As we enter into this new year, mindful of the division, resentment, anger, enmity and more that are tearing apart the human race, let us call upon the intercession of St. Stephen and his friend and brother, St. Paul. May their powerful prayers help us to see one another as we should, as brothers and sisters.

Emmanuel doesn’t merely mean “God is with us,” as in “God is in our midst.” It means, “God is on our side.” He has come for us. Because for some unimaginable and unexplainable reason, the Creator of all that is is passionately in love with us! May the Holy Spirit overwhelm us anew in these holy days we are about to enter.

In these introductory verses to the Church in Rome, Paul tells us that the good news of King Jesus’ victory over the powers of Death and Sin had been promised previously through the prophets. There are scores of prophecies about what and how God is going to defeat these cosmic powers, but none of them just come out and say “God is going to become a man and rescue His creation.” We might be inclined to wonder why the prophecies are often so mysterious and confusing?

Generally speaking, the Latin word adventus means coming, or arrival. But there’s much more behind this word than meets the eye. You wouldn’t use it to describe, say, grandma coming for Thanksgiving (no offense to grandmas!). Adventus was an empire word. It had to do with a very specific ceremony in the Roman Empire.