Third Thursday Theology

For those who are interested in the theology/spirituality adult education process at St. Albert parish - the September edition of TT-n-T is in the library. It was another robust experience of the faith.

September 12th Homily

This Sunday's September 12th Homily is in the library ->

September 12, 2010 - 24th Sunday of the Year

• the homily from September 5th is in the library ->
• the scriptures for this coming Sunday are at usccb.org ->
• I will be presiding at the 8am and 9:30am Mass on Sunday Sept. 12th

Not What We're Used To....

The parables of Jesus in this week's gospel reveal to us the "mind" of God. And it's not what we're used to. In fact, the mind of God is a mind of Grace and our mind (corporately and personally) is so much the mind of the law - the law of the land!

The shepherd and the sheep, the woman and the coin, and the father and his sons are examples of "irrational" behavior based upon the "law of the land". God's way of grace and mercy, compassion and healing, doesn't make sense to the mind of man. Our minds are rooted in what's fair, what's the entitlement, what's my "just desserts". God's mind is "crazy" and irrational in love.

The gospel has to portray God as "over the top" in pursuit of his beloved. In the marriage preparation questionnaire we give identifies a "rose-colored glasses" effect in the engaged couples. No kidding...they are almost all guilty idealistic distortion. They're in love.

God's love and desire for us is this crazy, this irrational, this other-worldly, this "unlike" us. We really would like to create God in our own image, make God the "just and angry God" who is out to get vengence. Not so, says Jesus. He is so different than we are...He is Holy.

Does this impact your religious thinking?

September 5th Homily

The Homily for September 5th is in the library -->

September 5 - 23rd of the Year

-The August 29 Homily is in the library>>>

-The scriptures for this Sunday are at USCCB.org>>>

-I am presiding Sat 9/4 at 5:30pm and on Sunday 9/5 at 12:30pm

If only....then I'd be happy!

The scriptures this week really challenge us with harsh words about the call and the path to happiness. If you are serious about being happy - then get real about holiness.

Most of us have been programmed by life in the world and broken by original sin to believe that possessing is the only way to happiness. Even possessing yourself, your relationships, your ministry - all commodities intended to make you happy. Wrong. The painful truth for us today is that loving (do not read being loved) is the only source of true happiness.

Being free to love in the present moment/ reality is the only path to happiness. We also call it holiness. This is what it means to love,says Jesus, to lay down your life for the sake of love.

Wadayathink about your plan for happiness?

August 29th Homily

This Sunday's homily is in the Library>>>

August 29, 2010 - 22nd Sunday of the Year

• The Homily from Sunday August 22 is in the Library>>>
• This Sunday's readings are available at usccb.org>>>
• I am presiding at 4pm Mass on August 28th and 9:30 Masson August 29th

Let's Get to the Bottom of This!

What I am hearing in the scriptures for this weekend is an invitation to humility. As a virtue humility can sound like a contradication. What I mean is that the word "virtue" comes from the root word "strength" or "power" and of course the common interpretation of humility is pretty much "weakness" or "timidity"

Actually humility as a virtue is closely connect to honest truth. The truly honest peron knows himself with his gifts and his limitations. The work "humus" or dirt is related to humility and the connection is that we are aware of the "clay" or the simple essence of ourselves. The humble man is strong in his clarity of what he is and who God is.

The old one-liner..."there is one God, and you're not Him" should be a beginning spot for all of our reflections. We human beings get caught in the trap of comparing ourselves to one another instead of seeing ourselves in the light of God. It isn't long until we are "my dog is bigger than your dog" type of childish competition and self-aggrandizement.

Truly knowing yourself and loving yourself as God loves you is the beginning of all true human intercourse. In the face of our brothers and sisters we can forget who we aren't and start acting like someone we shouldn't and couldn't be.

This hitting anyone where it hurts?

August 22 Homily

This Sunday's homily is in the Library>>>>

August 22 - 21st Sunday of the Year

• The readings for Sunday are found at usccb.org>>
• I am presiding and preaching at 9:30am and 11:00am Masses on August 22

Nice figure you cut!

I have mentioned before the silhouette cutter at Higbees in the old days. Friends in my old childhood neighborhood had five kids. Going up the stairs in the house they had the kids' silhouettes hanging - just a black shape of each child's profile. Although all grown up now, you can still identify each person's silhouette.

What is the silouhette that would be "cut" of our lives, what is the figure we cut in the world? Is it conformed to that of Christ, the narrow gate? That is the answer Jesus gives to the question "Who will be saved?" The Lord doesn't bother - he simply says, "forget about how many and strive to conform your life to salvation's key - Jesus Christ, the narrow gate"

I am wondering if we ever think that the answer to whether or not we are saved is really a question - what figure is your life conformed to? Being saved looks like something, or better someone.

Feast of the Assumption -August 15

The homily from August 15th is in the library>>>

August 15, 2010 - Assumption of Mary

First Fruits of the Harvest of Salvation

• The Homily from Augut 8th is in the Library>>>
• The Sunday Scriptures for this week are at usccb.org
• I am presiding and preaching at the 11:00am Mass on August 15th

As Mary Goes....

The feast of the Assumption of Mary is always a time for us to reflect upon our Christian destiny. Mary is not only mother of Jesus, she is our mother and our Pre-decessor in the faith. We are invited to imitate Mary's faith - especially her "fiat" of surrender to the will of God. We are also encouraged to hope in her Assumption because "As Mary goes so shall the Christian Church."

I am thinking of the good things that our parents try to get us to do as little children (eat our vegetables, say our prayers, sled ride down a steep hill). They will often say, "watch me, I'll do it first and then you won't be afraid." They indoctrinate us into certainly ways of living by being a pattern and precursor for us. "Do not only what I say, but as I do."

Mary might be seen, from this perspective, as a trail blazer - one who is not only making a way with Christ to heaven, but creating a path that all of us might travel toward salvation. This feast is historically associated with the "first harvest" of the year, the great gathering of the fruits of the fields. As Mary is gathered to heaven so we can die to self and rise with Christ to the fullness of life here and unto eternity.

Does this connect with your faith?

Sunday August 8th Homily

This Sunday's homily is in the library>>>

August 8, 2010 - 19th Sunday of the Year

• Homily from August 1st is in the library>>>
• Sunday Scriptures are at usccb.org>>>
• Preaching this Sunday August 8th at 8:00 and 9:30am

Make an act of faith! Believing is Seeing!

Abraham stands out as the role model for believing. He could see Isaac in a new way now... "as a symbol". If faith can be said to be a new way of seeing, then the danger held out for us in the scriptures this weekend is to "mis-read" the value of life.

X-rays are probably the best image of this call to see or "mis-read" the reality of things. A doctor "reads" an x-ray and we hope he sees what's really there. The gift of x-ray or CAT scans is that they can pierce the shell of our flesh and really read the situation. They can reveal what is truly the value within. Without such tools we are often left with limited "insight" into what is really real.

What Jesus reminds his listeners is that there are two ways to read the reality and the mystery of life - by faith or by the world. When we mis-read the realities of our lives we can sadly "mis-feel" and mis-behave. When we fail to see where the true treasure in life is we can invest our hearts in the wrong stuff. When we mis-read the purpose of life we can begin to act as if it is "ours" for "our" benefit for "our" satisfaction. So we cling, and fight, and abuse life, self and others.

Faith is the gift of insight - to see inside - to the real meaning of life, the real purpose of things. By faith we are set free to know and celebrate the Truth of our existence. When we see by faith we can be free of the compulsive emotions of fear, anger and sadness. Faith can set us free to be loving in the presence of Love.

Can you see?

St. Albert Parish Family Meeting!

Our Parish Planning session is available in the library>>>

August 1st Homily

August 1st Homily is in the library>>>

August 1, 2010 - 18th Sunday of the Year

Last week's homily is in the library>>>

This Sunday's readings are available at usccb.org >>>

I am presiding on Saturday July 31st at 4:00pm, and on Sunday August 1st at 11:00am and 12:30pm

Let's be real.

The very strong message of the scriptures this weekend has to do with "being real" as people like to say these days. What I am intending by using that phrase is "let's get down to the reality of things." As I have said before "it takes real eyes to realize where the real lies." (I stole that, actually)

What is real is that "this life is short and it is humanly and materially to a great extent, emptiness and pain." Wow! That's pretty real. Most human beings, however, don't want to believe that. Most want to believe that life is meant to provide us with pleasure, power, success, wealth, and self-fulfillment. But that's NOT real.

We are invited to hear the gospel and to turn away from the "unreal" pursuits of this world's values and to cling to the Truth, which is Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead....the things of heaven. In this "turn" we will find the fullness of life, the freedom to love, and the joy of living.

The Franciscan Richard Rohr has done a bunch of work with primative people's and their initiation rituals. He claims that these rituals are meant to communicate five messages to the initiate (usually a young man). He also claims that these five truths of initiation are at the crux of the Christian message as well. Here they are

-Life is difficult (Christian message - suffering/the cross is part of life)
-You are going to die (and eternal life is the goal)
-You are not important ( God is the center of the universe)
-You are not in control (You must die to self and live God's plan)
-Your life is not about you (Your life is about your salvation)

How happy are you about this real message. Maybe you prefer a little "unreality". Don't we all.

Four Laws of Prayer Homily - July 25th

This Sunday's homily is in the library>>>

Oops...mass time change.

Made a mistake on the mass time for Sunday 7/25. I am having 9:30am only today.

July 25, 2010 - 17th Sunday of the Year

• Last week's homily is in the library>>>

• This week's Sunday readings are available at usccb.org>>>

• I will be presiding and preaching at the 5:30 Mass on 7/24 and the 12:30 Mass on 7/25

I'm thinking.....

This week's readings are all about prayer or better...praying. One theologian has listened to the Lord's Prayer and to the wider scriptures and suggested what I think are four great "laws" about prayer.

The four laws are :

1. Faith - you must have a relationship with God in faith before you can pray

2. Forgiveness - you cannot enter into communion with God (a good definition of prayer) Who is Love if you are not loving and reconciled with others

3. Persistence - part of prayerfulness is the ability to practice it without "it" being satisfied. Praying is part of the answer to prayers

4. In the Name of Jesus - It is through Jesus that we make every prayer. In the Name of Jesus guarantees that our prayer is rightly ordered.

My preaching will begin with the last "law" first. I am thinking that the role of "asking in the name of Jesus" might hold the answer to our most troubling questions about praying. What is your most troubling question about praying?

Let me know.

Martha and Mary - Get in the picture!

Just thought you'd like to know that the Martha and Mary homily is in the library now.

Peace to all!