Dominican Friars
Province of St. Albert the Great, USA

A Word of Hope

25 Nov • The Transient & The Eternal: A Thanksgiving Reflection

A Word of Hope

on the transient nature of life and the importance of focusing on the eternal. Inspired by a Gospel passage and a powerful personal anecdote involving a near-miss accident, Father Andrew Carl reminds us that "none of us is promised the next five minutes." As we approach Thanksgiving, this reflection urges us to look beyond the temporary and embrace the essential blessings that truly come from God.

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**Chapters:**
0:00 Welcome & Introduction (Father Andrew Carl Wisdom, Last Week of Ordinary Time)
0:00:17 Gospel Message: The Passing Nature of All Things
0:00:53 Personal Anecdote: A Life-Changing Car Accident
0:01:47 The Core Message: "None of us is promised the next five minutes"
0:02:16 Treasuring Life: Focus on the Essential and Eternal
0:02:25 Thanksgiving Reflection: Being Grateful for True Blessings
0:02:48 Conclusion & Happy Thanksgiving

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A Word of Hope with dove

Every day the Chicago Dominicans offer "A Word of Hope" video to bolster our faith through these trying times. We welcome any feedback you have at hope@opcentral.org . You can see them all below, or you can see other preaching by a particular person by clicking on his name, and you can have them emailed to you each morning by signing up for our email service:

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    19 Jan • Mary, untier of knots

    At the wedding feast at Cana, Mary sees a problem and solves it—getting Jesus to perform his first miracle of changing water to wine. We can turn to Mary to petition her son to solve the problems or "untie the knots" in our own lives, but we then have to trust that God hears and do what Jesus says.
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    12 Jan • Comfort my people

    On this Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, we recall that Jesus was baptised to carry out the the commission of the Prophet Isaiah, "Give Comfort to my People." May all of us who are baptised fulfil this mission.
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    11 Jan • Passing on the blessings

    After Jesus was baptised by John, Jesus went on to baptise others. When John was asked about it, he was happy that Jesus was doing this and becoming greater than he. All of the blessings God gives us should be nurtured, and multiplied, and then passed along to more people, until the whole world is blessed.
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    9 Jan • Preaching Good News to the Poor

    Jesus came to bring Good News to the poor. It is incumbent on Christians to help the poor and alleviate their suffering, but even more than that, the Better News is that Jesus brings forgiveness, which starts with the poor, and promises a better life in heaven than anything we could imagine in this world.
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    2 Jan • Holy Friendship

    Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, who share this memorial, were great friends. Their friendship brought them each closer to God. Friends can bring us closer to God and friendship itself is a model of what our relationship should be with God.
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    1 Jan • A Mother's Blessing

    On this Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, we remember what a blessing she was to Jesus and to us. As the new year begins, we also take the opportunity, like Mary, to ponder the past and open ourselves to the future.
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    31 Dec • Ready for a New Year

    The first chapter of the Gospel of John reminds us: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it." As we prepare to welcome a new year, let us move forward with confidence that God's unfailing light will help us create all things new and shake off the darkness of the past year.
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    30 Dec • The Prophet Anna

    The Prophet(ess) Anna recognized the Christ child as the new messiah when he was presented in the Temple. Let us honor all the women whose resilient, prophetic, and steady faith has fed the church and our guided our own faith journeys.
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    29 Dec • Family = chaos

    On this Feast of the Holy Family, we recall Jesus being lost for days and finally found in the Temple, seemingly oblivious to the worry he caused his parents. Every family has some degree of chaos as different members pull in different directions. There is not only one way to be a "perfect" family. Families and churches are best when they let each member be the best version of who they really are, and then together they create their own best version of family.
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    28 Dec • Escaping the genocide

    On this Feast of the Holy Innocents, we remember how, warned by an an angel in his dream, Joseph fled with his family in the middle of the night to escape Herod's deadly wrath. There is still genocide and evil in our world, and we still need to listen to God about when to stand and when to run.
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    27 Dec • That your joy may be complete

    John, the apostle, shared with others about the Love of God he found in Christ so that his own joy would be complete. We have the same opportunity. Let us share with others what we have come to learn about Christ with those around around us, so that they might share in our joy and that our joy might be complete.
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