These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.

WEDNESDAY, WEEK II, ADVENT—Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, December 9

The LORD is the eternal God,
creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint nor grow weary,
and his knowledge is beyond scrutiny.
He gives strength to the fainting;
for the weak he makes vigor abound.
Though young men faint and grow weary,
and youths stagger and fall,
They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength,
they will soar as with eagles’ wings;
They will run and not grow weary,
walk and not grow faint.
(Is 40:28-31)

Another message of hope from Isaiah that has been used to express God’s providential care for us—that we may run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint. Today is the feast of Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin. His name, Cuauhtlatoatzin, means "he who speaks like an eagle." He received the visions of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the hill of Tepeyac outside the great city of Tenochtitlán (now Mexico City) in December, 1531. After he told his story, over 11 million indigenous inhabitants were baptized. He was canonized by John Paul II in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe on July 31, 2002, the first indigenous saint of the Americas. I was there.