Homily Crowning of the Blessed Mother 5/07/2021 - OLPH School Mass

 

Crowning of the Blessed Mother 5/07/2021 - OLPH School Mass

 

In today’s Gospel the Angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will give birth to Jesus the Son of the Most High.  This morning at OLPH we celebrate the Blessed Mother with our May Procession, Why?  Because she is the mother of our Savior, Jesus. 

 

Mothers are so important, that God chose one, Mary for his Son.  God chose your Mother for you, today, tomorrow, this Sunday & every day thank God for your Mom & for the Blessed Mother, because God chose them for you.

In our Reading from Revelations the woman symbolizes Mary the mother of the Messiah. 

 

The Blessed Mother leads us to her Son Jesus, where our salvation lies.

She leads us to the Eucharist where our spiritual nourishment is, “The Eucharist is the source and the summit of the Church ….” (#1324 CCC)  In the celebration of the Mass, we enter the Last Supper; where the priest through the words of consecration, makes Jesus present under the appearances of the bread & wine.

 

They are changed [the philosophical term is transubstantiation] into the Body & Blood of Jesus, Who is really, fully and substantially present, in THE EUCHARIST. 

 

George Docsi’s grew up [prior to WW II] in Hungary & as a boy growing, he loved dinner… big plates, the maids serving soup; he loved going into the dining room.

 

One evening he went downstairs and the dining room was in an uproar.  A persecution of the Jewish people was taking place in Russia & his grandfather went to the railway station and brought home some Jews.  Men were in skull caps in the living room, mothers nursing babies in the dining room, he threw a fit and yelled, “I want my supper!  I want my supper!  One of the maids saw this & gave him a piece of bread.

 

He threw it on the floor & screamed, “I want my supper!”  His Grandfather entered the dining room at that moment – bent down, picked up the bread, kissed it & gave it to George.”  He ate it.  George Docsi said [later], “… I think there’s a little of my grandfather in me now.”  (Robert Bly in, The Little Book on the Human Shadow p. 41)  Jesus gives His divine kiss at the Consecration and we remember Him most profoundly in the EUCHARIST.

 

Why are the Bread and Wine - changed into His Body and Blood. - Because He said so.  Jesus said, “This is my Body, This is My Blood.”  For a few minutes, in silence, reflect on the GIFT, of Mary the Mother of God your own mother, the terrific teachers you are blessed with here at OLPH and most importantly the wonderful gift of THE EUCHARIST!

 

 

 

May God Be Praised!

 

St. Joseph, pray for us.

Saint Andre Bessette intercede for us.

Sending the Right Message

 

 

 

There is an Indian Legend about an eagle’s egg and prairie chickens.  The eagle’s egg fell out of its’ nest and among prairie chickens who scratched the earth and flew a few feet off the earth. 

 

 

 

 

One day he saw a magnificent bird far above him in the cloudless sky, gliding on its’ strong golden wings.  The eagle looked up in awe. “Who’s that?’  “That’s the eagle, the king of the birds,” but you’ll never be like that, so the eagle lived and died a chicken, for that is what he believed he was.

 

 

 

 

He got the wrong message!

 

 

 

 

 

Make sure you are giving Jesus’ Message [The Good News] to everyone you meet.

 

St. Joseph, pray for us.

Saint Andre Bessette intercede for us.

May God Be Praised!

 

 

 

 

 

The Gift of Joy

  

 

True JOY is found in being a disciple of Jesus Christ with all you heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.

 

 

 

 

  

Thomas Merton’s Prayer:

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me.

I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself, & the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.

And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me, & you will never leave me to face my perils alone.” (Merton-Thoughts in Solitude, p. 81)

 

The fruits of the Holy Spirit are charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, & chastity.  [CCC 1832]

 

 

 

Pope Francis reflected on Christian joy … is a gift from God.  The Pope likened this joy given by God to the joy of a mother embracing her baby after childbirth, because it is a joy “purified” by the suffering of labor. 

 

 

The joy of the Christians … is a “joy in hope”.  Joy is the natural reaction to the work of God, whether promised or fulfilled.  Joy expresses God's kingdom—His influence on earth. (Romans 14:17)   The Spirit’s production of JOY can manifested in several different ways.

 

The Spirit’s production of joy can manifest in several different ways read the story of Franz Welser-Most.  It is told in Martin Werlen, OSB’s Embers in the Ashes, on pages 1 and 2, the book is available through Paulist Press: http://www.paulistpress.com/Products/8-330-5/embers-in-the-ashes.aspx.

Another version of Franz Welser-Most’s story is recounted here:

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/franz-welser-m%C3%B6st-mn0000690837/biography

 

“May you find in the ashes of your suffering the strength to pray for God’s grace to find God’s joy and share it, that is what Jesus’ DID!”

 

St. Joseph, pray for us.

Saint Andre Bessette intercede for us.

May God Be Praised!

 

Finding the Good

“Lord God, give us the Grace to become truly Holy, and give us the Courage to conform our lives to Your Gospel.  Nourish us always with Your Sacraments, that we may reflect the brightness of Your love to the darkness in our world.”  [Deacon Kelly]

 

 

 

One day when Michelangelo was working in his studio (with his hammer and chisel) a friend walked into his work area and admired his work. 

He said, “Michelangelo what a great gift to be able to carve a statue from that big chunk of marble”.

Michelangelo said, “No, the statue is already in the marble all I do is draw it out.” 

 

The same is true for each person we meet they have good in them, good that God put in them, we have to find that good, and draw it out.

 

Seek to find the good in each person you meet today and every day that follows.

 

 Try this “Day is Ending Prayer” as an Examen of your day, I think you will find it very spiritually nourishing. 

Thank you for all the gifts [name the gifts] of the day,
for the place I spent it [name the place(s)
And for those with whom I spent it [name the people], for all its joys [name the joys]
and all its sorrows [name the sorrows], for the troubles  overcome [name them] and for those that remain [name them].

I offer you the silence of this night, its darkness and its solitude.
Whether you chose under the cover of this night to take away the problems of this day [name them], or leave them for tomorrow, I will bless your name.

Thy will be done.  Amen.  [St. Francis de Sales]

St. Joseph, pray for us.

Saint Andre Bessette intercede for us.

May God Be Praised!

 

 

 

 

This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad, alleluia.

 

 

Carlo Caretto wrote,

"When you forgive your enemy,

When you feed the hungry,

When you defend the weak,

you believe in the resurrection.

 

When you have the courage to marry,

When you welcome the newly-born child,

When you build your home,

you believe in the resurrection.

 

When you wake at peace in the morning,

When you sing to the rising sun,

When you go to work with joy, you believe in the resurrection.

 

Belief in the resurrection means filling life with faith,

it means believing in your brother,

it means fearlessness towards all." 

 

Alleluia, the Lord is risen as he promised, alleluia.

 

“None of us lives as his own master and none of us dies as his own master. While we live we are responsible to the Lord, and when we die we die as his servants. Both in life and in death we are the Lord’s. That is why Christ died and came to life again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.”  [Romans 14:7-9]

[Easter Season 2021 from Morning Prayer 4/10/2021]

 

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad, alleluia.

 

St. Joseph pray for us.

St. Andre Bessette intercede for us.

May God Be Praised!

“I am the vine, you are the branches.”

 

Homily Cycle B 5/02/2021

Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/050221.cfm

 

In John’s Gospel Jesus announces, “I am the vine, you are the branches.”

That is a beautiful, simple, and yet majestic way to teach us to be connected to God most.  In fact, we are connected to the Creator of all that is, we are connected to the Creator of the Universe.

 

We live in the Milky Way Galaxy; scientist tell us that it is probably between 100,000 and 150,000 light years across.  And they tell us that the observable Universe is much larger, probably 93 billion light years in diameter.

 

 

A light year is the astronomical equivalent to the distance that light travels in one Earth year, nearly 6 trillion miles.  Ponder the magnitude of our Galaxy [100 billion stars], our Universe [100 billion galaxies] and the possibility that there may be other Universes.

 

 

 

 

 

Jesus gave us His Body and Blood in the Eucharist, His Real Presence to nourish our souls, to feed us spiritually.  As you know this year in our Diocese, we are celebrating The Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist [Divine Mercy Sunday, 4/11/2021 through the Solemnity of Corpus Christi 6/19/2022].  

 

 

In the 1^st reading Paul boldly proclaims Jesus as Messiah.  And in the 2^nd reading we are reminded to “… love … in deed and truth.”  If we cling to the vine, that is Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit will mold us and guide us.  Jesus tells us “Remain in me, as I remain in you.”

 

Gardening is hard and tedious work; pruning is painstakingly difficult work.  In a small town outside of Dublin, Timothy O’Reilly found an abandoned plot of land.

He removed all the junk that had been thrown there and spread good soil.

He, then planted flowers and faithfully water and cultivated his garden.  One day when O’Reilly was tending his garden Fr. McBride walked by and said, Timothy what a beautiful garden God and you have created.  O’Reilly quipped, Father you should have seen it when God had it on His own

Jesus offers us spiritual nourishment in His Word & His Sacraments, especially in The Eucharist.  The famous Catholic writer, Flannery O’Connor was invited to a posh New York City party.  In the course of the evening someone “… said … they thought of it [The Eucharist] as a symbol and a pretty good one.   O’Connor responded, … ‘Well, if it’s a symbol, to hell with it.’   [She said] it is the center of existence for me; all the rest of life is expendable.”  [found in a letter she wrote in December of 1955]

In the CCC there are 88 full paragraphs dealing specifically with The Eucharist, plus many other references to the Eucharist in the Catechism.  Jesus is present to us in many ways, but only in the Holy Eucharist is He uniquely and substantially present — Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.   This is The Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.  [CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1373-1374]

The Jesuit philosopher Fr. John Kavanaugh [died in 2012], “What could be more personal, more intense, than to say, ‘You are my food and drink, you are my own very flesh and blood’?”   “… our sacramental Eucharist, our Holy Communion, is a most radical, direct, & intense expression of the conviction that Christ is our personal savior.”  [St. Louis University Sunday Website, May 2, 2021]

Jesus said, “This is my Body, this is my Blood”, the apostles believed His Word and so do I.

What do you believe?

May God Be Praised!

 

St. Joseph, pray for us.

Saint Andre Bessette intercede for us.

 

“thankful, grateful and blessed.”

 

Homily Cycle I April 30, 2021 [OLPH School Mass]

This morning I want to share with you some thoughts on four people: St. Pius V [whose feast we celebrate today], Mr. William Baillie [my roommate from college], St. Paul and Thomas the Apostle [daubed “Doubting Thomas].

St. Pius V was the Pope who implemented the reforms from the council of Trent, in the sixteenth century.  Among those reforms was the first Catechism of the Church.  When I was in school, way back in the 20^th century, we used the Baltimore Catechism.  The first question was “Why did God make me?”  The answer was, “God made me to know Him, to love Him, to serve Him in this life, and be happy with Him in the next.”

We have an update version called the “Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church” which is presented in a question and an answer format.  We, also, have a very detailed Catechism both are great resources and available to purchase or the read online [at the HTTP://USCCB.ORG]

 

 

 

 

 

I have known Bill Baillie for 56 years, and 18 years ago his wife died suddenly on the operating table.  At the reception after her funeral, Mr. Baillie’s Mom said, “Kel, I want you to promise me that you won’t forget about Bill.”  I assured Mrs. Baillie that I would not and for the first year after his wife [Georgia’s] death, Bill and I got together for dinner once a week.  From the second year on we have gotten together once a month for lunch or dinner.  COVID prevented us until this past Wednesday, and we resumed our meal gatherings.

Bill gave me this plaque “thankful, grateful, blessed.”  Reminding us that we should be thankful and if we are we will be grateful because we know we are blessed.  We are blessed by Jesus and He wants us to be thankful and grateful for all He has given us.

 

 

In our reading for the Acts of the Apostles St. Paul was preaching the Word of God; we are called to Live the Word of God in deeds. And, finally Thomas, who is known as “Doubting Thomas”, asks Jesus how he [we] can follow the WAY?  Jesus said to Thomas and to us “I am the way, the truth and the life.”  Following Jesus is the path to being “thankful, grateful and blessed.” 

We are called to follow Jesus and be: “thankful, grateful and blessed.”

May God Be Praised!

St. Joseph pray for us.

St. Andre Bessette intercede for us.