#Our Daily Homily

[officialyourdailyinspiration]

Our Daily Homily by F.B. Meyer

"My soul waiteth only upon God." Psalms 62:1

Dr. Kay gives as the literal translation: "Only toward God my soul is in silence;" or, "Only for God waits my soul all hushed." The noises of contending desires, the whispers of earthly hopes, are hushed: and the soul listens.

This is the test of true waiting. Wait before God till the voices, suggestions, and energies of nature become silent. Then only can God realize his uttermost of salvation. This was the secret of Abraham’s long trial. He was left waiting till nature was spent, till all expedients proving abortive were surrendered; till all that knew him pitied him for clinging to an impossible dream. But as this great silence fell on him, the evidence of utter helplessness and despair, there arose within his soul an ever-accumulating faith in the power of God; and there was no obstacle to prevent God realizing all, and beyond all, because all the glory accrued to Himself.

This is why God keeps you waiting. All that is of self and nature must be silenced; one voice after another cease to boast; one light after another be put out; until the soul is shut up to God alone. This process prevails equally in respect to salvation from penalty, deliverance from the power of sin, and our efforts to win souls. O my soul, be silent! Hush thee! Wait thou only upon God! Surrender thy cherished plans and reliances. Only when death has done its perfect work, will He bestow the power of an endless (an indissoluble) life.

"O Lord, my God, do Thou thy holy will! I will lie still! I will not stir, lest I forsake thine arm, And break the charm, Which lulls me, clinging to my Father’s breast In perfect rest."

#F.B. Meyer #Our Daily Homily #devotional #June 22 #2023 #Psalms 62:1

[j-femmescoli]

books i read in 2023

my goal was to read a book a week and while the timeline wasn't perfectly even, i did manage to get it to add up (and then some!). this year i focused on religion and philosophy as well as classics (of which im counting both as traditional "ancient or pre-modern famous and outstanding" types of books, but also famous more modern books). i also bolded some books that were really good in my opinion that have really stuck with me so if you are interested in the genre i'd suggest those

st joan by bernard shaw (play)

mary and your everyday life by bernard haring (theology)

theology of liberation by gustavo gutierrez (theology)

magnificat by elizabeth ruth obbard (theology)

piedras labradas by victor montejo (poetry)

the boy who was raised as a dog by bruce perry and maia szalavitz (psychology)

4 great plays by ibsen - the dollhouse, ghosts, the wild duck, and an enemy of the people by henry ibsen (plays obvi)

the night of the iguanas by tennessee williams (play)

being logical by dq mcinerny (idk sociology maybe? it was about recognizing and avoiding bad-faith arguments and logical fallacies)

the alchemist by paolo coelho (classics)

frankenstein by mary shelly (classics)

an american tragedy by theodore dreiser (classics)

is this wifi organic? by dave farina (idk how to classify this one either but it was also about recognizing bad-faith arguments, specifically when it comes to pseudoscience)

the nicaraguan church and the revolution by joseph muligan (theology, history)

catholic social teaching: our best kept secret by peter henriot, edward deberri, and michael schultheis (theology)

beowulf (classics)

sapiens by yuval noah harari (anthropology)

the church and the second sex by mary daly (theology)

mary in the new testament edited by raymond brown, karl donfried, joseph fitzmyer, and john reumann (theology)

a catholic devotion to mary by oscar lukefahr (theology)

1001 nights / arabian nights trans. sir richard burton (classics)

a house on mango street by sandra cisneros (poetry)

primary source readings in catholic church history edited by robert feduccia and nick wagner (theology)

doing faithjustice by fred kammer, sj (theology)

winds of change by isaac asimov (sci-fi)

the sound and the fury by william faulkner (classics)

una ciudad de la españa cristiana hace mil años by claudio sanchez-albornoz (history)

the glass menajerie by tennessee williams (play)

reinventing the enemy's language by joy harjo and gloria bird (indigenous women writers anthology)

the great gatsby by f scott fitzgerald *reread* (classics)

the bell jar by sylvia plath (classics)

the kite runner by khaled hosseini (classics)

one nation, under gods by peter manseau (history)

development as freedom by amartya sen (economic / political philosophy)

women in ministry: four views edited by bonnidell and robert g clouse (practical theology)

mother of god: a history of the virgin mary by miri rubin (theology / history)

a study in scarlet and the sign of four by sir arthur conan doyle (classics)

adventures of sherlock holmes by sir arthur conan doyle (classics)

the casebook of sherlock holmes by sir arthur conan doyle (classics)

the valley of fear by sir arthur conan doyle (classics)

the memoirs of sherlock holmes by sir arthur conan doyle (classics)

the return of sherlock holmes by sir arthur conan doyle (classics)

the hound of the baskervilles by sir arthur conan doyle (classics)

his last bow by sir arthur conan doyle (classics)

the fundamentals of ethics, fourth edition by russ shafer landau (philosophy)

dracula by bram stoker (classics) (yes i'm counting dracula daily)

desde mi silencio by carmen gomez (poetry)

happiness in this life, excerpts from the homilies of pope francis (theology)

the vigilante / the snake / the chrysanthemums by john steinbeck (classics)

quest for the living god by sister beth johnson *reread* (theology)

the adventures of tom sawyer by mark twain (classics)

the adventures of huckleberry finn by mark twain (classics)

the boys in the boat by daniel james brown (history)

and that's all folks, ending the year with some classics, plus my mom insisted i read the boys in the boat while im home for christmas because she wanted to see the movie lol. i got so many books for christmas so i'll be startin off strong next year too, and my goal is finishing my collection of john steinbeck, by which i mean obtaining as well as reading everything i can find by him. here's my list from 2022 and i'll see you next year

#books #bookblr #reading #literature #classic lit #john steinbeck #philosophy #religion #classics #sherlock holmes #mystery #psychology #theology #history #poetry #sociology

[amaranthsynthesis]

Baldur's Mouth Gazette: Interview with High Primate Halvyriin

[ Uktar 27, 1491 ]

>> Dear Baldurians, I am here today with a most rare and captivating opportunity. 

As some of us know well, and others have only heard alluded to in hushed whispers, our fair city is host to a Bhaalist enclave. Now, some decry this as a foul threat to be stomped out, but I am a journalist of integrity and will not pass judgment sight unseen. 

I have been granted temporary, limited access to the temple. Escorted there blindfolded, as a matter of course, after having been teleported around the city a few times in a delightful game of misdirection. 

With me today is the highest authority of the temple. Would you care to introduce yourself?

> I am called Ballard of House Halvyriin, formerly of Menzoberrenzan, currently serving as High Primate of Bhaal's Holy Temple as it operates within Baldur's Gate.

>> And how long have you held this position, if you are at liberty to say?

> Sixteen years as primate and seven preparing to take the mantle. Strictly speaking, prior to the violent reorganization of our hierarchy in 1482, the position was only second highest in the temple. 

>> Well! A fascinating trajectory, to be sure. Now, my readers have very little idea of what goes on in religious establishments such as this, the workings of the more...controversial gods are a bit of a black box to the average person. Could you paint me a picture of your daily activities? What is a day in the life, so to speak.

> Our masses are shrouded for a reason, scribe, and I shall not bare their secrets for you here less you are willing to face the tribunal as an aspirant yourself. 

No? 

Perhaps another time. 

Suffice to say our liturgical calendar is both robust and stringent. I no longer lead our daily services but my role is to lead and organize observation of the high holidays and feast days, to guide the lesser clergy in scripture and homily, and to care for the divine upkeep of our temple. I feed us, I pray for us, I follow the hand of Our Father where He demands. 

In my own time, I meditate and exercise. On the occasion I pursue literature; the Gazette could stand to showcase more poetry, saer. I trust the issue will be remedied now that I have brought it to your attention.

>> I see.

So there is a hollyphant in the room: the murders. Many do not particularly care for the idea of it, either as the one holding the knife or the person receiving it. You must forgive us for being conservative on the subject, but I am here today to expand our minds. Do you have a preferred personal method? Manner of disposal?

> I must forgive nothing. Your heresies are your own and condemn you regardless of my approval.

As for the murders--our Dread Father calls for death in droves and waves, and it is my duty as his heir and Chosen to ensure the banks never dry. I am permitted my personal worship, of course, and when able it pleases me to spend hours in the protraction of a single death. It is holy to fear, and to beg mercy, and to deny it. Those I choose to worship with I raise to the heights of a devotion they could never claim of their own.

Regarding method, Knives are traditional, even you must realize, but I am known to be something of a radical. The disposal is managed largely by the lowest priest rank and overseen by my personal assistant. As I understand it, our fuel, our ablutives, and our sacrament are rarely scarce.

>> And how about how you ah, select, your targets? Any safety tips for the people reading? 

> You misunderstand severely. There is no safety in avoiding Bhaal's gaze, only the delaying of this world's end. The temple accepts donations, of course, and our donors may find solitude following their gift, but they may find also that divine will weighs heavier than gold or iron. Even the faithful are called to His side with regularity. Even I will face His altar in the final days, when all others have fallen. 

Walk in company, walk only in the light, make obeisance where you will, but we are none of us invulnerable in public or in private. Perhaps one might prove stronger and more skilled than His Hands at their bloody work, and so preserve a life past His sentence--but there are none stronger than I, and it is my knife at the end of the line.  

>> Thank you ever so much for your time. And for sparing my life. Any closing remarks?

> Your trust and forbearance does you great service. My trust and forbearance I also place in you, that you will record only the truth, unvarnished and unadulterated. Prove that trust misplaced and I will take repayment in blood. 

A fine afternoon to you, saer.

(interview format written by @mycolalia for character voice reasons, thank you again!!!!!! Realized I never posted this off discord oops)

#bg3 #the dark urge #ballard #durge #bg3 durge #character meta #i love writing Ballard so much he's so

[bylagunabay]

Unseen Warfare

THE DIABOLIC IN YOUR LIFE

(2 minute read)

Is there discord in your family, infighting in your business or corporation, factions in your religious organization and war in your neighborhood? If so, you may want to watch the homily by Venerable Bishop Fulton J. Sheen on the actions of the diabolic in our daily life.

𝑺𝒐 𝑰 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒄 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒔𝒚𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒂𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒄 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒖𝒑 𝒐𝒇 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒖𝒑 𝒐𝒇 𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒖𝒑 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒖𝒑 𝒐𝒇 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒖𝒑 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑪𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕 …

(The concise description in the video of the action of the diabolic begins at 4:43 and ends at 11:24. But for further details, please finish watching the video.)

“I thought perhaps you might be interested in hearing about the Devil from a sound philosophical and theological point of view. I'm going to describe to you the Devil, first from the psychiatric point of view, and secondly from the biblical. First the psychiatric.

It is interesting that as we drop things in the Church the world begins to pick them up and distorts them. Now we, for example, the nuns drop the long habits, the girls put on maxi coats. We stop saying the beads, hippies put the beads around their neck. And, as theologians dropped the demonic, the psychiatrists picked it up.

[Dr.] Rollo May of Rockefeller Institute has several chapters in his work on psychiatry on the diabolic. What is the diabolic from the purely psychiatric point of view? Dr. Rollo May analyzes the word diabolic, it comes from the Greek words dia and ballein. Diaballein is to tear apart, rend asunder. Anything, therefore, that breaks pattern, that destroys unity, that corrupts gestalt, produces discord, that is the diabolical. Now, there has been a great increase of the diabolic. Notice for example the discord in the Church, the discord in religious communities, the discord among the laity regards the Church, discord in the clergy. All these are manifestations of a spirit of the diabolic that surrounds us.

Now this psychiatrist [Dr. May] analyzes the way in which the diabolic works. And he mentions three: First love of nudity. Secondly, violence, aggressiveness. Thirdly, split personalities, no inner peace, disjointed minds.

[ … ]

Our Blessed Lord one time went into the land of the Gerasenes… and he found in this land a young man possessed of the Devil (Mark 5:1-20). The Gospel mentions three characteristics of this young man. First he was nude. Secondly, he was violent and aggressive. They could not even keep him in chains. And thirdly, his mind was split, schizophrenic. Our Lord said to him, "What is your name?" He said, "My name is Legion."

Now a legion in his time meant six thousand soldiers in the Roman army. See already he is a person and yet he is legion, six thousand others. My name is legion for we are many. See the personality is no longer unified, I, Legion, we many. Now this psychiatrist does not ever correlate his three manifestations of the diabolic with this young man in the Gospel. I am doing that because I could not help but notice the similarity between the two. So from just a superficial point of view, the diabolic disrupts, and whenever you have a great manifestation of the Spirit you always get the Devil working. When for example, Moses in the Old Testament worked miracles against Pharaoh, Pharaoh's agents simulated a few miracles. When the Holy Spirit came upon the early Church at Pentecost, there was the persecution of Stephen. We had a Vatican Council, the blessing of the Spirit upon the Church. And we have immediately the manifestation of the evil spirit.

So I just leave you with this characteristic note of the diabolic from the psychiatric point of view. The breakup of unity, the breakup of families, the breakup of corporations, the breakup of religious communities, the breakup the oneness of Christ … “

#catholic church #catholic #devil #demons #diabolic #Fulton Sheen #Youtube

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

17th November >> Fr. Martin's Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Luke 17:26-37 for Friday, Thirty Second Week in Ordinary Time: 'So will it also be in the days of the Son of Man'.

Friday, Thirty Second Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA) Luke 17:26-37 When the day comes for the Son of Man to be revealed.

Jesus said to the disciples: ‘As it was in Noah’s day, so will it also be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating and drinking, marrying wives and husbands, right up to the day Noah went into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. It will be the same as it was in Lot’s day: people were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but the day Lot left Sodom, God rained fire and brimstone from heaven and it destroyed them all. It will be the same when the day comes for the Son of Man to be revealed.

‘When that day comes, anyone on the housetop, with his possessions in the house, must not come down to collect them, nor must anyone in the fields turn back either. Remember Lot’s wife. Anyone who tries to preserve his life will lose it; and anyone who loses it will keep it safe. I tell you, on that night two will be in one bed: one will be taken, the other left; two women will be grinding corn together: one will be taken, the other left.’ The disciples interrupted. ‘Where, Lord?’ they asked. He said, ‘Where the body is, there too will the vultures gather.’

Gospel (USA) Luke 17:26-37 So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.

Jesus said to his disciples: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man; they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; on the day when Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all. So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, someone who is on the housetop and whose belongings are in the house must not go down to get them, and likewise one in the field must not return to what was left behind. Remember the wife of Lot. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it. I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be taken, the other left. And there will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken, the other left.” They said to him in reply, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the body is, there also the vultures will gather.”

Reflections (6)

(i) Friday, Thirty Second Week in Ordinary Time 

According to the Book of Ecclesiastes, there is a ‘time for every matter under heaven’. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus mentions some of the human activities that the term ‘every matter’ covers, namely, eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, marrying wives and husbands. This is the stuff of ordinary day-to-day life. These activities and many others will always be with us, in every time and place. Yet, Jesus warns against the danger of becoming so absorbed by these essential activities for life that we are completely unaware of another reality that is even more important, what he refers to as ‘the days of the Son of Man’. The ‘days’ or ‘day’ in question is that moment at the end of time when the Son of Man is revealed in all his glory. We have no way of knowing when that day will come. Yet, what we do know is that the glorious Son of Man who is to be revealed at the end of time is the same risen Lord who is with us always until the end of time. In that sense, the ‘days of the Son of Man’ are the days of our lives. The Lord reveals his presence to us each day, today. The value of our daily activities can so absorb us that we fail to see beyond them. The first reading invites us to contemplate the Author, the Creator, through the grandeur and beauty of his creatures. The term ‘contemplate’ might suggest going off on our own to a lonely place to pray. However, we can contemplate the Lord in the midst of all our activities, surrounded by God’s creatures. Contemplation is a way of seeing that brings us beyond the surface of things to the Lord who reveals himself to us from the heart of life. What is said of Woman Wisdom in the Jewish Scriptures can be said of the Lord, ‘She graciously shows herself to them as they go, in every thought of theirs coming to meet them’. 

And/Or

(ii) Friday, Thirty Second Week in Ordinary Time

Each of us in our own way is involved in the daily business of life. The ordinary day to day matters engage us. Most of our time is taken up with just living in that very ordinary sense of the word. Jesus refers to this rhythm of daily living in this morning’s gospel reading. He speaks of eating and drinking, marrying wives and husbands, buying and selling, planting and building. This is the stuff of life. Without it life could not go on. It is no surprise that it takes up so much of our time and energy. Yet, in the gospel reading, Jesus warns against becoming so absorbed by the ordinary routine of life that we never look beyond it or look at a deeper level. In that context of ordinary human activity Jesus speaks of the day of the coming of the Son of Man. That will be a day that puts everything we do, the ordinary business of life, into a totally different perspective, an eternal perspective in a sense. We need something of that eternal perspective before the arrival of that day of the Son of Man. The glorious Son of Man, the risen Lord, is already among us. There is a sense in which he is arriving in the course of our day. The gospel reading warns against becoming so immersed in our day to day affairs that we fail to take notice of him or pay attention to him. We need to be fully immersed in our world with its various comings and goings while at the same time not being so absorbed by that world that we forget about that someone greater who stands among us calling out to us, inviting us into a personal relationship with him. It is out of that relationship that we then engage with the nitty-gritty of life.

And/Or

(iii) Friday, Thirty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today’s gospel reading speaks about the activities of eating and drinking, taking wives and husbands, buying and selling, planting and building. These will always be some of the main activities of any human life. We could add to that list. Jesus reminds his listeners that in the time of Noah people were all engaged in these activities when, suddenly, disaster struck, the flood came and all these vitally important human activities seemed less important. On this basis Jesus warns his contemporaries not to become so absorbed by these very human and necessary activities that when he, the Son of Man, comes at the end of time, they will be unprepared for his coming and caught off guard. Jesus is reminding us that we need to keep a proper sense of perspective. The activities of life can be so absorbing and so wonderful in many ways that they can become an end in themselves. There is a deeper dimension to these activities which we can miss. The Lord who comes at the end of time is present to us in and through all of our daily activities. The Lord is present in all things. We need that contemplative approach to life which allows us to recognize the Lord present to us in all our activities. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We encounter the Lord in and through the flesh of life. If we are open to his presence at the heart of life, then his coming to us at the end of time or at the end of our own earthly time will not take us by surprise.

And/Or

(iv) Friday, Thirty Second Week in Ordinary Time

The gospel reading this morning warns against being so absorbed in the ordinary things of life that we neglect what is of ultimate importance. The reading speaks of eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, marrying wives and husbands. These activities and many others are the stuff of life. They are very important. Life could not go on without them. They are so important that we may to see them as of ultimate importance; this is all there is. Yet, above and beyond all of that necessary activity there is a deeper reality, what the reading refers to as the day for the Son of Man to be revealed. The Son of Man is revealed at the end of time and at the end of our own personal lives. The Son of Man is also revealed in the here and now; the Lord calls out to us in and through the ordinary activities in which we are always engaged. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. All of life is an invitation to contemplate the Lord who is at the heart of life. He calls out to us, as we go about our daily lives, to seek him with all our being just as he seeks us with all his being.

And/Or

(v) Friday, Thirty Second Week in Ordinary Time

The gospel describes a situation in which the normal business of life is suddenly cut short by some unexpected event. The eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building, marrying wives and husbands, that went on in the days of Noah and the days of Lot were suddenly brought to a stop by catastrophic events, the great flood and the destruction of a city. In our own lives we can have a similar experience. We are caught up in the ordinary day to day business of living, and suddenly something happens that renders all of that of secondary importance. What is it that keeps us going when those familiar routines no longer sustain us? For us as Christians, it can only be our faith in the Lord. We know that when all else changes, when everything else collapses around us, the Lord endures. In the words of yesterday’s gospel reading, ‘the kingdom of God is among you’. God’s reign, God’s power, is among us, in and through his Son. When all else fails, we can rely on that. Like Saint Paul, we can discover that God’s power is made perfect in weakness. In our times of greatest weakness we can experience the Lord’s power most fully.

And/Or

(vi) Friday, Thirty Second Week in Ordinary Time

The first reading this morning speaks of those who take things for gods. They give to God’s creatures an allegiance that is due to God alone. This is the most obvious case of giving more importance to something than it merits. We can all be prone to that in different ways. We can get things out of proportion. One of the tasks of life is to keep things in proportion. For us as Christians keeping things in proportion will always mean keeping the Lord to the fore and not allowing other things to come between us and him. The ‘eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building’ that the gospel talks about are all important, but they are not of ultimate importance. Only God and his Son are of ultimate importance and we are called to live in a way that acknowledges their sovereignty. As Jesus says at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, ‘Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well’.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

[lawrenceop]

HOMILY for Conversion of St Paul

Acts 9:1-22, Psalm 116:1-2, Mark 16:15-18

My parents named me Paul. So, for many years, today was a special feast day for me because this was St Paul’s day - not shared with St Peter, but just St Paul. And as I had also been a convert to Catholicism, so this feast of the Conversion of St Paul has always resonated with me, and it was a festive, joyful day. But ten years ago, in 2013, that changed. Ten years ago I was woken from sleep by my mobile phone ringing repeatedly; it was my mother. And with her voice breaking with emotion she told me that her mother, my grandmother who lived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, had unexpectedly died in her sleep. My uncle had found lying peacefully in her bed on the morning of the 25th of January, and they couldn’t wake her up. She was aged 81 and had not been suffering any particular illness; she had just passed away in her sleep. So, since 2013, today’s feast has become bitter-sweet, a poignant day full of memories. 

My earliest memories of my grandmother are of the view of her sitting at the desk in her room; as a child I slept in a bed facing her bed in her room. I would open my eyes early in the morning, and see her seated at her desk as the sun rose, and she would be reading the Bible or deep in prayer. My grandmother took me to church and thus she taught me to pray, much as Lois in the Bible taught her grandson Timothy to pray - St Paul mentions this in his 2nd letter to Timothy. And so, as I think of St Paul who was brought to faith in Christ in such a miraculous way, on this day I also remember the more ordinary ways in which we come to faith in Christ: we are led by the good example and teaching of others, especially family members who love us, and teach us, and discipline us. Indeed, as we mark the Day of Prayer for Christian Unity today, it is fitting that I remember and give thanks for my grandmother’s example of Christian life: though she was not a Catholic she was baptised into Christ as we all are, and she imparted that faith in Jesus as our Lord and Saviour to me. 

For in the first decade of my life, I had been brought up by my grandmother. Hence, I learnt to love music from the 1950s, learnt the table manners and decorum of an older generation, and I also learnt to love God and Jesus and the Gospel. Many of us think of St Paul’s ‘Damascus moment’ as an explosion of converting grace that happened once-and-for-all. However, such experiences of grace are extraordinary. After all, St Paul’s mission to the Gentiles was extraordinary. But for the rest of us Christians, we have the grace of a series of Damascus moments, or rather, the grace of St Paul’s singular moment of conversion is being drawn out over our entire lifetime. And this is what we want, what we need, and what we can pray for: that God’s grace will be granted us over a lifetime, daily deepening our love for Christ until death. And we pray that death will not be so sudden and unexpected as to leave us unprepared. Many Catholics rightly worry about an unprepared death, and we should be careful not to die without the strength and consolation of the Sacraments.

But I subsequently learnt from my grandmother’s younger sister, a devout Christian woman herself, that she and my grandmother would pray every night for the last decade of her life for a peaceful death; my grandmother prayed to just fall asleep in Christ. For a non-Catholic Christian who do not understand nor know the necessity of the Sacraments, to pray to fall asleep in Christ peacefully, means to pray for the grace of final perseverance in Faith. Hence I believe that my grandmother was thus prepared to meet her Lord and Saviour; and I trust that she was granted the grace of the kind of peaceful death that she had prayed for. 

The end of a life that was marked by daily prayer and surrender to Christ rightly ends with Christ, with a coming to rest in his peace. Over the years, I saw my grandmother change and grow and develop in her love for God, and her love for others – her temper mellowed, she became deeply forgiving even though she had suffered greatly at the hands of others, and she had a deep humility and simplicity. This, too, is the path of conversion. Indeed, this is the ordinary, by which I mean, the normal and proper way, by which we Christians are daily and gradually converted to Christ. There is no short cut, no sudden change, no once-and-for-all Damascus moment but often a process, a deepening and intensification of our relationship with Jesus Christ, so that gradually we grow into a deeper friendship with him, a more intense love for God. Therefore, each day, let these words of St Paul inspire us: “He [Christ] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” [So] I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor 12:9-10)

What faith St Paul had! His encounter with Christ on the Damascus road shaped the rest of his life, empowered him through his graced friendship with the Risen Lord, to endure all things for love of God, knowing that Christ was with him, abiding in him through grace. This same faith I realised lived in my grandmother, and she imparted that to me, by God’s grace and providence. And as a priest and Friar Preacher my hope is to hand this Faith on those I meet and catechise and teach. I hope it is your goal too. For Christ has ultimately called on us, the Baptised, to “go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation.” My grandmother was no street evangelist, though, but in her own quiet way, seated at her desk in prayer, or helping her neighbours and bringing them gifts, she was, quite definitely, proclaiming the Gospel. For her life had quite evidently been touched by the grace of the Risen Lord, and so people knew her to be a believer. And as Christ says in the Gospel: “He who believes and is baptised will be saved”.   

#conversion #st paul #grace #remembrance #Por Por

[islandofohara]

this year's christmas makes me sick. it's not just the social obligations one has to live up to, that happens every year, but i woke up today and realized that as i get older and material gifts matter less and less to me, it makes me sick just how christmas has been so desentisized to the point that we have the guts, the outright shame, to be jolly and merry and be grateful for our "blessings" when the world is on fire.

and i want to specify that the christmas that makes me sick is the christian catholic christmas. my faith pushes me to be shameful for how we treat christmas now. not once have i heard a priest, during their homilies, mention anything about the ongoing genocide.

is not the nativity a daily scene everyday anywhere in the world where peoples are displaced from their homes, from their land?

is not the savior and the holy family that we celebrate one of the humblest of origins precisely because they're the least in society?

do we have the audacity to blaze fireworks when across the world, a child is terrified of explosions, is dead because of explosions, is an orphan in the rubble?

it punches me in the gut when the social media bubble is filled with celebrations, statements of thanks for the blessings and material wealth one has received in the year, when one takes the name of god of jesus and praises them so emptily so selfishly.

we don't have the shame.

sure, no amount of wallowing in grief and helplessness can miraculously make everything better. that i can be told of to just be happy and celebrate and enjoy my holidays whatsoever.

but how much does it take to remember, to acknowledge, to spend a prayer for everyone and anyone suffering right now?

is christianity just this? desensitized parties, vain praise and worship songs, consumerism and more of it?

#if you read this you have my thanks #really i just needed to let this out #and for any practicing christian or catholic out here #tell me i'm not going crazy #sel.txt

[cassianus]

My fellow Christians, our annual celebration of a martyr’s feast has brought us together. She achieved renown in the early Church for her noble victory; she is well known now as well, for she continues to triumph through her divine miracles, which occur daily and continue to bring glory to her name.

She is indeed a virgin, for she was born of the divine Word, God’s only Son, who also experienced death for our sake. John, a master of God’s word, speaks of this: He gave the power to become children of God to everyone who received him.

The woman who invites us to this banquet is both a wife and virgin. To use the analogy of Paul, she is the bride who has been betrothed to one husband, Christ. A true virgin, she wore the glow of pure conscience and the crimson of the Lamb’s blood for her cosmetics. Again and again she meditated on the death of her eager lover. For her, Christ’s death was recent, his blood was still moist. Her robe is the mark of her faithful witness to Christ. It bears the indelible marks of his crimson blood and the shining threads of her eloquence. She offers to all who come after her these treasures of her eloquent confession.

Agatha, the name of our saint, means “good.” She was truly good, for she lived as a child of God. She was also given as the gift of God, the source of all goodness to her bridegroom, Christ, and to us. For she grants us a share in her goodness.

What can give greater good than the Sovereign Good? Whom could anyone find more worthy of celebration with hymns of praise than Agatha?

Agatha, her goodness coincides with her name and way of life. She won a good name by her noble deeds, and by her name she points to the nobility of those deeds. Agatha, her mere name wins all men over to her company. She teaches them by her example to hasten with her to the true Good, God alone.

From a homily on Saint Agatha by Saint Methodius of Sicily, bishop

The gift of God, the source of all goodness

[eternal-echoes]

“To be with Jesus and, being sent, to go out to meet people - these two things belong together and together they are the heart of a vocation, of the priesthood. To be with him and to be sent out - the two are inseparable. Only one who is "with him" comes to know him and can truly proclaim him. And anyone who has been with him cannot keep to himself what he has found; instead, he has to pass it on. Such was the case with Andrew, who told his brother Simon: "We have found the Messiah"(Jn 1:41). And the Evangelist adds: "He brought Simon to Jesus" (Jn 1:42). Pope Gregory the Great, in one of his homilies, once said that God’s angels, however far afield they go on their missions, always move in God. They remain always with him. And while speaking about the angels, Saint Gregory thought also of bishops and priests: wherever they go, they should always "be with him". We know this from experience: whenever priests, because of their many duties, allot less and less time to being with the Lord, they eventually lose, for all their often heroic activity, the inner strength that sustains them. Their activity ends up as an empty activism. To be with Christ - how does this come about? Well, the first and most important thing for the priest is his daily Mass, always celebrated with deep interior participation. If we celebrate Mass truly as men of prayer, if we unite our words and our activities to the Word that precedes us and let them be shaped by the Eucharistic celebration, if in Communion we let ourselves truly be embraced by him and receive him - then we are being with him.”

- Pope Benedict XVI, MARIAN VESPERS WITH THE RELIGIOUS AND SEMINARIANS OF BAVARIA, 11 September 2006

#Catholic #Christianity #quotes #Pope Benedict

[eremosjournal]

Catholic Funeral for a Random Grandmas

by Teresa Arredondo

I used to attend daily Mass at my home parish. This church believed in efficiency, so almost every day I would unsuspectingly walk into the funeral of a random Catholic Grandma. 

I’m not great with funerals. Who is, really? But having been born into a family of older parents I felt like most of my childhood was spent at a wake, rosary, viewing, or funeral. As dark as this may seem, in thinking back on those moments I can easily find moments of peace. 

There is something so consoling in the relationship of Catholicism and death. 

This may be because in moments of loss, the Catholic church runs toward the grieving.  

When someone is nearing death, in a profound moment of the unknown, a decision to call a priest can anchor you to the centuries old ritual of the last rites. In a funeral Mass, even if the person has passed in a tragic way the scriptures, prayers, homily, and songs remind you that there is hope in eternal life. The images of the paschal candle, holy water and white cloth all draw the congregation back to the person’s baptism. The words and prayers spoken are so ingrained into our minds that even those of us who have not been to Mass in decades still feel ourselves stumbling through the Our Father. There is something so unifying, familiar and safe within the context of the funeral mass.

In all the things I feel that the church does wrong, a funeral has never been on that list.

Sitting in the pew on one of my daily mass mornings I used to find myself teary-eyed, not only for the family who was grieving the loss of their grandma, but in remembrance of all the funerals I had been to, and all the losses I have experienced. 

I think that may be the thing I remember so fondly: for just an hour in that church I was able to support another human being.

#deconstruction #exvangelical #deconvert #ex catholic #excatholic #exchristian #post christian #ex christian #catholic #post catholic

[spilledreality]

I remembered a moment from my own wedding, when my wife’s grandfather, a devout Christian, offered a tender homily, suggesting that marriage was a triangle with God at its apex, that as you drew closer to God, you drew closer to each other. After the ceremony, during the wee hours of the reception, my wife and I kicked off our shoes and wandered down to the beach with our friends, where they lampooned her grandfather’s suggestion. “You guys need to have a menages a trois with God,” they said. “A menages a God.” In that moment we squealed with laughter, but I’m beginning to see now that, even though I cannot sign up for his particular religion, the marrow of his advice nevertheless remains. What else is marriage, after all, but a public renunciation of self, a wholesale shift in vision? Though faith has always been a light under a door I could not open, to crib a phrase from Eudora Welty, I suppose my own spiritual quest has found its destination in marriage, in a commitment that requires a daily abandonment of the self, not a diary but a dialogue, one of several ways we might go about constructing a church not made with hands.

#barrett swanson

[officialyourdailyinspiration]

Our Daily Homily

by F.B. Meyer

Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. - Job 13:15

This was a noble expression, which has been appropriated by thousands in every subsequent age. In every friendship there is a probation, during which we narrowly watch the actions of another, as indicating the nature of his soul; but after awhile we get to such intimate knowledge and confidence, that we read and know his inner secret. We have passed from the outer court into the Holy Place of fellowship. We seem familiar with every nook and cranny of our friend’s nature. And then it is comparatively unimportant how he appears to act; we know him.

So it is in respect of God. At first we know Him through the testimony of others, and on the evidence of Scripture; but as time passes, with its ever-deepening experiences of what God is, with those opportunities of converse that arise during years of prayer and communion, we get to know Him as He is and to trust Him implicitly. And when that point has been reached and passed, nothing afterward can greatly move us. Instead of looking at God from the standpoint of His acts, we look at His dealings with us and all men from the standpoint of His heart. Though He put us on the altar, as Abraham did Isaac; and take the knife to slay us, we trust Him. If we die, it is to pass into a richer life. If He seem to forget and forsake us, it is only in appearance. His heart is yearning over us more than ever. God cannot do a thing which is not perfectly loving and wise and good. Oh to know Him thus!

"Leaving the final issue in His hands Whose goodness knows no change, whose love is sure, Who sees, foresees, who cannot judge amiss."

#F.B. Meyer #Our Daily Homily #devotional #Job 13:15 #March 25 #2023

[troybeecham]

Today the Church remembers St. Julian of Antioch, Martyr.

Ora pro nobis.

Julian of Antioch (d. AD 305) was a Roman citizen of senatorial rank, who, after converting to Christianity, was killed during the persecutions of Diocletian (303-311 AD).

His legend states that he was subjected to terrible tortures, and paraded daily for a whole year through the various cities of Cilicia (modern Turkey) as a warning against becoming a Christian, even those among the social elites. He was then sewn up in a sack half-filled with scorpions, sand, and vipers, then cast into the sea, drowning him. The waters carried his body to Alexandria, and he was buried there before his relics were translated to Antioch.

Saint John Chrysostom preached a homily in Julian's honor at Antioch, whose chief basilica was said to be the final resting place for Julian's relics and was known in his honor.

His feast day is June 21 in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and March 16 in the Catholic Church.

Almighty God, who gave to your servant N. boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Amen.

#father troy beecham #christianity #jesus #saints #god #salvation #martyrs #early church

[momentsbeforemass]

Peace

(by request my homily from Sunday)

I hate gnats.

Maybe you call them midges or something else. Whatever they are, those little tiny flying bugs? I hate them. And it’s all their fault.

I discovered gnats when I was six or seven years old. I was riding my bike down the sidewalk, and all of sudden there was this thick cloud of gnats hovering over the sidewalk. At the same height as my head.

Have you ever noticed that no matter where it happens, the cloud of gnats is always the same height as your head. It doesn’t matter if you’re a little kid or an adult, if you’re walking, riding a bike, or even up on a horse. Somehow, the cloud of gnats is always the same height as your head.

That’s how you know it’s personal.

Anyway, I was riding my bike down the sidewalk, and all of sudden there was this thick cloud of gnats hovering over the sidewalk. Before I could hit the brakes, swerve, or even duck, I was in the cloud of gnats.

You know what happened next, because we’ve all done it. I breathed in a bunch of gnats.

So I could spend the next 5 minutes gagging and spitting out gnats.

And you know. It’s so much fun, that you never do it twice.

Whether you have to stop, swerve, or go around them, you will never go through a cloud of gnats again if there’s any way that you can avoid it. And it you can’t avoid the cloud of gnats, you put your head down and hold your breath.

You are never filling up on gnats again.

And for good reason. They’re gross. Gagging and spitting out gnats is no fun.

And the gnats don’t like it either.

But there’s something we need to learn from the cloud of gnats.

Whether it’s little tiny bugs, or anything else, the things that get inside us matter. Because the things that you and I let inside us either bring us peace or take our peace.

It’s true for obvious things like the gnats. When you breath them in, they take your peace. And give you the fun project of gagging and spitting out gnats instead.

It’s also true for things that are less obvious. Like when we listen to people and commentators, read things, watch videos and shows that leave us agitated or upset, that make us angry or afraid. We’re letting them in, and they’re taking our peace.

In a way, the less obvious stuff is worse than the gnats. After you spit out the last gnat, you’re done with them.

With the people and things that leave us agitated or upset, that make us angry or afraid, their impact stays with us. And keeps robbing us of our peace. Long after they’re gone.

You don’t need that. God did not build you to live that way.

Keeping yourself agitated or upset, staying angry or afraid, will wear you down – emotionally, physically, spiritually - and turn you into someone you never wanted to be. Someone other than who God created you to be.

And it kind of doesn’t matter where it’s coming from. Because whether it’s a family member or a friend, a commentator or a news program, a podcast or a YouTube channel, anyone or anything that keeps you agitated or upset, angry or afraid does the same damage to you.

Anything that has that impact on you? If you keep letting it in, in the end it will come between you and God.

Now some of the things that do that to us are easy to spot. You and I are pretty good at spotting the cloud of gnats.

What about people and things that are harder to spot? That aren’t as obvious?

Think about how you feel after you’ve been around them, after you’ve listened to them or watched them. Are you agitated or upset, angry or afraid? That’s how you spot them.

They may look like a family member or a friend, a commentator or a news program, a podcast or a YouTube channel. But really, they’re just another cloud of gnats.

It can be hard to think of them that way. Maybe you’re related to them. Maybe you’ve loaded yourself down with a bunch of “shoulds” about them. Maybe it’s part of your daily routine. Maybe your identity is rolled up in it. What would people think if you weren’t always agitated or angry about it? Did you sell out? Did “they” get to you?

Those are some nasty corners to back yourself into.

Here’s the truth. You are not required to do any of that. None of that stuff has anything to do with who God made you to be. Or with God’s plan for your life.

When it comes to anyone or anything that’s keeping you agitated or upset, angry or afraid, don’t go back to your old habits when you leave church today. The next time you catch them having that impact on you, stop. Be intentional. Ask these questions.

Is this person worth my peace? Is this situation worth my peace? Is this video, this podcast, this program worth my peace?

Then be honest with yourself about the answer. Do what you need to do to keep your peace.

If that means you need to be around someone less, you don’t have to make any grand pronouncements. Don’t call them a cloud of gnats. Just start being less available. If that means you need to leave a toxic workplace, get out of there. If that means you need to watch or listen to something less, find something else to watch or listen to.

Keep asking the questions. Keep being honest with yourself about the answers. Keep your peace.

Of course, you and I can’t keep our peace just by keeping things out. That’s not how we’re built. You and I? We’re going to let something in. We just have to make sure that it’s the right something.

This is what Jesus is talking about, when He says, “Peace I leave you, my peace I give you.”

It’s today’s Gospel. And you hear it at every Mass. Here’s why.

Whether it’s little tiny bugs, or anything else, the things that get inside us matter. Because the things that you and I let inside us either bring us peace or take our peace.

And this is the only thing that always brings us peace. Even the people who love us don’t always bring us peace, sometimes they take our peace.

But this? This is the One we can depend on. Whenever we let God in, He will always bring us peace.

Not the kind of peace that depends on what’s going on around us, the fragile peace that the world gives. The kind that can never last. But the peace that starts in here, in each one us, with a heart that’s connected to God.

Grounded in the most intimate connection that you and I can have with God on this side of eternity. Receiving His body and blood, soul and divinity, the Real Presence in the Eucharist.

That’s why we hear it right before we receive the Sacrament. So that you and I never lose sight of the source of our peace.

Because the things that get inside us matter.

Sunday’s Readings

#Peace #Inside #God #Jesus #Catholic #Christian #Church #Gnats #God's Peace #Eucharist #Moments Before Mass

[theologyforthelayman]

The antidote to a self-centered life

In today’s world, it’s relatively easy to be self-centered. The culture is constantly urging us to “treat yourself,” indulging in whatever desire we have at the moment. The antidote to a self-centered life is to incorporate prayer into our daily schedule. Pope Benedict XVI explained this idea in his homily for Ash Wednesday in 2008. […]The antidote to a self-centered life

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#catholic #humility #self-centered

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

24th October >> Fr. Martin's Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Luke 12:35-38 for Tuesday, Twenty Ninth Week in Ordinary Time: ‘Have your lamps lit’.

Tuesday, Twenty Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA) Luke 12:35-38 Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit.

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘See that you are dressed for action and have your lamps lit. Be like men waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast, ready to open the door as soon as he comes and knocks. Happy those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. I tell you solemnly, he will put on an apron, sit them down at table and wait on them. It may be in the second watch he comes, or in the third, but happy those servants if he finds them ready.’

Gospel (USA) Luke 12:35-38 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them. And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants.”

Reflections (7)

(i) Tuesday, Twenty Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

The image of ‘the knock on the door’ tends to have a negative meaning in our culture. The knock on the door is more often than not something to fear and be in dread of. In certain parts of the world, the knock on their door can spell great danger and even death. However, in today’s gospel reading, the knock on the door suggests a benign presence. According to Jesus’ image, when the master of a house returns from a wedding feast, knocks on the door, and finds that his servants are there to welcome him, he shows his appreciation by behaving as a servant to them. He sits them down at table, puts on an apron and serves them. This is an image of a master that goes beyond anything that would have been experienced in reality in that culture. Jesus is really speaking about himself here. He is declaring that if he finds us waiting for him when he comes to us at the end of our lives, he will serve us in ways that will surprise us. He will show himself to be the Son of Man who came not to be served but to serve. The Lord also stands ready to serve us here and now. He is among us now as one who serves and he will serve us in a way that is beyond imagining beyond this earthly life. What Jesus calls for in the gospel reading is a readiness on our part to welcome his service. He calls on us to be alert to his serving presence, ‘dressed for action’ with our ‘lamps lit’, as he says. We are to let our light shine, by actively living out our relationship with him, showing ourselves to be his servants by relating to others in love as he relates to us in love. If we daily show ourselves to be his servants in this way, then we will receive from him a much greater service than we could ever give him.

And/Or

(ii) Tuesday, Twenty Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

The little parable in this morning’s gospel reading has an unusual image in it. On his return from a wedding feast, the master of the house finds his servants ready to receive him. In response, he sits his servants down at table and, putting on an apron, he serves them. The image of a master serving his servants would have seemed completely incongruous to Jesus’ contemporaries. It simply wasn’t done. Yet, as Isaiah the prophet had said many hundreds of years earlier, ‘God’s ways are not our ways’. Jesus is the one who gives expression to God’s ways, in what he says and what he does. Jesus is declaring that if we remain faithful, if we keep the flame of faith alive in our hearts, then he will serve us in ways that will surprise us. The servants in the parable did not forget their master simply because he was away for a time. They kept him in mind; they were as mindful of him as if he were physically present. In return they experienced his unconventional generosity. If we keep the Lord in mind in all we say and do, even during those times when he seems remote from us, we too will know his loving service.

And/Or

(iii) Tuesday, Twenty Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus often draws on his experience of the world around him in presenting his teaching. He refers to incidents and happenings that would have been very familiar to people. In doing so, however, he very often speaks about these very ordinary experiences in ways that surprise or even shock people. Everyone was familiar with the dangers of the road from Jerusalem to Jericho; a Jewish man falling foul of robbers and being left half dead by them was not all that uncommon. However, the notion that a priest and Levite would walk past this unfortunate victim while one of the hated Samaritans looked after him was really shocking. Everyone was familiar with wealthy households where there were several servants. If the master of the household went on a business journey he would often put the most trusted servants in charge. However, the notion that when the master returned he would sit the faithful servants down and behave as a servant towards them would have been truly shocking. This is the image that we find in this morning’s gospel reading. Jesus is portraying a world here that has something in common with the world that most people were familiar with but that was also completely at odds with that world. Jesus was portraying God’s world, how God relates to us, how Jesus, as God’s representative, relates to us. He came not to be served but to serve; he stands ready to serve us, now and at the end of our earthly journey. What he asks of us is that we would be his faithful servants in our ordinary daily tasks. If we are, he will serve us in ways that far exceed how we serve him.

And/Or

(iv) Tuesday, Twenty Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

In the gospels Jesus is often presented as doing something that is completely at odds with the prevailing culture. A very clear example of that is to be found in John’s gospel when at the last supper Jesus washes the feet of his disciples. The Word who was God and who became flesh performs a task that only slaves would be expected to do, washing other’s feet. In this morning’s gospel reading from Luke, Jesus uses an image which would have been just as shocking. It is the image of a rich man who on returning from a wedding feast shows his appreciation for his faithful servants by sitting them down at table and waiting on them. This is the kind of role reversal that would never have happened in real life. Yet, Jesus seems to be saying that life in the kingdom of God is not like real life. As Jesus will say a little later in Luke’s gospel, ‘I am among you as one who serves’, not as one who sits at table. He has come to reveal the hospitality of God, to invite people to his table where they can have an experience of God’s welcoming and hospitable love, and through that experience allow themselves to be transformed. The Lord does call us to be his faithful servants, faithful to the end, awake and alert to the Lord’s coming whenever that happens. More fundamentally, the Lord calls on us to receive his service of us. It is in learning to receive his service of us that we are empowered to become his faithful servants in today’s world.

And/Or

(v) Tuesday, Twenty Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

The gospel reading this morning calls on us to be alert to the Lord’s coming and his presence. It is a call to be faithful, to be found attentive to the Lord, whenever the Lord comes and knocks. We think of the Lord coming at the end of our lives, but there is a sense in which the Lord comes and knocks on the door of our lives every day. In the book of Revelation the risen Lord says, ‘Behold I stand at the door and knock’. The Lord comes to us in and through the people and events that make up our day. If we are attentive and alert to the Lord’s daily coming, we will be alert to his coming to us at the end of our lives. There is an extraordinary reversal of roles in the gospel reading. The Lord who finds his servants faithfully watching and waiting becomes their servant, putting an apron on himself, sitting his servants down at table, and waiting on them. It would have been unheard of in that culture for a master to behave like a servant towards his servants, treating them effectively as if they were the master. Jesus is saying to us that if we are faithful to him, if we are attentive to the various ways that he comes and knocks on the door of our lives, he will serve us in ways that will amaze us. In giving to the Lord, we will receive from him in abundance.

And/Or

(vi) Tuesday, Twenty Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

In the parable that Jesus speaks in today’s gospel reading, we have the very unusual image of the master of a household putting on an apron, sitting his slaves down at table and then waiting on them. The kind of picture Jesus was painting there had no place in the culture in which he and his disciples lived. Yet, the picture in the parable that Jesus speaks there does put us in mind of the scene in John’s gospel where Jesus puts a towel around himself and washes the feet of his disciples. The Lord, it seems, wants to serve us; the Lord wants to be our servant. Normally, the role of Lord and the role of servant are at opposite ends of a spectrum, but in Jesus they are combined. In the parable Jesus tells in today’s gospel reading, the master’s service is in response to his servants’ faithfulness and vigilance. The Lord who serves us looks to us to be faithful and vigilant, so that we are ready to open the door as soon as he comes and knocks. We are reminded of that saying of the risen Lord in the Book of Revelation, ‘behold, I stand at the door and knock’. The Lord is always knocking at the door of our lives; he comes and knocks every day. If we respond to his daily coming, today’s gospel reading assures us that he will be our servant in ways that will surprise us.

And/Or

(vii) Tuesday, Twenty Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

The parable of the servants faithfully waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast and ready to open the door to him as soon as he comes and knocks is an image of the Christian life. In many ways our life as followers of the Lord is about being alert to the various ways that the Lord comes knocking on the door of our lives. In the words of the book of Revelation, the Lord stands at the door and knocks. Every day we are we hear his call, his knock in a whole variety of ways, and we are prompted to respond with lamps lit, ready for action. The Lord is constantly taking some initiative towards us. In the parable that Jesus speaks, the disciples who open the door to their master discover that, in an extraordinary reversal of roles, they are served by him. The Lord seems to be saying to us that whenever we respond to the Lord’s call, whenever we open the door to him, we will discover that we will always receive from him far more than we give to him. Our alertness to him allows him to show us extraordinary hospitality.

Fr. Martin Hogan.