-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass at Our Lady of Grace at 4pm on Sat and 8 & 11 on Sunday and @ St. Albert the Great at 6pm on Sunday evening
After eight years of weekly interaction around the Sunday Homily, I am putting the matadorword blog on sabbatical. If you were a regular, thanks for checking in.
EE
Saturday, April 14, 2018
Saturday, March 31, 2018
April 1 Homily Prep
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass on at 7:30pm on Sat Vigil and 9:30 (up) and 11:00am (down) on Easter Sunday
Swapping Identity
The resurrection of Jesus and our faith in his death and resurrection that we celebrate this Easter is not so much a significant historical event or a hope full promise for the future but a real transformation Event in the heart of every believer.
French writer Henri Barbusse (1874-1935) tells of a conversation overheard in a foxhole full of wounded men during the First World War. One of them who knows he has only moments to live says to another man, “Listen, Dominic, you’ve led a bad life. Everywhere you are wanted by the police. But there are no convictions against me. My name is clear, so, here, take my wallet, take my papers, my identity, my good name, my life and quickly, hand me your papers that I may carry all your crimes away with me in death.”
Our scriptures st. Paul to the Corinthians reminds us that our life now is hidden with Christ in God.
We see this change in identity and therefore the change in life with many people surrounding Jesus. I’m especially thoughtful of his mother Mary and the disciple whom he loves. Jesus explicitly transforms them from bereft mother and abandoned friend into mother and son with a new mission. They’ve been transformed.
What the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the conquering of the grave, triumph over death and sin is is the offer for a new identity for all those who believe. In the waters of baptism we have all gone down and died with Christ and now risen as a new person in Christ
Powerful thing about our Christian faith is that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ God has not taken away the effects of sin and death from this life. What he has done is revealed and thus transformed their true meaning, identity. Therefore, Death still exists and enters every life however death no longer has victory, no longer has a sting. We now, as the transformed children of God, can enter into life without fear, full of hope, and celebrating with joy in spite of the grave. The tomb is no longer the destination and endpoint of our journey it is now a doorway on our path to life.
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass on at 7:30pm on Sat Vigil and 9:30 (up) and 11:00am (down) on Easter Sunday
Swapping Identity
The resurrection of Jesus and our faith in his death and resurrection that we celebrate this Easter is not so much a significant historical event or a hope full promise for the future but a real transformation Event in the heart of every believer.
French writer Henri Barbusse (1874-1935) tells of a conversation overheard in a foxhole full of wounded men during the First World War. One of them who knows he has only moments to live says to another man, “Listen, Dominic, you’ve led a bad life. Everywhere you are wanted by the police. But there are no convictions against me. My name is clear, so, here, take my wallet, take my papers, my identity, my good name, my life and quickly, hand me your papers that I may carry all your crimes away with me in death.”
Our scriptures st. Paul to the Corinthians reminds us that our life now is hidden with Christ in God.
We see this change in identity and therefore the change in life with many people surrounding Jesus. I’m especially thoughtful of his mother Mary and the disciple whom he loves. Jesus explicitly transforms them from bereft mother and abandoned friend into mother and son with a new mission. They’ve been transformed.
What the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the conquering of the grave, triumph over death and sin is is the offer for a new identity for all those who believe. In the waters of baptism we have all gone down and died with Christ and now risen as a new person in Christ
Powerful thing about our Christian faith is that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ God has not taken away the effects of sin and death from this life. What he has done is revealed and thus transformed their true meaning, identity. Therefore, Death still exists and enters every life however death no longer has victory, no longer has a sting. We now, as the transformed children of God, can enter into life without fear, full of hope, and celebrating with joy in spite of the grave. The tomb is no longer the destination and endpoint of our journey it is now a doorway on our path to life.
Saturday, March 17, 2018
Mar 18 Homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at Visitation of Mary Parish in Akron in preparation for a Lenten Misiion I am Giving there this week.
Obedience (“Ob-audere”) to listen with your life
We have come to the third and final reflection in our “Church@Home” Lenten journey 2018 and the focus of this week's Reflection is the Letter to the Hebrews and the notion of listening. Called as a community of believers to share faith and life in the church, the body of Christ, we can learn from Jesus our Lord.
The Letter to the Hebrews says that Jesus “learned obedience from what he suffered”. You will recall that the first week’s reflection upon “Christ crucified“ invited us to consider the role of sacrifice, the voluntary laying down of our lives. The second week we were called to consider the sacrifice of loving one another in the church, the body of Christ, as the primary place/way that we could encounter the love of God.
Taking the risk or making the sacrifice of gathering in a small “Church@Home” group is the experience of this sacrificial love in the body of Christ. And as we gather in these small groups we access the love of God when we share the faith - listen to one another - that we might hear a word from God. This type of listening in love and sacrifice within the body of Christ is summed up in the word obedience. In order to listen and hear a word from God it demands that we sacrifice for the sake of others.
Church at home and the process of faith sharing in small groups of church members fulfills this call and this pattern that we have seen in the holy Scriptures. “Church@Home” faith sharing small groups are a concrete experience of communion, which is God’s very presence. It is not easy to join the encounter of “Church@Home” however it is a sacrifice and an entering in
to church by faith that opens us to hear a word from God.
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at Visitation of Mary Parish in Akron in preparation for a Lenten Misiion I am Giving there this week.
Obedience (“Ob-audere”) to listen with your life
We have come to the third and final reflection in our “Church@Home” Lenten journey 2018 and the focus of this week's Reflection is the Letter to the Hebrews and the notion of listening. Called as a community of believers to share faith and life in the church, the body of Christ, we can learn from Jesus our Lord.
The Letter to the Hebrews says that Jesus “learned obedience from what he suffered”. You will recall that the first week’s reflection upon “Christ crucified“ invited us to consider the role of sacrifice, the voluntary laying down of our lives. The second week we were called to consider the sacrifice of loving one another in the church, the body of Christ, as the primary place/way that we could encounter the love of God.
Taking the risk or making the sacrifice of gathering in a small “Church@Home” group is the experience of this sacrificial love in the body of Christ. And as we gather in these small groups we access the love of God when we share the faith - listen to one another - that we might hear a word from God. This type of listening in love and sacrifice within the body of Christ is summed up in the word obedience. In order to listen and hear a word from God it demands that we sacrifice for the sake of others.
Church at home and the process of faith sharing in small groups of church members fulfills this call and this pattern that we have seen in the holy Scriptures. “Church@Home” faith sharing small groups are a concrete experience of communion, which is God’s very presence. It is not easy to join the encounter of “Church@Home” however it is a sacrifice and an entering in
Saturday, March 10, 2018
March 11 Homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass at 5:30pm on Saturday, 8:00am & 11:00am on Sunday.
Play-Doh Fun Factory
When I was a kid one of my favorite toys was the Play-Doh fun factory. It was the machine that you put the Play-Doh into, affix different apertures onto the front of it and then you squeeze the doh through it and it would come out to make stars, circles, squares, different animals etc.
That fun factory is a basic image in my mind of how reality, or truth, takes different shapes. We might also see it as more thing, the changing shape of some reality. I am of course talking about salvation today on this fourth Sunday of Lent. Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans tells us today that salvation takes the shape of the church, the people of God, the body of Christ in the world. Is that true for you? Do you see understand and counter your salvation and eternal life in the body of the church, your relationship to the church, your celebration of life in the sacraments of the church?.
Our “Church@Home” focus last Sunday was on “Christ crucified“ in which we came to understand that the love of God takes the shape of sacrifice and we see it and know it in Christ crucified. This week's call turns our reflection to Christ's resurrected body, the church. Pope Francis has famously said “if your first name is Christian your last name must be Church.“
It is by faith and baptism in the church that we come to know the great love of God and our salvation. To quote Saint Augustine on this point “there is no salvation outside of the church. My question today is "To what extent do we understand and appreciate our relationship with God as taking the shape or the form of the church?
Saturday, March 3, 2018
Mar 4 Homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass at 6:00 PM on Sunday at Saint Albert and at our Lady of Grace on Saturday night and Sunday morning.
Christ Crucified
As all of our participants in “Church@Home” are aware, we “proclaim Christ crucified“ which is foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling block for the Jews. What we see and hear in Christ crucified his sacrificial love. Several of the participants in “Church@Home” mentioned to me this week that The second question of the three post by the “Church@Home” discussion guide was a stumbling block for the members of the group.
That second question introduced the notion of sacrifice, the pouring out or the sharing of the self for the sake of love. God does it in Creation, the Word shows it by the incarnation, Jesus perfects it in the crucifixion, we are incorporated into it by baptism, we enter into it in the Eucharistic liturgy, and we live it in charity.
This is the mystery of our faith. It’s crazy!
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass at 6:00 PM on Sunday at Saint Albert and at our Lady of Grace on Saturday night and Sunday morning.
Christ Crucified
As all of our participants in “Church@Home” are aware, we “proclaim Christ crucified“ which is foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling block for the Jews. What we see and hear in Christ crucified his sacrificial love. Several of the participants in “Church@Home” mentioned to me this week that The second question of the three post by the “Church@Home” discussion guide was a stumbling block for the members of the group.
That second question introduced the notion of sacrifice, the pouring out or the sharing of the self for the sake of love. God does it in Creation, the Word shows it by the incarnation, Jesus perfects it in the crucifixion, we are incorporated into it by baptism, we enter into it in the Eucharistic liturgy, and we live it in charity.
This is the mystery of our faith. It’s crazy!
Saturday, February 24, 2018
Feb 25 Homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass At 5:30 PM on Saturday and at 9:30 AM and 12:30 PM on Sunday
Building church
On this second Sunday in the season of Lent we always have the presentation of the Transfiguration. Jesus takes James, John and Peter up the mountain and is there transfigured before them. At the top of the mountain Peter, James, and John encounter three great figures Moses, Elijah, and Jesus transfigured. I would like to take two snapshots here - of those two triplets.
Moses, Elijah, and Jesus transfigured
What we know and have learned from the old testament is that these three figures in this first photograph, to the eyes of good Jews like Peter, James, and John, tells a great story. As you will recall it was Moses and Elijah who both went up Mount Sinai in the midst of serious trial and were strengthened and consoled by an encounter with God. Moses, you will recall, put his face in the cleft of the rock as God passed by and he claimed to only see God's back. Likewise, Elijah went up Mount Sinai and God revealed himself in the small silent voice. We now have Moses and Elijah making a return visit to the mountaintop and this time they get to see God face to face: Jesus transfigured.. The lesson: Jesus is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Jesus is the God revealed to Moses and Elijah.
Peter, James, and John
The other snapshot of the triplet of Peter, James, and John has them, like Moses and Elijah, on the top of this mountain encountering God. And as if that vision or encounter wasn’t enough, the glory cloud comes down upon them and, as with the blessed virgin Mary, the Spirit of God overshadows them. What is conceived among them and the result of this encounter with God on the mountain is nothing less then the church.
Church at home
We are this week beginning church at home 2018. Hundreds of our parishioners have been willing to make the journey up the mountain (I know it is not an easy one for many people) to a neighbor’s house for a church meeting. As with these triplets in the transfiguration, God‘s face will be revealed in these gatherings. And also, as with Peter, James and John, Church will be built among them and within them. Our Catholic faith reminds us first and foremost that the God of heaven and earth has come to save us and it is in our making the sacrificial choice for church that we encounter God and are built into God‘s holy temple, God’s holy people, God’s holy body in Christ.
The theme of our church at home journey is in fact the call to sacrifice by sharing our lives of faith. If you did not sign up for church at home yet you can still do so. Join us in meeting God and building church.
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass At 5:30 PM on Saturday and at 9:30 AM and 12:30 PM on Sunday
Building church
On this second Sunday in the season of Lent we always have the presentation of the Transfiguration. Jesus takes James, John and Peter up the mountain and is there transfigured before them. At the top of the mountain Peter, James, and John encounter three great figures Moses, Elijah, and Jesus transfigured. I would like to take two snapshots here - of those two triplets.
Moses, Elijah, and Jesus transfigured
What we know and have learned from the old testament is that these three figures in this first photograph, to the eyes of good Jews like Peter, James, and John, tells a great story. As you will recall it was Moses and Elijah who both went up Mount Sinai in the midst of serious trial and were strengthened and consoled by an encounter with God. Moses, you will recall, put his face in the cleft of the rock as God passed by and he claimed to only see God's back. Likewise, Elijah went up Mount Sinai and God revealed himself in the small silent voice. We now have Moses and Elijah making a return visit to the mountaintop and this time they get to see God face to face: Jesus transfigured.. The lesson: Jesus is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Jesus is the God revealed to Moses and Elijah.
Peter, James, and John
The other snapshot of the triplet of Peter, James, and John has them, like Moses and Elijah, on the top of this mountain encountering God. And as if that vision or encounter wasn’t enough, the glory cloud comes down upon them and, as with the blessed virgin Mary, the Spirit of God overshadows them. What is conceived among them and the result of this encounter with God on the mountain is nothing less then the church.
Church at home
We are this week beginning church at home 2018. Hundreds of our parishioners have been willing to make the journey up the mountain (I know it is not an easy one for many people) to a neighbor’s house for a church meeting. As with these triplets in the transfiguration, God‘s face will be revealed in these gatherings. And also, as with Peter, James and John, Church will be built among them and within them. Our Catholic faith reminds us first and foremost that the God of heaven and earth has come to save us and it is in our making the sacrificial choice for church that we encounter God and are built into God‘s holy temple, God’s holy people, God’s holy body in Christ.
The theme of our church at home journey is in fact the call to sacrifice by sharing our lives of faith. If you did not sign up for church at home yet you can still do so. Join us in meeting God and building church.
Friday, February 16, 2018
Feb 18 Homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass on Sat at 5:30pm and 8:00am and 11:00am on Sunday
This is a test!
When I was a kid at about midnight on Saturday night there would be a national disaster alert before the television shut off. Can you imagine, the television actually shut off!? The voice would come on the television say in very scary voice “ this is a test“.
In the gospel text today on this first Sunday of Lent we hear that the Spirit of God compelled Jesus into the desert for 40 days. In biblical imagery, 40 is a number that means “test”. A period of testing, examining, inquiring, determining, discerning, revealing!
What we can say about the Christian life, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, baptism and the spiritual life in the church is that it “costs us something”. In other words if we are hoping to respond to God’s call in our lives it is going to test our resolve, it will demand something, sacrifice.
Again this Lent at Saint Albert we are being called to the experience “Church@Home”. At the heart of “Church@Home” is the willingness of church members to “lay down their lives for their friends” or in this case their neighbors. For most Catholics, this invitation is a real “test”, it is a challenge, it is a sacrifice. The theme of this year‘s “church@home“ journey is the willingness and the act of sacrificing, turning away from selfishness, and extending ourselves toward our neighbor for the sake of the faith, for the sake of the church.
Will you pass the test? Are you willing to step up and engage, accept the invitation to turn away from selfishness, privacy, introversion, isolation, alienation, distrust of others, and to open yourself to the presence of Christ in the church, the community of believers, your neighbor?
This is a test!
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass on Sat at 5:30pm and 8:00am and 11:00am on Sunday
This is a test!
When I was a kid at about midnight on Saturday night there would be a national disaster alert before the television shut off. Can you imagine, the television actually shut off!? The voice would come on the television say in very scary voice “ this is a test“.
In the gospel text today on this first Sunday of Lent we hear that the Spirit of God compelled Jesus into the desert for 40 days. In biblical imagery, 40 is a number that means “test”. A period of testing, examining, inquiring, determining, discerning, revealing!
What we can say about the Christian life, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, baptism and the spiritual life in the church is that it “costs us something”. In other words if we are hoping to respond to God’s call in our lives it is going to test our resolve, it will demand something, sacrifice.
Again this Lent at Saint Albert we are being called to the experience “Church@Home”. At the heart of “Church@Home” is the willingness of church members to “lay down their lives for their friends” or in this case their neighbors. For most Catholics, this invitation is a real “test”, it is a challenge, it is a sacrifice. The theme of this year‘s “church@home“ journey is the willingness and the act of sacrificing, turning away from selfishness, and extending ourselves toward our neighbor for the sake of the faith, for the sake of the church.
Will you pass the test? Are you willing to step up and engage, accept the invitation to turn away from selfishness, privacy, introversion, isolation, alienation, distrust of others, and to open yourself to the presence of Christ in the church, the community of believers, your neighbor?
This is a test!
Saturday, February 10, 2018
Feb 11 Homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass on Saturday at 4:00 PM and at 8:00 AM Sunday
We serve not because of need but because we need to serve
It is pretty clear from the scriptures that Jesus did not see himself as a healer, as if his mission was to heal all the sick people including the leper. In fact, his insistence that people not talk about his healing miracles makes it clear that his mission is to something other than healing. In other words, Jesus’s Mission isn’t to heal sick people rather Jesus accomplishes his mission to save all people by healing some who are sick.
This is what we are often saying in the church about our call to be generous to the poor in our Catholic charities appeal. We do not give because people have a need rather we recognize that we have a need to give. We are generous to the poor or not because the poor are Catholic or deserving of our generosity. Rather we are generous to the poor because we are Catholic and being generous is a symptom of our faith and life in the church .
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass on Saturday at 4:00 PM and at 8:00 AM Sunday
We serve not because of need but because we need to serve
It is pretty clear from the scriptures that Jesus did not see himself as a healer, as if his mission was to heal all the sick people including the leper. In fact, his insistence that people not talk about his healing miracles makes it clear that his mission is to something other than healing. In other words, Jesus’s Mission isn’t to heal sick people rather Jesus accomplishes his mission to save all people by healing some who are sick.
This is what we are often saying in the church about our call to be generous to the poor in our Catholic charities appeal. We do not give because people have a need rather we recognize that we have a need to give. We are generous to the poor or not because the poor are Catholic or deserving of our generosity. Rather we are generous to the poor because we are Catholic and being generous is a symptom of our faith and life in the church .
Friday, February 2, 2018
Feb 4 Homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass at Saint Albert at 6:00 PM on Sunday night. I will be celebrating mass at 4:00 PM, 8:00 AM, and 11:00 AM at Our Lady of Grace.
On a mission
What I noticed most vividly from the gospel text this weekend is the fact that Jesus is on a mission. While everyone around him can be distracted by various relationships, circumstances, successes, etc. Jesus keeps his focus on communion with the Father and announcement of the kingdom. That’s his mission.
This can be frustrating to those closest to him. They may have misunderstood what his invitation to them was and what his goals and mission are. They actually think they are helping him. It is frustrating.
Like Jesus we have been anointed priests, prophets and kings. We have a mission. Our mission is Jesus’s mission. Do you have a mission in your life? Do you have a purpose?
Let’s look into that
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass at Saint Albert at 6:00 PM on Sunday night. I will be celebrating mass at 4:00 PM, 8:00 AM, and 11:00 AM at Our Lady of Grace.
On a mission
What I noticed most vividly from the gospel text this weekend is the fact that Jesus is on a mission. While everyone around him can be distracted by various relationships, circumstances, successes, etc. Jesus keeps his focus on communion with the Father and announcement of the kingdom. That’s his mission.
This can be frustrating to those closest to him. They may have misunderstood what his invitation to them was and what his goals and mission are. They actually think they are helping him. It is frustrating.
Like Jesus we have been anointed priests, prophets and kings. We have a mission. Our mission is Jesus’s mission. Do you have a mission in your life? Do you have a purpose?
Let’s look into that
Saturday, January 27, 2018
Jan 28 Homily Prep
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass on Sunday at St. Albert at 8:00am and 9:30am and at the Cathedral at 12:15pm with our Confirmation candidates
Walking the Talk
Being a prophet is literally to “speak on behalf of”. Moses, the prophet, is referring in our first reading to his assistant Joshua as the one who will be raised up as another " speaker on behalf of God”. In recognition of the one who is the prophet in our midst, who speaks on behalf of God, is to recognize that we have been visited by God. God is in our midst.
Jesus in the gospel is recognized as “the holy one of God” not only by his “speaking on behalf of God” (as one with authority) but also by his healing. Speaking on behalf of God or being a prophet is to “manifest“ the presence of God in our midst. So that there is such a thing as prophetic living. So we might take the popular phrase of “talk the talk and walk the walk“ and restate it prophetically "walking the talk."
How might we walk and talk or walk the talk in our daily lives so that others might recognize that God has raised up a prophet in the world and thereby conclude that God has visited his people?
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass on Sunday at St. Albert at 8:00am and 9:30am and at the Cathedral at 12:15pm with our Confirmation candidates
Walking the Talk
Being a prophet is literally to “speak on behalf of”. Moses, the prophet, is referring in our first reading to his assistant Joshua as the one who will be raised up as another " speaker on behalf of God”. In recognition of the one who is the prophet in our midst, who speaks on behalf of God, is to recognize that we have been visited by God. God is in our midst.
Jesus in the gospel is recognized as “the holy one of God” not only by his “speaking on behalf of God” (as one with authority) but also by his healing. Speaking on behalf of God or being a prophet is to “manifest“ the presence of God in our midst. So that there is such a thing as prophetic living. So we might take the popular phrase of “talk the talk and walk the walk“ and restate it prophetically "walking the talk."
How might we walk and talk or walk the talk in our daily lives so that others might recognize that God has raised up a prophet in the world and thereby conclude that God has visited his people?
Saturday, January 6, 2018
Jan 7 Homily Prep - Epiphany
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass at St Albert at 6pm on Sunday. I will celebrate masses at our Lady of Grace on Saturday at 4:00 PM, and Sunday at 8 AM and 11 AM
Turn, and Walk Away
On this fourth feast of the Christmas season the message of incarnation comes to us in the image of the magi. As with the other Christmas feasts the church is asking us to see God in the pilgrimage of human life. That presence of God made visible is powerfully image in the journey of the magi. In Christian parlance we we might Re-image it with the concept of pilgrimage. The Magi have a vision and they journey to fulfill it.
Very important part of the journey of the magi and Christian pilgrimage is the notion of conversion. In fulfilling their vision (paying homage to the newborn King of the Jews) and returning home they change( conversion) the direction or the manner in which they are walking. They went home by another way. The real purpose of pilgrimage is to for fill the journey by changing the way we walk.
In the journey or pilgrimage of the magi we can see an invitation to reinterpret our Christian life. That new interpretation would be marked by vision and conversion (turning about). So, the question for us as we consider our Christian life is 1. Do we see our life as a pilgrim journey toward deeper communion with God? And 2. Can we make the necessary turnabout(s) to fulfill that vision of our life‘s journey?
What do you think?
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass at St Albert at 6pm on Sunday. I will celebrate masses at our Lady of Grace on Saturday at 4:00 PM, and Sunday at 8 AM and 11 AM
Turn, and Walk Away
On this fourth feast of the Christmas season the message of incarnation comes to us in the image of the magi. As with the other Christmas feasts the church is asking us to see God in the pilgrimage of human life. That presence of God made visible is powerfully image in the journey of the magi. In Christian parlance we we might Re-image it with the concept of pilgrimage. The Magi have a vision and they journey to fulfill it.
Very important part of the journey of the magi and Christian pilgrimage is the notion of conversion. In fulfilling their vision (paying homage to the newborn King of the Jews) and returning home they change( conversion) the direction or the manner in which they are walking. They went home by another way. The real purpose of pilgrimage is to for fill the journey by changing the way we walk.
In the journey or pilgrimage of the magi we can see an invitation to reinterpret our Christian life. That new interpretation would be marked by vision and conversion (turning about). So, the question for us as we consider our Christian life is 1. Do we see our life as a pilgrim journey toward deeper communion with God? And 2. Can we make the necessary turnabout(s) to fulfill that vision of our life‘s journey?
What do you think?
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