4th Sunday of Advent Gospel Matthew 1:18-24 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means "God is with us." When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.
How lost we are in the virtuality of life, scrolling through endless doors and borrowed selves, mistaking possibility for freedom, until we wake each day more familiar with other people's lives than our own. Somewhere along the way, we stopped living and began watching, comparing the hidden chaos of our days to the polished front rooms of others, and wondering why we feel so restless, so behind, so unfinished. This meditation is an invitation to step out of the performance, to stop wandering other people's gardens, and to come home to your own life. As we approach 2026, the question is simple and urgent, what if this became a year of freedom, not the freedom to be everything, but the freedom to be real, to clear the noise, and to let God meet you exactly where you are.
Mental prayer is the breath of the plan of life. If the Rosary carries the steady heartbeat, mental prayer is the quiet inhale and exhale of friendship with God. It shifts faith from duty to desire, from "I have to pray" to "I can't wait to be with Him." The episode reflects on the beauty of intimate conversation with the Father. Saint Teresa of Avila once called prayer a close sharing between friends, and this meditation unpacks what that means in real life, where honesty and vulnerability become the doorway to grace. It guides listeners through how to create inner stillness, how to approach God with curiosity, how to listen and be a friend and speak simply, and how to let silence deepen trust. Think of it as an invitation to breathe with God again, and to let prayer become the place where you are known, loved, and renewed; a place where you want to be.
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception 2025 Gospel Luke 1:26-38 The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, "Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you." But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end." But Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?" And the angel said to her in reply, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God." Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.
John the Baptist and the Second Sunday of Advent, Year A 2025 Gospel Matthew 3:1-12 John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said: A voice of one crying out in the desert, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. John wore clothing made of camel's hair and had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins. When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
Friday, First Week of Advent 2025 Gospel Matthew 9:27-31 As Jesus passed by, two blind men followed him, crying out, "Son of David, have pity on us!" When he entered the house, the blind men approached him and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I can do this?" "Yes, Lord," they said to him. Then he touched their eyes and said, "Let it be done for you according to your faith." And their eyes were opened. Jesus warned them sternly, "See that no one knows about this." But they went out and spread word of him through all that land.
This week's meditation explores the Rosary as the quiet heartbeat of a Christian's day, the steady rhythm that keeps us close to Christ the way jazz uses syncopation to hold a song together. The Eucharist anchors a life of prayer, but the Rosary gives it pulse. Far from mindless repetition, it becomes a slow, loving walk through the mysteries of Jesus with Mary as our guide. Its simplicity, even its boredom, creates the space where grace can move. It steadies the mind, sanctifies ordinary moments, and helps us see God's patterns in our own lives. Whether prayed in a chapel, on a sidewalk, or during a late evening walk, the Rosary trains the heart to persevere and rest in God. In this episode, we talk about how to begin, how to pray it faithfully in the middle of the world, and how its gentle rhythm becomes the spiritual heartbeat that carries you through the day.
The Basilica of St. Mary Institute for Faith and Culture Presents: Beauty and the Beast, an Exploration of the Power of Beauty, Part 5 of 5 With Fr. James Searby In this final class of Beauty and the Beast, we look at the tale's two feasts to understand beauty as a path back to communion, meaning, and sacramentality. The tavern scene becomes a picture of the ego- loud, empty, and isolating, while "Be Our Guest" reveals what self-giving love looks like when a community pours itself out in joy. From there, Fr. James Searby explores the vocation of the artist, the vulnerability of real creativity, and the way beauty acts almost like a sacramental, opening the soul to grace. This class traces the larger cultural story as well, from the Baroque renewal of the Church to the rise of modernity and postmodernity, and finally to our quiet rediscovery of wonder today. Using the fairy tale as a map, the episode shows how the loss of beauty disfigures a culture and how its return restores the human heart. At its center is the conviction that beauty heals, reveals, and reunites, and that when we allow ourselves to receive it, the beast in all of us begins to become whole again.
The Basilica of St. Mary Institute for Faith and Culture Presents: Beauty and the Beast, an Exploration of the Power of Beauty, Part 4 With Fr. James Searby In this fourth class of Beauty and the Beast, we explore beauty as communion, the way beauty draws us out of isolation and into relationship. Through Maurice's tenderness, Belle's self-giving, and the gradual healing of the Beast's house, Fr. James Searby shows how beauty creates openness, vulnerability, and shared life. Drawing on Scruton, Simone Weil, Martha Graham, theatre, liturgy, and the communal nature of art, this episode traces how beauty breaks self-enclosure, makes space for others, and restores what fear and hurry have disordered. It also looks at the danger of cultural elitism in the arts and why beauty belongs to everyone, not to a select few. At its heart, this class reveals how beauty invites us into a deeper communion with God and one another, preparing the way for next week's theme of beauty as contemplation.
The Basilica of St. Mary Institute for Faith and Culture Presents: Beauty and the Beast, an Exploration of the Power of Beauty, Part 3 With Fr. James Searby In this third episode of Beauty and the Beast, Fr. James Searby takes us into the heart of why beauty matters so deeply, not only artistically, but spiritually and morally. This class looks at the collision between a culture shaped by modern narcissism and a Christian vision where beauty, truth, and goodness are real, objective, and radiant. Using the story of Beauty and the Beast as a lens, he explores how our hurried, self-referential age blinds us to beauty and slowly disconnects us from what makes us human. From the sacramental meaning of the body to the power of the Eucharist, from Freud's mirror to Milton's Satan, from Gaston's hollow charm to the Beast's slow awakening, this episode traces how distraction and self-creation deform the soul, and how beauty becomes the doorway back to reality. With help from Aquinas, Balthasar, Scruton, Simone Weil, John Paul II, and classic stories like The Sound of Music, Babette's Feast, and This Beautiful Fantastic, we learn how to train the eye, the heart, and the imagination to recognize real beauty again. This episode is both an unflinching diagnosis of our cultural moment and a hopeful call to rediscover the contemplative life that heals, restores, and opens us to God.
The Basilica of St. Mary Institute for Faith and Culture Presents: Beauty and the Beast, an Exploration of the Power of Beauty, Part 2 With Fr. James Searby In this second episode of Beauty and the Beast, we step deeper into the story itself and uncover why this simple tale carries so much spiritual and human truth. Fr. James Searby explores the opening arc of the Beast, not as a children's plot point, but as a mirror of our own culture's drift into subjectivism, hurry, and the loss of virtue. Drawing from the older French versions of the tale, the golden age of Disney storytelling, and the wisdom of Aquinas, Balthasar, Plato, John Paul II, Simone Weil, and more, he shows how beauty forms the soul and why its absence slowly makes us less human. Belle's contemplative posture in a frantic village becomes a lesson in resisting the rush of modern life, while the Beast's curse reveals what happens when we turn inward and forget who we are. This episode opens up the rose, the mirror, the meaning of enchantment, and the hard truth that love and beauty both require us to slow down and see reality again. It's a thoughtful, richly layered conversation that will change the way you watch the film and the way you understand your own hunger for what is beautiful, noble, and true.
The Basilica of St. Mary Institute for Faith and Culture Presents: Beauty and the Beast, an Exploration of the Power of Beauty Part 1 of 5 With Fr. James Searby This first episode of Beauty and the Beast opens with one of the most unforgettable scenes in The Shawshank Redemption, where a single piece of music breaks open a prison and reminds hardened men that their souls are still alive. From there, we explore what beauty actually does to the human heart, why it stirs hope, and how it can lift us beyond the walls of our own routine and cynicism. Drawing on art history, architecture, philosophy, childhood wonder, and everyday encounters with beauty, Fr. James Searby lays out the story of how our culture drifted from a world shaped by transcendent beauty into a landscape that often feels flat and utilitarian. More importantly, he shows why beauty matters now more than ever, and how it can become an entry point for renewal, depth, and authentic encounter with God. This episode sets the foundation for the whole series, inviting you to slow down, look again, and rediscover the freedom and hope that beauty awakens in every soul.
From the smoky cafés of 1920s Paris to the curated feeds of Gen Z, this talk traces a century of growing alienation and the quiet ache beneath every age. We look at how today's neo-pagan culture offers counterfeit gods of sex, power, money, and self, and how events like the murder of Charlie Kirk jolted a generation into asking what is truly worth living and dying for. In the middle of this war between two altars (the pagan and Catholic), we explore why young adults are drawn to the beauty, ritual, and authority of the Catholic Church, and how we can accompany them into real transcendence, authentic community, and a life of courageous mission in Christ. This talk was given at the Diocese of Arlington Catechist Conference on Nov. 15, 2025