Today, on the Feast day of the Holy Family, the Church invites us to turn our eyes toward a home in Nazareth - simple, quiet and ordinary on the outside, yet extraordinary within. In Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, we see not a perfect family free from struggle,but a holy family that learned to trust God in the midst of real life.

"The Virgin shall conceive and bear a son." Today, celebrating the Last Sunday of Advent, prior to the Feast of Christmas Day, to some extent, we can associate with the greatest joy of the Blessed Virgin Mary who awaited the coming of Baby Jesus into the World. in Four days, we will commemorate the birth of her beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus, God incarnated.

Today's celebration of the Third Sunday of Advent continues to prepare us for the coming of the Lord Jesus among us. During this special time of Advent, we are called to embrace a holy mind so that we may perceive for the benefit of our spiritual growth the true spiritual meaning of the Words of God.

On this Second Sunday of Advent, we continue to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ. We are told to " Prepare the way of the Lord and to make His Paths straight". Last Sunday we learned that Advent serves the purpose of preparing us for the coming of the Lord as the Judge, either at death or at the end of this world, whichever may come first. It also taught us to prepare ourselves to receive the Real Physical Presence of our Redeemer through the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. And it taught us to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christmas, the birthday anniversary of the Lord's coming into this world as God incarnate.

Today, we celebrate the first Sunday of Advent and the first Sunday of the new liturgical year. Advent is an important time for us as we prepare for the coming of the Lord. We prepare not only for the nativity of the Lord at Christmas, but we also prepare for the coming of the Lord in glory at the end of time.

This Sunday, The Feast of Christ the King, marks the closing of Year C of the Liturgical Calendar. This special Feast reminds us that over and above being the Universal King, Christ is the Head of the Body, the Church. His Divine reign stretches out from the alpha of time to the omega. There is no other true King, for God is One. Today's First Reading from the Second Book of Samuel spoke of the elders anointing David as the king of Israel. King David was an image of things to come. At the same time, we must keep in mind that there were two distinct differences. Both Jesus and king David were anointed as kings. Both Jesus and king David ruled over a twofold kingdom.

As we come to the end of the liturgical year, which happens next weekend with the celebration of Christ the King, we always have a Gospel passage which talks about the end times. When we look at the end times in the context of our faith, we are reminded that it is the closing of one age and the beginning of another age.

Today, we recall the Basilica Saint John of Lateran, the Pope's own church, the Cathedral of Rome. The Lateran was chosen as the Cathedral Rome long before Saint Peter's was built. It is where the Papacy was housed for centuries before moving across the Tiber to where Vatican City now stands. The Gospel about the purification of the temple of Jerusalem is apt for today's feast. The Jerusalem temple serves as a symbol of the church of today. in the twenty-first century. It conveys both the idea of the temple's Sacredness and also the need for constant purification of the structures of our church.

This weekend we celebrate All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day. These two commemorations begin the month of November, the month of remembrance in our Catholic faith. All Saint's Day is a solemn Holy day of our Catholic faith celebrated annually on November 1. It is a day dedicated to all the deceased faithful who have ended their lives here one earth and who have entered heaven, including the saints who are recognized by the church and those who are not.

In today's Gospel, Luke poses an important question about discipleship: Who is righteous, unrighteous and self-righteous? In other words, Who is saved? Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. "Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself; O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity - greedy, dishonest, adulterous or even like this tax collector. but the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast and prayed: O God, be merciful to me, a sinner. God alone can make a person righteous, that is, saved.

Today, World Mission Sunday, is the day set aside by the Catholic Church throughout the world to publicly renew its commitment to its universal mission, its calling to bring the Good news of Christ to the ends of the earth. The Second Vatican Council reminded us that mission is rooted in the nature of the Church; it is the reason for its existence. The church is the community of Christ's disciples called and sent to continue the Mission of Jesus in the world. Pope Leo invites us all to reflect together on our common baptismal call to be 'missionaries of hope among the peoples and to commit ourselves anew to the sweet and joyful task of bringing Christ Jesus our Hope to the ends of the earth.'

Today's Gospel story tells us of a single non-Jewish leper who returned to thank Jesus for healing him, while the other nine now healed Jewish lepers went their way. Perhaps they were under the false impression that healing was their right as God's chosen people, so hurried off to obtain health certificates from the priests. ''Where are the other nine? Jesus asked of the returned Samaritan and the crowd.

All the three readings for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time speak a lot about ''Faith'' and how it works in our lives. They give us three dimensions of Faith. 1. The theological virtue of Faith enables us to believe something to be true and therefore worthy of trust simply because it has been revealed to us by God. 2. In his instructions to Timothy, Paul, who elsewhere defined Faith as '' the assurance of the things hoped for'' shows Faith operating as a believing, trusting, loving relationship with Christ. 3. Finally, Christian Faith is the trusting Faith in God in action, expressed by that steadfast loyalty, fidelity and total commitment to Him which results in our offering ourselves to Him in those we encounter through our humble, loving service.