Herodias’s own daughter came in and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests. The king said to the girl, “Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.” He even swore [many things] to her, “I will grant you whatever you ask of me,
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A Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent, Year A Jesuit priest Father Mark Link tells this story: John was a contractor for a construction company. To increase his personal income, he routinely cheated on materials that went into the homes he built. He was so adept
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A Reflection for Advent In her book Saint-Watching, poet Phyllis McGinley writes: When I was seven years old I wanted to be a tight-rope dancer and broke my collar bone practicing on a child’s-size high wire. At twelve I planned to become an international spy. At fifteen my
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He [viz. John the Baptist] went throughout [the] whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of
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