Advent: Giving 2020 Back to God

Did you know that the beginning of Advent is precisely one week away? Hoowee!

I wrote an article for Catholic Stand called Advent: Giving 2020 Back to God. My motivation was I began to see myself looking to the end of the year and thinking, oh, what’s the point? Of keeping traditions, I mean. Then I thought more about it and began to see Advent as a time and place to push back against - against the darkness, against desolation. Advent is traditionally a time for waiting, watchful hopefulness, anticipating the birth of Christ. Well, we certainly have gotten very good at waiting this year. And so this year, Advent is an invitation to continue on in the faith, and give the year and all its weirdness back to God. Here you are, Lord, you may have it.

One announcement: tomorrow I will be on Guadalupe Radio. A couple posts ago I made the same announcement but we had to move it. I still don’t know what time it airs, though! I think 2 pm eastern-ish. Anyway, it will be fun.

Thanksgiving is this week. Have a good one!

Double posting for the sake of Our Lady of Guadalupe

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Friends, I learned something interesting yesterday, and that is if you started a novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe - whose feast day is December 12 - you would be able to pray it four times exactly between yesterday and that date.

You may be asking yourself, why on earth would I pray that four times? What are you, casting a spell? Should I hop on one leg while I’m at it? Well, the answer is, our country needs prayer. It needs consistent, faithful, strong, devout prayer, to one of our most powerful intercessors, Our Lady. That is what I think, anyway.

She is seen more as the intercessor and protector of Mexico, but I think she has a special fondness for us up here in the US. And she says, “Am I not here, who am your mother?

So below is the schedule you would do, starting with yesterday:

Saturday, November 7-Sunday, November 15

Monday, November 16-Tuesday, November 24

Wednesday, November 25-Thursday, December 3

Friday, December 4-Saturday, December 12 (Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe)

Now obvs, it is a day after yesterday, and so maybe you just want to start officially November 17. But - go ahead and begin praying for her intercession now. We need it.

Here is what I am using, but if you google “Our Lady of Guadalupe novena,” you will find plenty of options.

I recommend printing it out and putting it where you normally pray, or on your bedside table so you see it first thing before waking or going to sleep. I would not remember if I just kept it in my phone and had to recall on my own to pray (thus why a ministry like Pray More Novenas exists).

Enjoy below some pictures I have taken of her over the years.

Not one, but TWO radio spots tomorrow!

Greetings! I have the pleasure of speaking with two great radio programs tomorrow, 11/9/20, and I hope you will tune in.

The first is at 7:25 am eastern with my usual partners at Relevant Radio’s Morning Air program. You can listen live online in the player here or look for your local radio station carrying the show.

What will be talking about? Well, unity. I don’t think I am a token DC guest, necessarily, though sometimes I’m asked to give a somewhat DC-insider take on something. But I think more than usual, politics is effecting people outside the Beltway - really, tearing friends and families apart. Is it worth it? So we’ll be talking about that, and how even in the midst of confusing times, God is still with us.

I hope to work in Blessed Solanus Casey and Fr. Walter Ciszek.

Solanus Casey, because he is much beloved as an unofficial patron of Detroit, which is where some voting irregularities are appearing. He’s an American Blessed. He said to “thank God ahead of time” - no matter what, as I interpret it. And, as is mentioned on his official webpage, he “believed every prayer is answered in God’s own way.” So, if you are wondering where your prayers are going right now, well, Blessed Solanus says they’re being heard, and answered. Imagine having that trust in God.

And Fr. Walter Ciszek, because he was another American (though not Blessed yet), who volunteered himself to minister to the Russians after WWII. He went knowing there was a likelihood not only that he’d never come back, but that his time there would involve deep suffering - and it did. He spend something like 15 years in prison camps and the gulag. And yet, he ministered to the prisoners, survived, was released, began ministries on the outside, and basically the Russians found him so bothersome they forced him to return to America. He was protected by God, and he was sure of this protection. So, if in some way you are thinking about giving up hope because of the political situation in our country - read a little about Fr. Walter, and take hope, and live hope.

I wrote about him in June after I read his autobiography, With God in Russia: Am I Owed a Life?

All right - on to the next one. Then in the afternoon, I will be speaking with Mike and Joe on Guadalupe Radio’s Catholicism on the Beltway Show. Woohoo! We’ll be recording in-studio, which will be even more fun (unless, of course, an election-related riot breaks out, and then I shall be calling in from home). Now, here’s the thing - I know what time I am to arrive, but not sure what time I am going on. If I figure out, will share here - but I think it’ll be between 1-3 eastern. And as for content, we’re just going to roll with it. You can listen online per the above link, or find your station here. In the DC area it’s 1160 AM.

So there you have it. And I hope you will tune in!