Yesterday is history, tomorrow is the future, today is what God has given you.  Listen to Morning has broken,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE_wyEZUJU4

The Lord gave you this “new day” to honor Him, how are you going to do that?  Reflect on the words you just heard.

 

Morning has broken

Like the first morning,

Blackbird has spoken

Like the first bird.

Praise for the singing!

Praise for the morning!

Praise for them, springing

Fresh from the Word!

Sweet the rains new fall

Sunlit from heaven,

Like the first dew fall

On the first grass.

Praise for the sweetness

Of the wet garden,

Sprung in completeness

Where his feet pass.

Mine is the sunlight!

Mine is the morning,

Born of the one light

Eden saw play!

Praise with elation,

Praise every morning,

God’s re-creation

Of the new day!

May God Be Praised This Morning!

“… Pope John XXIII (now Saint) observed: ‘We are not on earth to look after a museum, but to take care of a garden in bloom.’”  [Embers in the Ashes, p. 10] 

We are called to live in the garden of Christ.  We are responsible to be hospitable to those who visit the garden of Christ, especially the garden of His Church!   

We are responsible to offer cups of cold water, i.e. acts of kindness to those who enter and those we should invite to join us.  We are responsible to live our lives for Jesus Christ into whose life, death and resurrection we are baptized!

Hospitality is the root of community, in particular, Christian community.  Hospitality touches the soul.  When we are sincerely welcomed, we experience Hospitality, where better to offer that then right here at Our Lady of Perpetual Help or your home parish or church.  A small gesture like moving into the pew while maintain “Social Distancing” when some wants to sit rather than making them crawl over us or offering a smiling hello [even in our masks] to a stranger entering Church. 

  

Whatever little acts of kindness we have experienced or wish we could experience – we could offer to others.  Today pray “… that we may not be wrapped in the darkness of error but always … stand in the bright light of truth.”   Pray that we “… walk in the newness of life” with Christ our savior.  (Magnificat, July 2, 2017, p.45)

The Gospel is a wake-up call to what is important in life!  Jesus calls us to an ever-deeper relationship with Him; He should be # 1 in everything we say or do!  When you fall In love with God, everything is changed in a profound and special way.  We are challenged to fall in love with Jesus; make Him 1^st in our lives: hearts, minds and actions.  You and I are called to be prophets for Jesus by the way we live. 

For a few minutes to think about how you can help make the hallmarks of your life: kindness, hospitality and love of Jesus!

May God Be Praised!

Homily 7/05/2020

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070520.cfm

Jesus prayed in our Gospel, “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth … you have revealed them [these things] to the little ones.”  Fr. Ha began our liturgy, “O God, who in the abasement of your Son have raised up a fallen world, fill your faithful with holy joy ….”  [Collect, Sunday, 7/05/2020]

Abasement means the humbling of Jesus, the Word of God.

This particular passage from Matthew’s Gospel has been called the “pearl” because it has a prayer offered by Jesus, & we are privileged to listen, while the Son [of God] talks to [God] the Father in [God] the Holy Spirit.

In our psalm we made a commitment, “Every day will I bless you & … praise your name forever and ever.”  St. Paul tells us if we live in the Spirit we will live forever.  The mystery of the Kingdom is living the Gospel Message like children, children who listen to their parents and follow their advice.  That is the call to TRUST God.  Think about this the Savior of the world humbling Himself to ride a donkey, can we follow His example?

We are called to build up God’s Kingdom, even if it means driving a 1999 Kia rather than a 2020 Mercedes Benz.  The world looks to power, wealth, fame, prestige, etc. to give its’ glory, adulation & honor, BUT Jesus reminds us that those things in and of themselves are not bad, but how we live is much more important.  Our Messiah, Jesus fully human and fully God wants us to realize, it is His yoke that we are called to carry, and He will help us.

These two stories may help us.

A Zen Buddhist priest named Tetsugen [Tet SU gen] sought to print several thousand copies of their holy books so the Japanese people would be able to read them.  He spent 10 years traveling all over Japan raising the money, from the rich and poor.

When he had enough money to print the books, a river overflowed and caused a great flood & he used all the money to help those who needed food and shelter.  Again, he went all over Japan asking for money to print the holy books and after ten year he had enough - then an epidemic spread across the country & he used the money for the sick, the suffering and the dying.  A third time he went all over Japan a third time, it took 20 years, but he was able to finally print the holy books for his people.

A copy of the 1^st edition is on display in a monastery in Kyoto.

The Japanese who visit tell their children that Tetsugen [Tet SU gen] published three editions of the holy book: the 1^st two are invisible but far superior to the 3^rd.  [Table Talk, Cycle A 14^th Sunday in Ordinary Time]

Living God’s Message is a powerful witness.  The 2^nd story is about a young mother on a church retreat who shared about her involvement in her parish.  I have three children & my days are focused on bringing our children up in the faith by teaching them stories from the Bible, bringing them to church & helping them learn what it means to be members of the body of Christ. [Connections, July]

Those stories point to God’s Message in action and this poem Jesus Speaks by J. Janda can help us, please close you eyes and open your mind and your heart:

“You get too discouraged

you forget you are learning to walk

of course, you fall down

give yourself time

i am patient with you

be more patient with yourself

i have something very special in mind for you

something only you can do

don’t give up.” [Saint Louis University Sunday Website]

N.C. State basketball coach Jim Valvano, when he was dying from cancer, gave a speech he ended it by saying, “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.”  Take a few minutes, in silence, to reflect on your TRUST of God, and “Don’t Give Up, don’t ever give up.”

May God Be Praised!

With all of our trials and tribulations we are richly blessed to live in the United States of America, and we remember and celebrate that today.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” [Amendment I]

The First Amendment guarantees freedoms of religion, expression, assembly, and the right to petition.  It forbids Congress from both promoting one religion over others and from prohibiting the free exercise of religion.

Some of the Founding Fathers were people of faith, some were not, but they believed that religion was a good for society.  So, they supported religion, what they did not support was one established religion for the new nation.  On this 4^th of July as we celebrate our Independence, let us celebrate our freedom to practice our religion and let us pray that it remains that way.

Listen to this powerful insight from Harvard Professor Clay Christensen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjntXYDPw44

Take a few minutes to listen to a beautiful rendition of our Star-Spangled Banner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=y2V0rG_4Ax4&feature=emb_title

May God Be Praised!

“Do to no one what you yourself dislike. Give to the hungry some of your bread, and to the naked some of your clothing. Seek counsel from every wise man. At all times bless the Lord God and ask him to make all your paths straight and to grant success to all your endeavors and plans.” [Tobit 4:15a. 16a. 18a. 19]

“In the 1960’s all-pro (football) star Jerry Kramer (Green Bay Packers) wrote “Instant Replay” (a best seller) ….  In it he asks, ‘What’s my purpose here on earth besides playing the silly game I play on Sunday?’  In the 1980’s he wrote a sequel “Distant Replay” and it opens with this provocative?   ‘What have I done with my life?’

Kramer answers, regretfully, that he failed to do the one thing that he should have done: pass on proper values to his kids.  He wrote, I hadn’t done for my children what my father had done for me.’”  (Mark Link, Action, p.293)

  

How well are we passing on the Gospel values, to our families, friends & others?

The real purpose of life is to find out what God wants us to do & then to do it to the best of our ability!  “Possessions create an illusion that we have control over our destiny ….  The secret of life is finding out what God wants us to do & then enjoy doing it.”  (Connections, Aug. 2007)

Today we conclude our “Daily Dose of God” with a prayer, “Incline my heart according to your will, O God.  Incline my heart according to your will, O God.

Speed my steps along your path, according to your will, O God.”

May God Be Praised!

Let me begin today with excerpts from the poem “About the Irish”, a link to the entire poem is at the end of this reflection.  It begins with a question, “What shall I say about the Irish?”  It ends with this answer, “But mostly he’s Irish In love with his God.”

Think about where your treasurer is?  Is it in things or in God?  St. Francis deSales wrote in the Introduction to the Devout Life, “There is a difference between possessing poison and being poisoned.  Pharmacists keep almost every kind of poison in stock …, yet they are not themselves poisoned because it is merely in their shop, not in their bodies.  So, too, you can possess riches without being poisoned by them if you keep them in your home, purse or wallet, but not in your heart.”  (Part III, Chap. III)

Wealth, riches, possessions can lead us away from a God-centered life, not because they are bad in themselves BUT they fool us into thinking the wealth we have is ours.  Our wealth is a gift from God, what we do with our wealth is our gift to God!  “All things are vanity.”  The author of Ecclesiastes tells us that the purpose of human life (enduring happiness), and that is only found in God.  The quality of our lives will ultimately be measured in how we reflect God’s love, mercy and compassion to the world, on how we reflect God to God’s people.

May God Be Praised!

 

About the Irish:

http://www.appleseeds.org/irish3.htm

The Mother Superior of a congregation of sisters in a convent outside of Dublin was dying.  The nuns gathered around her bed.  One went and got her some milk and put in a little whiskey.  Another nun asked if the Mother Superior had any last words of wisdom to share with the sisters before she died.   

“Whatever you do; don’t get rid of the cow!”

Pope Francis said, “Thanks … to this encounter … with God’s love … we are liberated from our narrowness and self-absorption.  We become fully human … when we let God bring us beyond ourselves in order to attain the fullest truth of our being.” 

 The great Jesuit poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.”  Wow our tiny planet in the midst of the Universe permeated with God’s grandeur, God’s magnificence.

Sometimes we forget God’s Grandeur amid the darkness in our world: the evil, the hardships, and the crosses.  “The Gospels report that at two solemn moments, the Baptism and the Transfiguration of Christ, the voice of the Father designates Jesus his "beloved Son” ….  The Word became flesh to be our model of holiness….” (CCC#s 444 & 459)

In the Bible, mountaintops are privileged places for encountering God, for having life-changing experiences of God.  We have all had mountaintop experiences, times or moments when we felt God's presence almost palpably and we knew with absolute certainty that he was watching over us and guiding us.

• Maybe it was a retreat.
• Maybe it was your first communion.
• Maybe it was when we went to confession for the first time in years and experienced God's mercy.
• Maybe it was in the midst of a tragedy, a difficulty, or a sickness.
• Maybe it was one day when you came to Church to pray.
• Maybe it was the birth of a baby.
• Maybe it was simply one day while you were in the mountains or on the beach and saw an indescribably brilliant sunset.

God gave them to us for a reason.  Jesus knows that following Him is demanding - no one can escape life's crosses.  Following Him requires self-mastery and self-sacrifice.  Jesus reminds us that even those hardships are woven into His plan.

Today and throughout this week, the Lord wants us to renew our faith in His goodness, wisdom and blessings.

Take a few minutes to thank God for your mountaintop experiences [those experiences of God’s goodness, God’s wisdom and God’s blessings bestowed upon us], and ask for the grace to deepen your faith.

Whatever you do, “Don’t get rid of your faith!”

May God Be Praised!