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.

FEAST OF THE HOLY INNOCENTS, MARTYRS—Monday within the Octave of Christmas, December 28

Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet:
A voice was heard in Ramah, 
sobbing and loud lamentation;
 Rachel weeping for her children, 
and she would not be consoled,
 since they were no more.
(Mt 2:13-18)

With the Feast of the Holy Innocents we can never forget that the “powers that be” are always at work to tear down and destroy. But God has the last word, and that word is a word of Grace and Resurrection. As the Fourth Gospel says:

The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
(Jn 1:5)