Topic: Advent

The Rev. Stomberg and the Rev. Galloway discuss the importance of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the Christian life; the idea of her perpetual virginity; types of love; masculinity and femininity; gender roles; the impact of the transgender movement on children; and much more.

There are no words given to Saint Joseph in all of Scripture, and yet, Joseph is the greatest example of a husband and father in all of humanity. Indeed, Joseph is the most important man who ever lived (apart from Christ). He is here to prove that a good man doesn’t need attention, he doesn’t need to say many words, he doesn’t need to be a superhero. A good man needs to be a righteous man. May we all imitate his uprightness of life and his obedience to God’s commands.

We are not very good at being patient. As devout Christians, we really should be wanting Jesus to return, to judge the living and the dead, being patience while living among a world that hates us. What we shouldn’t be doing is wishing for Jesus to wait until after our lifetimes, as if our own plans are more important than God’s plan of salvation! When the LORD comes should not be our concern; it should be how we prepare for the LORD’s return!

We need Advent to remind us of these responsibilities as we wait for Christ to return. And for that reason, Andrew is the perfect saint to start the Advent season. He also (unsurprisingly) embodies the call of John the Baptist in today’s Gospel reading for the second Sunday of Advent to “bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”

We need to constantly realize that in Christ, we are a new creation. We need to be reminded of this truth by, and for, each other. Christ gives us grace anew so that we are equal to the task of fighting back the darkness, even when the odds and circumstances seem overwhelming. Like Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, and many other heroes who went before us, we must put on the full armor of God in the battle against evil.

We are all familiar with the story of the angel visiting the Virgin Mary to announce that she would give birth to our Savior, Jesus Christ. But one woman in the Christmas narrative who is often overlooked is Elizabeth, and we have much to learn from her remarkable wisdom.

Saint Thomas often gets a bad rap as “Doubting Thomas”. Are we really any better than Thomas ourselves? Listen as the Rector examines Saint Thomas in Luke’s narrative and what we can learn from his life and ministry.

We rejoice because the Lord is near to us. We do not serve some faraway God who sits up in an ivory tower, nor do we serve some “divine clockmaker” who wound up the gears of space and time and then stepped back to watch without any involvement. We are instead blessed by a Lord who knows each and every one of us intimately, who took on our very flesh to dwell among us, and who promised to come again one day and redeem all of creation.

John the Baptist plays a critical role in the history of Salvation, and yet he receives next to no attention by many churches. Listen as the Rev. Galloway explores the person and work of John the Baptist as revealed in Scripture and Church Tradition.