Discerning the signs

This is my homily for today, the Third Sunday of Advent, Cycle A.  The day's readings are here.  

Before the homily text, a few notes:

1. The day's Gospel reading is thematically appropriate for Advent, with its focuses on John the Baptist and the inbreaking of the kingdom, but in some ways it's a surprising selection, in that it's not from Matthew's infancy narrative.  Rather, the incident happens later in Matthew's Gospel: after Jesus not only has been born, but has grown to adulthood and seemingly is well into his public ministry.  It's as though the last two weeks' Cycle A Advent Sundays book-end John the Baptist's career, with last Sunday's reading recounting the beginning, and this Sunday's reading recounting the end.    

2.  Not that I expect anyone to keep track of this, but it's been a few months since I've posted a homily here.  That's because, until today, I haven't preached since September.  In the 20+ years I've been a deacon, I've preached once per month.  But that schedule was interrupted a few months ago.  Here is what happened: until September, we had two priests assigned to our parish.  Then the associate pastor left, rather unexpectedly.  All of his celebrant slots, not only for the weekend masses but also for weekday masses, funerals, etc., have had to be filled by visiting priests.  At our parish, the rule for preaching is: if the deacon is scheduled to preach, then the deacon preaches - unless the celebrant is a visiting priest.  As a courtesy, visiting priests always are invited to preach.  For the last two months, on the weekend that deacons are expected to preach, all of my scheduled masses were with visiting priests, so I haven't preached.  (I don't think that was intentional; it was just the luck of the draw that I was with a visiting priest every time.)  

In a way, I didn't mind the break - writing a homily takes a lot of time - but I missed it.  I've found that the exercise of preparing a homily is very good for me spiritually, because of the reflection and prayer that is required.  For me, the prayer isn't so much murmuring Hail Marys (although I'm capable of doing that, especially in desperation of I can't find something to talk about), as 'listening' with an open heart as I reflect on the word of God.  

Btw, the parish certainly didn't lose anything by my not preaching for a couple of months: our visiting priests, who are a combination of retired diocesan priests and active priests from a religious order (the Viatorians), all are good homilists.  The religious order priests, in particular, seem to preach from a different "place".  It's been a blessing to our faith community to have both groups.

3.  I gave two different homilies today.  The one I'm printing here was the 'adult' homily.  At another mass today, I invited the children to come forward and sit on the sanctuary steps, and I did a sort of Q&A homily with them, drawing their thoughts on Advent, preparing for Christmas and rejoicing (as today as Gaudete Sunday).  We sang a couple of songs together, too.  The kids did a great job.  But that kind of a homily, filled with dialogue and music, doensn't really translate to posting to a blog.  

At any rate, here is the 'adult' homily for yesterday:

Driverless driving is much safer

The safety advantages of Waymo self-driving vehicles are impossible to ignore.

Leo and Chant

 When B16 became Pope, I hoped that he would help popularize Latin hymns and chants in the Liturgy. What he did was divide the Church with the Extraordinary Form. 

Leo who can sing, may be doing what I hoped that B16 would do. Be inviting the people to sing the Regina Coeli rather than saying it or the Lord's prayer he has quietly begun to welcome Latin hymns and chants into the mainstream of the Church.  They have always been there even under Francis, but they were mostly sung by the Sistine Choir.  Leo is saying that these are for everyone, not simply elite singers.

The Pontifical Institute has put out a series "Singing with the Pope" which helps people to understand the Latin responses at a papal mass.  This is Vatican II, full and active participation in the Liturgy, in this case in Latin. Here is the beginning of Mass

This is absolutely brilliant. It both brings Latin chant into the mainstream of church life, and quite possibly those who might be attracted to the Extraordinary Form of the Liturgy.

The National Catholic Reporter has republished a great article on the scientific benefits of singing.

Pope Leo Sings: So should we

As a performing artist and scientist of human movement, I spent the past decade developing therapeutic techniques involving singing and dancing to help people with neurological disorders. Much like the pope's initiative, these arts-based therapies require active participation, promote connection, and are accessible to anyone. Indeed, not only is singing a deeply ingrained human cultural activity, research increasingly shows how good it is for us.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Elinor Harrison is a lecturer in the Performing Arts Department and faculty affiliate in philosophy-neuroscience-psychology at Washington University in St. Louis. She received funding from the National Institutes of Health, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Grammy Museum Foundation. She is affiliated with the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science and the Society for Music Perception and Cognition.

Pope Leo's message on AI

I thought this message by Pope Leo on AI was really good, and I have included most of it here, the conference took place in June:

"On the occasion of this Second Annual Rome Conference on Artificial Intelligence I extend my prayerful good wishes to those taking part. Your presence attests to the urgent need for serious reflection and ongoing discussion on the inherently ethical dimension of AI.....

How Accurate are AI Chatbots?

STATISTA: How Accurate are AI Chatbots? 

by Tristan Gaudiaut,

 Nov 28, 2025

Three years ago, on November 30, 2022, the official release of ChatGPT marked a turning point in artificial intelligence, propelling AI chatbots (or large language models) into the mainstream. Since then, progress has been undeniable: LLMs' ability to process complex queries, summarize vast amounts of information and even assist in coding has improved considerably.

Yet, hallucinations, misinterpretations of context and inaccuracies continue to plague even the most sophisticated of currently available models. A study from the European Broadcasting Union and the BBC reveals that while the rate of inaccurate responses has declined since the end of last year, errors continue to be widespread.

Data collected between May and June 2025 and analyzed by a cohort of journalists revealed that almost half of the responses (48 percent) from popular chatbots - free versions of ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity - contained accuracy issues. 17 percent were significant errors, mainly regarding sourcing and missing context. In December 2024, the rate of inaccurate responses (observed using a smaller answers sample) was significantly higher: 72 percent for all four LLMs. 31 percent were major issues in that case.

Despite gradual improvements, these shortcomings raise critical questions about reliability, especially in high-stakes applications like healthcare, legal advice or education. While AI developers keep pushing boundaries, users must remain aware of the technology's current limitations.

You will find more infographics at Statista

The American Thanksgiving Narrative

This article is republished by the National Catholic Reporter from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

How the Plymouth Pilgrims took over Thanksgiving

Thomas A. Tweed

as a historian of religion, I feel obliged to recount how popular interpretations of Thanksgiving also have pulled us apart.

Orthodoxy in America

is attracting new members, especially young, conservative men. I would be interested in Jack's take on this story in the NYT. I have attended many services with my Greek friend. I have found some asoects of Orthodox theology to be more in line with my thinking than RC theology, but also that some aspects of Orthodoxy are as bad as or worse than in the RC, such as in its treatment of women. The attraction to young men apparently includes its approach to male and female roles, saying Orthodoxy "affirms their masculinity". I wonder how they define " masculinity"? The conservative young seem to be taking over the the RC, and Orthodox churches as well. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/us/orthodox-christianity.html?unlocked_article_code=1.3U8.5h3e.uwLkLhTzY8ZO&smid=nytcore-ios-share