OrdinaryTime
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Prayer for Christian Progress
As we close the month of October, I’d like to go back to how Fr. Neil opened the month. He reminded us that it is a month in which Mary is particularly celebrated by the Church. Fr. Neil walked us through the basics of the Rosary, which is a Marian devotion. Remember that every devotion Continue reading
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The Perils of Complacency
The readings this week are a call against complacency. The readings of the last weeks in the church year are all pointing to the reality that there will be a day of judgment and we will not get advance notice of that day. We have been warned in multiple ways. Last week we had the Continue reading
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Wisdom and Salvation
Today we are in the 22nd Sunday of the 34 numbered Sundays of ordinary time. Ordinary time is not ordinary in the sense that nothing special is happening; rather, it simply means these are the weeks that have numbers and are not one of the other specific seasons like Advent, Lent, Christmas or Easter. This Continue reading
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What is Mass For?
Most of you have used a hammer. If you think about a hammer, you realize that the purpose of a hammer is to reach an outcome through the hammer. You don’t just have a hammer; the hammer is for something. The hammer is for nails being driven into wood. Today, St. Paul’s letter to the Continue reading
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The Blessed Life in Christ
The gospel this morning is taken from the sixth chapter of Luke, and it is a continuation of Jesus’ preaching on the Beatitudes. We get the word Beatitudes from the scriptures because Jesus makes a number of statements in which he starts with the words, “Blessed are you if…” St. Thomas Aquinas explains beatitude this Continue reading
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The Body of Christ
The readings today give us an opportunity to think about the Church: to think about what it is, how it works, and what it does. The Church is the mystical body of Christ, as St. Paul explains to the community in Corinth. From the Creed we profess as Mass, we know the Church is the Continue reading
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Servant Leadership
The readings today remind us what Jesus did for us, and they suggest that he should be the model for our lives. We first get from the prophet Isaiah a description of the suffering servant, which is what Jesus will be many centuries later. It says: If he gives his life as an offering for Continue reading
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What Must One Do to Get to Heaven?
What is the job of a prophet? Is he or she a fortune teller? Do we hear from a prophet what the economy is going to do next year? No. A prophet is not someone with supernatural forecasting talents. A prophet is one who speaks the word that God wants spoken at the time God Continue reading
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Thou Givest Them Their Meat in Due Season
In today’s readings, we have two similar stories of miraculous feeding. And the Psalm refrain today is, “the hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.” The Psalm and St. Paul both speak about hope, and all of this speaks to how we might try to live our lives as Christian disciples. Continue reading
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God Has a Plan and It’s a Good Plan
Father Neil preached last week on suffering and gratitude, and I would like to continue to look at those today. Both suffering and gratitude are at the heart of the crucifix. We call it a crucifix because it is a cross with the body of Jesus attached to it. The crucifix is supposed to be Continue reading
Bound in Love 