Friday, July 30, 2010

THIS WEEK


Last week we introduced God Rocks. I think we will continue with them for a while...I do not know about anyone else, but I like it.

I hope you listen to the sermon for the 1th Sunday, very well done. The Jesus Heals video may be good for children in the house.

Finally, in Sept. I hope to be putting my sermons on the blog. This is indeed a work in progress....






EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR

MONDAY OF THE EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR
(Matt.14:13-21) Generosity is such a marvelous thing. Some great things happen because people are willing to go that extra step. What would have happened if they were unwilling to give up the loaves and fishes? Perhaps a couple of thousand people would have gone hungry. We are called many times to give the “loaves and fishes” which we have. Usually it is not money.We peg generosity to money too easily. How about time? How about listening? How about letting someone else into our life? Perhaps someone is waiting to be fed; we have to make sure they do not go away hungry.

TUESDAY OF THE EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.14:22-36) Faith by its very nature is bold; it goes into the unknown and at the same time is vulnerable. Peter teaches us all of this If he did not believe, he would never have asked to be able to walk on the water. If he did not believe, he would not even have had the courage to do something so foolhardy. His faith was weak. This paradigm reminds us of our faith journey. We should not to be held back by the weakness of our faith. Faith without boldness to go beyond the safe and predictable is not faith. There comes a place where we are all called to walk into the unknown.

WEDNESDAY OF THE EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.15:21-28) Here is another example of bold faith. Because she believed the healing of her daughter would take place, Jesus changed his mind. The woman’s faith got the best of Him. Jesus in a way is teaching us that faith does do things that we are even afraid to say. How many would have the boldness to say that they changed Jesus’ mind. Of course, that was due to His human nature. Now that nature is completely glorified,be so changing His mind would be quite impossible. However, the boldness of faith puts us very clearly into the Divine Plan. Through faith we are active participants in the God-history of the human race.

THURSDAY OF THE EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.16:13-23) Who do you say the Son of Man is? A question all who believe must ask themselves. The answer can not be only theological. I may give the perfectly correct theological answer without ever answering the question. I think when Peter answered he was answering from his own faith experience of the Lord. When we answer, it should be from our own lived experience of the Lord. He is the Son of Man, He is the Lord, He is our Redeemer, the first born of all creation; but these stand the danger of being abstract without ever coming to that point of having met the Lord. When did I walk with you? When was I your friend? When did I take a burden from your shoulders? When did I smile with you, be happy with you?

FRIDAY OF THE EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.16:24-28) The command of Christ to take up our cross is a condition of being His follower. What does it mean? Does it mean that our faith is an exercise in suffering? Does it mean when we are happy we are less His followers? What was the cross to the Lord? He was obedient to the Father and therefore to the Cross. The Cross is a sign of obedience. We take up our cross everyday by living our life of faith. The command of Christ is so strong that it must go beyond just those times of physical and emotional suffering. What happens to all the good days? Do we just wait for the Cross to come or can we take those good days and, by accepting them in faith, make them our Cross. It is the only thing we have.

SATURDAY OF THE EIGHTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.17:14-20) Jesus once again uses an unbelievable example, moving mountains, to point out the believable. I can not recall ever reading about a mountain moving. However, I do recall many times when the mountains of pain, suffering, were moved by trust. The Lord is telling us that faith is much more than simply intellectual assent. It is the loving trust a child has. It seems that this is really the only thing the Lord demands of those who would follow Him, unconditional trust. It is almost a plea, “trust me.” It is a plea, to break through all the other “trusts” we have in life, and to make Him the center.

Jesus Heals a Blind Man

The Joy of the Lord (Nehemiah 8:10)

Luke 12 13-21 Rich Fool

Friday, July 23, 2010

Food For The Poor 6-Month Haiti Earthquake Update

THIS WEEK

The earthquake which devastated Haiti is off the front pages but the human suffering continues. We put a video on this week's blog as a reminder that aid is still needed.
God Rocks is an attempt to put church music into a modern idiom...not everyone's cup of tea. It is good to know that it is around...
the video of marriage bloopers may bring back memories for some of you...
God bless

Five Sparrows (Luke 12:6, 7)

Funny wedding bloopers part 2

SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR

MONDAY OF THE SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.13:31-35) Seeds were meant not to stay seeds but to blossom into flowers and plants. Seeds always look to the future, of what they can be, and what they will become. They contain within themselves the power to be something else. In becoming what they are meant to be they give joy to others. The Kingdom of God within us is similar. The first movement of faith, the first time we say “I believe,” the moment when we look to God and try to follow His law as our response, we have the seed of the Kingdom. It is supposed to grow into the background of our lives, that is the tree which gives shade to all with whom it comes into contact.

TUESDAY OF THE SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.13:35-43) The Kingdom of God is not yet complete within us or within the world. The promise has yet to reach its fullness. Evil is still present. All we have to do is pick up the daily newspapers, or look within ourselves to see the proof that all is not really the way it should be. There must be something beyond what our daily experiences tell us. The imperfection with which we come into contact must be yearning for completion. If this were not so, we would be doomed to a fatalism and to a life without hope. But the Lord does tell us that someday, we call it the end of the world, the evil will be uprooted and God’s dream will be complete.

WEDNESDAY OF THE SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.13:44-46) The field is our hearts; the treasure is the kingdom. The man who sells everything, that is also ourselves. Treasures can be buried, hidden under a lot of the things which we think are so important. We become quite satisfied with the trinkets of life; they dazzle and captivate. The treasure is still hidden. Maybe the trinkets aren’t so important? Maybe we have to let go of their attractiveness to dig deeper and come to the treasure. When we find the treasure, God, we will realize where all the brilliance of the trinkets came from.

THURSDAY OF THE SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.13:47-53) A simple lesson: hold onto both the old and the new. The Old Testament and the New Testament both are the story of God with His people. If we know the Old, we will get a deeper insight into the New. When we look at the Old in the light of the New, we see the promise which has been completed in the Lord. The Old introduces us to the God of Love; the New sees the love of God enfleshed in the Lord. To know the Old deepens our longing fulfilled in the Lord. We must hold onto both.

FRIDAY OF THE SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.13:54-58) Blindness is so terrible. We see that in today’s Gospel. They saw, but they really did not see. Faith “sight” takes us beyond simply the material. They were caught in the material. Faith “sight” penetrates into the meaning of things. It opens up the door to the reality which God wants us to see. This passage reminds us that we are called to be the “see-ers,” . This is why St. Paul equates faith with sight.

SATURDAY OF THE SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.14:1-12) Poor Herod. He is a man so torn. When they asked for the head of the Baptist, he was distressed. He really did not want to do it. But he was afraid: afraid of loosing face, afraid of being embarrassed he chose to do that which was wrong. Fear can be so crippling. It makes us do what we do not want to do, and not do what we should do. Herod’s fear was disordered. We are called to be people of “righteous fear”: to be afraid of the right things- sin, of hurting people, of not being all we should be. Herod was so imprisoned by the lower fear that the higher fear did not take hold.

Friday, July 16, 2010

SIXTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR

Sorry about last week...we had some tech. problems. It looks like everything is solved.
Hope you enjoy the Martha and Mary video. It was made for children but there is an old saying that if it is good for children adults will enjoy it...scroll down to the end of the scripture reflections...

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Dalai Lama
The death penalty fulfills a preventive function, but it is also very clearly a form of revenge. It is an especially severe form of punishment because it is so final. The human life is ended and the executed person is deprived of the opportunity to change, to restore the harm done or compensate for it.

The Pope goes to New York. He is picked up at the airport by a limousine. He looks at the beautiful car and says to the driver, "You know, I hardly ever get to drive. Would you please let me?"

The driver is understandably hesistant and says, "I'm sorry, but I don't think I'm supposed to do that."

But the Pope persists, "Please?" The driver finally lets up. "Oh, all right, I can't really say no to the Pope."

So the Pope takes the wheel, and boy, is he a speed demon! He hits the gas and goes around 100 mph in a 45 zone. A policeman notices and pulls him over.

The cop walks up and asks the Pope to roll down the window. Startled and surprised, the young officer asks the Pope to wait a minute. He goes back to his patrol car and radios the chief.

Cop: Chief, I have a problem.

Chief: What sort of problem?

Cop: Well, you see, I pulled over this guy for driving way over the speed limit but it's someone really important.

Chief: Important like the mayor?

Cop: No, no, much more important than that.

Chief: Important like the governor?

Cop: Wayyyyyy more important than that.

Chief: Like the president?

Cop: More.

Chief: Who's more important than the president?

Cop: I don't know, but he's got the Pope driving for him!
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SIXTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR

MONDAY OF THE SIXTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.12:38-42). The plea of the Pharisees is one that has come down through the ages. It elicits the same answer: don’t you see. We are surrounded with the working of God but put our own conditions on how He is going to work a sign. It seems that we are afraid to stand in wonder at His works. To really wonder at something is to stand in awe, to be amazed, to go into a dimension which we never thought existed. This takes courage because we are not in control. Perhaps the real danger is that we want to control God, to tell Him how to do His job.

TUESDAY OF THE SIXTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.12:46-50) The words sound so harsh, almost rejecting. We have to look for another explanation beyond the obvious. It is the Lord giving the possibility of becoming His mother to each and every person who believes in Him. This of course is not in the physical sense, but in a spiritual sense. We can give birth to the Lord in the hearts of people by preaching about Him. More powerfully we can do that by living His message. So many people have come to the faith because of the good example of others. Only God can make God come alive in the hearts of people but people can open the doorand it is in this sense that we become mothers of the Lord.

WEDNESDAY OF THE SIXTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.13:1-9) The power of the word of God is to change the hearts of people. The message of today’s Gospel is not so much about the “good guys” and the “bad guys”, the hearers and the non-hearers as it is about the living Word of God. The good soil cannot be good soil unless the Word has made it so. We are never sure when the power of the word is going to do something great; therefore it must be preached through word and example and secondly we must never give up on people.

THURSDAY OF THE SIXTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt. 13:10-17) To really listen is one of the most difficult things we have to do. We listen to what we want to hear; we color with our own needs, wants and aspirations those things which we do hear. To really listen demands a response. So often, we respond to not what was really said, but to what we think was said. We listen to the conversations going on within us. To listen means to let the world into our lives. To listen means to have the courage to change. To listen implies that we are willing to open ourselves up to something new. To listen means we can share the joys and pains of other people.

FRIDAY OF THE SIXTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt. 13:18-23) Listening is so important and so difficult that the Lord spends a lot of time speaking about it. It seems that His teaching on listening may be set down in a few words. We have the tendency to stay with the material. All the “bad soils” have that in common. They were not able to, not willing to, rise above the for material satisfaction in one way or another. The conflict between the Spirit and the flesh is always present. The Word of God turns the flesh into spirit.

SATURDAY OF THE SIXTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.13:24-30) We are works in progress. Almost a cliché, but still something for us to remember. The field of our hearts into which the gift of the kingdom has been sown is fragile. We hold the gift “in an earthen vessel.” We get the gift of the kingdom mixed up with the “weeds” of the world around us. Values which are not of the kingdom come into our hearts. Priorities which are not the Good News of Jesus but rather our own “good news” become operative within us. We are torn between the two worlds. We have the hope that someday the victory of the Lord within us will be complete and the field will have only the wheat of the Kingdom.

The Story of Mary and Martha

Friday, July 2, 2010

who are the Franciscans?

THIS WEEK

Happy Fourth of July.....we start off with Elvis Presley singing a very inspiring rendition of "American the Beautiful."
Soemthing special...a wonderfully done DVD on the Franciscans and how to get information about them
Finally, the centerpiece, the scriptural reflections for the week

YOU ALL HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY 4TH....

Fourth of July Music Video - Elvis Sings America

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Funeral Instructions
An elderly woman died last month. Having never married, she requested no male pallbearers. In her handwritten instructions for her memorial service, she wrote, "They wouldn't take me out while I was alive, I don't want them to take me out when I'm dead."
Fourteenth Week of the Year



Monday of the Fourteenth Week (Matthew 9:18-26) During the course of the day we probably say thousands of words and listen to as many if not more. Words are the means of expressing oneself and how inadequate they are at times. To get beyond the medium and get to the message is one of the things we are asked to do. It is the heart of people that is important and sometimes that heart is hidden under an inadequate vocabulary, defensiveness , or even fear. If we stop at the obvious we often miss the person. Listen to hearts and not words, to what is being said and not only to what is being “talked”.



Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week (Matthew 9:32-38) God has gifted everyone in a special way. Of course, these gifts are times misused, unused or even malused. To thank God for the gifts He has given me is easy. To thank God for the gifts He has given to other people is a little more difficult. The gifts of other people may be challenges to us, they may be intimidating they may even give birth to the demons of envy and jealously. God is the source of all beauty, goodness and every time we see them we should say “thank you”.



Wednesday of the Fourteenth Week (Matthew 10:1-7) We follow the Lord and in doing so we make Him present to the world in which we live. An identity takes place through faith and Baptism. This identity is so deep that we can truly say that we are wrapped up in the very mystery of the Lord. We become Easter to people with whom we come into contact. We are the call to turn to God and to receive His love. This identity makes us givers much more than receivers.



Thursday of the Fourteenth Week (Matthew 10:7-15) Gifts are a twofold aspect. They are for the good of the person who receives. They are useful, or maybe just bring joy into some ones heart. If it is a real gift it is a sign of love. Any real gift also has the obligation to share. No gift should be given just for the good of the person who receives, it has a much wider meaning. The blessings which God has given us are not only for ourselves. The greatest blessing is ourselves, the person who I am. To share this, “silver and gold I have not, but what I have I give you”.



Friday of the Fourteenth Week (Matthew 10:16-23) The Lord makes things the way they should be, we use the word reconciliation. To bring things back into order that God intended is a work which never ends. There is always the darkness of sin which disrupts God’s creation. There i in our hearts as beacons along the road. The danger is to choose other teachers, to pick up a different set of eyeglasses. The question will always be: what teacher do I listen to?



Saturday of the Fourteenth Week (Matthew 10:24-33) The abiding presence of the Lord in our lives is not passive. He is a teacher, and many times we fail to see this part of relationship with Him. He is the teacher who never stops. In school we had teachers, and then we moved on to others being thankful and building on what we learned from the previous teachers. The Lord is always present. He helps us to see life through the glasses of God. His words are