4 January 2026 - magi sighting

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

“Where is the newborn king of the Jews?
We saw his star at its rising
and have come to do him homage.”

Though the Jews had been once been exiled to Babylon, the presence of Daniel and other faithful Jews may have planted seeds that would one day yield the conversion of the Gentiles. Among the first fruits of that harvest seem to be these magi from the east, who may have known of Jewish prophecies from historical memory of the time of the exile. It is hard to imagine that many people in Persia were interested into the obscure statements their captives may have made in past generations. But it seems that there must have been at least a few that were so moved at the time that they were motivated to keep that memory alive. Generations later, the magi were so motivated by those memories that they undertook a long and difficult journey to see the prophecies fulfilled. We might easily imagine that most Persians descendants had no interest in ancient Jewish prophecy, even offended at the thought that they should consider it. But the magi saw something worth pursuing in the future leader of Israel that the star predicted. But while they were willing to entirely order their lives by what the star had revealed to them Herod had the opposite response. He saw the birth of a new king as a potential threat, particularly since the prophecy said, "Edom will be dispossessed" (see Numbers 24:17) and he was an Edomite. He chose to cling to what he thought he possessed. This was in stark contrast to the magi who emptied out their treasures when at the feet of the newborn king.

“Go and search diligently for the child.
When you have found him, bring me word, 
that I too may go and do him homage.”

There are usually two options when one receives a revelation from God. It can be seen as a great blessing, worthy of hope, and of pursuit. Or it can be seen as a hassle, not worth pursuing, or possibly even worth resisting depending on the threat it poses to the status quo. Such revelations often run so counter to our expectations that our merely human ways of thinking put us at risk of rejecting them. We may easily imagine that a new king might be important. But what if we go to him and find a poor child with no appearance of royalty? Could we still empty our treasures at his feet in that situation, as the magi did? God works in ways that may at first seem futile, too under-powered to make a difference in a world in which everything is decided by power. But he does this intentionally to frustrate our temptation to believe that worldly power is absolute. 

And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, 
until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.

The prophecy about the messiah's place of birth was, apparently, largely public knowledge. But that didn't mean that he would easily be found by the disinterested or by his enemies. The magi followed a star, but their sincerity opened them to divine guidance. The star revealed more to them than to others. It provided more than a general ballpark location for the child. It all but gave them turn by turn directions to his doorstep. Was this in fact the work of an angel, perhaps the same one who would warn them in a dream not to return to Herod? We cannot say. But it was not the work of an ordinary star. 

And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, 
they departed for their country by another way.

We all come to Jesus still at least partly complicit in the systems of violence and injustice in the world. We frequently find ourselves helping the Herodian figures around us, wittingly or unwittingly. But once we encounter Jesus and begin to reorient our lives around him we receive the guidance we need to extricate ourselves from such systems. We are led out of the kingdom of darkness, toward a kingdom of light. We become free to disobey figures like Herod when they try to make us compromise our values. We should therefore reflect and ask ourselves, how are we different for having encountered the king, in our lives generally, and this Christmas specifically? How willing willing are we to allow the Lord to go against our expectations and change our plans? How willing are we to take a stand when necessary, in order to follow his guidance? Would we defy kings for his sake? Or would the threat of their power cause our courage to collapse? Most likely this won't be a real world scenario that we face. But it still a good thought experiment. We definitely will encounter people who are indifferent or even possibly hostile to Jesus in the course of our lives. We need to resolve to stand up for him, when he calls us to do so. Whether the fear we need to conquer is actually fear of retribution or just fear of embarrassment, if we resolve now to face it head on and follow Jesus no matter what, we may hope to be ready to actually do so when the time comes.

Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem!  Your light has come,
the glory of the Lord shines upon you.

 

Rend Collective - We Three Kings (We're Not Lost)

 

3 January 2026 - see what love

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

Jesus was the Lamb whose sacrificial self-offering on the cross made it possible for us to be set free from sin. This offering fulfilled all of the ancient precedents and types that pointed toward it. The blood of bulls and goats could not truly take away sin, but only the blood of the divine Lamb (see Hebrews 10:4). The power of this precious blood was efficacious in the lives of believers first through baptism. Although Jesus himself did not baptize, he did so through his Body, the Church, and thus it was true that he was "the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit". It was in this baptism followers were born from above, of the Father, made into daughters and sons of God. 

See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are.

The fullness of the reality of our baptismal transformation is not automatic. We are made children of God, after which point we need to act like his children. And because of the power of his Spirit we can indeed do so. If we continue to live as children of the world or of the devil after our baptism that identity can still dominate us. We need not only to enter into communion with Jesus through baptism. We need to remain in him, by learning from him how to live our lives, to make ourselves pure as he is pure. We can't claim to remain in him if we are still knowingly and willingly giving ourselves over the serious sin. It is in this sense that "no one who sins has seen him or known him".

Beloved, we are God’s children now;
what we shall be has not yet been revealed.

We have warned ourselves against the possibility of backsliding and choosing less for ourselves than our baptismal birthright. But our motivation should not only be to avoid less but also to progress toward more, since there is always more. We need, not only fear of failing, but also hope for the things that await us, the "what we shall be" that "has not yet been revealed", what "no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined" (see First Corinthians 2:9). We know that it is more "than all that we ask or think" (see Ephesians 3:20). It is this hope this draws us on toward the goal. The more it does, the more clearly we see God, as Jesus promised the pure of heart (see Matthew 5:8). The more clearly we see him the more we desire him, in a feed forward mechanism, until at last "we shall see him as he is" and our hearts finally come to rest in the fulfillment of their deepest desire.

 

Matt Maher - Behold The Lamb Of God

 

2 January 2026 - you have the anointing

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ.
Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist.

Since such an individual was opposed to the fact that Jesus was this Christ he was fitting called an antichrist. Jesus was the one who received the fullness of God's anointing and could thus share that anointing with others. He was the Word at the beginning whose words were the beginning of transforming others into new creations in himself. Jesus was the nonnegotiable starting point. Rejecting him was to ultimately cut oneself off from, not just that specific truth, but the source of all truth. It was not possible to intentionally dispute and willfully disbelieve the role of Jesus while still maintaining a relationship with the Father. It was only through the Son that one had access to the Father.

Anyone who denies the Son does not have the Father,
but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well.

Why would anyone want to deny the Son? Well, perhaps because the reality of the Son was less convenient than that of the Father. There was so much messy real life history caught up in his identity. The idea of the Father was a harder one to falsify. But the truth of the story of Jesus, as we know, had many opponents. Among those who might have accepted the outlines of that story were many who refused to accept it because they didn't like his teachings or felt threatened by his moral demands. The Father could be imagined as nonthreatening abstract philosophical principle. Of course, doing so involved discounting much of the Old Testament as well. But among people who thought of themselves as innovators in the arena of truth this was not a deal-breaker. But, although they thrived on novelty, novelty was the greatest weakness of their doctrines.

Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you.
If what you heard from the beginning remains in you,
then you will remain in the Son and in the Father.

Many other lesser men would have responded in a different and inferior way to the challenges of the heretics. They would have simply said what was not true and then explained again from the beginning what was true according to them. But, although John pointed out the deficiencies in false doctrine, he did not articulate a positive argument. Rather he deferred to a truth his readers already received. In doing so he recognized that it was not chiefly he who could persuade others. It was God, working through the anointing of his Holy Spirit.

As for you,
the anointing that you received from him remains in you,
so that you do not need anyone to teach you.

The way his listeners received the truth about Jesus was not finally through clever arguments. It was through illumination by God. They did not accept the truth that Jesus was the Christ in the way that they accepted other truths. As with Peter, "flesh and blood" did not reveal it, but rather the Father (see Matthew 16:17). These were a different class of truths. They were not merely facts or arguments to be considered. They were revelation from God that one could either accept, ignore, or reject. It was important for John's readers to remember this. If they forgot, they would be at risk of being deceived any time they couldn't win an argument. But no matter how well a heretic argued, no matter how plausible or desirable was their doctrine, it did not present itself to heart of another with the same gravity and authority of the reveled Word of God. One was human cleverness. The other was revelation. Thus the hearers of John, even though they be simple and untrained, could look within themselves and realize the falsity of the claims being made by the antichrists. They were who they were because of the Word they learned and the anointing that they received. When in doubt, they could fall back on those as fail-safes.

And now, children, remain in him,
so that when he appears we may have confidence
and not be put to shame by him at his coming.

Not succumbing to the lies of the antichrists was more important than merely being correct. It was necessary to remain in relationship with Jesus himself. The stakes were higher than any specific argument. It was his presence within them that had changed their lives in the beginning. And it was their presence in him that was at work drawing them home. Thus it was this presence that John argued should be defended above all else.

 

Skillet - Jesus, Jesus (Holy And Anointed One)

 

1 January 2026 - God chose the weak

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph,  
and the infant lying in the manger.

How unusual were the choices of to whom the angels communicated the good news about the birth of the messiah. In the first place, the parents themselves were by no means obvious candidates, though they were in fact qualified by their connection to the Davidic line. Nevertheless, their lives had no appearance indicative of this royal lineage. They were apparently poor and unknown in the wider world. After them, the first people who were told were shepherds, also likely without wealth or influence. It was not the great men of the age who were sent to witness the birth of the savior. But it did make a certain kind of sense. It brought to mind the fact that David himself had been called from watching the flock of his father Jesse in order to become king. This was fitting since the Lord called David to "be shepherd of my people" (see Second Samuel 5:2). The prophets had long critiques subsequent kings and leaders for the failure to act as shepherds, serving themselves rather than the sheep. God promised that he himself would shepherd his people (see Ezekiel 34:15), and would also send shepherds after his own heart (see Jeremiah 3:15). And in Jesus these promises were finally in the process of being fulfilled. Thus it was appropriate for his birth to be witnessed, not first by great men or worldly kings, but by other shepherds. We know they were not chosen because their testimony would make the story any more persuasive. Imagine trying to describe this birth to one unfamiliar with the story. Their vision of angels would be just as quickly discounted as Mary or Joseph insisting on the supernatural way the birth came about. This, is not, probably how most of us would have written the story. It seemed that God was intentionally handicapping the ease with which he could raise this child to the throne of David. Yet there was a reason that an obscure birth was appropriate. God was beginning the work of casting down the mighty from their thrones and lifting up the lowly. A great reversal was taking place, after which, power could no longer be separated from service or from love. The very fact of the shepherds as first witnesses bore witness to this truth.

All who heard it were amazed  
by what had been told them by the shepherds.

God had and would continue to choose unlikely individuals to proclaim the good news to the world. He choose the weak in the world to shame the strong, and those who count for nothing to bring to nothing those highly accounted by the world (see First Corinthians 1:26-28).  Among the first of these were the shepherds who were so transformed by their experience that people must have been able to tell that something unusual had happened. This change that the visit of the angels begun in them was apparently sufficiently distant from who they were previously that people who heard them speak of it couldn't help but be "amazed". So it was probably not them or their words so much as the transformation God himself accomplished in them that spoke for itself. We may hope this is true for us as well, so that we, who are by no means trained professionals, nor practiced in the art of persuasion, can still make known the amazing things the Lord has done.

And Mary kept all these things,  
reflecting on them in her heart.

Even to Mary the full meaning of the circumstances of her life were not immediately obvious to her. She knew that God was with her in the circumstances of her life, but also knew that he didn't always provide an explanation for why certain things happened as they did. We may imagine that even for her it would have been comforting to have more definite knowledge of what these events meant and of the future that was beginning to take shape for her son. Rather than resenting the unknown she remained open. Rather than ignoring the unknown, she remained present to it until its meaning eventually became evident. As an aside, it is interesting to note that this statement that she reflected on these things was meant to indicate how Luke himself came to learn about them.

Then the shepherds returned,  
glorifying and praising God  
for all they had heard and seen,  
just as it had been told to them.  

The shepherds, apparently, returned to their flocks, and to business as usual, the daily grind. But they were not the same after as they were before. Even the transitory involvement in the life of Jesus, an involvement the value of which was difficult to quantify, was something that they would treasure from that point on. In many ways God has accomplished more in our own lives through Jesus than he did in those of the shepherds. But are we moved to give him glory of praise as the shepherds did? If not, it may be that we need to learn from Mary how to keep all that the Lord did for us, reflecting on it, until we realize how great a treasure it is.

Matt Maher - Hope For Everyone

 

31 December 2025 - the light shines in the darkness

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.

In a particular way, the human race was designed with a capacity for God. We were creatures who spoke words, created by the Word himself. Our minds were enlightened by reason from the source of reason and light. Our lives were unique among the life created by God in that we had the ability to know the truth and to love the good. Only because we were created to share in the light that originated from a source higher than ourselves could we truly trust that light. Creatures that appeared through the product of chance and circumstance could never assume that what they believed to be true was actually anything more than a useful fiction. Even that it was useful was not something that could be strictly proved. 

What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.

The darkness certainly tried to overcome the light. But it could not overcome it because it could not comprehend it. The light meant more than mere reason, but not less. Darkness always meant some failure of reason, some unwillingness to see the truth, and a failure to order choices on the basis of one's origin and destiny. Succumbing to such temptations always meant embracing darkness in the sense of an unwillingness to look to the light. When Adam and Eve first bought into the lies of the serpent they caused their minds and those of their offspring to be darkened. They became easier for the enemy to fool and even began to desire to be fooled. They developed a tendency that drew them further downward toward darkness and sin. The more people embraced the darkness the harder it became to extricate themselves.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened (see Romans 1:21).

Fortunately, however, the darkness never overcame the light entirely. It could not erase the fact that humanity had been made by God and could not find fulfillment apart from him. Yet, clearly, we were not in a good place with darkness warping our very identities. We needed the one of was the source of our light to come and enlighten us once more. We could not fully escape it on our own. We needed one who was never subject to darkness, one who could himself see clearly, to come and set us free.

But to those who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God, 

The Word did not force anyone to receive the light he came to bring. Even his own people to whom he came were free to not accept him. They had the power to refuse to look at him closely, lest in looking, they recognize that he was all he claimed to be. The Scriptures had prepared them to receive him. But they were free to twist the interpretation of the Scriptures to bolster their own position and to undermine that of Jesus. Relationship could not be forced. There could not be true conversation or communion with the Word, in the sense that he desired, if that was imposed externally. Yet for those who did accept him we see that the plan of the Word was not for a merely distant relationship or a disinterested conversation. He desired to share the life of his own divine family with us, giving us "power to become children of God". Only in this relationship could we experience the fulfillment of the desire with which he himself created us. Only in this light could our lives or anything else make sense.

And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,

Previously God's presence had been restricted and inaccessible to most. But when the Word pitched his tent among us, as the tabernacle of the presence of God on earth, he closed the gap of the distance between himself and us in an instant. The darkness made us doubt the nearness of our God. But it was no longer possible for those who believed in Jesus to doubt that God was with us, for us, and not against us.

Jesus is the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, our origin and, God willing, our destiny. So it is fitting that on the last day of the year we continue to remember and draw strength from our redemption's beginning.

Vineyard Worship - Shine Jesus Shine

 

30 December 2025 - you have conquered

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

I am writing to you, children,
I am writing to you, fathers,
I am writing to you, young men,

We might take from the first letter of John the fact that everyone needs and can benefit from encouragement. In the Scriptures we are often meant to receive truths that are new to us or to more deeply understand ones we have known in part. We often receive moral exhortations and commands that help us to guide our lives. But we see that John also found it important to offer encouragement. It was not the naive sort of encouragement based on promises about one's future life in this world. He did not promise that things would necessarily get better, at least not in the short-term. Rather, what he did was to remind his readers of who they were. 

your sins have been forgiven for his name's sake.
you know him who is from the beginning.
you have conquered the Evil One.
you know the Father.

His readers, like all of us, were probably tempted to define themselves in different ways, often likely in terms of their own successes and failures. Many of them had not fully internalized the gift of Christianity into their own identity. We can easily sympathize with the ways in which their old identities caused them to think in terms of all of the ways in which they were limited, and all of the things that they could not do or be expected to achieve because of who they were. They probably often affirmed these identities with negative self talk that had the effect of becoming self-fulfilling prophecy. John was attempting to provide them with a new script for self talk that could replace that of their old pre-Christian selves. Once they heard from him that they had conquered the Evil One that might be more likely to repeat it to themselves when it seemed that the Evil One was pressing in against them. When they were in doubt about the future or the goodness of their being they could remind themselves that they knew the Father. When they weren't sure about the meaning of their lives they could remind themselves that they knew the Word who was from the beginning. When they felt condemned for their failures they could remind themselves that they had been forgiven.

Do not love the world or the things of the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

It is not possible to believe in a Christian self-definition or to profess Christian self-talk in a full way if we are at the same time proving we don't fully believe it by the way we love the world. If we act with undue attachment to things that are passing away our subconscious will reject the story that we are rooted in the eternal. That is why it is important to remember the truth about the things of this world and the truth about the things of God. The former are all passing away, but "whoever does the will of God remains forever".

She never left the temple,
but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer.

Anna was someone who was fully convinced that her identity was rooted in God and his plan for her. She had already experienced how the things of this world are temporary when she became a widow. But she did not allow that loss to define her. Rather she more deeply embraced her place in God's story as a result. She focused on the fact that she was a daughter of the Father and learned all she could about the one who was from the beginning, such that she was able to recognize him and tell others about him when he came at last to the temple for his presentation. She spoke of him "to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem", because she was able to see in him that that redemption had finally begun.

The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom;
and the favor of God was upon him.

Jesus shares with us all that is his own, including his strength, wisdom, and favor. We are meant to be Christians, little Christs, those who have thrown off the old self and put on the new self redeemed in his image. This is why Saint John Paul the Great reminds us that, "We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of His Son Jesus". No one can encourage others quite so persuasively as one who is himself rooted in Christ. That was the reason John Paul the Great was so convincing when he said simple things like "Do not be afraid". May we too be rooted in Christ and share that blessing within any who might need to hear it, including the many who know on some level but are often tempted to forget.

Graham Kendrick - For This Purpose

 

29 December 2025 - now you let your servant go in peace

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

the parents of Jesus took him up to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord

The parents of Jesus held nothing back in their fidelity to God and his commands. They presented the gift they themselves had first been given back to God. Jesus was finally an offering who was, at last, entirely acceptable to God. It was as though the whole law had been waiting for him to come along. At every stage of his life he did perfectly what his ancestors had done poorly or not at all. In this case it was his very identity, not only as undamaged goods, but as one of infinite value, that made his presentation to the Lord so great. When he was presented the words of the prophet Malachi were at last fulfilled, that, "the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts" (see Malachi 3:1). Mary, for her part, was purified. This was not because of ritual impurity so much as because she was a liturgical vessel, and it was appropriate to cleanse suchlike after use.

It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit
that he should not see death
before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.

There is so much we can learn from Simeon. Many of us see the value of our lives in terms of the contributions we can make to the world. Because of this most of us never achieve anything so great that we are able to "go" and meet death with peace of heart. We generally have an aching sense of something to do that we have left undone, some way we might finally prove our value. We don't know what Simeon had managed to accomplish in his life until that point. It sounded from his song that he did not expect to do much else. But he was not crushed or even sad because of his apparent lack of usefulness. Rather, the value of his life was predicated for him on something other than his contributions. Thus, it was enough for him to see God's promises fulfilled, and to touch the one who fulfilled them gave his life its full measure of value. 

Why was Simeon able to find his entire fulfillment in Jesus when we ourselves can't seem to do so? We have the vague sense that we should, but we still seem to need so much else besides. We receive Jesus, far more than did Simeon, in his gift of himself to us in the Eucharist. Yet most of us don't feel such an overwhelming sense of fulfillment that we sense that our whole existence has somehow been justified in the event. The difference, perhaps, between Simeon in ourselves, was that Simeon lived a life of waiting for the Lord, led by the Holy Spirit. He hadn't decided the purpose of his own life. He had learned it by listening to the Spirit. And the Spirit guided him through a long process of waiting to see that purpose accomplished. We too can live like that, making ourselves ever more ready to find our fulfillment in the Lord. But we too often choose to accept alternatives and substitutes when the joy of the presence of the Lord is not available on demand. We dull our spiritual senses with these substitutes such that when we do receive him we don't full recognize the magnitude of the gift.

Jesus is the light of the world, meant to reveal God to the nations. And, as John reminds us, "the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining". Yet the light of Christ is often obscured, and this in large measure because those who call themselves Christians don't fully radiate that light, since whoever "hates his brother, is still in the darkness", even if he claims to be in the light. We have said it before, but it is worth repeating: we can't claim to love God if we refuse to love the creatures he has made in his image. But the more we allow God to empower us to love beyond our normal human limitations the more his own divine power will be revealed. This can't come about without opposition or contradiction. But fortunately, for us as for Simeon, it isn't about what we bring to the table nearly so much as what we ourselves receive from the Lord. That is what we need to learn to value, and to treasure. Then we too may one day experience peace of heart like Simeon when God at last calls us home.

Taize - Nunc Dimittis