16 SUNDAY B Reflections -2

XVI SUNDAY B

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 - "Hurry Hinders Ministry"

Ephesians 2:11-22 - "Zombie Zone or Beulah Land?" by Leonard Sweet

An ethics professor at Princeton Seminary asked for volunteers for an extra assignment. About half the class met him at the library to receive their assignments. The professor divided the students into three groups of five each. He gave the first group envelopes telling them to proceed immediately across campus to Stewart Hall. He told them that they had 15 minutes and if they didn't arrive on time, it would affect their grade. A minute or two later, he handed out envelopes to five others. They were also to go over to Stewart Hall, but they had 45 minutes.

16 SUNDAY B - Homilies & Prayers

XVI Sunday in Ordinary Time-July 22

 Gospel reading: Mark 6:30-34 

Michel DeVerteuil

Textual Comments  

Today's passage, like those of the last two Sundays, is an account of the ministry of Jesus and contains several messages that are important for us today. We can feel free to identify with one of the three characters in the story:  - Jesus,  - the apostles,  - the crowds.   

15 Sunday B- Several homilies-3

Homily from Father James Gilhooley

A pastor bankrupt his parish giving away wood to the poor to bring warmth to their homes in bitter winter. When he had no money left, he sold the rectory Chippendale dining room furniture for more wood. He was ridiculed by his peers for being a bad administrator. He was embraced by Christ on his death.

15 Sunday -B-Liturgy

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

 Greetings (see second reading)

God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has chosen us in Christ to live in his presence and with him to carry out his plan of bringing everyone together under Christ. May the Lord's peace and grace be always with you. R/ And also with you.

15 Sunday - B- July 15-Homilies-2

15thSunday B

Introduction: Today’s readings remind us of our Divine Adoption as God's children and of our call to preach the good news of Jesus by bearing witness to God’s love, mercy and salvation as revealed through Jesus. "God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world." (Ephesians 1: 4)

Scripture lessons: The first reading warns us that our witnessing mission will be rejected, as happened to the Old Testament prophets like Amos, He was ordered by Amaziah, the angry chief priest serving in the Northern Kingdom of Israel at Bethel, to take his prophesying back to his own country, the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Amos defended his prophetic role with courage, clarifying that it was not his choice but his God’s choice to elevate him from a shepherd and tree-dresser to a prophet. Like Amos, each one of us is chosen by God, through the mystery of divine adoption in Jesus, to become missionaries and to preach the “good news” by Christian witnessing.

15 SUNDAY B July 15 - Homilies & Prayers

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel reading: Mark 6:7-13

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Michel DeVerteuil
Lectio Divina with the Sunday Gospels
www.columba.ie
Textual Comments

This passage contains several separate sections. Each has an important message for us today.

1. Jesus summoned the Twelve.
He selected a group of people who he felt would be able to represent him before the world. He called them by name so that he could send them into the world not merely as a group, but as individuals.

14 Sunday B- 2-Several reflections

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle B - Mark 6:1-6

Homily from Father James Gilhooley

The bishop asked the monsignor, "How was my homily?" The msgr: "You were brief." The bp: "I try never to be tiresome. The msgr: "You were tiresome too."

The nineteenth century English poet, Alfred Tennyson, wrote: "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of." Was that a cute throwaway line or did Lord Tennyson know something we do not? The answer to our question is to be found in the prayer life of Jesus.

14 Sunday - B-July 8-Homilies

14 Sunday - B; Mk 6:1-6

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Introduction to the Celebration

When we assemble each week on Sunday, we are continuing an earlier tradition of God's people who met on Saturday – the Sabbath. For the Jews, the Sabbath was, and is, the day to rejoice in the goodness of God in creating the universe, and our human family. The first Christians moved the celebration to Sunday as this day was seen as the day of resurrection: God's great act of restoring and renewing the creation in Jesus.

13 Sunday- B -Liturgical Prayers

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

Greetings (see second reading)
We are gathered in the name of Jesus: he was rich but became poor for our sake to make us rich out of his poverty. He brought us life and healing. May his life and grace be always with you. R/ And also with you.

Introduction by the Celebrant

A. God Is Pro-Life

Two great enemies in life are death and illness. Almost every one of us is scared of them. Are we convinced that God too is pro-life, that he is an enemy of death? Even the Old Testament assures us: "Death is not of God's making." Jesus' resurrection is the sign that death has been overcome in its roots. It is the gate to life. In this eucharist we express our faith that we believe in Jesus as the Lord of life.  

13 Sunday - B-Several Homilies - July1

13 Ordinary Time Sunday July 1

 Homily from Father James Gilhooley

Several years ago I caught a revival of the nineteenth century A Doll's House by the incomparable master Henrik Ibsen in New York City. The director was the great Ingmar Bergman. Ibsen has his protagonist Nora rejecting out of hand the stereotype of being "just" a wife and mother. She says to her chauvinist husband, "I don't believe that any more. I am a human being - just like you." For almost a century, historians have hailed Ibsen as a pioneering fellow in the area of women's rights. What short memories they have! For nineteen centuries before Ibsen there was a Man named Jesus. The woman cured of the hemorrhage was much admired in the early Church. The early historian Eusebius tells us a statue of her was erected at the miracle's site in Caesarea in northeastern Palestine. Perhaps it was set up by early feminists. It remained there to the fourth century. The Roman Emperor Justinian, who was not a friend of things Christian, destroyed it. Very modestly he put up one of himself. However, God and women both got even. Justinian lived to see his likeness destroyed by lightning. No doubt he got the message.