Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time – June 14, 2015

From the Pastor /

Whether we’re young or old, we stand in need of encouragement. And that is true especially of our spiritual life. In our efforts to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, it’s easy to get discouraged, to feel that we are making little or no progress. If that’s how we feel, today’s readings could serve as a spiritual pick-me-up.

The prophet Ezekiel, who gave us our first reading, lived at one of the most disastrous periods of Israel’s history, when its people had been hauled off into exile far away from their homeland and many were feeling that God had abandoned them. Ezekiel assures them that this is not so. On the contrary, the Lord has a plan for His people. In the Gospel, Jesus tells a parable, a story with a message not unlike that of Ezekiel. He speaks of a tiny mustard seed, which grows so huge that it provides a resting place for all birds of the air. And He tells us that the Kingdom of God is like that. While this parable gives us the big picture of God at work, Jesus tells another parable, which might be described as God’s work in miniature. God works not only on the grand scale, not only in nations and among nations, but also on the small scale, in the lives of individuals. And so Jesus tells the story of a farmer who sows his seed and then, until the harvest arrives, must patiently wait. All he knows is that secretly, night and day, the seed is growing, always growing, though he doesn’t know how; one day it will produce the blade, then the ear and finally the full grain of wheat.

In our lives, too, the Lord has sown His seed and is permanently at work within us. And while we are called to cooperate, the work of salvation is God’s achievement, not ours. In fact God is longing for us to grow in faith and hope and love, in freedom and goodness, more than we do ourselves.

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Sunday in the Octave of Corpus Christi – June 7, 2015

From the Pastor /

If you had gone into a church in the 10th century, you would not have seen a tabernacle, but a dove-shaped container hanging over the altar. It was called a pyx, and the Blessed Sacrament could be placed inside. Jesus is present. This is the body and blood of the risen and living Lord. He deserves our attention, indeed our adoration, not only at the moment of communion but whenever we come into the church.

The custom developed of carrying the Blessed Sacrament in procession, for the veneration of believers. This is part of what we do on Maundy Thursday evening – we take the Eucharist to the altar of repose, so there is a short procession round the church; but the occasion is a sad one, because Jesus is beginning His passion. In many countries on the joyous day of Corpus Christi there are processions through the streets, with the Blessed Sacrament exposed in a precious casing called a monstrance: children scatter rose petals, citizens hang colored banners out of their windows, the town band plays.

What about us? In the tabernacle, here, our Lord is alive and welcoming. The sanctuary lamp, always burning, is a sign of that. Christ invites us to come and spend time with Him. If we have an hour of exposition, with the Eucharist displayed on the altar, it’s a time of opportunity. Here, in the Eucharist, we can have that quiet, prolonged, personal conversation that is the heart of all prayer. Today we can focus on the full beauty of this great gift that we are given. May we always feel the gentle presence of Jesus, drawing us like a magnet to His company.

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Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity – May 31, 2015

From the Pastor /

In our readings is a message that takes us to the heart of why, as Christians, we do everything “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” These words tell us about God’s abiding love for us, God’s presence with us, and the mission that God calls us to. The risen Jesus, taking leave of His disciples at His ascension, not only says, “I am going to prepare a place for you;” but also, as Matthew records, instructs His followers to go out and make disciples.

It is all too easy on Trinity Sunday to content ourselves with naming the Trinity as “mystery” and then go about our business as normal. The Trinity tells us who we are, as baptized people; it opens us the riches of prayer and intimate life with God; it assures us of God’s closeness to us as we go out to do God’s work in the world. In practice, then, simply to begin each day “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” is to enter, day by day, more deeply into this mystery of love. From such prayer we can find small but powerful ways of living the mission of the Trinity in our lives. Let’s find moments in the coming week where, like God who is Trinity, we can go out to others in love, knowing God is with us in all things.

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Solemnity of Pentecost – May 24, 2015

From the Pastor /

The readings for today’s Solemnity of Pentecost, each in their own way, describe the effect of God’s Holy Spirit in terms of speaking a language of understanding a culture. The apostles are transformed from being huddled in the upper room in fear of their lives into people who are filled with joy and courage as they rush out to share the good news of the resurrection of Jesus. They speak foreign languages, they are given the gift of speech. All people understood the Gospel message, each in their own language. In the Gospel, Jesus describes the Spirit as the one who speaks the truth – acting as a witness to the truth about Jesus. Throughout John’s Gospel, the truth about Jesus is quite simply that Jesus is the Son of God. With the Spirit speaking through them, the apostles can translate God’s love so that all people can hear and accept it.

Champollion worked for years to be able to decipher the hieroglyphs of the Rosetta Stone. No one can learn a language in an instant. In the same way, the Spirit leads the followers of Christ into the complete truth – a gradual process in our personal lives and as community of faith. How do we know if we are speaking the language of God’s love? St. Paul gives a vivid description of those who speak the language of the Spirit and those who don’t. Indecency, sexual irresponsibility, envy, drunkenness, bad temper – these are sure signs that a person has not learn the language of God. But when God’s Spirit lives in us, then what we are able to express comes from that core of our being – a language that is as beautiful as it is clear, because it comes from God: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness. Since the Spirit has taught us how to speak, let our lives speak the language of God, the language of love.

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Seventh Sunday of Easter – May 17, 2015

From the Pastor /

The first reading, from Acts, shows the Holy Spirit operating in the apostolic Church. Jesus has already appointed the Twelve as leaders of a visible, structured organism. The Twelve have authority to teach and sanctify by presiding at the sacraments and preaching. Since the earliest times of Christianity there has always been a certain suspicion of structures and hierarchy in the Church. Any group needs a structure, and the Lord provided us with the apostolic succession, the priesthood, the sacraments, to structure His own mystical body. He wants it to be a visible, tangible presence on earth.

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Sixth Sunday of Easter – May 10, 2015

From the Pastor /

Today, in the first reading, we hear one of the most important teachings that we will ever learn, and that St. Peter needed to learn. God doesn’t have favorites. Everyone who does what is right is acceptable to God. There are no barriers, no dividing lines that separate us from one another. Not race, not color, not creed. In Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord tells us that not even enemies are to be treated differently. Love your enemies, He tells us, and do good to those who treat you badly. This teaching can be seen in practice on every page of the Gospels, where Jesus is confronted by His opponents. He treats them all with fairness, openness and honesty. This fair dealing with difficult people is love in action. At the Last Supper Jesus gives us the commandment to “love one another, as I have loved you.” For love is not a feeling. It is a response to God’s loving us first, and a grace of Christ to love others. The love of God for us inspires us to love others and to make no exceptions.

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Fifth Sunday of Easter – May 3, 2015

From the Pastor, PNCC /

The Church is essential to our faith. We cannot say, as some do, that we want Jesus but not the Church. In the Creed we affirm our belief in Jesus Christ and also in “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” The institutional Church is a key part of our faith, but there is always the danger of just going through the motions and dying on the vine. How can we produce the fruit that will show that Christ’s Church is alive and well? We do not need to be mystics like some of the great saints, but to make sure our practice of the faith, whether it is going to Mass or saying our prayers, is firmly based on a close personal relationship with Jesus. We don’t at first have to do anything but rather to be at peace in His presence, to allow Him to dwell in us. Then we can share a deep communion with Him as we receive His body and blood in the Eucharist. If we change the image from sap, we could say that His real presence in His blood gives us new life. If we do have this close relationship of the branch to the “true vine,” then it will produce good fruits especially in the way we love God and one another.

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Good Shepherd Sunday – April 26, 2015

From the Pastor, PNCC /

Laying down His life for the sheep is the manner in which the Lord shows how much He loves us. To be the good shepherd is not in any way a simple or foolish thing. To be the good shepherd demands a lot of discipline and an awful lot of patience and perseverance. The patience comes into play when the good shepherd has to watch patiently when the sheep are slow to follow instructions, no matter how simple they may be. The perseverance is in recognizing that the sheep need care and attention, day in and day out. The Lord is truly our good shepherd. Can we really appreciate what the Lord does for us?

We are the Lord’s beloved flock. We can sit with that image and enjoy knowing that the Lord is keeping a protective watch over us. However, the Church is asking something more from us today. The Church is asking us to pray especially for vocations to the priesthood. Let us pray for the people who have given their lives to follow this vocation: the priests, the deacons. Our prayer for them can simply be a prayer of thanksgiving, thanking God for their dedication and service. Let us pray, too, for ourselves as a parish community. Let our prayer be that we will always be ready to hear the quiet voice of the Lord, the good shepherd, and follow Him. Praying for vocations is a good idea and holy thing to do.

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Third Sunday of Easter – April 19, 2015

From the Pastor /

The French writer Charles Peguy once said: “The sinner is at the very heart of Christianity. No one understands so well as the sinner what Christianity is about – no one unless it be the saint.” We can understand the position of the saint but may wonder how ordinary, sinful people like ourselves can be said to be at the heart of Christianity. But the readings we’ve heard today may enable us to see things differently. We are sinners whom the risen Lord has looked upon. His look of love and mercy rested upon us when we were baptized; it rests upon us whenever we seek Him in the sacrament of reconciliation; and rests upon us again each time we celebrate the Eucharist. It’s the certainty of forgiveness, fruit of the resurrection, that fills us with the joy of the Gospel.

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