>>170304, >>170305, >>170306, >>170307, >>170308, >>170309, >>170310, >>170311, >>170312
Father V @father_rmv - "A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse” (Isaiah 11:10)
Look closely at the image Isaiah gives us today: a stump.
Dead wood. A family tree chopped down to the ground, the royal line of David reduced to nothing by exile, defeat, and sin. From that very deadness, from that place where all human hope has been cut off, a tender shoot breaks through.
This is how God loves to work: not from our strength, but from our poverty; not from what is already flourishing, but from what seems finished. Advent begins here, at the stump. The Messiah does not arrive riding the crest of Israel’s glory days. He comes as a child born to a young Virgin in a forgotten village, laid in a manger because no one had room.
For silent reflection:
Where in my life right now do I feel like a “stump”? A relationship that seems dead? A hope that has been cut down? A part of my heart that feels barren?
Can I dare to believe that this very place is where the shoot of Jesse wants to break through?
Am I willing to become little, to admit that I do not have the answers, so that the Father can reveal His Son to me anew?
Every act of humility, every choice for forgiveness, every time we let the Spirit prune our pride, is already making room for the peace of soul that only Christ can give. The Kingdom is not only coming at the end of time; it is sprouting now, wherever Christ is welcomed in human weakness.
https://x.com/father_rmv/status/1995861555817185400

Father V @father_rmv - Pope Leo XIV in Turkey powerfully warned against a “new Arianism” that admires Jesus merely as a great man while denying He is the eternal Son of God – the very truth Nicaea defended 1700 years ago.
He also rightly distances himself from neo-Pelagian self-salvation and from any indifferentism that treats all religions as equally willed by God.
In an age of confusion, these are vital Augustinian accents. May he proclaim them even more boldly.
https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2025/12/02/leo-amid-the-heresies/
https://x.com/father_rmv/status/1995873930008052033