Category Archive: Advent
Dec
23
Dec
18
God Whispers It’s OK
Fran over at Albany’s There Will be Bread blog has a really inspiring post today and reminds us that God has seen us through countless tragedies and asks us if can trust that? This is something that I and friends in the past few days have struggled with. Straddling the line between forgiveness, horror and …
Dec
18
Jesus: In or Out
So the debate rages on in our house regarding this Christmas tradition: Do we put the baby Jesus in the manger or do we wait until Christmas for the bambino to make His appearance? Here’s my wife, Marion’s take. “No. You wait until Christmas Eve and when you come home from Midnight Mass you put …
Dec
10
We Need a Little Christmas…Sez Fr. Austin
My dear friend, who I only know through his blog, Fr. Austin wrote an amazing homily for the 2nd Sunday of Advent. Included is his Christmas letter to God (as opposed to Santa). And he gives us several things to think about, so be sure to go and read the whole post over at his …
Dec
05
Wait for It
We’ve heard the term a number of times…mostly made famous now by Barney Stinson, the character on How I Met Your Mother played brilliantly by Neil Patrick Harris. Wait for it…. But what indeed do we ever wait for? I was chiding a friend yesterday for not being on Facebook. I told him that he’d …
Dec
03
A St Joseph Advent Prayer
I held him in my arms While Mary rested Overwhelmed we were A long journey behind us A longer one in front of us I rested him in the wood of the manger with the itchy hay and a donkey eating his pillow now and again. The wood called to me Working with wood Is …
Dec
02
From the Archives: St. Joseph Who?
Fr. Jim McDermott, S.J. produced this short video with me playing the role of St. Joseph in 2008. I dug it up the other day and it still makes me laugh. And now St. Joseph is the patron saint of my parish in Buffalo. Enjoy and Happy Advent!
Nov
25
Outward and Inward Hearts
On today’s feast of Christ the King, Fr. Jack Ledwon, my pastor, reminded me in this morning’s homily that Jesus is really the King of Hearts, a king like no other. The only space that Jesus looks to own is the space of our hearts. It gave me pause when he asked “How much of …
Dec
20
Seeing Christ in the Telemarketer
While I was in college one of my work-study jobs was to work at the phon-o-thon center where our job was to call alumni for donations. The result of every phone call was one of two reactions: 1) “OMG FORDHAM! I love Fordham! I remember hanging out until 4 AM on Edward’s Parade my senior …
Dec
19
An Old Man’s Advent Dream
Deacon Bill Ditewig, one of my heroes, wrote possibly the most beautiful advent reflection I’ve read to date. Here’s a snip: Right now we have many Catholics who don’t even like to reach out and take someone else’s hand at the greeting of peace before communion. Those folks are really not going to like my …
About the Blogger
Mike Hayes is an author, commentator, Campus Minister and Spiritual Director. He founded the award winning BustedHalo.com in 2001 and wrote the book Googling God with Paulist Press in 2007. Mike is currently a Campus Minister at The University at Buffalo where he serves on the staff of St Joseph University Church. He is available for speaking engagements, retreats and personal spiritual direction.
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