Bulletin – September 18

September 19th, 2010

In this week’s bulletin: registration for sacraments and faith development, sponsoring an Iraqi refugee family, and the Thanksgiving food drive.

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Homily – September 12

September 12th, 2010

Has this ever happened in your family? There has been a falling out. Something was said, someone was neglected, someone was slighted, misunderstood, misquoted and a rift developed in the family. On big family occasions, Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays or wedding anniversaries someone is always missing. The family is incomplete. No one knows how to set things right. Then the time comes when people re-connect, hurts are healed, bygones become bygones and things are good. Peace reigns in the valley.

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Homily – September 5

September 5th, 2010

There is a TV program titled “Curb Your Enthusiasm.’  I watched it once and that was enough. I think today’s harsh gospel could be titled ‘curb your enthusiasm.’

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Homily – August 29

August 29th, 2010

Meals are a very important part of all our lives. We enjoy Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving dinners and birthday parties and wedding anniversaries. We break the monotony of daily living by ‘going out for a meal.’ I guess this has always been so. In the time of Jesus meals were an occasion to affirm and give legitimacy to a person’s role and status in a given community. The same is true today. Imagine how some people would give anything to be invited to a meal at the White House or Buckingham Palace. I was going to say 24 Sussex but I don’t think so.

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Homily – Get Up and Walk

August 22nd, 2010

Just a few words on the second reading of today’s Mass – this letter to the Hebrews. Scholars say this letter was not written to a major Christian community otherwise it would bear the name of the community as other letters did; Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, the Philippians and Galatians. Scholars claim it was written around the year 80, a time of pause between two great persecutions of the church. The first persecution was during the time of Nero in the year 64 and the next one was during the time of Domitian in the year 85. This community had memories of its leaders being put to death and the experience of suffering harsh treatment under the authorities of the time but they had not just resisted to the point of shedding blood. But they knew that their freedom of religion and their lives depended on the whim of people in power. The Christians faced restrictions and limitations on their freedom, never knowing when some bureaucrat would make their lives difficult.

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