Blog Post 8/31/2023 - A Morning Prayer with Great Insight and Comfort

 

An older farmer offered this grace for breakfast.

"Lord, I hate buttermilk and Lord, I hate lard. And You know I don't much care for raw white flour.  But Lord, when you mix them all together and bake them, I do love warm fresh biscuits.  Lord when things come up that we don't like, when life gets hard, and we don't understand what you're saying to us, help us to just relax and wait until you are done mixing, because we believe in faith that you are preparing something better than biscuits. Amen." [Adopted from Preserve Co., Prince Edward Island and modified by Deacon George]

 

 

That prayer is filled with great wisdom as we navigate in our world today.  The Lord will mix our trials with our triumphs, so dear Lord, help us to be thankful for  the good while we carry our burdens believing the best is yet to come.  We know, in faith, that in the end that doing Your Will opens heaven’s gates. AMEN!

 

We join with St. Julian of Norwich, “All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”

 

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 8/30/2023 - Why Read Scripture?

 

Why Read Scripture?

"Reading the Scripture offers us two benefits. First, it orders our mind to understand the Word of God, and second, it leads our heart to love God a little more each time.  Spending time with the Scriptures either listening to them or reading them prepares our soul to receive the Lord’s love and guidance."  [Deacon George]

 

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 8/29/2023 - God Awaits you.

 

God Awaits you.

 

 

 

Today use your electronic devices as little as possible or not at all, then sail with the Lord on the ship of His Word and play in sandbox of His creation.  Take His Word for nourishment, He wants you to listen attentively today, and He wants you find Him in the ordinary of your life.  There God awaits you, you who are precious to Him.

 May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 8/28/2023 – The Word

The Word

Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “Now the word is not simply audible; not only does it have a voice, now the word has a face, one which we can see: that of Jesus of Nazareth.”  [Verbum Domini]

The Word of God, Jesus Himself calls you to love Him and to follow Him.

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 8/27/2023 Homily Offered at OLPH on 8/26 & 27/2023 – Cycle A

 

 

Homily 8/27/2023 – Cycle A

 

 

 

Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082723.cfm

In today’s Gospel, Peter recognizes and accepts Jesus as The Messiah – true God and true man.  I want to share this with you: called “You Need 100 Points.”  It’s a story about a deacon who had a strange dream; a dream that he had died and was trying to get into heaven.

He approached the pearly gates, St. Peter told him he needed 100 points to get in.  The deacon said, "Well, I was a deacon in THE CHURCH."

"Fine," said St. Peter, "That's worth one point."

 

"One point? Is that all?"  "Yes, that's it," said St. Peter. 

"Well," said the deacon, "I visited the sick whether they were from  the parish or not."  St. Peter said, "That's 1 point."

"I worked with young adults from our diocese," said the deacon. "That's worth one point.”

"I developed a number of excellent catechetical programs," said the deacon. "That's worth one point," - "You have four points now.”

 

“You only need 96 more.”  "Oh no," said the deacon in somewhat of a panic.

"I feel so helpless, so inadequate. Except for the grace of God, I don't have a chance."

St. Peter smiled and said, "Grace of God--that counts for 96 points. Come on in!"  That story that reminds us that there will be a final judgment; God's justice, God’s mercy and our free will demand it.  (Sermons.com 8/24/14)

 

King Alfonso X, a.k.a. the Wise, the King of Spain in the 13th century said, “Had I been present at the creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe.”  I wonder what happened to Alfonso when he reached heaven’s gates?  Occasionally each of us allows our pride to overtake our common sense and our commitment to follow Jesus.  In today’s Gospel, Peter's great love for God NOT his pride, shines through as he blurts out a divine revelation: Jesus is the son of God!

Knowing . . .

Every day, for years, he visited his wife in the nursing home.  She suffered from Alzheimer’s disease; with each day she slipped further and further away ….  Every day he would feed her lunch.  He would sit with her and show her the pictures of their children, telling her the latest family news and stories she would forget as soon as she heard them. 

He would patiently remind her who he was and that they were married and (have) been for the past 52 years.  They have three children and four beautiful grandchildren.  He would hold her hand as she drifted in and out of consciousness.  Before leaving, he would kiss her and tell her how much he loved her, and she would never remember … that he had … been there.  His heartbroken friends would ask him, Why do you keep going when she doesn’t even know who you are?  And he would always reply, “Because I know who I am.”  [Table Talk Cycle A, 21^st Sunday]

The husband’s faithfulness is the perfect & complete answer to Jesus’ ? in today’s Gospel.

Jesus, the Son of God calls us to Faithfulness in God.  Today we have swipe keys, but once upon a time we had master keys.  They could unlock every door in the house.  The master key functioned something like a gatekeeper … the gatekeeper is not the King.  

Today our readings remind us that the Church rests on the solid and indestructible foundation of the papacy, nothing stop it [the Church] from fulfilling its mission.  Isaiah tells us “I will place the key of the House of David on Eliakim's shoulder ….”  Jesus tells Peter upon you I will build my church and I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

We are called to answer Who do we say Jesus is?  And we are reminded that Christ has entrusted the keys, especially the keys of the Sacred Scriptures and the Sacraments to the Church and in a particular way to the Pope.

All the baptized, lay and clerical are invited to be nourished on the “keys” of Word and Sacrament.   

Jesus asks us the most important. “But who do you say that I am?”  [Mt 16:15]   

How You answer will have lasting impact on your life and knowing who you are!

May God Be Praised.

 

 

Blog Post 8/26/2023 - The TE DEUM

 

The TE DEUM

 

Today we will pray and explore the TE DEUM, comes from the Te Deum laudamus, meaning We praise thee, O God.  A great hymn of praise.

The first part is directed toward the Father and ends with a Trinitarian doxology and could be a rare survivor of the hymns that were popular before the Council of Nicaea in 325.

"You are God: we praise you; You are the Lord: we acclaim you; / You are the eternal Father: All creation worships you./ To you all angels, all the powers of heaven, / Cherubim and Seraphim, sing in endless praise: / Holy, holy, holy, Lord, God of power and might,/ heaven and earth are full of your glory./ The glorious company of apostles praise you./ The noble fellowship of prophets praise you. / The white-robed army of martyrs praises you. / Throughout the world the holy Church acclaims you:/ Father, of majesty unbounded, / your true and only Son, worthy of all worship, / and the Holy Spirit, advocate and guide.

The second part is entirely Christological and reflects the controversies surrounding the fourth-century Arian heresy.

"You, Christ, are the king of glory,/ the eternal Son of the Father./ When you became man to set us free / you did not spurn the Virgin's womb. / You overcame the sting of death, and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. / You are seated at God's right hand in glory./ We believe that you will come, and be our judge./ Come then, Lord, and help your people, bought with the price of your own blood, / and bring us with your saints to glory everlasting.

The third section is formed from a series of verses from the Psalms, these may have been originally versicles added as a litany at the end of the hymn.

"Save your people, Lord, and bless your inheritance./ Govern and uphold them now and always./ Day by day we bless you./ We praise your name for ever. / Keep us today, Lord, from all sin. / Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy. / Lord, show us your love and mercy; / for we put our trust in you. / In you, Lord, is our hope: / And we shall never hope in vain."

 

The general rubrics of today's Divine Office direct the recitation of the Te Deum before the concluding prayer of the Office of Readings on all Sundays outside of Lent, during the octaves of Easter and Christmas, on solemnities, feasts and other special occasions.  This information about The Te Deum is from Father Edward McNamara professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university. [Modified by Deacon George Kelly]

May God Be Praised, and may you praise God by praying the TE DEUM.

Blog Post 8/25/2023 - Our Earthly Walk

 

Our Earthly Walk

Lord, Your ways are known to me, give me the grace to walk in your footsteps.  The prophet Micah [6:8] teaches us, what the Lord expects from us, “to do what is right, to love goodness, & walk humbly with our God.”

How can we clarify the path we should walk?  One way is to reflect on the day we are judged by the Lord.  On that day He will ask us what we did when we were confronted with human need?  Maybe these stories told by Leo Buscaglia can illuminate how Jesus wants us to walk in His footsteps.

An elderly man, who recently lost his wife, lived next door to a 4-year-old boy.  When the boy saw the man crying, he went into his yard, climbed up onto his lap and sat!  When his mother asked him what he said to the man, he replied, “Nothing, I just helped him cry.”

On a cold December day, a 10-year-old boy was standing in front of a shoe store with bare feet, peering through the window and shivering from cold.  A lady went up to him and said, “Why are you staring so intently?”  “I am asking God for shoes.”

The lady took him by the hand, went into the store and asked the clerk for socks, water and a towel.  Then she knelt down, washed and dried his feet; put a pair of new socks and the shoes the shoes on his feet.  Then, she purchased the shoes and socks.  As she turned to go, the little boy looked up at her with tears in his eyes and asked, “Are you God's wife?”

Spend a few minutes today and reflect on your life, your goals, and your actions, remember Jesus said, “Follow me.”

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 8/24/2023 - Each of us has an appointed Time to go to “the land of the living”.

 

Each of us has an appointed Time to go to “the land of the living”

“Each of us must come to the evening of life. Each of us must enter on eternity.  Each of us must come to that quiet, awful time, when we will appear before the Lord of the vineyard, and answer for the deeds done ….”  Saint John Henry Newman

 

 We will answer for each one of our deeds, we will see the good deeds and the blessings that flowed; we shall, also, see the bad deeds, the sins and their awful consequences, then our purgation will commence.  God’s love and mercy will heal all wounds, and “all will be well.”

May God Be Praised.

 

 

 

 

Blog Post 8/23/2023 – The sin of Pride

 

The sin of Pride

Greek playwright Sophocles in Antigone wrote, “All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.”

 

 

Pride is a sin that we need to avoid and/ overcome, it is the root of many sins.  St. Vincent de Paul said, "You must ask God to give you power to fight against the sin of pride which is your greatest enemy - the root of all that is evil, and the failure of all that is good. For God resists the proud."

 

Today ask God for the grace to recognize the sin of pride in your life and beg the Lord to forgive you for past prideful sins and the strength to avoid today and in the future.

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 8/22/2023 – God's Love

God’s love

The prophet Jeremiah tells us, “I [God]loved you with an everlasting love; in mercy I drew you to myself.”  [31:3]

St. Catherine of Siena reflected, “What an immeasurably profound love! Your Son went down from the heights of his divinity to the depths of our humanity. Can anyone’s heart remain closed and hardened after this?”  [From a dialogue On Divine Providence by Saint Catherine of Siena]

 

Today reflect on God’s great love for you!

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 8/21/2023 - Gentleness

 

                                                            Today focus on being gentle.

                                                                May God Be Praised.

 

 

*Brother Mickey McGrath’s artwork is available at: https://www.bromickeymcgrath.com/

Blog Post 8/20/2023 – Seek Yourself in God

 

Read St Teresa of Avila’s  “Seek Yourself In Me” poem slowly allowing God into your heart:

 

 

“It was by love that you were made,

Lovely and beautiful to be.

So, though it’s true that you have strayed,

Upon my heart you are portrayed –

Soul, seek yourself in me.

In you, dear Soul, I am confined.

You are my dwelling and my home.

And, even if one day I find

Closed-fast the portals of your mind,

I’ll beg for entrance when I come.

O Search for me not far away

For, if you would attain to me,

You only need my name to say

And I am there without delay.

Soul, seek yourself in me.”

 

The Lord seeks you day and night, allow God total access to your heart.

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 8/19/2023 - What wall you are climbing?

What wall you are climbing?

 

 

 

Joseph Campbell [American writer and professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College] said that the greatest tragedy in life is not so much failure but rather climbing the ladder of success and finding out that it is up against the wrong wall.

Reflect on what wall you are climbing, is it the wall of Christian living and Christian witness?

 

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 8/18/2023 – Homily on Forgiveness [8/17/2023]

 

Homily on Forgiveness

Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081623.cfm

 

Today’s Gospel challenges us to place Forgiveness at the center of our way of living.  Forgiveness difficult to offer & difficult to accept, yet we are called to do both.

A note that was pinned on a child’s body in the Ravensbruck Concentration Camp read: “Oh, Lord remember not only the men and women of good will, but also those of ill will.  But do not remember all the sufferings they inflicted on us.  Remember rather the fruits we have brought, thanks to this suffering: our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, our courage, our generosity; the greatness of heart which has grown out of all this.  And when they come to judgment, let all the fruits which we have borne be their forgiveness.”

 

On the Cross Jesus taught us when He prayed, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do!”  Consider for a few moments, in silence, what George Herbert (1593-1633) the English poet wrote, “He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.”

 

Do you need to forgive someone?  Do you need to accept the Forgiveness that has been offered to you?  Spend a few minutes reflecting on Forgiveness.

 

May God Be Praised.