Someone Asked for this Quote

In the homily on Faithful Citizenship September 30th I read....

"Yes, America, all this belongs to you. But your greatest beauty and your richest blessing is found in the human person: in each man, woman and child, in every immigrant, in every native-born son and daughter.
For this reason, America, your deepest identity and truest character as a nation is revealed in the position you take towards the human person. The ultimate test of your greatness in the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and most defenseless ones.
The best traditions of your land presume respect for those who cannot defend themselves. If you want equal justice for all, and true freedom and lasting peace, then, America, defend life! All the great causes that are yours today will have meaning only to the extent that you guarantee the right to life and protect the human person:
– feeding the poor and welcoming refugees;
– reinforcing the social fabric of this nation;
– promoting the true advancement of women;
– securing the rights of minorities;
– pursuing disarmament, while guaranteeing legitimate defence; all this will succeed only if respect for life and its protection by the law is granted to every human being from conception until natural death.
Every human person – no matter how vulnerable or helpless, no matter how young or how old, no matter how healthy, handicapped or sick, no matter how useful or productive for society – is a being of inestimable worth created in the image and likeness of God.
This is the dignity of America, the reason she exists, the condition for her survival – yes, the ultimate test of her greatness: to respect every human person, especially the weakest and most defenceless ones, those as yet unborn.
With these sentiments of love and hope for America, I now say goodbye in words that I spoke once before: "Today, therefore, my final prayer is this: that God will bless America, so that she may increasingly become - and truly be - and long remain one Nation, under God, indivisible. With liberty and justice for all."
May God bless you all.
God bless America!”

–Blessed Pope John Paul II
Farewell Ceremony from the United States
Detroit Metro Airport
19 September 1987

Prophetic Citizenship!

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org>>>
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00 on Sat and 8:00 on Sunday

Be not just "faithful, but Prophetic!

The Scriptures for this 26th Sunday in ordinary time as well as the context of the political season brings the question of "what is God doing in our midst and who is accomplishing God's will in our presence".

The role of the prophet is not to "announce the future" but rather to "reveal God present" - literally, to "speak for or on behalf of" God. The question presented in both the first reading and the Gospel text today is the issue of "who" is presenting God's truth or wisdom. Both Moses and Jesus teach and instruct us that the "who" is not the important question. The "what" is of the essence.

Therefore, in our Catholic life we might stop looking for a prophet and begin to search for the "prophetic" within the church. That would demand that we stop considering the person and start considering the message, the truth, the movement of the Spirit of God in our midst.

Our Catholic teaching and ecclesiology does not contribute to this understanding of prophecy. We, like the followers of Moses, are convinced and taught that certain persons, office holders, consecrated people speak on behalf of God. The office of Pope, for example, has swirled for centuries about infallibility: when the pope speaks. Our notions of obedience are referred always to the office holder or the authority figure who speaks on behalf of God.

We have not been trained or instructed to expect the prophetic action of God to come through just the ordinary believer. In spite of the instruction of Jesus and Moses, we give too much credence to person rather than prophecy.

If the truth be told, even the Holy Father or pastor or superior or head of the household must not be obeyed if what they say is not in conformity to the truth of God. That demands discernment by the people of God. Do we have such discernment?

If, in fact, we have all been anointed like Jesus as priest, prophet, and King at our baptism can we not and should we not expect the prophetic action of God to be at work in each of us and in and through all of us as a communal manifestation of the Body of Christ in the world? Should not the Catholic Church as a body be prophetic for the rest of the world-revealing the truth, speaking on behalf of God?

When we hear the call of our church leaders to be engaged in the democratic process of this year's election, we should hear the invitation to be prophetic. Rather than "faithful citizenship" I am hearing the call for "prophetic citizenship"! What I mean is that for a Catholic to discern and hear and know the truth and then to cast a ballot based upon that truth is to be a Catholic prophet to the nation. A vote is the most effective voice that an American citizen has in our democratic society. To vote as a Catholic Christian based upon the principles and values taught by the Church, the call to justice, especially the defense of life, the truth of the gospel, is to speak on behalf of God, which is the definition of prophetic.

Can and will you be a prophet for God, a prophet for the truth, a prophet for life, a prophet for justice, a prophet for freedom, a prophet to the nations? Vote as a believing, living Catholic - that is prophetic. Would that all God's people would be prophets!

September 23 Homily Prep

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org>>>>
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 Sat, and 8:00 and 12:30 on Sunday

Tea Leaves

Folks I don't think we are reading the tea leaves correctly. At least not the way Jesus recommends. I am struck by the comment from Jesus in last weeks gospel "you are thinking not like God does but like human beings do".

What I am referring to is this business of "assessing success or greatness". My experience tells me (and my own temptation and proclivities suggest to me) that we are reading and estimating greatness, quality, success, etc. according to or through the lens of this world's values. The driving motivation of most everyone in the church and outside of the church Is to avoid losing, being last, failing, serving and to succeed in this world, to win at the game of life in this world.

My question is "has our Christian conversion made an impact upon our judgment?". Maybe you will agree with me, even the religious and pious people have a temptation to conclude or judge that when they are losing in the world that God has abandoned them.

What this tells me is that we have not adopted or been impacted by Jesus's "inside out" revolution on humanity's journey in the world and in the kingdom. Jesus says "if you want to be great you must be the least, last, servant of the rest". That sounds fine and well until it starts to happen to us. When we start to lose, when we fall down, when we are persecuted, when we are frustrated, when it looks like we have been defeated, we turn to God and pray that He would turn it around for us. That doesn't seem to me to be Jesus's message.

What God is calling us to, what God-thinking is all about is that we are assuredly going to lose in this world, we are definitely going to die, we are going likely to be downtrodden, persecuted, and disparaged. When those things happen to us we should rejoice for the kingdom of God is at hand. I don't think we're getting it. We are not reading the tea leaves correctly.

Maybe we have been confused by the notion that if we VOLUNTARILY become the last, if we choose to lose or serve or die THEN we can see it as a path to greatness in God's eyes. This is kind of like the Mother Teresa mentality of being holy and religious "if I elect to give up on success" then my failure is a sign of closeness of God to me. But when losing, littleness, last-ness, death, servitude, etc. is imposed upon us BY life and BY others THEN we don't get it. We don't read those tea leaves so clearly as the fact that we are great.

Is it possible that this success-in-the-world routine and standard of success is the reason that the Gospel has been so unsuccessful in changing the world? Maybe?

September 16 Homily Prep

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org>>>>
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 11:00am

Working: definition 5 : being in use or operation

The type of faith that St James is describing and Jesus is witnessing to is "faith that works". What I mean is that the effect of faith on one's real life is a "faith that works" - it is accomplishing the effect in life that it is intended to do.

When Jesus asked his disciples who people say that he is, he is asking if in fact his faith is effective, is it working? He also explains the need to allow faith to work in your life which is manifest by the cross. If the faith that Jesus has come to give us is working in our lives then we will pick up our cross and follow him. Losing our life is the symptom of faith at work in our lives.

Like a fever, laying down your life, detachment from life in this world, a lack of reliance upon success in this life - this is the symptom of a lively or living faith-as St. James would call it.

So, do you have works of faith in your life? Are there observable symptoms of a living faith in your life? Is the dying and rising of Jesus evident in your daily life? This is faith.

September 9 Homily Prep

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org >>>
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00, (Sat), 8:00 and 6:00pm

Wince:
-to make pained expression: 
to make an expression of pain with the face because of seeing or thinking of something unpleasant or embarrassing
-to move body back slightly: 
to make an involuntary movement away from something because of pain or fear
-an expression of pain: a facial expression of pain or fear.

It seems typical for our broken human condition to squeeze our eyes firmly tight claiming that God is absent - rather than open up our eyes in faith and see the God who is with us.

Life hurts and can be startling. It makes us wince. Wincing is a reflexive squeezing of the face and eyes In the response to some threatening event. Did you ever wince in fear of something you perceived was coming after you or at you but then you realized there was nothing really there? Like being the passenger in a car of a driver who is reckless, we can live life jerking at every turn with our foot pressing against an imaginary brake pedal.

Pretty "uptight". I think that's the way we walk through life...eyes closed in a wince against the threatening appearances of the world. In that posture or disfigurement we cannot see what is because of the fear of what we see.

Today we hear that for people of faith, there is no need to walk so fearful and contracted. In fact, such contracted, uptight, posture is precisely the thing that blinds us from seeing the answer to our fears - the God who has come to save us.

Can you ease your heart, mind, your body and your eyes by faith? If so you will join me in seeing the God who has promised to be with us always. It is not that God is absent, it is our self-defensive misconceptions that blind us to the God who saves us in every moment. Emmanuel.

September 2 Pomily Prep

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org>>
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at Sunday 11:00am

Litmus test!

We live in the era of empiricism and scientific method. We are all familiar with the analysis that can be done on anything: a liquid solution, the particulate matter in the air, the radioactivity in an object or area, the sugar in one's blood, the lumens of light in a room. Such analysis has called our attention to the invisible yet ascertainable quality of things.

St. James seems to have applied such discernment or empiricism to the quality of our faith and the efficaciousness of the Word of God. People of faith can discern, judge, or ascertain the efficaciousness of the word of God by examining the morality, righteousness, justice, goodness of one's works.

Some have suggested that this attitude of St. James is a corrective to the disengagement or dismissive attitude of St. Paul to the law and his emphasis on the freedom of the Spirit.

This has certainly, from the Reformation onward, been a great debate among religious people: the connection of faith to righteousness, morality, ethics, community, good works. Can we do an analysis of our faith and detect in it justice, righteousness, ethical behavior, compassion, peace?

Can our Christian lives be tested, "testify" to the effective work of the Word of God in our lives.? Is the litmus test of the Word in our lives a life of justice and compassion?

August 26 Homily Prep

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org >>>
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 9:30am and 6:00pm

No Reservations!

I believe the actors in the movie entitled "No Reservations" were Sandra Bullock and child-star Abigail Breslin . It was a rather tender story about the call to love-to self-Sacrificing love. This call to love was manifested in the movie by the "requirement of love" which is to lose everything for its sake and to gain everything by it's Grace. the reservations in the movie had to do with a meal. Interesting.

Our fifth and final homily in this series on the "bread of life discourse" presents us with that precise invitation, opportunity, and challenge. Jesus says to his listeners, his disciples, who murmur against him out loud and have silent reservation in their hearts "will you leave me too?". The entire homily that Jesus has been sharing in dialogue with his followers has been about the new and powerful life available through intimacy with Jesus IN his body from the living Father. When it has become difficult to understand they find it threatening to their sense of self and they leave him.

They are very interested in the miracles that Jesus works, they are very interested in the truth about the Father that Jesus proposes, they are very desirous of this bread for which they will no longer hunger, but they have serious reservations about a life of intimacy with God lived in Jesus' body. They protest. They like all the self-benefiting ideas about Jesus, the miracle worker and the man of faith. But they have serious reservations about his offer of communion.

The faith of the Catholic church, the power of Jesus' Eucharistic presence in the bread of life, our lives of faith in the church are complicated by these same reservations. The incarnate, fleshy, actual, real life complications of belonging to the body of Christ, the church, is actually the only problem or reservation that we as Christians have. Everybody loves Jesus, everybody is inspired by the word of God in the Bible, everybody is looking forward to living forever with God in heaven. It's the church, the vessel, the Body of Christ in which we are called to live our daily lives of faith that gives us pause-reservations. We find it "hard" and we are tempted to walk away. Even if we don't externally walk away, we dwell in and among the church believing, belonging, participating as if we are not IN communion with the body. We are "reserved".

St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians (that has been accompanying the bread of life discourse throughout these five weeks) comes to a culmination today in the image of life with God as a marriage. The embodied communion of two lives, no longer two but one flesh, is held up for us as a goal for our life of faith. The minister asks the engaged couple "have you come here freely, without reservation, to give yourselves to each other in holy matrimony?" No reservations.

That is the level of communion that the faith requires of us as Catholics. Communion is not simply intimacy with Jesus in the sacred host. It is a life of faith lived IN communion with the body of Christ, IN the church. It is a shared life with relative strangers. It is not a cozy fellowship of friends-it is rather a communion of faith-filled members! It is a process of clinging to one another under the conviction that our communion in faith reveals and possesses the grace necessary for salvation. That doesn't always feel like friendship-it is more like marriage or family for sure.

This is a hard teaching, we are tempted to "walk away". It does not always feel like a friendly relationship with Jesus. Will we protest against the embodiment of Christ in the church, the Catholic Church, the imperfect church called to holiness? We are tempted to walk away from what feels threatening to good-feeling self preservation. We are called to have "no reservation"! Are you in?

Bread of Life - August 19 Prep

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-YThis Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30, 8:00am, and 11:00am.

Thriller and Sr. Helen Prejean!

Do you remember that first full-length TV music video entitled thriller? It was Michael Jackson's title song from his album in which a bunch of zombies, the living or walking dead, come to life and dance to Michael's music. I am recalling it because the bread of life discourse brings us to the question of, although we are walking (or even dancing) around, "are we really alive?" Our ancestors, Jesus says, "ate the bread from heaven but died nonetheless". We are offered and have eaten the living bread from heaven-but have we come to life?

Are we truly alive in Christ Jesus? This question of life in Christ, living, is the challenge of this fourth homily in a series on the bread of life. Is it not possible that we who have been baptized and have fed upon the living bread come down from heaven are nonetheless not alive? It is deceiving, because we seem to be alive as the Jews in the desert - we are surviving. To what extent is what we call our daily life surviving or truly living? How much of my daily existence is alive?

Is it not true that through sin death entered the world? Our ancestors were cast out of the garden, experiencing death, but they were still living in the world. They were challenged to work by the sweat of their brow and the labor of their childbirth. This death that entered the world was not human dying, meaning the cessation of respiration only, this death was separation from God and life lived for self. Dead men walking!

The life that Jesus offers us in himself is communion with the living father and a life that is given away(even when our hearts stop beating). We become "life livers" inasmuch as we are "life givers". So that is the litmus test - I am alive in as much as I am giving life to others. Living for self is a zombie experience, the walking dead.

Are you alive? Are you giving life? Have you eaten of the living bread? Are you a walking dead man? "It is no longer I who live, but Christ living within me!"

Bread from Heaven - August 12 Prep

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org>
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 12:30 Mass

Hungry?

As we continue this series of homilies regarding the bread of life discourse, the third theme that we have identified is "bread from heaven". The first theme( the gathering assembly) and the second ( table fellowship) bring us to a fascinating aspect of St. John's Gospel: the double entendre. St. John's Gospel in its entirety and then in particular scenes and sections is using the language and imagery of one reality or level while it can be interpreted and should be completely on a second (a court trial vs. revelation of salvation; this world vs. the kingdom; light and darkness; sight and blindness; you will live vs. they are dead)

In the bread of life discourse we hear this type of speech and interpretation used by Jesus. Especially around the notion of hunger and feeding. In today's theme of the bread from heaven Jesus is using imagery and reality from the Hebrew Scriptures. As the Jews ate manna in the desert, bread come down from heaven, they died. His followers have pursued him not because of the sign that he worked but because they have had their fill of the bread-the loaves. That means that it is entirely possible to be eating the bread from heaven, who is Jesus, and to eat in the wrong way-Thus, to die

For what are we hungry when we come to table fellowship with Jesus? If in fact we understand the Eucharist to be miraculous bread from God only, we may be hungering and desiring it for an incomplete reason. Hungering for miraculous grace from God might be a very self centered religious activity. as usual, with us human beings, it is all about "me".

Following the themes of this series we would be encouraged to see, rather, that we the Body of Christ ourselves head and members gather and constitute the "whole Christ" coming to offer praise and sacrifice to the Father in the power of the Spirit. In that sacramental meal we find and receive communion with God's life and love and we are deepened in our communion with eternity..

In this case then the bread from heaven, is not something we hunger for in order to remedy our personal, worldly concerns. Rather, the bread from heaven is that graceful pathway to knowing ourselves in God AS the Body of Christ and remaining IN God as we journey in the world. We do not hunger for and consume the bread from heaven in order to have a successful, pain-free, problem free life in the world. Rather we come to celebrate and eat the bread from heaven so that we might know and cling to the hand of God which is extended to us in Jesus Christ now and unto eternity - a path to communion with God's saving love

So, for what are we hungering? Relief in our troubles, to fill our bellies with God's miraculous antidote? Or are we hungering for heaven itself and recognize such "communion" in the bread we eat who is Jesus Christ?

Do you come to church hungry at all? Have you ever come to church expecting and demanding to be fed for the wrong hungering?

Sharing a Meal

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at Sat 4:00, Sun 11am, and 6pm(during the picnic

Sharing, a Meal!

There really is supposed to be a comma in the title of this blog entry. By inserting the comma after "sharing" we can see that the notion of meal defines or conditions or interprets the act of sharing. We are invited and challenged as the disciples of Jesus to recognize that the importance of a meal is not so much the content or "what" is being shared, in this case bread, and much more that "sharing" itself is the mode of our salvation.

In these five Sunday sermons on Saint John's bread of life discourse we at St. Albert are reflecting on various aspects of the holy Eucharist. Last week we began with the "gathering or gathered assembly" and reflected upon the real presence of Jesus in the assembly and members of the Body of Christ. This weeks theme or subject is "table fellowship". As with the real presence of Jesus in the assembly/Body of Christ gathered, the context of the Eucharistic celebration as "table fellowship" is not our customary understanding or our first interpretation.

Most Catholics of a pre--Vatican II formation, are focused on the context of the Eucharistic liturgy as sacrifice: the sacrifice of the mass. Since the second Vatican Council, however, we have been encouraged to recognize the equally valid context of the celebration of the mass as a meal, table fellowship. The connection to Passover and the last supper, both of which are ritual meals, is the source of this expanded understanding. The fact that Jesus's sacrifice on the cross is communicated to the church as bread "blessed, broken and shared"(a meal) is a fuller understanding of what it means to live a self sacrificing life.

So, like the Jews in the Gospel text, Catholics today can be more focused on the bread that we eat-having our fill of the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and fail to recognize that it is the self sacrificing sharing of God's life that the Eucharist makes really present- its a meal. Another word for fellowship is participation, sharing, "agape" -the love of God.

Can we benefit from expanding our understanding of the mass to include table fellowship or the self sacrificing sharing that Jesus communicates to the church in the form of bread and wine? He is the lamb who was slain on the altar of the cross for our salvation and our sins forgiven by the outpouring of his blood. The sacrifice of the mass. However, Jesus chose to make that sacrifice perpetually present to and in the church, his body, by a meal shared in the company of his disciples the Body of Christ - the gathered assembly.

Are we at church, then, with the obligation to witness an unbloodied sacrifice and to receive the miraculous bread from heaven only? Or are we called to be the Church, the Body of Christ present and sharing the self-sacrificing meal of love which is God himself? It has to be both!

Present! Homily prep for July 29

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 12:30 only

The "bread of life discourse"

We begin a five week series of gospel texts from St. John called the "bread of life discourse". It is a multiplication miracle story with a theological explanation by Jesus in the form of a discussion if you will. The priests of St. Albert have decided to collectively approach these five weeks with an agreed-upon focus.

Underneath the five weeks of homilies is the liturgical and sacramental truth of the four presences of Jesus Christ in the Eucharistic liturgy. The gathered community, the priest-presider, the Word proclaimed, and the consecrated Eucharistic species are the four presences of Jesus Christ in the Eucharistic liturgy. This first week in the series will focus on the gathered assembly.

How do we gather? I am trusting that a majority of Catholics are convinced that they, sinful and unworthy, are required to come to a Catholic church in which a validly ordained priest will say the mass validly and they will fulfill their obligation and avoid sin by showing up. They will principally participate in that mass by being present for at least the Gospel, offertory, and consecration. If properly disposed, they will encounter the only real presence of Jesus within that event by receiving the consecrated Eucharist- take Communion.

How, rather, do we as the individually baptized members of the church constitute the very Body of Christ, head and members, in our assembling for the Eucharistic liturgy? Other than touch the water in the mini-fonts at the doors of the church, do we recognize and offer reverence to the body of Christ in and among the members of the assembled community? I didn't think so.

Reconstruction Architects!

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00, 8:00, 9:30 and 12:30

Demolition or Reconstruction?

I think i might like being a Reconstruction Architects. I don't think I have the creativity to be an architect (design something from scratch), but I do think I have an interest and knack for analyzing what exists and proposing a more workable renovation. I see the salvation won for us in Christ Jesus as not a "new creation" so much as a re-creation - a reconstruction job putting things right.

What is this effect of Christ's Salvation? I am considering Paul's Letter to the Ephesians. The "blood of Christ" and the work of Christ "in his flesh" have accomplished some big reconstruction. That "new person" or "one person" from the two was created out of the demolition of the dividing wall between us and God and us and our neighbor. Whoa!

This makes salvation fundamentally reconciliation, that is, the taking of something broken and dysfunctional and healing it by a reunion. Did you realize that you were far off? Do you experience salvation as a "being put back together"? To what extent is EVERY Eucharist a re-connecting with this reconstruction process?

Let me know

Intimacy With Jesus - Homily Prep July 1

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org >
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 11:00am and 6:00pm

Touching

Through the literary technique of "framing", the author of Mark's Gospel points out to us the importance of "contact with Jesus" to the life of faith. The touch of Jesus, "if only I could touch the hem of his garment". He takes the little girl by the hand - touching.

I am certain that this feature of physical contact with Jesus is the most important lack of faith in the world today. It is the crisis of the impetus of the call for the "new evangelization". What I mean is the lack of desire by the human family to touch Jesus and be touched by him.

The incarnate physical embodied presence of Christ in the church, as Christ instituted it, is the feature of religion most challenged in the world today. The scandals of the church and the over-intellectualization of faith since the Reformation have eroded humanity's ability to find and to seek contact with Jesus in and through the place/person of the church.

In fact, the biblical disciples in conversation with Jesus about the bread of life, found his embodiment to be scandalous, meaning that they "walked away". Likewise, the scandal of the cross is an expression that refers to the in ability of the disciples and of course the Jews to endure the physical embodiment of God in Jesus. They walked away wagging their heads claiming "and this one claimed to be the son of God".

Almost everyone in the world and, I believe, most Catholics do not believe that the church, the institutional, human, embodied, social, divine sacramental body of Christ in the world is a necessary feature of their salvation. Actually, the majority of the people in the world see the church as an obstacle, a pain, difficult, boring, annoying.

In that lies the source of a lack of faith. God is so unable to be effective in the world because of a lack of confidence in and contact with the body of Jesus-the church. Do you feel and experience this lack of intimacy with the body of Jesus-the church? Can our eyes be opened and our hearts opened so that Jesus might touch us again today in and through the imperfect Church? Can we as the limited and imperfect church, his body, re-present ourselves to the world convincingly that they might simply long "to touch the hem of our garments"? It is there that the world will be healed and brought to life!

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org >
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00, 9:30, and 12:30

I Am Not He

Remember the television show "what's my line"? A person would present themselves with some sketchy details and a panel of experts would ask questions to determine what it was that this person did. Who is this person? What is his or her "line" of work?

What we do and who we are, role and identity, are at the heart of our human journey and thus our Christian journey. Carl Jung is quoted to have said "a man spends the first 30 years of his life finding out who he is, and the next 30 years finding out who he really is." Our recent high school and college graduates, no doubt, have been confronted this summer repeatedly with the question "so, what are you going to do?" This is the fundamental question of our lives not only who are you but what are you going to do?.

John the Baptist, whose birthday we celebrate on this Sunday, is a man whose life is a solemn celebration of identity and mission: a call. John is icon of identity and mission in God! Knowing who we are and what we are called to do is important and essential to our salvation. Who is God? What is God's mission in the world? Who are we in relationship to the truth of who God is? What role we will play in God's work of salvation!? Those are the basic religious questions we must ask and be asked.

If we have misread the "clues" (read here scripture and tradition, self-knowledge and God-knowledge) then we will misunderstand who we are. If we misunderstand who we are we will not take our proper role in the mission of the kingdom. Look around. It is apparent that we as a people, a culture, a church and as individuals are very unclear about who God is, who we are in God, what God is doing in the world, and how we share in that reality. As the prophetic (read: John the Baptist) mission of the church (read: new evangelization) is less and less effective in reaching the human family so the chance for identity and mission in Christ is threatened. God is frustrated!

Who are you and what are you going to do? Who is God for you and who are you in God? What's your line?! What, in the world, are you going to do?

June 17 Prep

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org >
-I will be speaking at all the masses this weekend regarding the Rooted in Faith campaign.

Corpus Christi Prep - June 10

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm and 11:00am

Most sacred Body and Blood of Christ!

Many years ago I attended a house party. As I enter the house the hostess shouted "welcome" in glee. She was carrying a tray full of unidentified morsels. In her enthusiasm she picked up one of these morsels and approached me and said "father, open wide." I was not inclined to take this morsel of food. I said "what is it?" She said "trust me you'll like it."

I took it and as I sunk my teeth into it I realized I didn't like it and I asked "what is it?" She said "froi gras". Well I did not know what froi gras was at the time but I knew I didn't like it. I simply had to swallow.

On this feast of the body and blood of Christ I am afraid that too many of us Catholics are approaching the precious Eucharist with the same attitude. When we realize what it is - in its entirety- we do not like it but we swallow it whole. We move from our first holy Communion very anxious and welcoming to receive the body of Jesus. We welcome Jesus into our hearts.

However, as adults we are called to realize all that the Body of Christ proposes and contains and, quite frankly, we choke. Oh, we receive the sacred host, however we are full of reservations about all that it means for us. Many Catholics today have to swallow hard when it comes to the full embrace of the Body of Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ, that is present and signify in the holy Eucharist - His Body.

That is understandable. The difficulty in being people of faith is NOT believing in the miracle of the Eucharist and longing for the grace of salvation contained in the sacred species. The difficulty with being in communion is that we must live in love with the body of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. The body of Christ, the church, is a sacrament in and of itself however it is made up of people. As Charlie Brown is quoted to have said "I love humanity, it's people I can't stand." Too often the thorny, disagreeable, demanding, rule-making, mistake-making, sinful, Body of Christ, human-divine institution, is very distasteful to us. Many of us must swallow hard to remain in communion with the church.

We cannot claim to love the Eucharist and at the same time have reservations about the church. That's what makes it difficult. We are called to recognize in and through faith the presence of Jesus Christ in communion with the church as much and as readily as we recognize Jesus Christ present in the communion of the church we call the Eucharist.

This is the heartbreak of denominationalism in the body of Christ. People protest and leave the church - they do not leave Jesus, at least that's what they say. Quite frankly, it is easy to love Jesus it is almost impossible to be happy with his body, the church. However both are necessary for living a life full of salvation. How are you doing on swallowing the fullness of Communion along with the sacred body and blood of Jesus in the Eucharist?

Let me know.

Blessed Trinity Prep - June 3

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org >
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00am and Sunday night at 6pm (NEW!)

The drive-through at McDonald's!

One of my favorite commentaries says this:

"In 28:19, Jesus reveals the inner power of God in three names. The three are listed together (expressing the unity of God) and as equals (expressing the all-powerful nature of each). When believers are baptized in the name of the Trinity, they become intimate with all that God is: God above them (Father), God beside them (Son), and God within them (Holy Spirit). With God so close to the faithful, they become God's instruments."

Whoa! So while the celebration of the Blessed Trinity is all about God we can see that the Blessed Trinity is all about the church. The church is called in the second Vatican Council "the universal sacrament of salvation". So the church is a sacrament! There are eight sacraments then?! I was discussing this with the seventh grade last month. The drive through window at McDonald's became for me the best and most accessible image to discuss what I mean and the church means and what the Trinity is celebrating today. The drive through window at McDonald's is the hole in the wall through which we pass all that is good and valuable(i.e. our money and McDonald's food).

A sacrament is that hole in the wall of reality between this world and the next. If the church is sacrament then we need to apply and understand this definition to the life of the church that we share. The sacrament of the church is the encounter place with God and God's people. We then are members, friends, and instruments of this encounter place - this rendezvous..

So this grace filled communion of the faithful: head and members, announcing the gospel and celebrating the sacraments, is the pass-through or drive-through opening in the wall of reality by which and through which God, divinity, heaven and earth, humanity, you and me encounter one another.

The individual members of the church created in the image and likeness of God, joined in communion with Jesus Christ risen from the dead, and empowered and possessing the Holy Spirit of God (the Blessed Trinity Whom we celebrate today ) are the icons or windows through which God breaks into the world and through which the human family can reach into heaven.

That's a blessed and powerful challenge and mission for us and for each individually. Is that your experience of life in Christ?

Pentecost Prep - May 27

-There is no homily from last week
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 on Saturday and 12:30 on Sunday

Pentecost

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are the actualization or the "understanding" of what it means to "believe in the resurrection from the dead". This Easter has been filled with this question...how do we not only believe, but understand.
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To believe in the resurrection is to come to know the resurrected Christ in your heart, the possibility of eternal life, a new horizon and source of meaning in life. To understand what that belief means is to live and move and have our being in that resurrected spirit.

The journey from believing to understanding is conversion. Conversion is the movement and transformation of life lived in the body and in the world. The application of the truth.

This Pentecost Sunday challenges us again to understand "what it means to believe in the resurrection" by living in and making visible the resurrected life of Jesus Christ. That can only be done in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Do you understand? Do I? How's that resurrected daily life going?

Ascension Prep - May 20

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be presenting at all the mass this weekend

Rooted in Faith

I am making the public appeal for this campaign at all the masses. "by signs" were they known as his disciples. It's about the church!

Easter VI - May 13, 2012

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 and 8:00am

Remain, stay, live!

The captivating phrase in this Sunday's gospel text for me is in Latin "manete" which is translated in several different ways: remain or stay or live on. Remain is the preferred English word and it is the one used to translate our scriptures for mass. However I prefer live. "Live on in my love" is the motto of Bishop Pilla who served along time as the Bishop of our church. To Live on in my love is a rather lively translation of the word to remain. There is more than one way to remain.

The translation of the word remain that I do not favor is stay. Staying is a very passive, undynamic, and deadly expression. Think of the many different ways that you might remain or stay somewhere. The inmate must remain behind bars. The patient in the doctors office must remain in the waiting room. The celebrity who is about to go onto the television or to the stage must remain in the green room. The athlete about to come up to bat must remain on deck and the skier about to come down the slope must remain in the shoot.

Many different ways of remaining. If we are instructed to remain in Christ the resurrected One we must have several options. How are you and I remaining in him? Is our remaining a sense of being trapped or imprisoned? Is our remaining waiting with dread of bad news about ourselves? Is our remaining the energized and excited anticipation of the actor or the athlete? Is our remaining that of the incurably ill persons confined to their bed awaiting or remaining in watch for death? Where you are remaining dictates how you will experience life.

Our faith, our life in Christ, our remaining will depend upon what we understand Christ is and what He's doing. What we understand it is supposed to be. Remember, they believed but did not yet understand. Isn't it possible that many of us are remaining in Christ with very little understanding, therefore, very little life in Christ, life animated in Spirit, life lived in the resurrection from the dead? I think so!

What do you think question?

May 6 Homily Prep - Easter V

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org >
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4pm and 11am

Remain in me! Revolving Door

I am interested in the concept of not simply believing but understanding. This Easter season has been challenging for me to conceive of and express the complexity of Easter faith. While I do not like making things more complicated than they are, I believe simplistic preaching and teaching has led the household of God astray.

Specifically  "Jesus only" preaching that excludes life in Christ and Christ in life. If Jesus's promise to us is that he will remain in us and we are called to remain in him, this notion of Jesus' only purpose is to get me into heaven is really deceiving.

The fundamentalist scheme is two separate believers from the body of Christ, the church. They do this by telling us that what God did in Jesus was simply and historically come down from heaven, die a horrible death, and with his blood forgave my sins so that anyone who accepts this idea (believes) has a guaranteed ticket to heaven when they die. 

This "accepting the idea believing" is insufficient and not completely catholic.  It most specifically and tragically leaves the believer wondering "what would Jesus do?". 

The last time I consulted the Scriptures or the Holy Spirit I was reminded that God is all-powerful and almighty and had long ago, before Jesus died on the cross, created us, the human family, in communion with Him and in communion of heaven.  In fact, that creation in the image and likeness of God is the center of our story of salvation.

The incarnation of God in Jesus, his life, ministry, death, and resurrection did not simply accomplish a necessary task by God on behalf of the human race. What the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus did was to reveal our life in God and to re-establish the fullness of our humanity(read god-likeness) REAL life IN God.  So, Jesus liberates our broken hearts and broken understanding of human life and reveals the fullness of life IN him. Therefore, our human life is changed in its purpose, meaning, and power.

So baptism is not a ceremony in which we become members of the group of people who believe in the good idea that our sins have been forgiven and that heaven is assured for us. Baptism is the entrance and initiation into the spiritual and godly reality, realm, communion with Jesus Christ risen from the dead. This is the one who could not be kept out by the door being locked. This is a life force, a truth, a reality, and we must understand how our lives are lived in it. Remain in the heart of Christ dwelling among us - it is a new and resurrected life.

"Now this is how we shall know that we belong to the truth". We Catholics do not only BELIEVE in the truth, we belong in the truth of Jesus risen from the dead. It is a passage into deeper communion with the resurrected Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit through the life of the church, understood through the Scriptures and celebrated and made real in the sacraments.  

Wow, I think I understand

April 29 Homily Prep

-last Sunday's homily is available by email
-Sunday's scriptures are available at USCCB.org
-I am preaching at the 4:00 PM Saturday mass the 9:30 AM Sunday

Who are you? Where are you going?

Maybe this good Shepherd Sunday is the obvious opportunity to speak about vocation. Obviousl, the vocation of the priesthood is on the top of mind. However the role or function of vocation in the life of the church is not so obvious.

Last Sunday I offered the parent instruction class for those who are bringing a child to baptism for the first time. One of the three topics for discussion is the actual rite of baptism. I explained that the rite of baptism begins by asking "what name have you given this child?". Then we ask "are you parents ready to lead this child in faith?". The final question is to the sponsors, "are you ready to assist these parents in their role as Christian mother and father?".

We have just celebrated the sacrament of confirmation. At the time of confirmation their is the opportunity and the necessity to identify a name and a sponsor. Since the sacrament of confirmation, in the current theology, is understood as a completion of baptism and/or initiation, young people are invited to recall that they already have a baptismal name and a baptismal sponsor-at least one.

At the rite of ordination, after the gospel is proclaimed, the deacon goes to the ambo and announces the following "for the diocese of Cleveland". Then he says the name "Edward Thomas Estok Jr". The one to be ordained steps forward and says "present"!

What is your name? And where are you going? These two question: identity and leadership strike at the heart of vocation who are you and where are you going?

The good Shepherd, hopefully manifested powerfully in the ministry of the holy priesthood, is the time for us to reflect upon who God calls us to be and where and how God calls us to walk in the world.

As a religious person in 2012 "Who are you? And where are you going? How will you get there?"

April 22-Third Sunday of Easter prep

-Last week's Homily available by email
-Scriptures for this Sunday available at USCCB.org>>>
-I am preaching at the 8 AM and the 12:30 PM mass on Sunday

The devil is in the details!

Can you imagine a young couple falling in love with their perfect house, their dream home? They fall in love with it and they cannot imagine living in some other house-they have to have it! They go ahead to the bank, do the the loan application, and they get approved for their loan. The years begin to unfold month by month and the couple realizes what is actually involved in home ownership: a morgage payment, taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance, yardwork, repairs, remodeling, new furniture, baby's room,…

Sooner rather than later, they come to realize that the "idea" of living in their ideal home, the "notion" of their dream house, is a far cry and a distant journey from the actual "reality" of home ownership. If they are going to survive they have to do two things: hang on to the dream AND stick to the day-by-day implementation of their possession. It is in that two-pronged approach to home ownership where the devil lurks.

I am using this imagery of the dream of home ownership versus owning your own home as a metaphor for the difference between believing and understanding, according to the Scriptures. Jesus again is recorded to have opened their minds to understanding the Scriptures. This means or indicates that believing, "having faith", in the fact that "Jesus miraculously triumphed over death and grave and is risen from the dead" is not the full story of faith in our Christian religion. Believing that Jesus was raised from the dead is much different than understanding what God's Word and good news means in our lives, our real lives, our daily human complicated, difficult lives. In fact, the point and the purpose of the gift of faith is to transform our minds into understanding the mind of God and thus "conform" our living to the pattern of his cross.

The devil and the details that are troubling in this regard is that often times for many of us our religion, our faith, has been handed to us as simply a dream-like proposal, a miracle about a future reality, that is supposed to comfort and encourage us to be good - but it has no understanding built into it. To the well-educated contemporary mind this religion appears to be simply an irrational, emotional and disconnected fantasy far from the real world. The stuff that only children and grandmas can get excited about(oh, and there are the fanatics who are crazy about Jesus).

Do we have a faith that simply tells us that "with God everything will be alright in heaven on the last day"? Or do we have the gift of faith, the gift of resurrected life, that is an instrument of God for the opening of our mind to the truth that God intends for us to have and to know and to live in our daily lives? Don't we have faith so that we can figure out our human life in God?

Good question Lord!

Mercy Sunday Prep

-Last Easter Sunday's homily is available by email
-The scriptures for this Sunday are at usccb.org>
-I am preaching at the 5:30 and the 11:00 Masses

Re-creation of Reconciliation

This scene in John's Gospel is the first "communal celebration of the Sacrament of reconciliation". Jesus finds the apostles dead in guilt, fear, and sadness. He breaks into the bomb shelter of their "death in sin".

He extends to them the peace of God - "everything is 'good' between them and God" - shalom.

Then he does something (the word is the same as the creation story) that only God is known for doing: breathing into dead clay and creating a "new life". That is the effect of the healing mercy of God - new life, God-like life, where there was the emptiness and dead of sin. And then he "sends them" to do it again and again.

The identity, means or the mode, and mission of the Church is revealed as breathing the Spirit of Jesus into those who are isolated, separated, and dead in their sins, guilt, and sadness and re-creating them into instruments of mercy, life, and love - the Body of the Resurrected Jesus.

Wow.. Is that what you think you're doing in your Christian life? Or...not so much. Let's get it going.

The Triduum 2012

-The homily from passion Sunday/Palm Sunday is not available
-The readings for Easter Sunday are at USCCB.org >
-I will be preaching at holy Thursday evening mass at 7 PM and Easter Sunday mass at 9:30 AM downstairs and 11 AM mass upstairs

Holy Thursday

Are you up to celebrating Christian Passover? This question locates our reflections on Holy Thursday to what in fact Jesus was doing. It is clear that as a Jew, a rabbi, and a teacher that Jesus was celebrating the Jewish Passover meal with his disciples. However, it is also clear to the eyes of faith that he was transforming the experience of the Passover meal for his apostles. Jesus clearly was inviting his apostles and thus the church to experience a new Passover meal, a Passover meal with deeper significance: his saving death and resurrection. He was creating sacrament.

In considering sacrament, Eucharist, and the Last Supper,we must consider the Passover. Jesus had the attention of his Jewish brothers at the Passover meal. He knew that they were reflecting upon and celebrating in faith the liberation of God's people from slavery and death in Egypt by the "passing over" of the houses marked with the blood of the lamb. Thus, the function of the Passover ritual with unleavened bread and cup of blessing is the remembering the freedom from oppression and the new life with God (not the Re-dramatization of the Passover event) .

Jesus lays down on top of the passover in signs and words an anticipation of his saving death and resurrection which liberates the human family from the oppression of death and sin and ushers in the kingdom of God and eternal life in reconciliation with God. Onto the passover bread and cup he imposes and exposes the powerful presence of his own sacrificial life and love, his death and resurrection. He opens up and widens the window of the Passover bread and cup and turns them into access points for the church to be present to his saving grace. So the Eucharist is not simply the miracle of the Last Supper, it is not simply a dramatic and bloodless re-enactment of Calvary, but it is the sacramental sign and thus "access point" to the passing over from death without God to life with and in God through Jesus Christ. Paschal (of the lamb) Mystery!

Sacrament, then, becomes a passing over or passing through in which the believer is introduced into the life of God made accessible and the reality of God, Communion, is inserted into the life of the believer. That is liberating and saving grace. Communion!

Is that what we are doing here? I dont know. Are we simply re-enacting the Last Supper in order to get ahold of the Sacred and miaculous Body of Jesus Christ, the lamb who was slain? I think not. That would be to fall short of God's gift to all of us. What we are called to do in sacrament is to remember - to hear, touch, see, and taste the bread and wine of the new covenantv( now His Body and Blood) - Jesus' passing over from sin and death (which is the realm of this world) to life Eternal in the Kingdom of God - Salvation, Sacrament, grace, Communion.

And it is suppose to change us....every time! Woohoo. That's all I've got to say.

Easter Sunday

See Holy Thursday above. Not much else to say.

The Holiest of Weeks

I will be presiding at the 4:00 PM to 8:00 AM and 12:30 PM masses this weekend.

Enter in to the Mystery! Were you there?

Homily prep for March 25th

– the homily from last week is available by email
– The Scriptures for this Sunday are available at USCCB.org>>
– I am preaching at the 12:30 mass only

Hearing in action

I think hearing looks like something! Can you see what is being said?

I am captured by the second reading from the letter to the Hebrews. It is the word obedience or the concept of obedience that has captured my attention in this Lenten time. We are beginning the intensive period of penance and preparation known as the Passiontide.

The word obedience comes to us from the combination of two roots: "ob" "audiere" = to listen to. I am thinking that Jesus' obedience on the cross is "listening in the flesh". I am considering the call to "hear with my life."

It is fully possible to listen to someone and not truly hear what is being said. The concept of hearing is one that carries the response within it. Listening is possibly the intellectualizing of the words, of the concepts, understanding so to speak. But to hear what you're saying in plies that one responds appropriately according to the truth.

The theologians tell us that the cross of Jesus Christ was the end of human disobedience. We can see that Jesus' obedience was hearing the will of the Father, doing the truth in love.

I am wondering how obedient, how well I am hearing the truth of God in my life. Would I look differently if I were truly hearing what God is saying to me, calling me to in my life? Would I be more configured to the crucified Christ if I were perfect in hearing? Is there room for better hearing your life? How so?

March 18 Prep

I am preaching at 5:30, 11:00 and 5:00pm masses

This is Laetare Sunday. Joy. Do you believe that everything about your existence today is "gift of God"? What's not? Why not? How do you decide?

March 11 Prep

-Last week's homily is available by email
-This week's scriptures are available at USCCB.org
-I am preaching at the 4:00pm, 8:00 and 9:30 am Masses

Pixelation! A problem of imagining

All the buzz in the technology world is the rolling out of the New iPad. And the buzz on the New iPad is the retina screen - which I understand means a lot more pixels per inch(points of light and color) that go into the quality of the picture on the screen. Remember in the days we used to worry about dpi's: dots per inch on our matrix printers.

Pixels are electronic dots of color and light that make the images we see on our screens either duller or clearer. The secret of pixels is that the more pixels, points of light, that we put in a square inch of the screen, the richer the image is that we see. Pixels are really invisible, if you know what I mean....we don't see the individual pixels unless there's a problem. When pixels start breaking up, we call that pixelation.

Pixelation is that crazy, choppy, blocky, jerky, thing that happens on the screen that we're looking at. And we can no longer see the image but the difficult pieces that make it up.

The cross of Jesus Christ is the troubling and distracting piece of the self image that God is proposing to the world. For the Jews, they are looking for religious sign, and the Greeks they look for reasonable argument - the cross is stumbling stone and foolishness, weakness, and defeat.

So, the message of St. Paul and of lent for us may be that what we are looking for from God may have everything to do with what it is we find. What I mean is that many Christians look at life in the world, in the family, in the parish, in the marriage, and see only sadness, human conflict, boring ritual, oppressive teaching, emptiness and pain. They may be concluded that the Christian life therefore is not for them, it is not meaningful, it is not the answer or purpose of their lives.

What St. Paul might say to us is, "stop and ask what it is that we were looking for from the life of faith. What did we expect to find in the Christian life? Was that what God had promised?

The cross is the disturbing revelation of the manner by which God is going to save the world.....and we can't see it. Self-sacrificing love really blurs the vision of worldly-oriented eyes. If we are coming to religion so that we can win in the world - then we are going to be pretty disturb, confused, and disinterested in the religion of Jesus.

However, if we are converted to Jesus' religion, the golden rule, the downward mobility of holiness - then the crucified God comes into perfect focus.. We see and then we're saved.

Any Hope Out There?

-Last weeks homily available by email
-This weeks Scriptures available at USCCB.org >
-I am preaching at the 9:30 and 12:30 Masses on Sunday

Anything to be hopeful about?

In our parish lenten mission we were encouraged to understand our journey to God as being lived on four tracks...bodily gratification, ego-satisfaction, care for others, and communion with God. We have to get to God on all four tracks. And, of course, God has not left us alone to make this journey....he has planted his very self at the core of our being. So, we begin with the end in mind.

This presence of God is understood as grace and it is grown in us through virtue. We need the grace and we must build the virtues because the journey to God or holiness is tough. Jesus explained this to his disciples....about the cross and all - and he knew they were "feeling it". What does "feeling" the harshness of the human journey to God mean? Hopelessness!

So, he is transfigured before them. What? He is revealed to them as 1. God and 2. With them! Emmanuel! Well now that's precisely what they needed: to be reminded that in the challenge of human life - the Lord is with us as love, light and life. That's hope. Hope is a principal feature of fortitude. Fortitude is one of the cardinal virtues and is best understood as courage. Foritude is associated with level two and three happiness (ego-satisfaction and caring for others above). So, when we are feeling discouraged, failed, unloved or appreciated, weary in the long struggle of loving others - we need fortitude and it's friend HOPE.

So, regardless of how hopeless things appear, be strong, have faith, see things as they truly are, God is with us, Emmanuel....hope.

Does that make any difference to your difficulty at the moment?

Can You Be Happy With God?

-Last week's homily is available by email
-The Scriptures for this Sunday are at USCCB.org >>
-I will be introducing the Lenten Mission at all Masses this weekend (pray for me)

Drive(driv) vt, 1. to force to go; urge onward; push forward

Mr. Webster's first definition of the word "drive" is at the beginning, the heart, and the base of the Christian life.  I have come to this conclusion from this portion of Mark's Gospel, Chapter 1, in which we are told that following the baptismal experience of the Spirit.... "The Spirit drove Jesus into the desert.".  Think about that.  Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, is subject to the Spirit.  The Spirit moves him and he is subject to the Spirit.  Is that same Spirit the driving force of our lives, our church, our family, our parish?

What drives you?  ....to be driven. To go, urge, push...drive

The text then reveals that this same Jesus, who is Lord and Master of the Christian life, encountered other and contrary forces that attempt to "drive" him.  In this immediate case, Satan.  Jesus, of course, remains close to the angels of God and he demonstrates to his disciples that we can and must choose which powers, motivations, desires, compunctions, temptations we will submit ourselves to.

What drives you?  ....to be driven. To go, urge, push...drive

 That's, "Good News"!  Kind of.  What I mean is that Jesus (and we his disciples) are beloved children of God with whom God is apparently well-pleased...happy with us and we with God.  God's desire for us is our happiness....walking under his wings, "ever near to His side" (seasonal responsorial psalm).  This is NOT so Good News inasmuch as we are free and we are tempted to submit to "other" powers as our driving force.  Since Adam and Eve - the temptation has been there, Jesus showed us the "path to life" (seasonal responsorial psalm). 

What drives you?  ....to be driven. To go, urge, push...drive

Our lifelong call is to continuously submit to the Spirit as the driving force in our lives, that we may "walk ever joyful"  (seasonal responsorial psalm) clinging to the hand of God.  Happiness is God's desire for us - too often we choose to follow those forces that bring us nothing but ultimate unhappiness.  

What drives you?  

Our Parish Lenten Mission 2012 begins this Sunday evening at 7:00pm and we will spend three evenings reflecting upon this call to happiness with the Lord and how the Spirit might more and more be the driving force of our lives.  Mr. Jim Berlucchi will preach and teach, we will have wonderful prayer, and even enjoy the growing spirit of friendship among us through some social time.  

I urge you, prompt you, tempt you, dare you, to allow the Spirit to drive you to our Lenten Mission this year.  What are you driven to do the next three nights?  Come and be free!

Hi

Believe what's revealed!

Masses at 4:00, 8:00 and 5:00.

Sunday IV - January 29 Prep

-Last week's homily is available by email
-Scriptures for this Sunday at usccb.org >
-I am preaching at the 4:00pm and the 9:30am

"Without Distraction"

Two week's ago, the Lord Jesus himself turned around and asked those following, "what are you looking for?" Great question and not such a great answer for all of us. What I mean is that the issue or question of our motivation, our desire, what it is that we are seeking is a nagging one at best.

In the eighth grade this week we were talking about sacramental marriage and one young person cried out, "you can't help who you fall in love with". There may be some truth to that claim but we can certainly be sure about "what we are looking for". I begged them not to knowingly choose in a spouse what they were NOT looking for...holiness, heaven, communion.

St. Paul takes this conversation one step further and says that not only should we know what we're looking for "in" a spouse he warns that it may be hard to "share our hearts desire". He warns his listeners to choose carefully what they want in this world based upon how it will affect their "adherence to the Lord without distraction".

So, like last week, I guess there is more than one way to do everything...even be married. If adherence to the Lord is the goal and standard of our lives, then any other thing we voluntarily choose (yes, falling in love is voluntary) ought to be ordered to the first desire of our hearts...to cling to the Lord without distraction.

This isn't a rule Paul says, it's just smart. It just makes life ordered toward our highest goals. Think back about the most important decisions we have made in life. Did we even think to consider how they would affect our "adherence to the Lord"? Not so much.

I do now...how about you.

Jan 22 - Third Sunday Prep

-Last week's homily available by email
-This Sunday's readings available at USCCB.org
-I am preaching at the 11:00 and 12:30 Masses

More than one way to skin a cat!

St. Paul's repeated admonition to do something "as if....." tells me that it is obviously possible (if not expected) to do what we are doing from a new and different perspective. Those who are doing whatever it is, do it "as if" you were not doing it. The crux of the Christian life may very well lie in this "as if" possibility.

What I mean is that as human beings living in the real world we might not be able to completely change our reality - what it is we're doing. However, the power of Christ enables us do to it "as if" we are in Christ, because we are.

Jesus' call of the apostles in St. Mark makes this explicit but we may have missed it as just a catchy trip of a phrase. You fishermen will become fishers of men. There it is...you will be doing the same thing but for a different purpose, different intention, different meaning as if you were Jesus. Because you are.

This is important in our spiritual life, no? Those of you who are dying....do it as if you were not dying. Those of you that are grieving, do it as if you are not grieving. Those of you who are winning at this world's game of life, act as if you are not winning. Humility, joy, freedom, peace, these are all possible ways of doing the stuff of life that others do in resentment, fear, and sadness.

There's more than one way to skin a cat. Right?

Second Sunday of the year Prep. 1/15/12

-Homily from 1/8 by email
-Scriptures 1/15 at USCCB .org
-I am preaching at 5:30, 8:0 & 11:00

Destination Theology

"What are you looking for?" It really does determine what you see, what you find and where you end up. Test that aphorism against each aspect of your life. Let me know if it is true for you.

Epiphany Prep 1/8/12

-MMOG homily available by email
-Scriptures for Epiphany at USCCB.org>
-I will preside at 4:00pm and 9:30am Mass

Gotcha!

The fact of faith that the Epiphany presents is that the glory of God (read salvation) is not primarily something that we have to seek and find as much as it is someone who comes and finds you. Jesus Christ is not God who sits in heaven and waits for us...He is good shepherd who comes and seeks us in exile and lights us up turning our exile into home.

Do you see yourself in a place of exile and realize that God has come to make it a redeemed "home" for you? Gotcha!

Mother of God Prep 2012

-Christmas Homily didn't get recorded.
-scriptures for MMOG January 1 are at USCCB.org
-I am preaching at 9:30 and 12:30 Mass on Sunday

Salve Regina

This advent I started wondering about personhood and asking if we see the "personhood" of self and each individual. Personhood is the soul, the God-likeness of each one. Failing to see one as a person, like God, is to be blind to the truth and then we can think, feel, speak, and act crazy.

Failure to see personhood makes us inhuman....we wander off or we are dragged off by this blindness into exile. Jesus' birth is the healing of that blindness. Our humanity is the dwelling place of God. Even that humanity that it rough, wild, wilderness.

This feast of MMOG expresses at least twice in the readings that it is all about "looking, seeing, knowing". God looks upon us, His gracious face shines upon us, the virgin looks at her child, the shepherds look and see him, she shows him to them (and the world) and they see and rejoice.

Christmas is the loving gaze of God upon the human race that reveals the godliness of human life.

The Hail, Holy Queen Prayer summarizes these thoughts perfectly. Say this prayer slowly and think about it.

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy,
our life, our sweetness and our hope.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve;
to thee do we send up our sighs,
mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious advocate,
thine eyes of mercy toward us;
and after this our exile,
show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

How brilliant is our Catholic faith?!?!

Christmas 2011

-last weeks homily is available by email
-scriptures for Christmas masses available at USCCB.org
-I am preaching at 4:00 (up), 10pm and 9:30am Masses

He "tented" among us

I am using the Gospel of John at all the Masses I'm preaching. I am planning to raise the question as to whether or not we have shown up where God has come to dwell -at home in our most human living. God has come to inhabit our lives no matter where we choose to live them. The tent was a shelter that the people of God used in the desert as the wandered. God came and found them in the worst of circumstances. He not only found them but he joined them "in a tent". God is not afraid to get down and inhabit our human lives. Wherever we might be.

But we don't believe God will do it for us. Let's face it, so much of life in the world is lived on a base, material, empty level. Preachers like me can even be heard to say that we walk away from God in choosing such lives. However, God's message to us is that he has come as savior, redeemer, one born into our empty lives...and he comes to find us there, where we've walked away. He is mercy incarnate: Hesed in Hebrew.

Do you think that most people are feeling distant from God because of the complications of their lives? Do you think they would be challenged to see with faith that God has come "there" to get them? God would stoop to my level? ....oh yes He does. God behind enemy lines, stealing captives in exiles and carrying them back home!

Advent 4 Prep -12/18/2011

-Last week's homily is available by email request
-This week's Scriptures are at USCCB.org>
-I am preaching at the 5:30 and 8:00am Masses

A House: our humanity

The entire first reading centers upon the notion of house. It begins with the consideration of the physical shelter of house as in tent or temple and it moves to the consideration of "dynasty" ...house of David. This is an interesting connection to the Christmas mystery we are preparing to celebrate.

John's gospel uses the term "pitched his tent among us" which we translate as "dwelt". Mary is often considered the tabernacle or arc of the covenant, the container or house of Jesus' incarnation. While Jesus is known to us in the Eucharist as "bread of life" he is said to have been born in Bethlehem, which means literally "house of bread". And of course he was "laid in a manger (feeding trough) because there was no room for them at the inn." Jesus in John's Gospel promises that the Holy Spirit will make a dwelling place for the Father and the Son "with you".

Mary conceives of Jesus in her womb as a member of the household of David and she does so as a member of the household of God, the human creatures made in God's likeness.. She stands at that moment with her "fiat" as the gatekeeper on the household of humanity, God's house...human life!

God does not simply "enter the world" for a temporary journey through the pure womb of the Virgin Mary, God re-unites Divinity with humanity once again my and establishes my humanity as His household, a dwelling place secure. Or is it?

I am thinking that, from the beginning we have wandered away from that humanity and from God. We're not very good at sticking close to home(cfr: Adam and Eve). In our "material self-fullment" misunderstanding of what it means to be human, we are far from home. That's where God is -Emmanuel.

How human are you? How human is your family life? How human is your work life? How human is your experience of healthcare, for example? The economy? The church? How inhuman? How ungodly!

To find Jesus this Christmas...maybe we need to get back home....living our human lives. That's where HE is, Emmanuel!

Advent 3 Prep 12/11/11

-Last week's homily is available by email
-The Scriptures for this week are available at USCCB.org
-I am preaching at 4:00, 9:30am at St. Albert and 12:15 at the cathedral

You have to be Free to have Joy

Our hearts must be free in order to rejoice.  The biblical witness of the prophet Isaiah is that of returning exiles. The effect of the prophecy is liberation. One cannot truly rejoice when he or she is captive. This is true of our Christian hearts and spirituality as well. Joy requires freedom from selfish pursuits.

We must be liberated from self in order to cling to God and God's will.  There is no true happiness outside of God's will.  In our world and culture this is strange proposal indeed. Those who rejoice in the Lord are exiles in the foreign land of our self-satisfying cultures.

To what is your heart enslaved that is stifling your joy? Does your joy make you feel like you are a prisoner in a foreign land? Wadayathink?

Advent 2 Prep - 12/4/11

-Last weeks homily is available by e-mail
-The Scriptures for this Sunday are available at USCCB.org
-I am preaching at the 9:30 AM and the 12:30 PM mass


Here is your God!

I am most inspired by the line in the first reading from today that tells us that "here is your God". I am a realized eschatologist. What that means is that I am convinced of the real, ALREADY presence of God in our lives; the kingdom of God. Already, but not yet.

I was discussing the word Advent with the eighth-graders this past week it is best defined as "arriving or appearing". Because we see advent as a preparation season, we have a tendency to interpret those words as future tense. What our scriptures and church tell us is that this appearance of Jesus, Emmanuel, is in history, mystery, and in majesty (past, present, and future).

So, are we distracted by the Lord's future coming or past appearing from seeing his mysterious appearance now? It takes faith.

What do you say?

. 

Advent I Prep - November 27

-The homily of last week is available by email
-The Scriptures are available at USCCB.org>
-I am preaching at 5:30 and 8:00 Mass

The Good as Enemy of the Perfect

I know that the saying is usually stated "the perfect should not become the enemy of the good". However, I sense that the scriptures and the new church year in advent are inviting us to see it the opposite way. Yes, indeed it seems that even for us religious people that rather than the the good leading us into communion with the perfect love of God, the good stuff from God can cause us to wander away from Him. .

The first reading wonders "why do you permit us to wander from your ways, O God?". Well, the freedom to wander away is precisely the godlikeness of our human nature. God made us like Himself and that means we are completely free....like Him. Free to love. God's hope was that we would use that freedom to love Him as He loves us. But, noooooooo. We go and fall for every good but lesser thing that falls in our path. Even the religious stuff can be chosen by us and loved in a way that does NOT lead us to God but leads us away...hardened hearts..

The parable of the final judgment reinforces the point that even the good stuff that the master gives us to be "busy about" can draw us into hard heartedness. So...do you see it? Marriage, ministry, children, material possessions, studies, creative work, athletics, beauty, joy in life.....all of it can - if handled poorly - can draw us away from the Kingdom of God and into the dead center of self. That would put us to sleep...not awake.

Christ the King Prep - November 20th

-Last week's Homily available by email
-This week's scriptures available at USCCB.org
-I'm preaching at 4:00pm and 11:00am Masses

How did we end up so far from here?

Exile is the condition of one's heart in relationship to God...who is here. I'd like to suggest that we have been dragged off into exile. We refuse to live "here" where God has come to find us. We are carried off by our sad strategies for happiness, our childish ploys for success and approval. We end up living life far away from where God is.

The church is the embassy/presence of the Kingdom of Christ. Can we recognize our homeland present in the ambassador's compound? Can we scurry to get on the turf where we are safely home...even though we may be far away from home?

Wow, my metaphor is getting too complex. To what extent are you regularly "away from home"? What choice of your life has "carried you off"? How can you get back to "here"?

November 13 Homily Prep

-The homily from 11/6 is available by email
-The Scriptures for 11/13 are available at USCCB.org >
-I am preaching at the 9:30am and 12:30pm Masses on Sunday

Living the Light?!

The Word this week and the feast of St. Albert (that we celebrate this weekend) invite me to consider all the "increase" that we at St. Albert have produced with God's gift of salvation - Light. The story of the talents and the warnings of the coming "day of the Lord" go together to challenge me.

The "talent" or "resource" that the Master has entrusted to me is "salvation" in the Kingdom. The story plays out with a couple of challenging questions.
1. Have I multiplied the gift that I have received?
2. Is there more of God's Kingdom present because of what I have done with God's gift?
3. If not, isn't it possible that I never really received it?
4. Am I not worse off than before the original offer?

My conclusion (which I would like you to test in your life), is that many of us are believers in the Kingdom "in general"., in our hearts, in a way that is "personal". We believe we have received the knowledge and love of God - in general. But we are not "productive" of the Kingdom in particular, in the world, in the concrete lives that we live (in prayer, morality, loving, marriage, ministry) where the Lord wants to see the growth.

The gift was not given for our personal satisfaction, it was given for God's glory. But we are not productive.

Isn't it fair then to see and to say that I have not truly received the gift that I like to claim I have? Maybe we really DON'T believe in God as we claim on surveys. Isn't it possible to religiously claim to be a "child of the light" while at the same time refuse to surrender certain aspects of my life to the Kingdom and thus dwell in darkness?

If it is a fact that I am not being productive for the Kingdom in concrete and real, observable ways then maybe I have not really recieved the gift of salvation/kingdom at all. "take away from Him the little he has"! Ouch.

Being saved is way more than a satisfying feeling in your heart, right? As long as one has life and breath it's never too late to start being productive. It's about on-going, never-ending conversion, right?

Nov. 6 Homily Prep

-Last week's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures are at USCCB.org>
-I am preaching at 5:30 and 8:00am Masses

Wait for the Lord!

We often speak at this time of the liturgical year about our waiting for the Lord. I am thinking that the Scripture texts this week invite us to not only wait but to check the quality of the waiting. What I mean is that I think many Catholics are legitimately "waiting" for the Lord, but not desiring His life. Many have made an act of faith and sincerely believe in Jesus' resurrection and they are waiting for the Lord's return. But they are not desiring His Kingdom, his Life. What's the difference?

I believe the relationship that we have with God is deeply affected by what we desire and it is revealed by the quality of our waiting. If one believes in the love, mercy, and compassion of the Lord....one's waiting for Him will have a certain characteristic. In contrast, if one believes in the judgment and retribution of the Lord....that's a different demeanor in waiting. If one truly longs for and desires communion with God, one waits differently, believes differently, lives differently!

How are you waiting for the Lord? There are different types of waiting:
We can be waiting for a report from the medical test? That is dread, not desire.  
We can be waiting for a surgery to be completed.  That is anxiety, not desire.  
We can be waiting for the dentist to stop drilling on our tooth. That is endurance, not desire.
We can be waiting for the line to move at the grocery store.  That is impatience, not desire.
We can be wishing that our son or daughter would call or visit.  That is loneliness, not desire
We can be keeping vigil at the hospice waiting for our loved one to die.  That is agony not desire.

What is the quality of our faith? Does it have something to do with what we are waiting for? Do we truly desire the one we claim to be waiting for?

Dread
Anxiety
Endurance
Impatience
Agony
Loneliness

You?

October 30, 2011 - 31st Sunday of the Year

-Homily's available by email at frete@saint-allbert.org
-scriptures for this Sunday at USCCB.org >
-I will be preaching at 4:00 Mass and 11:00 Mass.

Religious blindness to personhood is the worst

I am thinking that religious blindness (read: pharisaicalism) is the most damaging of all such blindnesses that plague our culture with disrespect. We usually are blinded to the Personhood and thus dignity of others because of their disturbing disguise. Others take things on themselves that we find offensive, disturbing and that distract or blind us to their dignity as persons. This has been my theme throughout Respect Life month.

The Pharisees however come up with a dangerous twist to this operation. They discover or design a difficult profile of religiosity that they can abide by. They are "able" religiously. They then impose this standard or profile or costume or disguise upon others. These others don't wear the disguise very well and then the pharisee disregards or disrespects the other because they are not living up to HIS standard. It's frightening and fierce. And it works very well.

I say it works well because it makes the broken, frail and imperfect Pharisee feel good about him/herself. The costume of perfect religious observance hides, consoles, and blinds the "unloved and unlovable Pharisee" even from her/himself. Self-hatred, the beginning of all disrespect for persons and life, is the devil's gift to the human family created in the Divine Image. Self-hatred is the blindness underlying all others that drives us to all manner of hateful thinking, speaking, acting, and choosing.

I propose that this pharisee's blindness to persons is worse than all the others because It is a misuse of God's gift of religion. It is using the most powerful force for Good in the world and twisting it into evil. This pharisaical blindness is a favorite weapon of the enemies of God. When the enemies of God see pharisaicalism they use it not only to hate but to get religion and God out of our social and political life. It is a very effective and powerful weapon in the culture wars between Good and evil of every age. Notice, for example, that whenever an insane or criminal person appears on the scene who has religious motives or associations, true religion becomes the "evil" that must be irradiated from society. Clever devil!

Being religiously motivated people ourselves, we have to beware of the temptation of the pharisee - fascination with our version of religious righteousness that allows us to judge others and blinds us to their value as dignified human persons. That is amazingly easy to do when you are living "right". It is, however, always wrong.

Is this temptation real in your life? Let me know if I'm just being pharisaical! :)

Sunday, October 23 - homily Prep

-Last week's homily is available by email: frete@saint-Albert.org
-This Sunday's scriptures are available at USCCB.org >
-I am presiding at 12:30 Mass on Sunday

Jesus On Loving Neighborliness

In our multi-cultural world we are often pushed to the "one God" political correctness. We try to make all the religions of the world to be fundamentally about the same thing..."there's only one God, afterall". As Christians we can be challenged to wonder "what was or is the impact of Jesus?"

Today's gospel is an experience of this wondering and an answer to it. Jesus gives us the greatest commandment for religious followers and he seems to be just quoting the Hebrew Scriptures....love God(Deut 6) and your neighbor as yourself(Lev 19). So, nothing new with Jesus?! Right? ,Wrong.

Rule #1: Jesus is not a prophet teaching about God's commands to love, he IS the God who commands AND loves. In fact Jesus re-defines and models what it means to "love" - give self away unto death. That is news and it is new.

Rule #2: Hidden in Jesus' use of the word "neighbor" is another revolutionary bit of news: your neighbor is "everyone" near you (not just your kinsman or fellow Israelite of Leviticus law that he cites). It gets bigger and better becuase as we come to discover, our neighbor (one who is near you) in distress is not cursed, to be feared, or ignored but IS Jesus Himself (Mt 25.... "the least of these are ME"). Now, with this piece of startling news, re-read Rule #1.

Jesus is not your grandmother's Rabbi. He is not only teacher but TEACHING, not just revealing but REVELATION! This is NEW, in fact it is NEWS, in fact it is GOOD NEWS and that's why we call it the life changing Gospel. Does Jesus make enough difference in your religious life?

Homily Prep for October 16th

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email request at frete@saint-albert.org
-this Sunday's scriptures are at USCCB.org>
-I am preaching at Saturday 5:30, 8:00 and 11:00am Sunday

Status

Jesus Christ knows how to treat other people...like persons. Jesus sees every person not according to their status but as they are: as persons in the image of the divine person, His Abba. Even we believing Christians have a hard time seeing people for what they are: persons.

This is respect life month. We can expel a fetus from the womb (read: kill) because we don't see it as a person - but an unwanted pregnancy. We can ask our kids to suffocate us when we get "Alzheimer's" because we don't see Alzheimer's victims as persons - but as a burden. We can tell our spouses that we want to be cremated or don't want any funeral services because we don't want people standing around looking at us when we're dead because we see ourselves not as beloved person, but disgusting dead bodies.

We have a problem in how we treat people - even ourselves because unlike Jesus we forget or try to ignore that we are persons in the image of God. We need to stop that if we can hope to stop abortion.

Do you show any symptoms of this trend to not see personhood in those around you? In you?

October 9 Homily Prep

-The homily from October 2 is available by email request
-The readings from October 9 are at USCCB.org >
-I am preaching at the 4:00pm at SAG and the 11:30 at St John Bosco

"It's Do-able"

St. Paul to the Philippians says "I can do all things in Christ...". I am reminded of the first anniversary of my father's death. My mom and sister and I went to St. Rita (where he was buried) and I had the Mass being offered for him. After Mass we went to the cemetery and stood at the grave, praying. I said, "well, Ma, how are you feeling?" She responded in the way only my mother could.."well, a lot better than I was a year ago."

Her admission that she was healing was a sign to me that while undesireable, widowhood and orphan-hood is do-able. Life still has meaning even when you think your purpose for living is taken away. This life in Christ is do-able. In fact, that experience of losing my dad at a "young" age was the first real suffering I had to endure, my first test of faith. On that first anniversary day, I realized with my mom, that with faith - it's do-able.

Too many of us live in the fear of life's difficulties and challenges believing that we couldn't "do it". How many things do you believe you could not survive? St. Paul encourages us to give up those small-souled thoughts and fears. Be strong, believe that in Christ we can "do it" - whatever it is. As long as we are in Christ, we are choosing with Christ, we are living and loving in Christ - then we can do"all things in him who strengthens me."

So, whose afraid of the big bad wolf? Not me. I might not be happy about it, I might prefer a hundred other things, I might even whine, kick, scream and cry over it - but I can "do it" if I remain in Him.

How about you?

anx·i·ety \aŋ-ˈzī-ə-tē\ - is it fear?

anx·i·ety \aŋ-ˈzī-ə-tē\
noun
1 a : painful or apprehensive uneasiness of mind usually over an impending or anticipated ill
b : fearful concern or interest
c : a cause of anxiety
2 : an abnormal and overwhelming sense of apprehension and fear often marked by physiological signs (as sweating, tension, and increased pulse), by doubt concerning the reality and nature of the threat, and by self-doubt about one's capacity to cope with it

Trouble Posting

A couple of people had a hard time posting a comment last week. Others did not. Anybody notice what the problem might be? Let me know. BTW, I have removed the word verification feature for leaving a comment so maybe that will help. Matador!

The 27th Sunday of the Year - October 2

-Last week's homily is available by request at .. frete@saint-albert.org
-The Scriptures for this Sunday are at USCCB.org >
-I am preaching at the 9:30 and 11:00am Masses

Are you INTO Jesus?

In the 80's maybe there was an expression among the really hip people that went something like this..."I am really into....blank."  Whatever the blank is was the thing that someone was really enthusiastic about, really interested in, or really preoccupied with.  What are you INTO?

Girls really used to be "INTO" their boyfriend.  Guys were really "INTO" drag racing.  Young professionals were INTO herb tea, vegetarianism, or jogging.  Being "INTO" something denotes more than simple interest or a casual hobby.  So, while the word "into" would be a preposition indicating location or action - the use of "into" in this way was meant to indicate "devotion or dedication" of a more serious kind.

St. Paul calls us to get "INTO" Christ Jesus.  Not in a casual or human interest way, but "INTO" Him.  His call indicates an intensity and a participation IN Christ Jesus to the extent that it is not accidental but substantial commitment, involvement, purpose.

Anxiety, or fear, is the enemy of "INTO".  For people of faith, fear is the killer of relationship with God.  I know that our first answer ew might give to the question "what kills your relationship with God?" is sin.  And that is true.  But fear is the innocent opposition to God.

Do you see fear/anxiety/worry as separating you from the love of God?  Tell me about that.

September 25 Homily Prep

-Last week's homily didn't make it into recording
-This week's scriptures are at USCCB.org

-I am preaching at the 4:00pm on Saturday and the 11am on Sunday

 

September 18th Homily Lost

The techno-challenged Matador didn't push the right button. Next time

September 18th Homily Preview

-last week's homily available below on video
-the Sunday scriptures are at USCCB.org>
-I am preaching at 5:30pm and 9:30am Masses

Click "here" for Sept 11th Homily Video

September 11th Homily Preparation

-Last Sunday's Sept 4th homily is on Video below

-Sunday's Scriptures are at usccb.org>

-I am preaching at the Sunday 11am and 12:30pm Masses

Hey! New YouTube Video Homily of September 4th!

September 4th Homily Preparation Video

-The homily video from August 28th (kind of ) is below
-The scriptures are at usccb.org >
-I am presiding at the 5:30pm Saturday and the 8:00am Sunday Masses

Homily from Sunday, August 28th (kind of)

This is a work in progress.  Bear with me.