For this week’s homily, please play the video file below.
There is no past. There is no future. There is no now. There is faith.
God is therefore I am.
hd hain
August, 2018
God is a thigh. God is an arm. God is a neck. God is a slender nose. God is a bun of long brown hair bound-up for domestic affairs. God is a human. A human is God. The flesh, the muscle tone, the backhand to wipe away sweat. God is a woman scrubbing the floor. God is her husband sanding new hardwood. God is the thought of each other’s body. A stop, a wipe of the brow, a leaning back toward the heels, taking a little weight off the knees. God is the small smile on two sets of parted lips. God is the encounter between servants upon reaching home.
hd hain
August, 2018
Punishment
Instability, a disturbed apple cart
Cowards
The official in charge has not the capacity to lead
The chosen leader worries he hasn’t been chosen
“Christ walked freely among the dead. He reigned over those in hell.” ∼Saint Bernard
A resume builder. Good for business. Looking for a home?
The house is on fire, she continues with the dishes
Can’t count the ones being paid or the ones with positions to hold
Speak!
The women in faith are strong. Thanks be to God.
The quiet Joseph powerful in prayer in union with the vocal Mary
The fat guy in red is another fake
A box full of munchkins
Hide it? Burn it? Make a paper airplane and toss it toward a brave new world?
Maybe we’re all wrong
3 or 4 bedbugs chomp away
Fruit of the Spirit. They’re never isolation, secrecy, and a fear to leave.
Several little fiefdoms
View original post 105 more words
The Israelites were not at their best in the desert. The food was certainly better in Egypt, but complaints about food was just one of their gripes. They also complained about Moses, who led them, and Moses complained to God about the grumbling people he’s called to lead:
‘“Why do you treat your servant so badly?” Moses asked the LORD.
“Why are you so displeased with me that you burden me with all this people?
Was it I who conceived all this people? Or was it I who gave them birth,
that you tell me to carry them at my bosom, like a foster father carrying an infant,
to the land you have promised under oath to their fathers?
Where can I get meat to give to all this people? For they are crying to me,
‘Give us meat for our food.’
I cannot carry all this people by myself, for they are too heavy for me.
If this is the way you will deal with me, then please do me the favor of killing me at once, so that I need no longer face this distress.”’ (Leviticus 11, 11-15)
You can’t speak more “face to face” to God than that. That’s one thing we learn from the Old Testament: you can complain to God. The Jews did it in the desert, we can do it too.
I forget the ratio, but I think the psalms of lament (complaints) in the Old Testament are only slightly less than psalms of thanksgiving. God doesn’t mind complaints.
AUGUST 5 SUNDAY EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Ex 16:2-4, 12-15/Eph 4:17, 20-24/Jn 6:24-35 (113)
6 Monday The Transfiguration of the Lord
Feast
Dn 7:9-10, 13-14/2 Pt 1:16-19/Mk 9:2-10 (614)
7 Tuesday
[Saint Sixtus II, Pope, and Companions, Martyrs; Saint Cajetan, Priest]
Jer 30:1-2, 12-15, 18-22/Mt 14:22-36 or 15:1-2, 10-14 (408)
8 Wednesday Saint Dominic, Priest
Memorial
Jer 31:1-7/Mt 15:21-28 (409)
9 Thursday
[Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin and Martyr]
Jer 31:31-34/Mt 16:13-23 (410)
10 Friday Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr
Feast
2 Cor 9:6-10/Jn 12:24-26 (618)
11 Saturday Saint Clare, Virgin
Memorial
Hb 1:12—2:4/Mt 17:14-20 (412)
For this week’s homily, please play the video file below:
Devotion to St. Ann, the mother of Mary, is still strong today among Catholics, but what about St. Joachim, the father of Mary and the grandfather of Jesus? I ask this because I had the funeral of a good father and grandfather yesterday in Sea Girt, NJ: Jeremiah Murray, a lifelong friend.
His daughter, Rose, told me that before his death Jerry was in hospice. not expected to live and not responsive, when the priest who anointed him the evening before said: “If you wait till tomorrow you will meet the Lord on the Feast of St. Joachim, a good father and grandfather.” Jerry died a few minutes after midnight, July 26th, the Feast of Saints Joachim and Ann.
His four daughters and many grandchildren sang Jerry’s praises as a father, grandfather, mentor and friend to them. Did Mary and her Son remember Joachim and Ann like they did?
I preached the homily yesterday at his Mass in the church of St.Mark, filled with his family and friends.
“Death always stirs up memories. My memories of Jerry Murray go back 80 years, to Bayonne, New Jersey. We grew up together. We went to St. Mary’s Grammar School, played together, had the same friends and knew each other’s families. Our back yards faced one other, his house on 10th street, mine on the Boulevard. In summers as kids we played basketball for hours and hours, with a peach basket nailed to Devlin’s garage, in the winter we played football together. No little league, no uniforms, no adults telling you what to do.
I may be mistaken, but I think we learned more about each other that way, as kids together, growing up.
Childhood memories are memories of the best kind, so small we hesitate mentioning them, but they make us who we are. We shouldn’t forget those who help us become who we are. Jerry was part of my life growing up.
Isabel, you and your daughters and others have known Jerry many years and your memories are much deeper and more personal than mine. You’ll be sharing them these days, remembering him. We need to remember each other, especially the significant people in our lives.
This church is also a place of memory, where God remembers us. Let’s not miss what God says here. Like us, God speaks in small ways. Let’s not miss what we see or hear here because of the simplicity or maybe the formality of it all.
We brought Jerry’s body here to this church. 86 years ago Jerry was brought to St. Mary’s church in Bayonne, NJ, for baptism. A priest made the sign of the Cross over him and baptized him with water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. God made him his own then, for life and forever, and promised him eternal life. God promised to be with him through whatever joys and trials would be his.
As we brought Jerry’s body into the church today, we remembered his baptism, blessing him again with water and placing a beautiful white cloth over him, recalling his dignity as a child of God. God remembers him; God’s welcome never fails.
We brought his body close to the altar, where God speaks through Jesus Christ. “I go to prepare a place for you,” Jesus said. “I am the way.” Here are signs of bread and wine, the Lord’s promise to be food for our way and strength for the journey.
The church on earth meets here in this church, but this church points to a church beyond, in heaven, to a communion of saints. There’s life everlasting, we believe. A communion of saints, not just canonized saints, but ordinary saints we knew here even now, our brothers and sisters, our fathers and mothers, our friends and also some we may never expected to see at all. A family awaits us. They are here with us now. Another home welcomes us here.
A few weeks ago I got a call from Jerry. I asked him where he was. “On the beach,” he said, “waiting for Isabel to bring me a Pina Colada. Let’s get together.” I told him I’d see him soon, not thinking this would be that time.
But is this time the only time we’re together? There’s another time promised us, God’s time, that comes through mercy, when generations meet generations and strangers become friends and loved ones see each other again. There’s another time for us to be together. God promises it. We’ll get together.
JULY 29 SUNDAY SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
2 Kgs 4:42-44/Eph 4:1-6/Jn 6:1-15 (110)
30 Monday
[Saint Peter Chrysologus, Bishop and Doctor of the Church]
Jer 13:1-11/Mt 13:31-35 (401)
31 Tuesday Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Priest
Memorial
Jer 14:17-22/Mt 13:36-43 (402)
AUGUST 2018
1 Wed Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Memorial
Jer 15:10, 16-21/Mt 13:44-46 (403)
2 Thursday
[Saint Eusebius of Vercelli, Bishop; Saint Peter Julian Eymard, Priest]
Jer 18:1-6/Mt 13:47-53 (404)
3 Friday
Jer 26:1-9/Mt 13:54-58 (405)
4 Saturday Saint John Vianney, Priest
Memorial
Jer 26:11-16, 24/Mt 14:1-12 (406)
For this week’s homily, please play the video below.
The Victor's Place 