December 14, 2025 - Third Sunday of Advent

[00:00:07] Welcome back. It's December 14th, the third Sunday of Advent, also known as Gaudet Sunday. [00:00:15] The eighth day Jewish feast of Hanukkah also begins. [00:00:27] We begin our time today by reflecting on the life of Yusuf Kassab. [00:00:34] Known for his spiritual gifts, devotion to the Virgin Mary, humility and miracles of healing, Father Nimutula, called the Saint of Kifaan during his lifetime, spent his life in prayer and in service as a Maronite monk during during two civil wars. [00:00:56] Born in 1808 in Hardin, Lebanon, Yusuf Kassib Alhurdini joined the Lebanese Maronite Order in 1828. [00:01:07] The Maronite Church is an Eastern Catholic church in full communion with the Pope in Rome. [00:01:14] He took the name Nematulla, the Grace of God. [00:01:20] Father Neematula was a humble and holy man. Devoted to prayer and to his fellow monks. [00:01:27] He often stayed awake all night to pray before the Blessed Sacrament. [00:01:33] On Christmas Day in 1933, Neematula was ordained a priest. [00:01:41] Once, when teaching, Father Neematula had a premonition that a wall was going to fall. [00:01:48] He moved his students away from the wall just before it collapsed. [00:01:53] None of them were injured. [00:01:55] On another occasion, Father Neematula prayed over the monastery's near empty donation box and it soon overflowed with food. [00:02:07] By asking for Father Neematulla's intercession, many have experienced healing. [00:02:13] A blind man gained his sight and a crippled man was able to walk again. [00:02:20] After becoming gravely ill while teaching at the monastery of Kiffahan, Father Nimutula died on this day in 1858. [00:02:31] He was holding an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary. [00:02:37] On May 16, 2004, Saint Pope John Paul II declared Father Neematula a saint. [00:02:46] Today is his feast day. [00:03:02] Let's move now to our Sunday reflection and hear the words, no ticket needed. [00:03:16] During these days before Christmas, travel is heavy on the roads and in the skies. [00:03:23] Many of us think of home at Christmas and want to come home if we can. [00:03:28] You can't bring troops home for Christmas, but you can bring home people who feel far away from their families or their church. [00:03:38] I'll bet you can think of someone. [00:03:45] Sometimes the most important trip we can take is one inside our heart. [00:03:50] A return to a church we once called home or to the people we once called family or friends. [00:04:00] This Christmas season, I can take a trip. [00:04:04] I don't need a ticket or a reservation, just a willing and sometimes forgiving heart. [00:04:12] I just need to open my heart to the open arms of the church and come home for Christmas. [00:04:22] This is also a good season to invite those who have left the church to come back home. [00:04:34] The Lord has a place for all of us.