Day: January 16, 2026

Central to the Jewish faith was the Feast of Passover, the commemoration of God’s deliverance of His people from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 12). In Jesus’ time, Passover was one of three major annual feasts during which the Jews made a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. Additionally, the Feast of Weeks celebrated the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai and the first fruits of the harvest (Leviticus 23:15-22), and the Feast of Tabernacles recalled the Israelites’ wandering in the desert and celebrated God’s providence (Leviticus 23:33-43).

The reference to the Chaldeans in Habakkuk 1:6 situates the prophet within a precise historical moment. The “Chaldeans” are the Babylonians, who rose to power after the decline of Assyria and became the dominant force in the Fertile Crescent. The Neo-Babylonian Empire’s ascendancy was marked by its decisive victory over Pharaoh Necho II at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 B.C. Just four years earlier, in 609 B.C., Necho had defeated and killed King Josiah of Judah at Megiddo. Judah thus found itself caught between two superpowers—Babylon and Egypt—struggling to navigate the strategic pressures of its fragile geopolitical position.Habakkuk’s prophecy is not merely a chronicle of these shifts; it is a profound meditation on divine justice and human faith. Judah’s entanglement between Egypt and Babylon illustrates the vulnerability of nations, while Habakkuk’s dialogue with God reveals the enduring struggle of believers to reconcile divine holiness with historical realities. 

During Pope Leo XIV’s flight press conference last week (02 Dec 2025), he mentioned that a journalist had asked him: “Tell me one book, besides St. Augustine, that we could read to understand who Prevost [Pope Leo XIV] is.” The Pope’s answer is “a book called The Practice of the Presence of God,…a very simple book, by someone who doesn’t even give his last name, Brother Lawrence…If you want to know something about me, that has been my spirituality for many years.”  It is interesting to know that this “Brother Lawrence” is, in fact, a Carmelite lay-brother, a retired lame soldier, and a cook working in the monastery kitchen in 17th-century France. It is not my intention here to do a book review (its twenty-odd pages should be easy enough to read). I think it is worth understanding more about Carmelite spirituality, as it has had a strong influence onthe Augustinian Pope’s spirituality.