-Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30pm on Saturday, 8am, 12:30pm and 6pm on Sunday
Church, priesthood, Eucharist = real presence!
Unique among the Christian churches, the Catholic and Orthodox belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist is the consoling Truth that Jesus is with us always, until the end of the ages. Really WITH us. Not just spiritually, personally, mysteriously, symbolically, but REALLY. We have fought some long hard battles over this belief. It has been challenged over the millenia so much so that the Real Presence of Jesus int he consecrated "species" of the Eucharist has become the "tip of the spear" for Catholic apologists and, in some cases, to the exclusion of the other REAL presences of Christ in the life of the faithful.
Do you know where Christ is really present in addition to the consecrated Bread and Wine?
Saturday, June 6, 2015
Saturday, May 30, 2015
May 31 Homily Prep - Trinity Sunday
-Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4;00pm on Saturday, 12:30pm on Sunday
The DNA of Believers
DNA is the substance of our bodily development and the pattern of the full flowering. Any disturbance or defect in the embryonic DNA is observable in the bodily manifestation of the full grown adult. Conversely, the genome project has helped us to see that all the DNA are discoverable in the basic genes of the adult human body.
And also with our spiritual lives of faith lived in the Body of Christ, the Church = Communion!
Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr has written
"The Christian belief in the Trinity makes it clear that God is an event of communion. God is not a noun nearly as much as a verb. We’ve always thought of God as an autonomous Supreme Being, rather than as Being itself, as an energy that moves within itself (“Father”), beyond itself (“Christ”), and drawing us into itself (“Holy Spirit”). When Christianity begins to take this pivotal and central doctrine of the Trinity with practical seriousness, it will be renewed on every level.
All of creation is a perfect giving and a perfect receiving between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, with no withholding and no rejecting. St. Bonaventure called God “A Fountain Fullness.” Once we begin with outpouring love as the foundational pattern of reality, and love as the very shape of God, then everything somehow has to fall into that same family resemblance. If this is the Creator, then somehow this must be the DNA of all of the creatures."
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4;00pm on Saturday, 12:30pm on Sunday
The DNA of Believers
DNA is the substance of our bodily development and the pattern of the full flowering. Any disturbance or defect in the embryonic DNA is observable in the bodily manifestation of the full grown adult. Conversely, the genome project has helped us to see that all the DNA are discoverable in the basic genes of the adult human body.
And also with our spiritual lives of faith lived in the Body of Christ, the Church = Communion!
Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr has written
"The Christian belief in the Trinity makes it clear that God is an event of communion. God is not a noun nearly as much as a verb. We’ve always thought of God as an autonomous Supreme Being, rather than as Being itself, as an energy that moves within itself (“Father”), beyond itself (“Christ”), and drawing us into itself (“Holy Spirit”). When Christianity begins to take this pivotal and central doctrine of the Trinity with practical seriousness, it will be renewed on every level.
All of creation is a perfect giving and a perfect receiving between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, with no withholding and no rejecting. St. Bonaventure called God “A Fountain Fullness.” Once we begin with outpouring love as the foundational pattern of reality, and love as the very shape of God, then everything somehow has to fall into that same family resemblance. If this is the Creator, then somehow this must be the DNA of all of the creatures."
Friday, May 22, 2015
Pentecost Homily Prep - May 24
-Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30pm on Saturday, 9:30am and 6:00pm on Sunday
Mission Impossible vs. Commissioned in persona Christi
This is the last homily in this Easter series on believing/unbelieving. I have identified the lingering symptoms of unbelieving that remain part of our lives as those claiming to believe: fear of death/clinging to material life, isolated individualism, autonomous control freaks, judging competitive monkey mind, clinging to the past and the unreal, and today, secret agents of a distant God. Each of these symptoms of unbelieving or slavery to sin and death has a complementary or opposite symptom of believing in communion with God and others: in the world not of it, member and child, mutual submisission in love, friends in the Lord, making room for the true, the new, the real and today, called together as God by God!
You remember the Sunday night program in the sixties: Mission Impossible. A central character begins the show each week receiving a tape recorded proposal from someone in charge. The voice on the tape is anonymous, the listener is challenged to accept this top secret mission and the tape self-destructs after it concludes so that there is no way to connect the agent to the one who has engaged him.
That is an image for me of the way most "believers" approach life in the world. We show up to church on Sunday, we hear a challenging call from a rather "distant" God, yo go out into our daily life to succeed by our own resources, representing no one, not indicating that anyone has called us, sent us, or is behind the craziness of life.
Pentecost proclaims a radically different notion of believers engaged by God, on a mission of truth and love, under the banner of Jesus Christ and formed as a member of a team formed by the Spirit. COMMISSIONED - ambassadors of the COMMUNION which is the Love who is God.
Does this resonate with your believing?
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30pm on Saturday, 9:30am and 6:00pm on Sunday
Mission Impossible vs. Commissioned in persona Christi
This is the last homily in this Easter series on believing/unbelieving. I have identified the lingering symptoms of unbelieving that remain part of our lives as those claiming to believe: fear of death/clinging to material life, isolated individualism, autonomous control freaks, judging competitive monkey mind, clinging to the past and the unreal, and today, secret agents of a distant God. Each of these symptoms of unbelieving or slavery to sin and death has a complementary or opposite symptom of believing in communion with God and others: in the world not of it, member and child, mutual submisission in love, friends in the Lord, making room for the true, the new, the real and today, called together as God by God!
You remember the Sunday night program in the sixties: Mission Impossible. A central character begins the show each week receiving a tape recorded proposal from someone in charge. The voice on the tape is anonymous, the listener is challenged to accept this top secret mission and the tape self-destructs after it concludes so that there is no way to connect the agent to the one who has engaged him.
That is an image for me of the way most "believers" approach life in the world. We show up to church on Sunday, we hear a challenging call from a rather "distant" God, yo go out into our daily life to succeed by our own resources, representing no one, not indicating that anyone has called us, sent us, or is behind the craziness of life.
Pentecost proclaims a radically different notion of believers engaged by God, on a mission of truth and love, under the banner of Jesus Christ and formed as a member of a team formed by the Spirit. COMMISSIONED - ambassadors of the COMMUNION which is the Love who is God.
Does this resonate with your believing?
Friday, May 15, 2015
Ascension Sunday May 17th
-Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm on Saturday and 8:00am on Sunday
"Always" and "Never"
These two words are the signs of slavery to death and sin. Freedom and life in the resurrection of Christ are "here" and "now".
What do you think of that?
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm on Saturday and 8:00am on Sunday
"Always" and "Never"
These two words are the signs of slavery to death and sin. Freedom and life in the resurrection of Christ are "here" and "now".
What do you think of that?
Friday, May 8, 2015
Easter 6 - May 10 homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 12:30 mass only
"I'm special"
This positive message resulting from the self-esteem efforts of the last 20 years is a first symptom that we are still living under the powers and principalities of the slavery of death and sin. When we notice the difference between ourselves and others, that they or he or she is not like me or I am not like other people, we can be sure that we have are suffering from the hangover from our slavery to death and sin. My separate-self, monkey mind, that is constantly comparing myself to others, resenting their success and grieving over my failure is a sure sign that we are suffering from a hangover from our slavery to death and sin....that's a sign that we have been unbelieving.
I'm tempted to this sin of judgment, condemnation, competition, separate-self slavery mind.
Jesus by his triumph over death and sin, has re-created us not as competitive separate-selves but friends. Friends are the ones for whom we lay down our lives.
At-one-ment!
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 12:30 mass only
"I'm special"
This positive message resulting from the self-esteem efforts of the last 20 years is a first symptom that we are still living under the powers and principalities of the slavery of death and sin. When we notice the difference between ourselves and others, that they or he or she is not like me or I am not like other people, we can be sure that we have are suffering from the hangover from our slavery to death and sin. My separate-self, monkey mind, that is constantly comparing myself to others, resenting their success and grieving over my failure is a sure sign that we are suffering from a hangover from our slavery to death and sin....that's a sign that we have been unbelieving.
I'm tempted to this sin of judgment, condemnation, competition, separate-self slavery mind.
Jesus by his triumph over death and sin, has re-created us not as competitive separate-selves but friends. Friends are the ones for whom we lay down our lives.
At-one-ment!
Saturday, May 2, 2015
Easter 5 - Homily Prep May 3
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email request
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00 PM on Saturday and 9:30 AM, 12:30 PM and 6pm on Sunday
Resurrection Check up: symptoms of death and symptoms of life?
This is a series on the spiritual signs of freedom and life versus the worldly signs of slavery to death/sin. I began with fear of dying, then individualism, autonomy and today it is minimalistic and entitlement members.
I am wondering if we have really believed in our incorporation into the Body of Christ, the Church? Too many of us are interested in the perks of membership (what's the minimum I must do to get the desired benefit?) Is my incorporation in faith putting me into a dynamic relationship with God and Church/others? That is the "perk" that resurrected life offers us.
So, are there any signs in your life of the blessing of incorporation/relationship to others? Or are there signs of the stingy approach to life which is seeking the least investment to obtain the desire benefit? That is a symptom of death. Minimalists concerned only about self-centered entitlements.
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00 PM on Saturday and 9:30 AM, 12:30 PM and 6pm on Sunday
Resurrection Check up: symptoms of death and symptoms of life?
This is a series on the spiritual signs of freedom and life versus the worldly signs of slavery to death/sin. I began with fear of dying, then individualism, autonomy and today it is minimalistic and entitlement members.
I am wondering if we have really believed in our incorporation into the Body of Christ, the Church? Too many of us are interested in the perks of membership (what's the minimum I must do to get the desired benefit?) Is my incorporation in faith putting me into a dynamic relationship with God and Church/others? That is the "perk" that resurrected life offers us.
So, are there any signs in your life of the blessing of incorporation/relationship to others? Or are there signs of the stingy approach to life which is seeking the least investment to obtain the desire benefit? That is a symptom of death. Minimalists concerned only about self-centered entitlements.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
Easter 4, homily Prep April 26
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email request
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 PM on Saturday and 9:30 AM and 12:30 PM on Sunday
Resurrection Check up: symptoms of death and symptoms of life?
This is a series on the spiritual signs of freedom and life versus the worldly signs of slavery to death/sin. I began with fear of dying, then individualism, and today autonomy. I am wondering where in our lives do we submit to others' will? Where and to whom are we obedient out of love?
As the children of God, we are called fundamentally to submit our will to the will of God. For most of us mere mortals this is a daunting task. Submission to the will of God is a symptom of freedom and life. Like Jesus we must freely submit out of love, not obey out of fear of punishment.
In our worldly existence we long for independence and autonomy: symptoms of death/sin. Commitment phobia is probably a subset of this symptom. The sacrament of matrimony is the most often chosen path of submission - for those who are married in Christ. So much of the trend to cohabitation is a symptom of autonomy in relation to others = symptom of death.
The church and our call to holiness insist that we practice submitting to the will of God by our practice of obedience to others for the sake of love. To whom do you submit? To whom are you obedient?
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 PM on Saturday and 9:30 AM and 12:30 PM on Sunday
Resurrection Check up: symptoms of death and symptoms of life?
This is a series on the spiritual signs of freedom and life versus the worldly signs of slavery to death/sin. I began with fear of dying, then individualism, and today autonomy. I am wondering where in our lives do we submit to others' will? Where and to whom are we obedient out of love?
As the children of God, we are called fundamentally to submit our will to the will of God. For most of us mere mortals this is a daunting task. Submission to the will of God is a symptom of freedom and life. Like Jesus we must freely submit out of love, not obey out of fear of punishment.
In our worldly existence we long for independence and autonomy: symptoms of death/sin. Commitment phobia is probably a subset of this symptom. The sacrament of matrimony is the most often chosen path of submission - for those who are married in Christ. So much of the trend to cohabitation is a symptom of autonomy in relation to others = symptom of death.
The church and our call to holiness insist that we practice submitting to the will of God by our practice of obedience to others for the sake of love. To whom do you submit? To whom are you obedient?
Saturday, April 18, 2015
Easter III - homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email request
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30pm Sat, 9:30am and 6:00pm Sunday
If Death is conquered, then why am I stuck in death's Valley?
The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the victory OVER death. Death has been conquered however not extinguished. We are now free from death's powers, however, death's powers and principalities in this world are still available for the asking. So, self-centeredness, envy, jealousy, hatred, lust, resentment, grudges, prejudice, violence. Even the children of the light can pick up any of these weapons of death when they doubt the power of life
The Resurrection is the triumph over death and the initiation of real life. Life is available for the asking with its powers of love, joy, peace, patience, etc.
This week I am considering lack of trust, competitiveness, and the drive for material success as the most common symptom of death we see in and among the children of light.
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30pm Sat, 9:30am and 6:00pm Sunday
If Death is conquered, then why am I stuck in death's Valley?
The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the victory OVER death. Death has been conquered however not extinguished. We are now free from death's powers, however, death's powers and principalities in this world are still available for the asking. So, self-centeredness, envy, jealousy, hatred, lust, resentment, grudges, prejudice, violence. Even the children of the light can pick up any of these weapons of death when they doubt the power of life
The Resurrection is the triumph over death and the initiation of real life. Life is available for the asking with its powers of love, joy, peace, patience, etc.
This week I am considering lack of trust, competitiveness, and the drive for material success as the most common symptom of death we see in and among the children of light.
Saturday, April 11, 2015
April 12 homily Prep - Mercy Sunday
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at Www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30, 8:00 and 11:00
Not a Miracle, but a Conquest!
Jesus' resurrection is more than a miracle, it is more than an apparition to his disciples, it is the powerful conquest over the powers of sin and death. Death no longer has power over those who believe.
I don't think we have been believing in the resurrection.....even though we say,
"I Believe in the Holy Spirit who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophetsg. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the deadI believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. and the life of the world to come. Amen."
I am beginning a season-long reflection upon the powers of death that reign in the world ans eh life and liberation that is now unleashed in Christ risen in triumph over death. You believe in the witness about Jesus' resurrections? Really? Maybe we don't recognize death and its powers. Likewise, the power and freedom off life in Christi might eluding us us as well.
Under which "power" are you engaged?
-check out this weeks LinC letter www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30, 8:00 and 11:00
Not a Miracle, but a Conquest!
Jesus' resurrection is more than a miracle, it is more than an apparition to his disciples, it is the powerful conquest over the powers of sin and death. Death no longer has power over those who believe.
I don't think we have been believing in the resurrection.....even though we say,
"I Believe in the Holy Spirit who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophetsg. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the deadI believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. and the life of the world to come. Amen."
I am beginning a season-long reflection upon the powers of death that reign in the world ans eh life and liberation that is now unleashed in Christ risen in triumph over death. You believe in the witness about Jesus' resurrections? Really? Maybe we don't recognize death and its powers. Likewise, the power and freedom off life in Christi might eluding us us as well.
Under which "power" are you engaged?
Saturday, April 4, 2015
April 5 Easter Sunday Prep
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-I will be celebrating Easter mass this weekend at 9:30am in the Hall and 12:30 in the Church
Triumph over death
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is not only a miracle revealing Jesus as the son of God but it has changed the powers and principalities reigning in our world. Death and the powers and principalities of death reign in the world. In Jesus Christ risen from the dead we have triumphed over death, Death has no more power over us, and we now can live in his life which is freedom.
Have you been released from the powers of death?
-I will be celebrating Easter mass this weekend at 9:30am in the Hall and 12:30 in the Church
Triumph over death
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is not only a miracle revealing Jesus as the son of God but it has changed the powers and principalities reigning in our world. Death and the powers and principalities of death reign in the world. In Jesus Christ risen from the dead we have triumphed over death, Death has no more power over us, and we now can live in his life which is freedom.
Have you been released from the powers of death?
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Mar 29th - Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at Sunday Readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at LinC Letter
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 and 11:00am
Don't stand there waving your palms, follow him
Some might be of the mindset that we are, in this holy week, reenacting the historical events in the life of Jesus. That would be real failure in the call to "fall, conscious, and active participation". We are not enacting history we are opening Mystery.
-check out this weeks LinC letter at LinC Letter
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 and 11:00am
Don't stand there waving your palms, follow him
Some might be of the mindset that we are, in this holy week, reenacting the historical events in the life of Jesus. That would be real failure in the call to "fall, conscious, and active participation". We are not enacting history we are opening Mystery.
Do not stand along the side of the road and wave your palm branches at Jesus as he goes by in the person of the church. Rather get up from your timid, individualized, isolated state in life and mind and follow the church by faith into the Mystery of the saving love of God.
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Lent V Homily Prep March 22
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email request
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishlincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm and 9:30am
If you're not changing you're dying!
That title could be turned around by today's Gospel, "if you're not dying, you're not converting". The preaching this weekend is going to be focused upon an adage that I read that said "before you die you better die so that when you die you won't die".
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishlincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm and 9:30am
If you're not changing you're dying!
That title could be turned around by today's Gospel, "if you're not dying, you're not converting". The preaching this weekend is going to be focused upon an adage that I read that said "before you die you better die so that when you die you won't die".
If the grain of wheat remains just a grain of wheat and does not die it does not fulfill its purpose, it's mission, or goal. The same can you say about the disciple of Jesus. By giving oneself away in love we accomplish the dying of Jesus that we see in baptism. The death and resuscitation of Lazarus is A great image for all of us to do this "preliminary" dying or necessary dying while we are still living so that we might come to the fullness of life in Christ in spite of death.
This "dying" is what is at the heart of the Paschal mystery, the Easter mystery, the font of baptism, the holy Eucharist, and discipleship in general. We must acknowledge the existence of the false self and the need for its ongoing and continuous death, in this way we will make room for our new life in Christ begun in baptism fulfilled in confirmation, deepened in the Holy Eucharist, and experienced/expressed most perfectly in self-sacrificing love of discipleship. We call it communion.
So are you dying? Or are you living a defensive, strategic,'s false self protective death?
Let me know how this figures into your call to discipleship
Saturday, March 14, 2015
Lent IV, March 15 Homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00am and 6:00pm
Is it a sin? Well, is it a "work done in God"?
This lent we have been hearing the call to be "Reconciled as +ONE". This call has raised the topics of sin and forgiveness. Our Lenten mission part II this Thursday night will pick up the notion of "forgiving:a key to a life in communion".
I am often asked, "Father, is this a sin?" It is a strange but pretty regular question. I think the Gospel this Sunday gives the best answer as to whether or not something ought to be confessed. If we bring an action of ours into the light of honesty we can pretty clearly see whether it is a "work done in God" or whether it is a work of the dark that remains in the dark.
Maybe this litmus test for our Christian lives would be helpful as we respond to the call to be reconciled as ONE.
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00am and 6:00pm
Is it a sin? Well, is it a "work done in God"?
This lent we have been hearing the call to be "Reconciled as +ONE". This call has raised the topics of sin and forgiveness. Our Lenten mission part II this Thursday night will pick up the notion of "forgiving:a key to a life in communion".
I am often asked, "Father, is this a sin?" It is a strange but pretty regular question. I think the Gospel this Sunday gives the best answer as to whether or not something ought to be confessed. If we bring an action of ours into the light of honesty we can pretty clearly see whether it is a "work done in God" or whether it is a work of the dark that remains in the dark.
Maybe this litmus test for our Christian lives would be helpful as we respond to the call to be reconciled as ONE.
Saturday, March 7, 2015
March 8 Homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 and 11:00am
Why are you so angry all the time?
That phrase is the reframe to a country music song but it might be the best question we could ask this Lent. Some of us are "angry all the time".all of us are angry sometimes. Our Lenten mission speaker Bro Loughlan Sofield, at last week's mission part I discussed with us what makes us angry and the role that anger plays in destroying our communion.
The question might be first asked what made Jesus angry? Do you and I know what to do with our anger so that it becomes part of the remedy of our broken communion rather than the source of it?
Let's see...
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 and 11:00am
Why are you so angry all the time?
That phrase is the reframe to a country music song but it might be the best question we could ask this Lent. Some of us are "angry all the time".all of us are angry sometimes. Our Lenten mission speaker Bro Loughlan Sofield, at last week's mission part I discussed with us what makes us angry and the role that anger plays in destroying our communion.
The question might be first asked what made Jesus angry? Do you and I know what to do with our anger so that it becomes part of the remedy of our broken communion rather than the source of it?
Let's see...
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Second Sun of Lent Mar 1st
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at Www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30, 9:30 and 12:30. We have a guest speaker at all masses
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at Www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30, 9:30 and 12:30. We have a guest speaker at all masses
Friday, February 20, 2015
Homily Prep February 22
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at Sunday readings www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter Www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 Sat, 8am, 12:15(at cathedral) &6:00pm
My only message this Lenten time: definitely put down something in your life to which you have too tight of a hold. But, my goodness, don't fail to pick up something that the Lord has in store for you.
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at Sunday readings www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter Www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 Sat, 8am, 12:15(at cathedral) &6:00pm
My only message this Lenten time: definitely put down something in your life to which you have too tight of a hold. But, my goodness, don't fail to pick up something that the Lord has in store for you.
Friday, February 13, 2015
February 15 Homily Prep: Don't Tell Anybody, but We Need Healed!
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email request
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter www.parishlincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm on Saturday and 12:30pm on Sunday
Don't Tell Anybody, but We Need Healed!
The title of this homily is obviously an attempt at a play on words regarding the gospel text. Jesus in Mark's gospel has this dueling banjos messaging: He is the very announcement of the presence and power of God in the world AND he doesn't want to be represented to the world through misunderstood expressions. If you and I go around telling everybody NOT what Jesus did for us but who we think he might be - that would cause a problem. That's why Jesus in Mark is always telling people (and demons) to be quiet about him. Jesus prefers to speak for himself.
I would say that this is the reason that every Christian needs to learn about Jesus from personal direct encounter. We have to meet Jesus where and as Jesus presents himself. That fact is at the root of the sacramental church - "don't trust my description of God's mercy - meet and drink deeply of the merciful Lord yourself."
That's why those of us who are his disciples need to resist the often condescending and guilt-inducing preaching that attempts to get "people to go to church". So many of us so often are trying to tell others (especially younger people) why they need to go to church. That reason is because we have judged them to be lost or broken and church would go a long way toward "straightening them out"! Yuk. I hear Jesus saying to all of us presumptuous preachers, "don't tell anyone about me, just go and show yourselves to be healed" and that will be enough proof for them.
So, the charge of those of us who have been healed by Jesus is to live a life of health and gratitude to God and all the people in the world who are lost and sick will follow us to church.
Jesus and the Leper break every law on the books in this story today. One who was uncleam came to one who was clean and the unclean was made clean and the clean was declared to be unclean, worthy to be hung on a tree. Wow. So the laws of Jesus' reign are not about "isolation" and "quarantine" but contact and communion - that's eternal life.
Have you been willing to break the laws of broken humanity and to expose yourself to the Lord's power even if it means that you will die to this world's system, condemned in the court of popular opinion?
The Leper need to first accept that he was in need. He then had to break a few rules and beg for mercy (real men don't beg). Jesus had to break a few rules (he had and showed compassion, he touched him) in order to fix the system. He had to be the victim of the system in order to transform it. To lay down your life.
Do we have such courage? Have we even had such an idea? Not me - I'm a rule-keeper. I'm in the system. Look at pope Francis....he doesn't not allow the system and the rules to silence his call for compassion, mercy, contact with Jesus.
Don't tell anybody, but we need healed.
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter www.parishlincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm on Saturday and 12:30pm on Sunday
Don't Tell Anybody, but We Need Healed!
The title of this homily is obviously an attempt at a play on words regarding the gospel text. Jesus in Mark's gospel has this dueling banjos messaging: He is the very announcement of the presence and power of God in the world AND he doesn't want to be represented to the world through misunderstood expressions. If you and I go around telling everybody NOT what Jesus did for us but who we think he might be - that would cause a problem. That's why Jesus in Mark is always telling people (and demons) to be quiet about him. Jesus prefers to speak for himself.
I would say that this is the reason that every Christian needs to learn about Jesus from personal direct encounter. We have to meet Jesus where and as Jesus presents himself. That fact is at the root of the sacramental church - "don't trust my description of God's mercy - meet and drink deeply of the merciful Lord yourself."
That's why those of us who are his disciples need to resist the often condescending and guilt-inducing preaching that attempts to get "people to go to church". So many of us so often are trying to tell others (especially younger people) why they need to go to church. That reason is because we have judged them to be lost or broken and church would go a long way toward "straightening them out"! Yuk. I hear Jesus saying to all of us presumptuous preachers, "don't tell anyone about me, just go and show yourselves to be healed" and that will be enough proof for them.
So, the charge of those of us who have been healed by Jesus is to live a life of health and gratitude to God and all the people in the world who are lost and sick will follow us to church.
Jesus and the Leper break every law on the books in this story today. One who was uncleam came to one who was clean and the unclean was made clean and the clean was declared to be unclean, worthy to be hung on a tree. Wow. So the laws of Jesus' reign are not about "isolation" and "quarantine" but contact and communion - that's eternal life.
Have you been willing to break the laws of broken humanity and to expose yourself to the Lord's power even if it means that you will die to this world's system, condemned in the court of popular opinion?
The Leper need to first accept that he was in need. He then had to break a few rules and beg for mercy (real men don't beg). Jesus had to break a few rules (he had and showed compassion, he touched him) in order to fix the system. He had to be the victim of the system in order to transform it. To lay down your life.
Do we have such courage? Have we even had such an idea? Not me - I'm a rule-keeper. I'm in the system. Look at pope Francis....he doesn't not allow the system and the rules to silence his call for compassion, mercy, contact with Jesus.
Don't tell anybody, but we need healed.
Friday, February 6, 2015
February 8 Homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-Check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishlincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 Sat, 9:30 and 11:00 on Sunday
Healed or Cured?
A scholars has expressed a distinction regarding Jesus' miracles and mission in Mark's Gospel that he describes as "curing" and "healing". Basically, what Jesus does in the synagogue last week and in Peter's house this week is miraculous cures. Physical, psychological, spiritual cures are astounding people and revealing Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God (story 1). The symptom of these cures is pretty obvious - the removal of that thing that is afflicting the body from full function in the world.
But Jesus reveals that his mission and purpose is not to cure but to heal (the root word of which is "salus" from which we get the words "salve" and of course "salvation").
This healing that Jesus has come to accomplish is that of liberating humanity from the self-imposed prison of alienation, self-centeredness, autonomy, isolation, antagonism, from and with God and neighbor. Jesus has come to heal us by restoring our relationships, humanity with God and brothers and sisters with one another. The symptom of this healing is self-sacrificing service (I have come not to be served but to serve).
Peter's mother-in-law is a perfect example of one who is cured AND healed, liberated and saved, because she gets up immediately when Jesus takes her by the hand and she serves. Sel-sacrificing love is the symptom of salvation in God's reign. Service is the coin of the realm.
This is world marriage day. I think we have all kinds of marriages: broken marriages, sick marriages, cured marriages and healed marriages. In what category does yours fall? How can you tell?
Have your ever experienced a cure? Was it also a healing? How can we tell? Did it result in more loving service of God and neighbor? There's your answer.
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-Check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishlincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 Sat, 9:30 and 11:00 on Sunday
Healed or Cured?
A scholars has expressed a distinction regarding Jesus' miracles and mission in Mark's Gospel that he describes as "curing" and "healing". Basically, what Jesus does in the synagogue last week and in Peter's house this week is miraculous cures. Physical, psychological, spiritual cures are astounding people and revealing Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God (story 1). The symptom of these cures is pretty obvious - the removal of that thing that is afflicting the body from full function in the world.
But Jesus reveals that his mission and purpose is not to cure but to heal (the root word of which is "salus" from which we get the words "salve" and of course "salvation").
This healing that Jesus has come to accomplish is that of liberating humanity from the self-imposed prison of alienation, self-centeredness, autonomy, isolation, antagonism, from and with God and neighbor. Jesus has come to heal us by restoring our relationships, humanity with God and brothers and sisters with one another. The symptom of this healing is self-sacrificing service (I have come not to be served but to serve).
Peter's mother-in-law is a perfect example of one who is cured AND healed, liberated and saved, because she gets up immediately when Jesus takes her by the hand and she serves. Sel-sacrificing love is the symptom of salvation in God's reign. Service is the coin of the realm.
This is world marriage day. I think we have all kinds of marriages: broken marriages, sick marriages, cured marriages and healed marriages. In what category does yours fall? How can you tell?
Have your ever experienced a cure? Was it also a healing? How can we tell? Did it result in more loving service of God and neighbor? There's your answer.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
February 1 Homily Prep
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at Www.usccb.com/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishlincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00, 11:00 and 6:00pm
Do We Recognize Him?
The demons recognize Jesus as the holy one of God. They fear him because they recognize his "authority" - Jesus is the human face of God. The disciples and enemies of Jesus do not recognize him as the incarnation of God, the son of God, Abba Father. This lack of recognition limits Jesus' authority or power to heal them.
It challenges me to wonder whether I have recognized Jesus as the very Son of God. What really makes me wonder is the fact that God has not healed me from my isolation, sin, selfishness, sadness. Maybe I have never really recognized Jesus' power as God.
The call to submit my life to Jesus' mission. - reconciling all people IN God - is offered over and over in and through the Church. Again this week I have the chance to see Jesus as he is - Lord and Savior. Will I take the chance?
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishlincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00, 11:00 and 6:00pm
Do We Recognize Him?
The demons recognize Jesus as the holy one of God. They fear him because they recognize his "authority" - Jesus is the human face of God. The disciples and enemies of Jesus do not recognize him as the incarnation of God, the son of God, Abba Father. This lack of recognition limits Jesus' authority or power to heal them.
It challenges me to wonder whether I have recognized Jesus as the very Son of God. What really makes me wonder is the fact that God has not healed me from my isolation, sin, selfishness, sadness. Maybe I have never really recognized Jesus' power as God.
The call to submit my life to Jesus' mission. - reconciling all people IN God - is offered over and over in and through the Church. Again this week I have the chance to see Jesus as he is - Lord and Savior. Will I take the chance?
Friday, January 9, 2015
Jan 11 Homily Prep -Bapt of the Lord
-Last Sunday's homily is available By email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at Sunday readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at LinC Letter
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00 Sat, 9:30am and 6:00pm Sunday
Bluetooth Discoverability to Network Connectivity
Our God, through the Incarnation, has become discoverable to the Bluetooth ( longing for love and happiness) of all human beings - all nations. That was last week's Christmas message. This fifth and final feast of this great season of Incarnation, the Baptism of the Lord, is aptly described as the introduction to the network of Salvation - connectivity in the cyber world, incorporation into Christ in the Christian gospel.
Rather than God being made visible to human hearts, we see now that human hearts make God visible. Every human heart is called to be incorporated through Baptism into the mission of God-made-flesh, Emmanuel! This is the flip side of sacramental thinking.
In sacramental thinking grace and faith make "the invisible visible". So that our God can be touched, seen, held, heard. The grace of Baptism and the mystical Body of Christ is that we are transformed from the "material appearance of our lives into the divine face of God". Each individual, isolated, separated human life is incorporated as one into the divine presence of the whole Body of Christ.
Incorporation into Christ through baptism helps us to know our identity (as members united in the network) and our mission (as access points/doorways of salvation in the world).
These words were spoken by Card. Greh before conclave that elected Pope Frnacis. "Let us listen to Augustine: "The apostles saw Christ and believed in the Church that they did not see; we see the Church and must believe in Christ whom we do not see. Adhering firmly to what we see, we will come to see him whom we do not now see. "
In Christ Alone, as members of one Body, as agents and instruments of the Kingdom, as human faces of divine Communion - we are the Church.
Woohoo! Are you in?
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at Sunday readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at LinC Letter
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00 Sat, 9:30am and 6:00pm Sunday
Bluetooth Discoverability to Network Connectivity
Our God, through the Incarnation, has become discoverable to the Bluetooth ( longing for love and happiness) of all human beings - all nations. That was last week's Christmas message. This fifth and final feast of this great season of Incarnation, the Baptism of the Lord, is aptly described as the introduction to the network of Salvation - connectivity in the cyber world, incorporation into Christ in the Christian gospel.
Rather than God being made visible to human hearts, we see now that human hearts make God visible. Every human heart is called to be incorporated through Baptism into the mission of God-made-flesh, Emmanuel! This is the flip side of sacramental thinking.
In sacramental thinking grace and faith make "the invisible visible". So that our God can be touched, seen, held, heard. The grace of Baptism and the mystical Body of Christ is that we are transformed from the "material appearance of our lives into the divine face of God". Each individual, isolated, separated human life is incorporated as one into the divine presence of the whole Body of Christ.
Incorporation into Christ through baptism helps us to know our identity (as members united in the network) and our mission (as access points/doorways of salvation in the world).
These words were spoken by Card. Greh before conclave that elected Pope Frnacis. "Let us listen to Augustine: "The apostles saw Christ and believed in the Church that they did not see; we see the Church and must believe in Christ whom we do not see. Adhering firmly to what we see, we will come to see him whom we do not now see. "
In Christ Alone, as members of one Body, as agents and instruments of the Kingdom, as human faces of divine Communion - we are the Church.
Woohoo! Are you in?
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