Sometimes our Religion seems rather severe. And John the Baptist, the figure who appears today and next week in our Gospels, might seem severe too! But actually, even though the evangelist Luke says John is proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin — severe to our ears…

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During the season of Advent, the Church prepares itself for the feast of the Nativity of Jesus, the “first coming,” but it also meditates on the final coming of Christ. “Advent,” the four Sundays before Christmas, was pretty well established by the late 6th century. But Advent was a penitential…

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