Week of December 7th, 2025

My Sisters and Brothers in Jesus Christ,
Advent always begins in the dark. Not the darkness of despair, but the quiet and fertile darkness of a world waiting to be renewed. On this second Sunday of Advent, the Church invites us deeper into the spirit of expectation—a waiting that is not passive, but full of hope, readiness, and longing for the God who comes to us again and again.

Expectation is different from anxiety. Anxiety imagines all that could go wrong. Expectation imagines all that God can yet do. John the Baptist calls people to prepare the way—not because God is far away, but because God is already drawing near. Advent asks us: What in our lives needs clearing, healing, softening, or opening so that Christ may enter more fully?

To expect Christ is to believe, with quiet confidence, that grace is already at work beneath the surface of our ordinary days. We wait not for a distant God but for the God who is always approaching, always seeking us, always ready to begin something new.

Weekly Online Liturgies — and an Invitation to Gather
We are now posting weekly liturgy videos online as a resource for all who wish to pray with us. These liturgies are meant to support individuals, families, and small communities—especially those who may not have access to a nearby parish or chapel.

These liturgies can be found at: Saint Oscar Romero Ministries - YouTube

As Advent presses upon us with its call to community and renewal, we invite you to consider something simple yet profoundly important:
Could you host a small liturgy in your home?
Do you have space where two or three might gather to worship?

The Independent Sacramental Movement has always thrived in the hidden corners of ordinary life—living rooms, kitchens, community centers, borrowed spaces, hospital rooms, and chapels set up in basements and garages. Advent reminds us that Christ was born not in a grand temple but in a humble place made holy by God’s presence.  If you feel called to make room for others, even in a small way, please reach out.

Faith Formation This Week: Rethinking Christian Morality
This week’s faith-formation video takes a deep and honest look at moral theology, understanding the subject is vast, complicated, and often misunderstood. We explore several major moral frameworks:

• Natural Law — living according to our nature and pursuing the good, though noting that Aquinas used natural law as one tool among many rather than his primary lens.
• Situational Ethics — recognizing that specific circumstances and levels of knowledge matter, without collapsing into relativism.
• Virtue Ethics — the heart of Aquinas’s approach, focusing on human flourishing and the cultivation of both acquired virtues and the supernatural virtues infused by God.

The video challenges the common question, “Is this a sin?”, by reframing sin as disordered desire—loving good things in the wrong order. Christian life is not simply about avoiding sin but about pursuing the good, encountering Christ, and allowing grace to transform us from within.

Through the stories of St. Mary of Egypt and Aba Moses the Black, the video beautifully illustrates that holiness is not about perfection but about surrender—opening our lives to the God who purifies, redeems, and elevates our nature. The core message is clear: Christian morality is not the minimum requirement for heaven; it is the joyful, grace-filled journey of giving our whole selves to God.

As We Continue Through Advent…
May this week be one of holy expectation for you—an expectation rooted not in fear or uncertainty, but in the promise that Christ is coming into our lives even now. Let us wait together, pray together, and prepare the way together. The world needs the quiet witness of communities—small or large—who believe that grace can be born anywhere space is made for it.

​Blessed Advent, and may Christ deepen your hope in the week ahead.
Peace,
Rev. Ben