Lessons from Loyola Hall

What an incredible gift it is to wake up to a fresh and deep snowfall, to watch that scroll of school closings, and, with the advent of our age of advanced technology, to finally receive that call notifying about a school closing. And what a sad thing it is when that unexpected free day is off the table because school is only still in session because it's happening online.

This 1st Sunday of Advent brings the Church to the beginning of a new liturgical year. This Sunday also starts the official season of waiting for Christ – both at the Nativity and at the Parousia or Second Coming. Perhaps this year, we might be more oriented toward the latter arrival of our Savior.

Is Thanksgiving 2020 the mother of all oxymorons? In such a challenging year of loss, conflict and despair, not to mention the sense of isolation, for what can we give thanks? Indeed, there is much. Let George Carlin, Fr. John Kavanaugh, St. Ignatius Loyola, and Jesus be your guides!

Nobody wants to think about death. But it's an inevitability that bears some consideration. As a way of fostering that preparation, the Church reminds us on this the last weekend of the liturgical year of the necessary steps to be taken in order to remove the dread from that unavoidable end-of-life meeting with Jesus.