“Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses."
Let me repeat that again:
Today/tomorrow would have been the 50th Anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, but my brothers and sisters, miracles do happen. I stand before you, almost in disbelief. After all these years of standing in front of abortion clinics, praying rosary after rosary, wondering if the world is coming to an end,
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Here we are, about two weeks into the new year, 2023. It’s not too long ago, many of us were involved in making New Year’s resolutions. When we made New Year’s resolutions, we all had every intention of keeping that resolutions.
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How many of you have ever taken a road trip? Show of hands…
I love road trips. This past summer, I drove through Southern Utah, spending one day in each of the five National Parks. It was Amazing. I even spent two nights on the Colorado River outside of Moab, over the Hurrah Pass, 14 miles from pavement.
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What will it be?
It’s a new year, so… we ponder the future. We wonder how long it will take us to start putting the current, correct date of our checks…. And we think about NEW things.
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First, I would like to offer a very Merry Christmas to all of you and your families, from myself and the staff here at St. Mary’s. We hope your celebration of the liturgy with us will lift you up to the Lord, as He has come down to earth to dwell with us.
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It’s the fourth week of Advent. We’ve lit the last candle of the Advent Wreath. It won’t be long now. How are we doing? Did we take John the Baptist’s advice? Did we prepare the way for the LORD? If not, there is still time.
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So, last Sunday, we heard about all the wonders of God’s Creation and how he created us to share it with Him. Then on Thursday, we heard about how Satan came along and messed everything up by luring us into sin, and death became a dark, sinister veil overshadowing everything. We were captured.
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Today we celebrate the second Sunday of Advent. Advent is a time of preparation. St. Joh the Baptist is crying out for everyone to Repent!!! And prepare the way of the Lord. And he’s not messing around. He calls the Pharisees and Sadducees a brood of vipers for fleeing from the coming wrath.
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Brothers & Sisters, you know the time; it's the hour now for you to wake from sleep. For Salvation is nearer now than when you first believed...
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Viva El Christo Rey! Today we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King, and this rally cry of ‘Viva el Christo Rey,” should especially evoke those of you with Mexican heritage. It was the Battle cry of the Christeros during the persecution of the Catholic Church in Mexico by President Calle and his followers.
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In the readings today, we’re hearing about Justice!
The Prophet, Micah, tells us the Sun of Justice, with its healing rays, will arise, and the Psalmist tells us the Lord comes to rule the earth with Justice.
And Justice is reasonable and necessary. We hear from St. Paul that those who are unwilling to work should not eat.
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Our Gospel story today is one that we all are pretty familiar with. We hear about Jesus coming to Jericho and his encounter with Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector, the short man who climbed a Sycamore tree to see Jesus. Jesus saw him and said, Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house...
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In the World today, we are told, You gotta be loud, you gotta be Proud, you have to be #1…. But What does Jesus tell us?
Unfortunately, in the world today, the Virtue of Humility seems to have lost its luster.
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Today’s readings seem to have a common theme of perseverance. In the first reading from Exodus, the Chosen people ran into a little problem on their way to the Promised Land. Amaleck is attempting to wipe them out before they even get established. So, Moses engages them in battle, and as long as he persevered in holding out his arms…. The Israelites had the better of the battle.
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I once knew a wonderful elderly woman named Loretta. Loretta was a fine God-fearing Christian woman. She went to Church regularly and was charitable…. A real pillar of the community. She always kept her eyes on Jesus. In fact, perhaps the only worldly thing that Loretta wanted…. Was… to win the lottery.
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On our spiritual journey, we have heard a lot of comments, questions, and statements about the word - FAITH. Some of these are:
You need more faith.
Where’s your faith?
Have faith, and the Lord will provide.
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What a frightening thing, this Gospel passage we have just heard.
Frightening, to the point that we might even forget that it is a parable. We might wonder, “Is Jesus recounting an event that really happened? Was there such a Lazarus who died in this terrible state? Was there such a rich man, who even now is experiencing those terrible torments?”
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How many of you have IRAs? 401 K’s? or life annuities?
The Abbey sold life annuities a few decades ago and actually ended up losing a lot of money on them. It seems everybody that bought them lived much longer than the actuary tables had calculated. The joke became that if you wanted to live to be 100, just buy an Abbey Annuity.
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Being Celibate, of course, I don’t have any children of my own. But I am one of 12 and I have 42 nieces and nephews, and I’ve lost count of the next generation plus, so I know a bit about parenting. And I KNOW there is trouble when one of the parents is passing off possession to the other.
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This past week the staff and I spent a couple of days on retreat at the Abbey, and I was lucky enough to have Abbot Gregory consent to give us a conference on Lectio Divina, which is Latin for Sacred Reading. It’s a method of deeply delving into the scriptures, to allow God to speak to you through them.
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In preparing this week’s homily, after reading our second reading, I recalled a short story regarding a man and his wife, who were having an argument about who should have to make the coffee each morning.
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The message we hear from Jesus today in the Gospel is a little disconcerting. He wants to set the world ablaze. That’s really scary here in Oregon, where at this time of year, we are often plagued with wildfires. Please God, NO Blazing Earth! But that’s what Jesus wants.
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It seems fairly obvious that today’s readings are centered around Faith.
In the first reading from Wisdom, we hear, “The night of the Passover was known beforehand to our fathers, that, with sure knowledge of the oath in which they put their FAITH…. They might have courage.”
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In today’s Gospel, we heard the parable about the rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. When he realized that he didn’t have enough space to store his harvest, he proceeded to tear down his barns and build larger ones.
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The readings that we hear each week at Mass are arranged so that the first reading and the Gospel go together somehow. They are meant to present a common theme… And the theme for today is… well, let’s call it what it is… NAGGING.
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Not everyone is a great conversationalist, so there are books written on such things by supposed experts. Probably the most popular is the Dale Carnegie book, “How to Make Friends and Influence People.” There is also one entitled, “How to Talk to Anyone About Anything.”
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In our gospel today, we learn about the disciples being sent on their mission by Jesus. What Jesus offered them was a new idea of God.
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