3 Sunday C - Homily and Stories

Introduction:

U. S. Presidents' inaugural speeches: On Jan 21, 2013, Americans heard the inaugural speech of Barak Obama, opening his second term as the 44th president of the United States. You may not know this, but every single Inaugural Address from George Washington's to Barak Obama’s has been preserved. In these speeches, presidents have laid out for the country their dreams, goals, and aspirations.

2 Sunday C - Homily and Stories

Michel de Verteuil
General Comments

Sunday in the liturgy is always “the first day of the week,” so since Ordinary Time starts on the Monday after the Epiphany, this Sunday is called the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time. We might expect to start immediately with the continuous reading from the Synoptic Gospel for the year, which characterizes Ordinary Time. However, liturgical custom dictates otherwise: on this Sunday each year we meditate on a passage from the first chapters of St John’s gospel. It is as if the Church is reluctant to say farewell to the Christmas season – or perhaps reluctant to leave St John, since we have been reading from his gospel on the weekdays of Christmas.

Baptism of the Lord - Jan 13 - Homily and Stories

Introduction: 

Wash Off the Stuff of the Day: 

One of the most successful and personable people on television is Oprah Winfrey. Movies, book clubs, she does it all. Huge business operations. While all the other talk shows on television are tearing people apart and putting all their illnesses out for public humiliation, Oprah is helping put people and families back together again. . . In a Newsweek magazine interview the interviewer asked her, "How do you separate yourself from work?" Answer, "I take a hot bath. . . My bath is my sanctuary. (Listen to this) It's the place where I can wash off all the stuff of the day" ((Jan 8, 2001, p. 45).

The gifts of the wise men

Introduction

The arrival of the wise men wasn’t a part of the story of Jesus’ birth at all. They actually came in a time when the miracle of Jesus’ birth had long since worn off – while Mary and Joseph were caught in the busyness of life and parenting. In a time like this the gifts once again reminded them of three important truths God had told them in the beginning. Today even as the Christmas season is far behind us and we are about to get caught in the busyness of the new year God wants to remind us of those three truths.
Text: Matthew 2:1-12

Every Day Christmas - Flash

Epiphany - Jan 6: Homilies and Stories

EPIPHANY SUNDAY-JANUARY 6

Story: A husband asked his wife, "Why would God give the wise men a star to guide them?" She replied, "Because God knows men are too proud to ask directions."

"When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flocks, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, heal the broken, feed the hungry, rebuild the nations, bring peace among people, make music in the heart." So wrote Howard Thurman. 
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As we give our insignificant, little gifts to God, the good news is that God accepts them! Like the Magi offering their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, we offer what we have, from the heart, in response to what that Child has given to us - himself.

Let us conclude with a 19th century English carol, Christina Rosetti’s A Christmas Carol, which begins, “In the bleak midwinter.” The carol sums up, in its last stanza, the nature of "giving to the Christ child.”
What can I give him, poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd, I could give a Lamb.

If I were a wise man, I could do my part.
What I can I give Him?  Give Him my heart!”

New Year - Another Prayer

A New Year Prayer

Holy Father,

God of our yesterdays, our today, and our tomorrows.

We praise You for Your unequalled greatness.
 

Thank You for the year behind us and for the year ahead.

Help us in Your new year, Father, to fret less and laugh more.
To teach our children to laugh by laughing with them.
To teach others to love by loving them.

Knowing, when Love came to the stable in Bethlehem, He came for us.

So that Love could be with us, and we could know You.
That we could share Love with others.

Prayers: New Year, Christmas, etc

Holiday Prayer Guide1

New Year Prayer - Flash

Jan 1: Mary, Mother of God and New Year

Mary, Mother of God and New Year

Anecdote: There is a beautiful, little story about a long, tedious train journey made, one Christmas day, by some elderly residents of a nursing home who were on their way to a vacation spot. At one station, a young mother with a small child entered the train. The child smiled at all the grim faces around him and began moving from one lap to another talking, shouting with joy and chatting with everyone. Instantly, the grim and silent atmosphere in the train was changed to one of joy and happiness. Today we remember with joy and gratitude, how Mary and her Divine Son Jesus transformed a hopeless, joyless and sinful world into a place of joy and happiness.