tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25918355545785798872024-02-08T06:20:03.306-08:00Could You Repeat That, Please?Homilies given by Deacon Ken Reisor who is a full time deacon at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church. Deacon Ken has been a permanent ordained deacon in the Roman Catholic Church. He celebrated the 25th anniversary of his ordination this past June! He is passionate about taking people to the Holy Land, ministering to men, and overseeing Christ Renews His Parish (CRHP) retreats. Most of all, he is passionate about his family - wife of almost 43 years, 3 grown children, and 6 grandchildren.Stevie Moonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06963006352814592453noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2591835554578579887.post-74217731744579342462012-08-06T08:54:00.000-07:002012-08-06T09:43:25.401-07:00The Catholic Stance on the Definition of Marriage<div style="text-align: left;">
Listen to the homily<a href="https://www.box.com/s/c7a008390ac86d3ad0b3" target="_blank"> here</a>.<br />
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<b>18th Sunday Ordinary-B</b><br />
Reading 1 <a class="book" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2591835554578579887" target="_blank">Ex 16:2-4, 12-15</a> </div>
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Responsorial Psalm <a class="book" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2591835554578579887" target="_blank">Ps 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54</a></div>
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Reading 2 <a class="book" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2591835554578579887" target="_blank">Eph 4:17, 20-24</a></div>
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Gospel <a class="book" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2591835554578579887" target="_blank">Jn 6:24-35</a></div>
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In
today's Gospel story, thousands of people flocked to the place where
Jesus was because they were hungry. They had witnessed, or had heard
about the event that took place in the part of the gospel that we read
last week where Jesus had fed the 5000 men. We don't know how many
women and children there were but he fed a whole lot of people and they
had their fill. That food came from just a couple of fish and some
loaves of bread. Well, when they heard that Jesus had left, they
tracked him down, they followed him, they found him and they showed up
because they were hungry. But Jesus pointed out to them rather quickly
that they needed to strive for something more than food. </div>
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This
past Wednesday, thousands of people flocked to Chick-fil-A restaurants
all around the country to eat lunch or dinner. And they were hungry
too. Some of them were just hungry for chicken and they didn't know
about the events that were taking place and so they were quite surprised
to see the thousands of people who were showing up in the restaurants
all over this country. The rest may have been hungry for food as well
but their greater hunger was to make a statement of support for the
president of the company who had, in an interview, witnessed to his
Christian faith and had openly spoken his support for the traditional
definition of marriage as being one between one man and one woman.
Others were there as a statement of support for his right to speak his
principals without suffering the persecution that arose from some
segments of our society.<br />
<br />
Now if you've been following
this you know that a firestorm arose around the country as his
statements and his position were taken to be by some, rather than
pro-marriage, they were taken to be anti-gay. Boycotts were called for,
even a couple of mayors of some large cities had proclaimed that they
would do whatever they could to prevent Chick-fil-A from expanding in
their cities. So Wednesdays events were to counter those boycotts as
well as to express their support.<br />
<br />
So I thought that in
the midst of this controversy which is making national news, that today
might be the right time, a good time, without all of the emotion and all
of the words being slung, to clearly outline two things. To have a
teachable moment. To really outline two things about this subject as
they relate to our Catholic faith. There's tons and tons of material
out there. You can read it, research yourself. And hopefully very
soon, this week, maybe even by the end of the day because he was here at
an earlier mass, our webmaster will have posted links to the documents
that I'm going to quote from today on our website. And I just wanted to
make this clear and concise which is why I'm up here today instead of
down there and why I have notes.<br />
<br />
First point, our US
Bishops have made very clear that the Church's teaching is that marriage
is, and must continue to be, defined as the union of one man and one
woman. This definition is not new. This definition comes not from man,
and not from government, it comes from God. We see it in the
beginning, the book of Genesis. God created man in His image; in the
divine image he created them; male and female he created them. God
blessed them saying to them: be fertile and multiply. Fill the earth
and subdue it.<b> </b> In a pastoral letter the Unites States Conferences of Catholic Bishops that was issued in 2009 called <a href="http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/marriage-and-family/marriage/love-and-life/" target="_blank"><b>Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan</b></a> the Bishops state: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"We
Bishops feel compelled to speak against all attempts to redefine
marriage so that it would no longer be exclusively be the union of the
man and the woman as God established and blessed it in the natural
created order." </blockquote>
Further down they reiterate:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The
Church has taught through the ages that marriage is an exclusive
relationship between one man and one woman. This union once validly
entered and consummated gives rise to a bond that cannot be dissolved by
the will of the spouses. Marriage thus created is a faithful
privileged sphere of intimacy between the spouses that lasts until
death. </blockquote>
And so this profound, this beautiful document
goes on and on to talk about the beauty of a sacramental marriage
between a man and a woman. I encourage you to read this pastoral letter
Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan. And our Bishops have been
very vocal recently about supporting this definition of marriage and
opposing any effort to change the definition of marriage. So that's
point number one.<br />
<br />
Point number two. And I want to make
this briefly but pointedly, is that this stance by the Church is not a
hate filled action or statement against men and women who are gay.
That's what all the controversy was about in the Chic-fil-A event. It's
not an anti gay action. There is no place in our faith or in our
church for hatred or discrimination. Period. As Catholic Christians,
we're called to listen and to embrace the words of the statement from a
document entitled <a href="http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19861001_homosexual-persons_en.html" target="_blank">Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care for Homosexual Persons</a>.
And this was from the then Cardinal Ratzinger, better known now as Pope
Benedict XVI. He was, in 1986, when this was published, the Prefect of
the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. It says:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object
of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves
condemnation from the church's pastor wherever it occurs"</blockquote>
So hateful actions against someone who is gay has no place in our lives. Furthermore I think it's important to make<b> </b>this
point and I would venture a guess that not many of you have ever heard
this. And I'm summarizing here some statements in <a href="http://old.usccb.org/doctrine/Ministry.pdf" target="_blank">Ministering to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination</a> a document from our Bishops
published in 2006 we know this: Being a homosexual is not a sin. Being
a homosexual is not a sin. Entering into homosexual acts, that's a
sin. Just as entering into any intimate act of a man and a woman
outside of the sacrament of marriage is a sin.<br />
<br />
Therefore
we, you and I, must help nurture our friendship with those who are
gay. We must nurture our friendship with God so that the virtue of
chastity among all of us is both embraced and strengthened.<br />
<br />
So
please, I encourage you to be open to God's truth. I encourage you to
pray about this. To embrace the Church's teachings about marriage. To
reject the worldly position that somehow embracing the traditional
understanding of marriage, which has been that way since the very
beginning, that somehow that's a hateful action against those who are
homosexual. And knowing that for some this may be a bit challenging, I
think we should now look back at the Gospel story for help in
understanding how we can accomplish the works of God.<br />
<br />
How
we can grow closer to the Lord so that there is no place in our hearts
for straying from the truth or rejecting the Church's teachings. So
there's no place in our hearts for having hatred or malice. Remember in
the Gospel the people said to Jesus, "What can we do to accomplish the
works of God?" And His response to them was, "This is the work of God.
That you believe in the one He sent." There is the bottom line. To
believe in Jesus Christ. Because you know what? Just like the people
in the Gospel, whether we know it or not, whether we accept it or admit
it or not, you and I are hungry for more than just chicken. We're
hungry for the presence of Jesus Christ in our lives. In our hearts.
Opening our hearts to God's message, opening our hearts to His Son,
knowing the one He sent are so essential to us being the men and women
that God calls us to be. God, as we heard in that first reading, is the
one who fed the Israelites in the desert with manna. That same loving
God sent His only son to be for us the Bread of Life. Not just the food
that feeds our worldly hunger, but the food that fills the God shaped
vacuum that is within each one of us. That God shaped vacuum that can
only be satisfied and filled by the presence of Jesus Christ. He is the
food that gives life, eternal life to those who believe. He is the
food that overcomes hatred with love. He is the food that brings us
closer to Him so that we constantly seek His will and not the will of
the world.<br />
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<br />Stevie Moonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06963006352814592453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2591835554578579887.post-74016183246037268182012-03-05T11:57:00.000-08:002012-03-05T11:58:09.495-08:00This Is My Son - March 4, 2012<h4>
Reading 1 <a class="book" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2591835554578579887" target="_blank">Gn 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18</a> </h4>
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Responsorial Psalm <a class="book" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2591835554578579887" target="_blank">Ps 116:10, 15, 16-17, 18-19</a></h4>
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Reading 2 <a class="book" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2591835554578579887" target="_blank">Rom 8:31b-34</a></h4>
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Gospel <a class="book" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2591835554578579887" target="_blank">Mk 9:2-10</a></h4>
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Listen <a href="http://www.box.com/s/n311b5x1p3c85ve9klmo" target="_blank">here</a>. </h4>
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</h4>Stevie Moonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06963006352814592453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2591835554578579887.post-64674488885571429032012-01-22T18:09:00.000-08:002012-01-22T18:09:12.243-08:00Repaint And Thin No More - January 22, 2012<h4>
Reading 1 <a class="book" href="" target="_blank">Jon 3:1-5, 10</a></h4>
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Responsorial Psalm <a class="book" href="" target="_blank">Ps 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9</a></h4>
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Reading 2 <a class="book" href="" target="_blank">1 Cor 7:29-31</a></h4>
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Gospel <a class="book" href="" target="_blank">Mk 1:14-20</a> </h4>
Amazing homily about repenting from choices we are making that are not aligned with God's will - especially in regards to abortion and artificial contraception.<br />
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<a href="http://www.box.com/s/2zoc99s2ro59l1erpt40" target="_blank">Listen to the homily here</a>Stevie Moonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06963006352814592453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2591835554578579887.post-84409104023064222982011-02-21T14:56:00.000-08:002011-02-21T15:01:09.891-08:005th Sunday Ordinary Time<blockquote>**To listen to this homily, click on the title**<br />Reading 1: Is 58:7-10<br /><br />Responsorial Psalm: Ps 112:4-5, 6-7, 8-9<br /><br />Reading 2: 1 Cor 2:1-5<br /><br />Gospel: Mt 5:13-16<br /></blockquote><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">**I am having a hard time getting around to transcribing this homily so I wanted to just go ahead and post the audio of it!!**</span>Stevie Moonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06963006352814592453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2591835554578579887.post-17416009484109545202011-01-17T18:13:00.000-08:002011-01-17T18:21:41.629-08:00Feast of the Baptism of the Lord - January 9, 2011The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord<br /><br /><blockquote>**To listen to this homily, click on the title**<br />First Reading: Is 42:1-4, 6-7<br />Responsorial Song: Ps 29:1-2, 3-4, 3, 9-10<br />Second Reading: Acts 10:34-38<br />Gospel: 3:13-17</blockquote><br />As Father said we gather tonight to celebrate the baptism of the Lord. I commend all of you for your wisdom in waiting until this afternoon to come to mass. Those of us who were here this morning got our own baptism…a baptism by rain and then snow! We’re here to celebrate, to bring to a close the Christmas season, this great celebration of the baptism. <br /><br />How many of you have followed the story this week of the homeless guy, Ted Williams - the guy with the radio voice? For the benefit of those who didn’t catch it, let me recap it for a minute. There’s a guy named Ted Williams who had been in radio and had gotten fired. It’s amazing how some people go in different directions when that happens and for him unfortunately he took the darker road - several years of homelessness as it turns out, some drugs, some crime, some alcohol – all of this said openly and publicly. He became homeless and he would stand on the corner with a big cardboard sign that said something to the affect of…I have a voice that was given to me by God…the greatest radio voice around. As luck would have it an enterprising reporter came up to him this week with his video camera going and he said to the guy,“I’m gonna make you earn your dollar. I want to hear your great radio voice.” And so this homeless man came up to the car and he said something to the effect of, “If you’re listening to the greatest oldies, you’re listening to 96.7. It was amazing. The guy took the video and put it on the internet and it became what is known as viral, which means everybody started watching it. And all of a sudden within the week he was on all the network morning shows. He was given an offer to be the voice of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese – whatever the voice of macaroni and cheese is! He had an offer to become the voice of the Cleveland Cavaliers. All of these incredible things in less than a week. He got a second chance. It’s an incredible opportunity for him - a second chance. What he’s going to do with that, we don’t know. It’s his choice as to what he’s going to do with the second chance that he’s gotten.<br /><br />Now why do I bring that up today at the celebration of the baptism of the Lord? I bring it up because to me as I thought about it this week, as I prayed about it, and as I thought about that story and I thought about the message for today, I realized that in a certain sense, the story of Ted Williams is in a way an allegory about all of mankind. An allegory about you and me. <br /><br />You see a long time ago our first parents fell from grace. Our first parents, through their own free will, chose to disobey God and His will and they fell from grace. And they very really, and very truly, became homeless. They couldn’t go home to God. But God promised all throughout history that He was going to give us a second chance. He was going to send the One who would come and reverse that decision. He promised that there would be One who would come in gentleness, in kindness, and in love to open the eyes of the blind and all of those beautiful things that He promised. And in time, in His own time, God finally sent that One. We celebrated the revelation of Jesus Christ as the Jewish Messiah on Christmas day. We celebrated that birth, the one in Bethlehem, who was the Jewish Messiah, who was the promised One. Last week, we celebrated the Epiphany, the revelation of Jesus Christ as savior of the entire world. But tonight we celebrate the revelation of Jesus Christ as the Son of God. When Jesus walked into the Jordan River to be baptized by John – it was a problem. John recognized it. He knew that Jesus didn’t need to be baptized. But the very fact that that baptism appears in the gospel is the proof that it really did happen. The baptism of Jesus presented a problem for the first century Christians. There were still people around who thought that John the Baptist was the messiah. And they said look - Jesus presented himself for baptism, He must have had sin. So the fact that it’s even in the gospel is proof that it happened. <br /><br />Why then did Jesus come to be baptized by John? <br /><br />Most likely it was because for one thing He wanted to associated Himself with us. He wanted us to understand that He was a human, that He was a man. He was without sin. He did not need to be baptized but He wanted to connect with our humanity. <br />He also wanted us to follow Him into that river. He showed us the way. He showed us and led us into the waters of baptism. And so God presented the world finally and ultimately, the One who would come to give each one of us a second chance. <br /><br />So today we celebrate not only the baptism of Jesus, but we celebrate our own baptism. You and I were brought to the river, for many it was just a bowl about this big! But we were brought to the river. We were baptized. And just as God had looked down, when Jesus was baptized, when He came up out of the water and God spoke and said, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” And when we were baptized, God said the same thing. This is my beloved son. This is my beloved daughter. In whom I am well pleased. And how wonderful is it when we hear daddy say, “This is my child. I’m so pleased.” When we were baptized that’s what God said. We get a second chance.<br /> <br />What we do with it – that’s our choice. We can choose then to follow Christ or we can choose to turn away and reject Him. It’s our choice. <br /><br />So tonight let’s begin a journey of reflection. Let’s begin a journey of reflection – reflecting upon our own baptism. Reflecting upon what happened. Let’s recall to ourselves our own baptism. On Thursday and Friday with our little 3 and 4 year olds I tried to help lead them to an understanding of what they do when they reach up - and some of them still can’t reach it yet - but when mom and dad walk in and dip their fingers into the bowl as we come into church. We touch the water and we cross ourselves. What are we doing? Who knows? What is it we’re doing when we do that? And don’t say it’s just because we’ve always done it that way. We’re reminding ourselves of our baptism. Dipping our fingers into the bowl and reminding us of our own baptism. What happened that day? What happened when we were baptized? <br /><br />We were invited to follow Christ - who is priest. We are called to be a priestly people. Only a few are called to be ordained to the priesthood but we’re all called to be a priestly peoples. What does that mean? It means we’re to stand in prayer and intercession for others - to pray for others. To attempt in our greatest ability to make holy the ground we walk on - to walk in holiness. To do God’s will not because we think we have to but because we want to - to be priestly people. <br /><br />We’re called to follow Jesus the prophet. We’re called each one of us to be prophets. To speak God’s words of love and forgiveness – not only with our mouths but with our lives. To speak God’s words and to live His life as prophets.<br /><br />And we’re called also to share with Jesus His kingship. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is the king of the universe. And when we are baptized He becomes our brother. We, you and I, share with Him that royal priesthood. <br /><br />And so my dear friends we celebrate the baptism of the Lord, that in celebration of His baptism, we celebrate and remember and recall our own baptism. When Jesus Christ entered into the waters of baptism and invited us to do the same and won for us a second chance.<br /><br />The question is, what are we going do with our second chance?Stevie Moonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06963006352814592453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2591835554578579887.post-59536383276026781212010-12-27T14:23:00.000-08:002010-12-28T11:30:28.012-08:00Feast of the Holy Family - December 26, 2010<blockquote>**To listen to this homily, click on the title**<br /><br />First Reading: Sir 3:2-6, 12-14<br />Responsorial Psalm: Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5<br />Second Reading: Col 3:12-21<br />Gospel: Mt 2:13-15, 19-23</blockquote><br />Good morning. Merry Christmas. I'm glad you got the memo. The one about it being Sunday! I think maybe a few didn't get that memo.<br /><br />This is obviously the day after Christmas and I don't know about you but it's a wonderful opportunity to finally catch our breath. After all the hectic goings on around the celebration of Christmas are over. All the preparations, particularly the moms and wives, the ladies who do all, or mostly...I'm speaking for myself frankly...who do most of the work preparing for Christmas. Take a deep, deep breath.<br /><br />I'm always so amazed and in awe of the wisdom of the Church that placed this particular day, this celebration of the Holy Family, so close to Christmas. In this case this year it's the very day after Christmas. It gives us an opportunity, as we celebrate on this day, it gives us the opportunity to really refocus and to really remember what the celebration of the Incarnation and what the celebration of Christmas is supposed to really be about. They have given us the model of the Holy Family. The family of Jesus that was so tuned in, so committed to doing the will of God. They were so obedient and that, I believe, is what the Lord is calling us back to. To focus our lives and our hearts on being obedient to the will of God. <br /><br />Pastorally speaking, as we minister to people during this time of the year, so many times we see sort of the worldly results of things going on. Problems in families. That's one of the things that really comes out during this time of the year - the problems that are in families of every kind. <br /><br />So many times people get so uptight when it gets close to Christmas Day because they have family gatherings and there are splits and there are problems in the family. And we start wondering how are we going to keep so-and-so from coming to the party or how can we invite everybody without inviting that one because they're mad at this one and all of these wonderful things. Everybody gets all uptight with all of these conflicts going on and they just get exacerbated at this time. That's so unfortunate. That's not God's desire. That is not God's will to have that and it's so unfortunate when we see that happening. And that's why again, we bring this celebration and we focus again on God's true desire for love and peace and joy and all of the these that he brought to us when he became man.<br /><br />Another situation that we see during this time of the year is, and many of you in this church today may have had this situation, and that is when we lose a loved one during the year. And we find that as we celebrate Christmas, all of the sudden it is the first time that we celebrate Christmas with that loved one gone. And that becomes a sort of an intensification of our mourning process. And so it becomes a situation. We had that in our own family. My wife's mother passed away at the end of August and so this was the first Christmas with an empty chair. Sometimes when there's a death it can even more deeply split a family, cause even more family. Thanks be to God, in our family what happened,it brought about some healing. It brought about the coming together of the family in some beautiful ways. So even though there was an empty chair, there were more chairs filled this year than in the past. And so, again, it is not God's desire that we have these kinds of problems in the family and so that was a beautiful thing to see in our own family, God's healing process in that time.<br /><br />Another thing that happens during this time of the year that intensifies too is when there is some kind of a tragedy in a family. We have a family in this parish who just this past Monday lost their home to a fire. It burned to the ground. Thanks be to God one of the sons was up watching the lunar eclipse and had just gone back to bed and smelled smoke and was able to get the family up. They lost everything. Burned to the ground. You would think that they would have the worst Christmas ever. But what has happened to them is that there's a renewal of their participation in the family of God. They have seen this church, they have seen their high school community, they have seen the community, the family of God come together. The father and the family were here at 7:30 mass and the father said, "I've never seen anything like it. This is the best Christmas we've ever had." Not because of the things, but because of God's love as exemplified through the community of the family. There own family, the family of the church, the family of the bigger community. God's love is manifested through them. So rather than experiencing this horrible tragedy of the loss of love, they lost everything of their possessions, but what they have gained is a greater understanding of God's love.<br /><br />Now as I prepared and looked at the readings, I tried to get to the core of the message for today. And what I really truly believe is that the message to take away from this church, to go forth in this coming year...what I saw in the readings today was a commitment to obedience. To obedience to God's will. Look at the story. We see that young maiden, that young woman, Mary. God came to her through the angel and she could have said no. But she said yes to God's will, to God's desire in her life. She said yes. She was obedient to the Lord. Joseph, her husband, stepped away for a moment when he found out the news but yet God spoke to him and Joseph then was obedient. Obedient to God's will in his life. For his family. For us. And he said yes. And he picked up in the middle of the night and he took his family at God's beckoning, he took the family to Egypt. And in that whole sort of telling of the story by Matthew, his audience was primarily Jewish, we can sense a return back to the exodus, to Moses. And Moses' obedience. The prophet spoke, "I called my son out of the desert" and for them it was the nation of Israel about whom he was speaking. In the Gospel story, it is His son Jesus called out of Egypt. The one who was to be obedient to the Father even unto death. And in the obedience of the mother, in the obedience of the earthly father, and in the obedience of the son God has come to us and brought to us, if we will accept it and if we will live it, he has brought to us peace and joy and compassion and forgiveness and love. He has brought that to us. If we are obedient to His call and His will.<br /><br />I hope and I pray that you and I will go forth from this day and every day praying to be able to live God's will. Because it's His desire and His will that we in our so called nuclear families, that we in the family of the Church, and that we in the family of the world will live in peace and harmony and love. So may God bless us, may God lead us and carry us out of the desert and into His arms of love. May you go forth in this day committed to being obedient to His will.Stevie Moonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06963006352814592453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2591835554578579887.post-4003965826604629282010-08-10T19:48:00.000-07:002010-08-10T19:56:09.886-07:00The Faith of Abraham Homily - 8/8/2010<span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">**To listen to this homily, click on the title**<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >First Reading: Wisdom 18:6-9</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 33:1, 12, 18-19, 20-22</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >Second Reading: Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19 or 11:1-2, 8-12</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >Gospel: Luke 12:32-48 or 12:35-40</span><br /></blockquote><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Good morning. All the wonderful parishioners of St. Thomas would like to welcome all of you who are guests, who are joining us here from other churches, other parishes, other cities. We’d like to welcome you. We’re glad you’re here with us this morning to celebrate with us the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ. To celebrate the resurrection of the Lord. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I don’t know where this came from but I read something earlier. It sounds a little bit, if you’ve read Screwtape Letters – C. S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters – it sounds a little bit like one of the scenes from Screwtape Letters but it’s not. It has a different ending. Let me tell it to you. It’s two of the little worker bee demon who are having a meeting. These two demons were trying to come up with a good way to get more converts to their side. And one of them said “Why don’t we convince those Christians that God just doesn’t exist”. Well the other demon said, “No that really won’t work. All they’ve got to do is look at a sunrise. All they’ve got to do is look at a mountain. All they’ve got to do is look at something of beauty in this world and know that there must be a source of that goodness”. So they thought for a while and then the other little worker demon says, “Why don’t we try to convince them that the devil doesn’t exist”. The other said, “No that won’t work either. All they have to do is look at the evil in the world and know there must be a source of that evil”. So finally they talked for a while and they bounced a few ideas around and they came up with their solution. They decided that what would be the best thing would be to convince the Christians that we have plenty of time.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">That is the message for today my dear friends. When you hear the Lord calling, it’s time to respond – now. Jesus in the Gospel was talking to the apostles. And he was talking to them about having an understanding, having knowledge of what the master wanted and the repercussions that would occur if that servant, if that person, did not do what the master wanted. If they thought, “Well, the master’s a little delayed in coming, we can just have a party” – you see, it is in faith that you and I hear those words. It is in faith that we hear those words encouraging us that when we hear the Lord, we need to respond now. Because my dear friends, we don’t know how much time we have. Our time is now. That is a statement of our faith - when we respond to his message. St. Paul in the second reading today gives us three incredible examples of faith and they’re all about Abraham. Let’s think about those examples for just a minute. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">The first one occurred when Abraham was in his 70’s. It’s a time when most people are retired. But God came to Abraham and said, “I want you to get Sarah and the extended family and we’re gonna move you”. “Where Lord”? “Not for you to know Abraham. I just want you to move. I’m gonna take you where I want to take you”. Now my dear friends, Abraham did not say, “You know Lord, I’m kinda happy right now with my life. I’ve got my tent just the way I like it, got my flock out there and my herd and all this stuff. Everything seems to be just fine Lord. Don’t wanna move. Don’t know what kind of neighborhood you’re taking me too”. He didn’t say that. Abraham, Sarah, the extended family picked up and they went to a place unknown. That was an act of faith. Abraham did not know where that journey was taking him. My dear friends, what is God calling you to in your journey in life? Where is the Lord asking you to go? Is He challenging you with something new? Is He inviting you to follow Him in an unknown destination? I can take this in a lot of different ways. There are two young men sitting on our altar right now. Martin on one side and Miguel on the other side. They’re two of our four seminarians. Zach and Tim and these two guys and they have responded. God has invited them to a journey. They don’t know ultimately where it’s taking them but they have responded and they have said yes and they have said, “Yes Lord, take me wherever it is that you are leading me”. An act of faith. Let’s keep praying for them. They’re all getting ready to go back to school in different places. Please continue your prayer for them. But in the same time, continue to pray for your own self, asking the Lord where it is that He wants to take you - be willing to say yes to that invitation – now. Not later.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Now, there’s another story that St. Paul reminds us of about Abraham – it took place a few years later. Abraham was almost 100. God came to Abraham and said, “You know Abraham, this same time next year I’m going to come by and visit you again and you’re going to have a son”. Now Abraham’s wife Sarah, who was a spring chicken in her 90’s, she was listening in secret and she did what maybe you and probably I would do and that’s laugh. And yet, both Abraham and Sarah in an act of incredible faith said, “Lord, we don’t know how this is gonna happen” but then they cooperated in their humanness to God’s will and guess what? A year later God came back by and there was a son. It seemed impossible to the human mind that that could happen. My question to you today is what in your life seems to be impossible? What is happening in your life that you look and you say there’s nothing that can happen, that can change this, that can make it right? There’s nothing that can heal my marriage. There’s nothing that can find me a new job. There’s nothing that can get us out of this trouble that we’re in. What is it in your own life that seems humanly impossible? When you ponder that, I want you to think about Abraham and Sarah. And their incredible act of faith. They said, “Lord, don’t know how you’re gonna do this, but ok”. God in your life wants to help you get through the impossible. Whatever it is. He wants to be there with you. What He asks of us is that we say yes now, and work with Him in our humanness to allow Him to work in His divinity. Key to it however, is being willing to say yes – now.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">The third story I find very, very tough. As a parent, I find the third story very, very difficult to even ponder. You see after that child was born, God promised that through that child and that through Abraham his descendents would be as numerous as the starts in Heaven and yet God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham, unbelievably, was willing to do what God asked. We know the end of the story, we know that ultimately God did not complete that request. Isaac was spared. The important point of that story is that Abraham was willing to do what God asked. Abraham in faith was willing to sacrifice his son. Now I think our question today is what is God asking me in my life, what is He asking me to sacrifice. Certainly he’s not going to ask us the same thing he asked of Abraham, but what is He asking of us? Is He asking us to give up our former life? Our former way of life? We know as parents we sacrifice everyday for our children. But what is He asking us to do? What is asking us to sacrifice? And are we willing in faith to say, “Ok Lord. This will be tough. But you asked and I’m gonna say yes, I’m going to sacrifice whatever it is that you’re asking me to do. And I’m gonna do it now”. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">My dear friends, we don’t know how long we have. We don’t know in our own individual lives how much more time we’ve got. We don’t know. What we know is that the Lord is saying to us, “Don’t wait. Don’t wait for the master to return and find us doing the wrong thing”. Is He calling us someplace new in our journey in life? Say Yes! Say Ok – now. Do we have something in our life that we find impossible? Allow the Lord to work in our lives. He wants to work us through it. Is He asking us to sacrifice something? To give up something? To change – to do something else? Be willing to say Yes. And do it now. Recognize, know, believe in our hearts how much God loves us. He will only ask us to do something that is for our own good. He asks us to do it – now. </span>Stevie Moonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06963006352814592453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2591835554578579887.post-77773636612966010952010-08-10T18:00:00.000-07:002010-08-10T20:06:44.594-07:00Holy Trinity Homily<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CStevie%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CStevie%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CStevie%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> 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Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="font-weight: bold;" class="MsoNormal"></p><blockquote><p style="font-weight: bold;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-weight: bold;">**To listen to this homily, click on the title**</span></p><p style="font-weight: bold;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity</p> <p style="font-weight: bold;" class="MsoNormal">First Reading: <a href="http://www.easterbrooks.com/cgi-bin/Bible.cgi?reading=Proverbs+8:22-31&mode=paragraph" target="_new">Proverbs 8:22-31</a>
<br />Responsorial Psalm: <a href="http://www.easterbrooks.com/cgi-bin/Bible.cgi?reading=Psalms+8:3-8" target="_new">Psalms 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9</a>
<br />Second Reading: <a href="http://www.easterbrooks.com/cgi-bin/Bible.cgi?reading=Romans+5:1-5&mode=paragraph" target="_new">Romans 5:1-5</a>
<br />Gospel: <a href="http://www.easterbrooks.com/cgi-bin/Bible.cgi?reading=John+16:12-15&mode=paragraph" target="_new">John 16:12-15</a></p></blockquote><p style="font-weight: bold;" class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.easterbrooks.com/cgi-bin/Bible.cgi?reading=John+16:12-15&mode=paragraph" target="_new"></a></p> <p class="MsoNormal">On this Memorial Day weekend I would like to start by thanking all of you who are veterans.<span style=""> </span>You who are veterans are the ones who have protected for us the right to be here today to celebrate our faith in freedom – so thank all of you for serving.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">We gather this morning to celebrate the beautiful solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. <span style=""> </span>I thought what I would do this morning is attempt a deep, 20-30 minute theological dissertation and explain to you finally the Holy Trinity.<span style=""> </span>Is that OK?<span style=""> </span>Should I try that?<span style=""> </span>Actually in 2000 years the great minds of the church haven’t been able to fully do that so I’m not going to do go that direction at all. <span style=""> </span>In fact what I’m going to attempt to do is take another direction.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">As I began to pray about the homily today, as I picked up the readings and began to pray, I asked the Lord to give me some kind of sort of mental picture, some kind of image for us in our spiritual journey to, maybe not understand how the Holy Trinity is the Holy Trinity, how one God can be 3 persons and yet still one God, but to have an image that can help carry us in our spiritual journey a little bit better, have a little bit better close intimate relationship with God and the Holy Trinity.<span style=""> </span>God who is Creator God, God who is Redeemer God, God who is Sanctifying God.<span style=""> </span>How do we get closer to that God?<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Now some of you know, a few of you know, that I’ve just returned from another trip to the Holy Land so you’ll be either shocked or glad to know that I’ve got 4 more years of new material.<span style=""> </span>In fact I even have a new stole that the priest guide gave me at our closing dinner as we were preparing to leave.<span style=""> </span>So I thought that I would attempt in prayer to see if there was a way to tie in something from that trip, some of the beautiful profound experiences that 40 of us pilgrims had.<span style=""> </span>Actually there were more than 40; there were 40 of us that left from here plus our Franciscan priest guide plus our Arab Muslim bus driver, Ahmed, who became part of our group.<span style=""> </span>There were 42 of us really that were this beautiful community that traveled through the holy land.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">So I picked up the first reading and I read that beautiful reading from Proverbs and there is that personification of God in wisdom and this beautiful poetic language.<span style=""> </span>Wisdom is talking bout how she was there before even the beginning of the earth, even the creation of anything and wisdom was there.<span style=""> </span>And so I realized that the first reading takes us back all the way even prior to the creation of the world.<span style=""> </span>And wisdom talks about the delight that she took in the creation of people and how wisdom played before the Lord on the Lord’s earth.<span style=""> </span>There was that intimate beautiful relationship already existing at the beginning of time.<span style=""> </span>So I looked and went well okay, we’re talking about before time so I looked and remembered how we went to Jericho and Jericho is the oldest, existing, living city on the face of the earth right now.<span style=""> </span>We went to Jericho and we looked out at the desert and there we looked at the Mount of Temptation.<span style=""> </span>But I didn’t really grasp anything from that.<span style=""> </span>Then I thought about how we went to another sort of an Old Testament place.<span style=""> </span>We went to the cave of Elijah where Elijah stood and he looked for God, he was looking for an experience with God and he discovered that God wasn’t in the fire or the wind of the earthquake, but God was in the still, small voice of his heart.<span style=""> </span>It was the Spirit speaking to Elijah there and there is a beautiful intimacy between the Father and the Spirit there.<span style=""> </span>But still, no special image for us this morning.<span style=""> </span>We went on then into more of the “Jesus” area of the Holy Land and we went to the place where the Word became flesh – we went to the Church of the Annunciation.<span style=""> </span>We went to the place of the birth – Bethlehem.<span style=""> </span>We went to the place where Jesus stayed much of his ministry – Capernaum.<span style=""> </span>We rode in a boat on the sea of Galilee and went to the Jordan where Jesus was baptized.<span style=""> </span>We went to the place of his death and resurrection.<span style=""> </span>We went to the place of His ascension.<span style=""> </span>And all of those were God’s revelation of Himself.<span style=""> </span>All of the life of Jesus was the revelation of God’s love to the world.<span style=""> </span>But still no special little something for today.<span style=""> </span>And then I read the Gospel and in the Gospel Jesus talks about the coming of the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit will come and reveal truth.<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>There is that again, the relationship of the Father and the Son and the Spirit that is there revealed in Scriptures, revealed in the places.<span style=""> </span>We went to, again, the Jordan.<span style=""> </span>That was a very special time when God the Father spoke, Jesus was baptized and the Spirit appeared as a dove.<span style=""> </span>We went to the upper room where Pentecost took place and the Spirit came.<span style=""> </span>Still no special image.<span style=""> </span>So I was about to give up and go a different direction saying, “Well Lord maybe that’s not where you wanted me to go”.<span style=""> </span>Tuesday morning I was sitting in mass, before mass and praying.<span style=""> </span>And all of the sudden I realized very clearly and very profoundly the image that I want to share with all of you and the Lord shared with me that morning and crystallized what I was feeling what I was sensing.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Now you got to understand that one of the things that I’ve heard in my life, something that I heard and I don’t remember where or whether I read it or whether I heard it but I remember hearing that God the Trinity is a community of love.<span style=""> </span>Father, creator God.<span style=""> </span>Son, Redeemer God.<span style=""> </span>Spirit, Sanctifying God.<span style=""> </span>Now all together, always a community of love.<span style=""> </span>And I realized that in the image that I wanted to have for all of us that I saw a glimpse of the reality of God the Trinity in the community of pilgrims that went on that journey.<span style=""> </span>Now what do I mean by that?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In that community as I look back, I see very clearly a community of love.<span style=""> </span>There were very many differing ones of us.<span style=""> </span>There some older, and there were some younger.<span style=""> </span>And as an example, there were some that had a little bit of a struggle walking some of the trips and some of the journeys that we had to make. <span style=""> </span>But every time I would look back and I would see that those that were struggling along that journey had some other pilgrim arm in arm helping them along.<span style=""> </span>There was an action of love among those who were helping take care of the others.<span style=""> </span>It was a community of love.<span style=""> </span>Different people had different roles.<span style=""> </span>But all of us together were there to go on that journey.<span style=""> </span>And there was even a time, well actually there were many times, but there was one very particular time when that community of love erupted into a community of joy.<span style=""> </span>Now I realize that this is one of those circumstances where you really kind of had to be there, but I’m going to tell you anyway.<span style=""> </span>We were out of the boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee.<span style=""> </span>The people who owned it, who ran the boat, gathered us all together and got us into two circles, an inner circle and an outer circle and they played <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFtv5qe5o3c">Hava Nagila</a>.<span style=""> </span>Now I don’t know if you know that song or not, but it’s a pretty moving song.<span style=""> </span>And they had those 40 pilgrims doing something equivalent to Texas line dancing on a boat in the Sea of Galilee.<span style=""> </span>Great joy and great laughter and great fun and in any other circumstances, I doubt you would have gotten 40 people doing that same thing, but there was a community of love, a community of joy.<span style=""> </span>And then they shut the music off, they turned off the boat and they shut off the motor and we floated on the Sea of Galilee and we prayed.<span style=""> </span>And we experienced the presence of God, the Trinity.<span style=""> </span>God the Father, the Son and the Spirit - loving us to a closer relationship with Him.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Now my point for us today, my dear friends, is that God wants us to recognize that He is a community of love.<span style=""> </span>God wants us to realize that he continuously, every single day, continues to reveal Himself to us.<span style=""> </span>Sometimes He reveals Himself to us through other people.<span style=""> </span>And sometimes He reveals Himself to us in many different ways.<span style=""> </span>And whether we encounter God the Father, or we encounter God the Son, or we encounter God the Spirit - however we encounter Him that particular moment, we encounter the fullness of God’s love.<span style=""> </span>We can never fully understand how that can be.<span style=""> </span>But God’s revelation to us is that He is One God.<span style=""> </span>And He is a loving God.<span style=""> </span>And He invites us to be part of that community.<span style=""> </span>Every single moment - He invites us to be in love and to be loved by Him.</p> Stevie Moonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06963006352814592453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2591835554578579887.post-45297154808896287222010-08-08T23:00:00.001-07:002010-08-08T20:02:21.829-07:00WelcomeHow many times during mass do you wish you could raise your hand and ask the deacon or priest to repeat themselves? Maybe it's because your kids were distracting you or you were thinking about the previous point? I know it wouldn't be because your mind was drifting or anything! Or maybe later when you get home something they said is playing your head but you can't completely remember every word - or you can only think of a part of it and want to know what the homilist's complete thought was -in context. <br /><br />I have a horrible memory. There are so many times I get home from mass and want to listen to bits and pieces of the homily I heard that morning.<br /><br />Well, I am particularly lucky to be related to one of my favorite preachers! He's my dad! He is an ordained permanent deacon in the Roman Catholic church. I love listening to him preach as he truly has a gift. <br /><br />So, this morning after a particularly moving homily, I asked him to tape it so that I could type it out and post it along with the audio version. That way I can go back to it as many times as I want! And so can others. <br /><br />Now, just to be confusing, the first homily I'm posting is not from this morning. A few weeks ago he used an example about my husband, Doug, and Doug's dad in his homily. He taped it so I could send it on to my father-in-law so that he could hear it. I am working on getting the one from today done but it definitely won't be tonight!<br /><br />Please know that I am not a typist, English teacher, or anything like that. I'll do the best I can to type exactly what he says...and to get the punctuation as perfect as possible...but I may have to take some "artistic" license when translating what he speaks to written word. Sometimes it might not be "exact" word for word but I certainly won't change what he is saying...if that makes any sense. On the flip side, sometimes when I type what he is saying, it might not be perfect grammar. So just bear with me on that!Stevie Moonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06963006352814592453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2591835554578579887.post-87605030802140907042010-08-08T23:00:00.000-07:002010-08-08T20:17:58.005-07:00Our Father Homily - 7/25/2010<span style="font-weight:bold;">**To listen to this homily, click on the title**</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Gospel - Luke 11:1-13</span><br /><br />This morning we heard the apostles say to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray. Teach us to pray just like John taught his disciples”. I suspect very strongly that his apostles had been watching Him, observing Him. Observing Him in prayer, observing Him in most likely pretty intense prayer with His Father in heaven and they probably thought “I’d love to be able to get that close to God and I’d love to be able to pray that way. Please Lord, teach us to pray”. This, of course, resulted in the prayer we know as the Our Father. This very day, this very moment there are people all over the world praying that beautiful prayer. In every language, all the different Christian denominations, the Greek Orthodox, the non-Catholics, the Catholics all over the world praying the Our Father at all times of the day. There’s a church at the top of the Mount of Olives just outside of Jerusalem called the Church of the Pater Noster. All over the walls are all these mosaics of the Our Father in I think 62 different languages representing a lot of the different languages in the world. What a beautiful prayer.<br /><br />So as I prepared, to be honest with you, sometimes it’s a struggle in preparation for a homily. And I can’t speak for others but usually when I struggle, it’s not to know what to say, it’s to know what not to say. There’s so much in today’s readings that we could do a lot of things. We could go right all the way into the 12:45 mass – is that OK? That probably wouldn’t be a good idea. So I prayed and thought, “All right what are we gonna do Lord. What are we gonna do”? So I’ll tell you what I’m going to do first, I’m going to send you home with some homework. What I’d really like to recommend and suggest and encourage you to do is sometime today or this week, is take the Our Father from the Gospel of Luke, the gospel today, it’s a lot shorter than the one from Matthew, but take this prayer from the scripture and reflect on each one of the segments of it. Reflect upon what it means to say, “Hallowed be your name”. What does it mean to begin our prayer with praise to God? Then to pray, “Your Kingdom come”, what does it mean in my life for God’s Kingdom to come into my life. How about praying the segment, “Give us this day our daily bread”? Praying for just our needs, not the wants, but the needs. Asking for forgiveness – being able to forgive others and seeking and asking God to protect us from harm. I want to encourage you to do that because we could spend some time on each one of those things. That’s not where the Lord led me today. <br /><br />We could spend some time talking about the importance of persistence in prayer and that is important. There’s an essential part of that message today about being persistent just like Abraham. But it’s not so much about being persistent to talk God into giving us what we want, it really is a certain sense of being persistent about praying and understanding God’s will. So there’s an importance in that.<br />But what I felt was the important thing for us to spend some time on this morning, was to pray and to come to a better understanding about to whom it is that we pray to each time we go into prayer. About who it is that we go to when we pray this prayer. In this particular gospel, Jesus begins the prayer with one word - Father. Not our father, Father. The sense of it is very, very personal – Abba – Daddy – Papa. This is a very personal address of Jesus and that is what He’s teaching His apostles and that’s what He’s teaching us. It’s to go to the Father who is a personal God. Abba-Daddy-Father. So that when we go into prayer, we sit at His feet and we climb up into His lap and know that it is our loving God, our loving Father, our loving Creator who is a just, merciful, loving God. And Jesus, the way He did so many times, in so many of His teachings, He liked to begin with sort of the human level. And He talked to us about earthly fathers. And He says “What father among you would give your child something bad or hurtful or harmful when they ask for something good”? And so He takes us first to that earthly level to have us look at the earthly father, the loving earthly father. <br /><br />I want to share with you an experience that just unfolded in our family over the past couple of weeks. Something that touched me very profoundly. Many of you know my son in law Doug. Doug has a hobby. Doug has a hobby of flying inline model airplanes. Not radio controlled but the kind with the wires and you’ve got to hold them and turn around and spin around. And I’m always impressed with his talent, his gift for flying those and doing all of the patterns and all the things but I’m frankly more impressed with the fact that he doesn’t get dizzy and fall over spinning around like that. But anyway he’s very successful, he’s very good. He’s been going to the national competition for the past several years. Last year he won third place. He went this year with the intention of coming back victorious with first place. But he was there one day and we got a text message from him with a picture attached and it was his airplane - it was in about a thousand pieces. It was like 8 years old and during a practice flight it just folded up. The wings just folded and crashed and burned and that was it. The week’s investment was done. Except for the fact that his earthly father, who lives in Granbury, said I’m going to bring you your back up airplane. He drove from Granbury to Dallas then he drove 14 hours to Muncie, Indiana of all places to take him a back up airplane. Doug dusted it off, did some tweaking, practiced a few times with it and he almost got there – he was 2nd place this year with his backup airplane. Next year, first place. But you know what? What a beautiful example of an earthly father who was willing to go out of his way to give to his son the best that he could to help him out the best that he could. What a beautiful example he was to Doug who said to me “I hope someday I get the chance to do the same thing for my son”. Beautiful example of a loving earthly father.<br /><br />Now, the reality becomes however, that we need to move beyond the earthly and we need to move to the heavenly. Not everybody has an example of an earthly father who loves like that and who gives like that. Jesus even said, “look, if you who are wicked can do those good things think how much more your heavenly Father will love you and do for you”. That’s where we need to move. We need to move to an understanding of our Father being a heavenly father who will never turn away from us, who will never hurt us, who will never die but will be with us and love us for all of eternity. A God who wants us to be with Him forever. <br /><br />And we look at that wonderful first reading and we could spend a whole lot of time on that one too. This whole discussion of Abraham and God. They were in conversation, they were in dialog. We call that prayer don’t we? Abraham was trying to uncover who God really truly was. He knew that He was a just God. He knew that He was a merciful God. And so he began to talk to God and say, “Now look Lord, if we found 50 innocent people, wouldn’t you spare the innocent just for 50 people”? God said” yes, sure”. And Abraham negotiated him all the way down to 10. The revelation of God’s loving, merciful, just self - that just gives us a little glimpse of the Lord God who created us. He doesn’t want to destroy us. He doesn’t want harm to come to us. He wants instead for us to live with Him forever. <br /><br />And He proved that by sending His son who, when nailed to that cross He became the one innocent person. The one who bore the sins for all of us. The one who died for us. God loved us so much, that he was willing to do that. So hopefully we can move from the earthly father and we can look at the loving heavenly father, creator God. Father God. The one who loves us. So that when we sit down each day to pray, when we sit down each day to take our time with Him, to come before Him, to sit at His feet, to climb up into His lap, we know beyond any shadow of a doubt that it is our Father, Daddy, God to whom we pray. He loves us, he created us. And so then when we can recognize that, it is then that we can sit down and in that prayer we can proclaim him, Holy is Your Name. We can pray that his kingdom come in our lives in whatever that means in our own lives, we can accept it, be willing to accept it. It is then that when we recognize him as Holy Father God that we can pray for our daily needs. Not our daily wants so much, that’s okay, but we cannot expect him to give us everything but only what is good for us. And it is then that we can come before him and ask his forgiveness for our sins and the strength to forgive others. It is then that we know and we ask that He protect us from harm and evil. <br /><br />And when we recognize Him as daddy God, we will know from the bottom of our hearts, the very core of our lives, how very, very much he loves us.Stevie Moonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06963006352814592453noreply@blogger.com1