Friday, December 31, 2010

Grandparents

It was Holy Family Sunday. I was prepared for more of a Jesus, Mary, and Joseph theme, but that changed as I heard the lector read the first reading from Sirach. The part which struck me was the wisdom behind the exhortation to honor and care for your parents, even when they are old. "My Son, take care of your father when he is old, grieve him not as long as he lives." We buried my dad's dad two week prior so I shared the experience of being so privileged as to watch my father care for his father during his last last weeks and days. "Whoever honors his father atones for sins." The Sirach reading dominated my comments. I did eventually touch on Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, but by the time I got there, the baby who was going to be baptized at the Mass had begun to steal the spotlight. So I ended the Homily quick.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Joseph

Joseph's response to the will of God and made known to him was important to God's plan, it was prompt, and it was complete. We can learn from him.
God prepared him for a great role in the salvation of his the world. He responded with a 'clutch' performance by corresponding to God's plan in precisely the manner God was hoping. His correspondence was immediate. He didn't dilly-dally as we might. He went right to work. He responded by giving his entire life to the fulfillment of this plan. God expects the same of us. Even though Joseph's role far exceeds the excellence of our role in the plan of salvation, nevertheless there are still many who are relying on us to correspond faithfully to God's plan.

The 'Rejoice' imperative

Gaudete Sunday:
The Rejoice imperative is an encouragement from the church to focus on the end, to speed us on our way, and to give delight to God.
The encouragement to rejoice helps us to focus on the end. It really makes us think 'Why is everybody so happy?" The Church tells us to rejoice because what we're preparing for is a wonderful eternity. It speeds us along the right path by making the work we do easier to bear. We suddenly see why we're striving. As we work with the good cheer that belongs to the sons and daughters of God, this makes God so happy. He sees us anticipating the joys he has prepared for us.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Big Feast this coming Wednesday

The feast of Our Lady's Immaculate conception helps our Advent preparation.
What do we celebrate? Why do we celebrate it? How do we celebrate?
What? From the very first moment of her existence in the womb of her mother, God preserved Mary from original sin.
Why do we celebrate it? Because she's our mother and we want to honor our mother. And our country is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary specifically under her title of the Immaculate Conception (i.e. The National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Northeast DC). So we pray for our country that day.
How do we celebrate? First, we make sure we're present at Holy Mass. Second, make a day of it! How do we celebrate anything? Bake a cake. Stay up late. Eat, drink, be merry. Hang out with friends. Take the day-off. We've got to go to mass, though.
That's it.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

First Sunday of Advent: Go to confession

"Is there anything I should know" asks the interviewer to the candidate after the completion of the vetting process and all the facebook photos have been downloaded.
There's a link there with the coming of the Lord and the desire to make a good confession.
But what to confess, when, and how do I do it.
Sample Examination of conscience, not excluding contraception, sterilization, in vitro, pornography, etc.
It was filled with the encouragement to confess at our penance service coming up in two weeks.

The good thief

It was on the good thief and how our Lord manifests his kingliness, even from the cross.
He issues a royal proclamation: Amen, I say to you, this day you shall be with me in paradise.
He demonstrates—to the last—an excellent, kingly zeal for souls: his job was moments from being accomplished, still he save the soul of this one repenting and believing from the cross.
He gives like a king: the thief repents, asks for forgiveness, and what does he get—heaven!

Friday, November 19, 2010

...nothing

I didn't have to preach.
Nice to have a week off now and then.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

The mother and her seven sons

Choosing death before choosing sin.
Love the faith, hatred of sin, and hope in the resurrection helps us imitate the mother and her seven sons.
Read 2 Macc 7 for a vivid and graphic but certainly inspiring witness to the faith.
A catechism handy where we can learn what the Church teaches can kindle in us the love of God which conquers all things.
Hate sin at least as strongly as we hate some gross bugs.
Hope for the resurrection when Christ will raise our mortal bodies making them like his own in glory.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

All Saints

I used James' running of the MCM as the backdrop.
Nate's sign "Run faster, Uncle James!" reflects the support the saints give us from heaven.
We should desire, very much to be in that number.

We've gotta fight against the temptation to give up praying for the dead. Or better, resist the thought that there's no need to pray from them. "They're already in heaven, so why should I pray for them?" "As far as I'm concerned they were good with God, they were great people. I'm not gonna trouble myself with praying from them. I'm just going to presume that they're fine and move on.

We've got to untangle this if we're gonna do the right thing for our deceased loved ones.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Examination of Conscience

The substance of the homily was:
what is the XoC; why is it important; how to make it.

The reality of the homily on Saturday was:
confusing, blabbering, incoherent.

That's probably not a reliable critique from an objective standpoint. But no one can deny me that that's what it felt like delivering it.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

How to build a thesis sentence:

The thesis stands alone, provides structure, and resists wordiness.

Monday, October 18, 2010

"Look to the left"

...that is, my 'right.'
Helpful critique.
I'm not engaging the 'down-stage-right' seating section during the homily.
The ambo is on the down-stage-left side of the rather large sanctuary, so the opposite side of the house needs a little love.
Gratefully received and duly noted.

Perseverance

The Gospel was on the parable of the persistent widow and the crooked judge, or as the evangelist says "the necessity of praying always without growing weary."
So, I preached on the importance of perseverance in the spiritual life.
Our perseverance relies on good examples, having a plan, and—most importantly—love.
Good examples abound. Jesus, the saints—Thomas More, for example, Chilean miners. Our grandparents are also inspiring examples.
Having a plan is key, too. You can't just say in advance you're gonna persevere. It doesn't work that way with this particular virtue. You can't acquire it move on to the next virtue. Rather, it's a matter of a lifetime. So having short-term, medium-term and long term goals are important. "What am I doing today to strengthen my relationship with God?" "What about tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, etc."
Love is the secret to perseverance. St. Josemaría said it in his last point in "The Way." "Fall in love and you will not leave him." It's true. Men, in love, will do amazing things. Just ask Percy Sledge. He sang it, so did Michael Bolton with all his hair, "He'd give up all his comforts, and sleep out in the rain..."

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Prayer

Prayer:
Dominican spirituality in action: that is, praying and passing along the fruit of prayer. Either that or it's just a powerful story.
Sad, true, and good story: A mom loses three children in a house fire. It was an accident with a space heater a blanket and the children jumping on the bed. It was all over very quickly.
Mom, grieving for months found herself asking Jesus to give her her children back. That became her prayer. She wanted them back.
Then he consoled her. He told her that he wanted to return her children to her, but where her children were they didn't want to go. They were with him and were happy.
God wants to give us our heart's desire, but if he withholds such a gift in a particular situation it's only because he's gonna give us the most amazing gift ever.
Prayer. Petition, Gratitude, Trust.
We must ask God to supply us what we need. God wants us to go to him. If he withholds, it's for our good.
We mustn't neglect the gifts he's given us. That means giving thanks for all he has given us.
We pray in faith. We hand ourselves over in an act of trust. Pouring ourselves out. Giving ourselves over completely to the will of our father in heaven.
Pray.
Pray before you go to sleep tonight. Just like we learned when we were little. "Now I lay me down to sleep..." Pray it like a little child. He'll protect us. Give us our heart's desire. He'll keep us safe and sound.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

The Real Deal

It was too broad.
It was the parable of the unjust steward, so I opened with an illustration of integrity and claimed that Jesus is promoting integrity in his disciples. But I also layered the theme of dedication on top of it. I also backed up further and tried to give them the context of the parable.
In the end I found myself having bit off way more than I could chew, so I switched to an exhortation to the faithful fulfillment of the Sunday obligation as an example of how to live Christian integrity. The early version took 15 minutes, I cut the evening version down to 12. 9 minutes of it would still have been too long. I had too many points again.
I think I saw myself with 2 of the most popular mass times and got psyched into trying to hit a home run.
Some parts of the homily were fine and valuable. But on the whole, I needed to clean it up.
Not fun.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

The Prodigal Son, of course.

It's amazing how quickly our sorrow turns to joy with God.
I started with a visual of the recovery of a lost two-year-old at the school picnic.
This sorrow-to-joy sequence happens in the parable, it happens through Christ, it happens the sacraments of Penance and Communion.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

How do you hate your mother?

I received a helpful critique from a gentleman after the homily.
He said I posed the question, but failed to answer it.
That was helpful, because I think he's right.
I didn't address fully what Jesus meant by the particular word "hate."
I think I moved too quickly from that to the main point of my homily.
Either that or I gave too much emphasis to the word, built it up too much and transitioned away from it to a more important point without resolving the problem.

Anyway.

I didn't really preach on the 'hate' we're supposed to have so much as our innate ability to give everything away for our pursuit of holiness, happiness.