Pastor's Corner: Is God with us?

I am always amazed at what happens when I take time to pray with my wife Jan. We were praying this morning (Tuesday the 14th of December) and while I was praying, I was also contemplating the homily I needed to prepare for our St. Jude School Mass on Wednesday morning the 15th of December. I always struggle with homilies for the school Masses because - well let's just say there seems to be a lack of enthusiasm exhibited by the young people and the readings very often seem hard to apply to their lives.

The readings for the Mass I am talking about are from Isiah 45:6c-8,18,21c-25. In this r...