“Have patience to walk with short steps until you have wings to fly.”  

St. Francis de Sales

 

“Sometimes God send angels, but most of the time God sends you and me to help.  Today be an angel for someone, do a good deed, and do it for God.” 

Deacon Kelly

May God Be Praised!

“Truly it is a blessed thing to love on earth as we hope to love in Heaven, and to begin that friendship here which is to endure for ever there.”

[St. Francis de Sales]

Friendships that bring us closer to the Lord are a gift from the God who created us and wants us to be with Him forever in Heaven.

These are Friendships where Heart speaks to Heart, spiritually - may you experience such friendships, and be such a friend.

May God Be Praised!

"Persevere in labors that lead to salvation. Always be busy in spiritual actions. In this way, no matter how often the enemy of our souls approaches, no matter how many times he may try to come near us, he'll find our hearts closed and armed against him."  [St. Cyprian of Carthage]

By offering each action, each thought, each moment to the Lord, we can be like the Blessed Mother, let it be done to me according to Your Will dear Lord.

When we pray the Our Father we say,  “Thy will be done.”  Choosing to live for Jesus rather than for ourselves will make our family, our friends, our world & ourselves better, in fact it will lead us to HOLINESS.

May God Be Praised!

 

Homily Sunday Mass 11/3 and 4, 2018 [And OLPH’S Annual Mass of Remembrance]

Last Night we gathered in church at 4:15 pm, and we remembered and prayed for the deceased members of our families, and for our deceased friends.   

St. Francis de Sales said, “Let God gather from His garden what He has planted, He takes nothing out of season.”  We do not understand God’s Seasons, so personal loss is difficult for us.

Each of us here knows that!  And we know that, “Heartbreak is impossible unless there is great love.  Without love, sorrow & tears would disappear.”   (Eugene Kennedy)

We believe that our deceased loved ones are in the “land of the living”, at home with God.  In a Funeral Mass our sorrow, our tears, our love and our hope unite in the Eucharist.  From the Eucharist we receive the strength to continue and to continue with Hope.

St. Mark’s Gospel today echoes our first reading from Deuteronomy, reminding us that the 1^st Commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, with all our mind & with all strength.  

The Scriptures and the Eucharist renew us!  Today we will be renewed, once again, by The Word by The Eucharist.  Msrg. Sacks asked God for all of us, “… that we may hasten without stumbling to receive the things you promised.” [Collect 11-04-18]

During November the Church asks us to remember those “…who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection.” [Ordo 2018]   Fr. Ron Rolheiser wrote about the “communion of saints”, he said “those who have died still [have] a real relationship with us.  He labeled it “Galilee” and said “Galilee” represents the place in our hearts and in our geography where we learned about the goodness of God from them, and where our relationship with them continues. [“Finding Our Loved Ones After Their Deaths”, 11-21-2014]

In the Vigil for the deceased we pray, “My brothers & sisters, we believe that all the ties of friendship and affection which knit us as one throughout our lives do not unravel with death.”  We know and we believe that Jesus is the way, the truth and the light – He is our way, our truth and our light.  He will guide each one of us “through the night and greet us with his light.”

That is our belief

That is our consolation!

That is our Hope!  

And we do not Hope in vain!

Jesus told the scribe “you are not far from the kingdom of God.”  What a great message to receive, “You are not far form the kingdom of God! 

What is the correct path? 

We know it well, to love God and love our neighbor, with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength.  Jesus told the scribe “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” 

For a few minutes, in silence, reflect on what Jesus would say to you about the how close you are to the Kingdom of God?

May God Be Praised!

“May love fill your heart and faith guide your way; May hope always find you each and every day.

May your mornings bring joy and your evenings peace; May your troubles grow less and your blessings increase.”  [Celtic Blessing]

May God Be Praised!

Homily for November 1, 2018

Today is All Saints Day, tomorrow is All Souls Day, and during the month of November the Church asks us to pray for those who have gone before us in faith.

You are well aware that the Eagles won Superbowl, the Washington Capitals won Stanley Cup, and Red Soxs just won the World Series.  Their status as Champions lasts one year.  In Revelations (7:2-4, 9-14) we read that we are  “marked with a seal”, and indeed we are at our Baptism.  We were marked us forever as a follower of Christ!

In the 1^st Letter of St. John we read that we are Children of God, including each one of us, no matter how old or young we are today.  In the Gospel of Mark Jesus gives His disciples and He gives us the Beatitudes – the principals for us to live by; like a GPS to get us to Heaven our ultimate goal.

Each one of us is called to be Holy, the Second Vatican Council referred to this as the “Universal Call to Holiness” in Lumen Gentium.  But how can we do this – by having Jesus as the center of our lives in our mind, in our heart, and in our hands.

In the Play WICKED the song, For Good has a powerful and beautiful message with these words, “But because I know you I have been changed for good.”  We are changed for the good because in our Baptism we were sealed to the heart of Jesus, and we are called to share His message with each person we meet.

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. 

My hope and pray for each of you is that the people who meet you are changed for the good. That is how a disciple of Jesus Christ lives.

May God Be Praised!

As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, the living God.

When can I enter and see the face of God?  My tears have been my bread day and night, as they ask me every day, “Where is your God?”

Those times I recall as I pour out my soul, When I would cross over to the shrine of the Mighty One, to the house of God, Amid loud cries of thanksgiving, with the multitude keeping festival.

Why are you downcast, my soul; why do you groan within me?  Wait for God, for I shall again praise him, my savior and my God.

My soul is downcast within me; therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan and Hermon, from Mount Mizar, Deep calls to deep in the roar of your torrents, and all your waves and breakers sweep over me.  By day may the LORD send his mercy, and by night may his righteousness be with me!

I will pray to the God of my life, I will say to God, my rock: “Why do you forget me?  Why must I go about mourning with the enemy oppressing me?” It shatters my bones, when my adversaries reproach me, when they say to me every day: “Where is your God?”

Why are you downcast, my soul, why do you groan within me?  Wait for God, for I shall again praise him, my savior and my God.”  [Psalm 42]

This Psalm reminds us that each one of us will one go home to God and that we should live each day like it is the day we are going home to the Lord: “When will I come to the end of my pilgrimage and enter the presence of God?”

May God Be Praised!