Homilies
Homilies
December 7, 2025
December 7, 2025
2nd Sunday of Advent (A)
Bishop Robert Barron
2nd Sunday of Advent (A)
2001 ၊၊||၊ Podcast
Voice in the Desert
John the Baptist is, along with Isaiah and the Virgin Mary, the great figure of Advent. We hear his voice in the desert, summoning us to repentance and readiness. When we have purified our minds and hearts, we are able to receive the one who will baptize us with the Holy Spirit, the fire of God’s very life.
2007 ၊၊||၊ Podcast
Repent!
John the Baptist sums up the Advent season. He lives in the desert, the place of no distraction, and he speaks a message of repentance and the confession of sin. Advent is a great time to clear away all that separates us from Christ. It is a time of repentance.
2019 ၊၊||၊ Podcast
The Messiah’s Work
Last week, I spoke of preparing for the coming of the Lord using the great image from the second chapter of Isaiah: the Lord’s holy mountain. How do we make this mountain the highest mountain? On this second Sunday of Advent, I want to follow the Church as she invites us to look at another chapter of Isaiah—namely, the magnificent eleventh chapter, which describes the world that emerges at the coming of the Messiah.
Go Meet John the Baptist
Advent is a time for spiritual reflection and transformation, as exemplified by John the Baptist, urging us to confront our flaws, embrace repentance, and prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ. John the Baptist, a key figure of Advent, embodies longing and spirituality, as illustrated by his desert appearance and the poignant statue at Chartres Cathedral.
The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Friends, our first reading for this Second Sunday of Advent, taken from Isaiah 11, describes the Messiah’s arrival: He “shall sprout from the stump of Jesse,” and “the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him.” The Messiah, we hear, will come bearing seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, gifts that come to full expression in him. The Advent season is a time of longing for these gifts—watching, waiting, and praying for them.
Deacon Greg’s blog has garnered some 20 million readers from around the world since its inception in 2007.
2nd Sunday of Advent (A)
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Honestly, I thought it must have been a joke.
When I saw the story online last Sunday, I didn’t quite believe it. Many of you probably saw it, too: it’s Amazon.com’s proposed new delivery system. The idea is to use small, unmanned airplanes—drones!—to pick up packages at a warehouse and deliver them to your door, in 30 minutes or less.
When it was unveiled on “60 Minutes” last weekend, I think Charlie Rose summed it up eloquently in one word:
“Wow.”
— originally preached in 2013
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Deacon Peter McCulloch
2nd Sunday of Advent (A)
RAEGAN KELLY (03:10)
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The symbol of the hand with a pointing finger has long been used to direct our attention, perhaps to get us to buy or to notice something.
This pointing hand is called the manicule, and in the days of snail-mail various versions of it were often stamped on redirected letters. We’re less likely to see it these days, except perhaps in the mouse cursor of some software programs.
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Advent is God’s wake-up call to our weary world, and John’s voice is the alarm that sounds just before the dawn.
Think of the early morning darkness, when the first bird begins to sing. It sings not because it can see the sun, but because it knows the sun is on its way. While the world is still half asleep, that little bird dares to sing into the silence.
John’s voice is that birdsong, expressing faith and joy into the shadows. He teaches us that even when the world is dark or silent, we can still raise our voices in hope because Jesus Christ is near.
