Daily HOMILY for September 30, 2014: Tuesday of the 26th Week of Ordinary Time

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In 2014, I am facilitating a 12-week interactive online course in contemplative prayer and action for priests with Saint Luke Institute.  Please visit SLIconnect.org to learn more:  https://www.sliconnect.org/product/living-god-program-contemplative-life-2/

Tuesday 26^th Week OT

St. Luke’s Institute

September 30, 2014

PICKING OUT A CROSS ++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  Occasionally 1 gets impression we select a Cross in our life same way we stop at a jewelry store at the mall and pick one out to wear around our neck

Ø  But Cross in R life doesn’t have 2B sought out

Ø  The cross we will wear, or more accurately wear, will present itself as an inevitable part of our life

OUR LIFE QUESTIONS ++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  Sometime or other each of us, with no one excluded, will come close to feeling like Job

Ø  Why was I born? Why should I live?

Ø  Our happiness, our hopes, are dashed to the ground by an accident that harms a family member, by a killing disease that hits us, or b desertion by a dear friend

Ø  These things make us cry out like the Lord himself, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?”

OUR TRUE CROSSES ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  These are the true Crosses

Ø  Nothing we choose could ever equal the ones given to us by life and our situation

Ø  The suffering and death of Jesus came about not because he wanted them but because his life and teaching had aroused hatred and ill will in others

Ø  Even w/o R ex or words, we can B hated or persecuted irrationally, as is case in today’s Gospel

Ø  The Samaritans simply hated any Jew

Ø  Jesus included

Ø  We all faced people and circumstances as children either at home or at school that were beyond our control and worked their evil on us

Ø  So let’s not look for extraordinary things to do

Ø  Instead let’s look ourselves squarely in the eye, note the pain

Ø  And surrender to God’s point of view, God’s horizon to my pain and suffering

Ø  That, sisters and brothers, may be the most heroic thing we can do

CONCLUSION +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  What Cross is more free of my ego than that which comes to me from the unchangeable conditions and people of my life, than what faithfulness to our responsibilities asks from us?

Ø  Perhaps in this category lie the unresolved pains of the past, the inconveniences and boredom of today

Ø  We find the Lord in these places, above all!

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Daily HOMILY for September 24, 2014: Wednesday of the 25th Week of Ordinary Time

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In 2014, I am facilitating a 12-week interactive online course in contemplative prayer and action for priests with Saint Luke Institute.  Please visit SLIconnect.org to learn more:  https://www.sliconnect.org/product/living-god-program-contemplative-life-2/

Wednesday 25^th Week OT

St. Luke’s Institute

September 24, 2014

WHAT’S YOUR WALKING STICK? ++++++++++++++++

Ø  Ask yourself, “What is my walking stick?”

Ø  You know, that one thing you find most difficult to abandon for the sake of the gospel

Ø  Perhaps it is a relationship that leads you into compromising God’s word

Ø  Addiction that corrodes presence of HS in ur spirt,

Ø  An influential position that undermines your ability to let God be God

EXAMPLES OF WALKING STICKS +++++++++++++++++

Ø  The advice Jesus offers in this gospel is a necessary bylaw of discipleship

Ø  Beatitudes put it as: “Blessed R poor in spirit”

Ø  Point is that unless we are free of attachments we are not able to walk with Jesus Christ

Ø  Walking sticks, sacks, food, $, clothes weigh us down; prevent us fr keeping up w/ fast-moving J

Ø  There is no way we can devote ourselves to our stuff and still have energy and vision for the gospel walk

Ø  The virtue of poverty is about not letting anything own us except the Lord

ANOTHER WALKING STICK +++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  That walking stick can represent the place our mind wanders when we have nothing else on our minds: work, shopping, health, sports

Ø  Important 2 take inventory of r lives occasionally

Ø  In the language of this gospel, we look to see what kind of stuff we have picked up along the journey since our last check

Ø  Jesus invites us to name and abandon those things and follow him

Ø  It is high time to release the grip we have on our personal walking sticks

CONCLUSION ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  Pilgrim people travel very light w/ another virtue that replaces that walking stick, the virtue of hope

Ø  Hope allows us to believe that we don’t need a crutch on which to lean

Ø  We can rely on the strength of our savior to keep us walking

Ø  Just like a child learning to ride a bike, the day comes when we learn how to balance our lives without anything to lean on except Jesus Christ

Ø  A walking stick is not substitute for his hand

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Daily HOMILY for September 23, 2014: Tuesday of the 25th Week of Ordinary Time

PODCAST - Press sideways triangle below to listen

or click here if there is no triangle
In 2014, I am facilitating a 12-week interactive online course in contemplative prayer and action for priests with Saint Luke Institute.  Please visit SLIconnect.org to learn more:  https://www.sliconnect.org/product/living-god-program-contemplative-life-2/

Tuesday 25^th Week OT

St. Luke’s Institute

September 23, 2014

INTERDEPENDENCE +++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  We Christians have at times acted as if non-believers could not possibly do us any good

Ø  But experience tells us that we all depend upon each other in many ways,

Ø  And that the interdependence crosses religious and family boundaries

Ø  So we associate with service organizations, social groups, or even personal choices of doctors who may not share our faith, but in some way share our values, e.g. choosing a doctor who’s skilled and values good health

HEARING & DOING AS UNIFYING ++++++++++++++++

Ø  Jesus is pointing to something similar in today’s Gospel

Ø  When told that his mother and brothers are trying to get in to see him, he says that there is a deeper relation to him, a deeper unifying principle than that of blood

Ø  In his own words it is, “Those who hear the word of God and act on it”

Ø  Yes, hearers & does of God’s word are his mother, and sisters, and brothers

Ø  Happily for many, family members provide support and encouragement to faith

Ø  Others have the experience of finding more sympathy and understanding outside the family, say in a friend, teacher or adult leader

Ø  Or even associations formed here at SLI

Ø  Yes, we discover in the course of our individual journey that compatibility and congeniality are not predictable in terms of family and background

CONCLUSION ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  We all need support and encouragement if not to thrive, to live

Ø  Let us not obstruct it by requiring that it come in a particular color or shape or from a a particular source

Ø  We begin this day knowing that nothing in our created world is incapable of being the channel for God’s grace, illumination, and support

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Daily HOMILY for September 17, 2014: Wednesday of the 24th Week of Ordinary Time

PODCAST - Press sideways triangle below to listen

or click here if there is no triangle
In 2014, I am facilitating a 12-week interactive online course in contemplative prayer and action for priests with Saint Luke Institute.  Please visit SLIconnect.org to learn more:  https://www.sliconnect.org/product/living-god-program-contemplative-life-2/

Wednesday 24^th Week OT

St. Luke’s Institute

September 17, 2014

JESUS & JOHN ++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  J critiques the generation of his time by comparing them to children in the marketplace who are never satisfied

Ø  If someone plays a flute, which refers to J & his attitude of festivity & fellowship, the children won’t join in the celebration

Ø  If someone else sings a dirge, which refers to John the Baptist & his call to repent & the children won’t weep

Ø  2 men, 2 missions, & neither can satisfy critics

Madeleine Delbrél +++++++++++++++++++

Ø  Madeleine Delbrél a French poet wrote poem entitled “Ask Us to Dance” which has us as children in the marketplace acting differently

Ø  Lord, come ask us to dance

Ø  We’re ready to dance this errand for you,

Ø  These accounts to do, this dinner to prepare, this vigil to keep

Ø  When we would prefer to sleep.

Ø  We’re ready to dance for you the dance of work,

Ø  The dance of heat, and later the dance of cold,

Ø  If certain melodies are often played in the minor key, we won’t tell you that they’re sad;

Ø  If others leave us a little breathless, we won’t tell you that they knock the wind out of us.

Ø  And if other people bump into us, we’ll take it with a good laugh,

Ø  Knowing well that that’s the sort of thing that happens when you’re dancing…

Ø  Make us live our life

Ø  Not like a game of chess, where every move is calculated,

Ø  Not like a contest, where everything is difficult,

Ø  Not like a math problem, which makes our head hurt,

Ø  But like an endless celebration, where our meeting with you is constantly new,

Ø  Like a ball, like a dance, in the arms of your grace, in the universal music of love.

Ø  Lord, ask us to dance.

CONCLUSION ++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  It’s time we resist the new thing God is now doing and dance!

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