17 Sunday C - Teach us to Pray - Homilies

Thomas O’Loughlin
Introduction to the Celebration

We are assembled here, not as a bunch of individuals, but as distinct members of a single body. This is something that we recall in a special way today when we read a story about the first disciples asking to be taught how to prayer together. We are the people who can call God our Father, who gather now to thank him and praise his name, who gather to ask him for our daily needs, and who ask him to forgive us as we forgive others. We need to pause now and recall our need of forgiveness for ourselves, and Jesus’s call to us to forgive others.

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Sean Goan
Gospel Notes 

Staying with the important theme of prayer, this week’s extract from Luke brings the teaching on prayer that accompanied the giving of the Our Father. In Luke, Jesus teaches this prayer because the disciples have asked for his help. The form of the prayer is the short one, as opposed to the longer version in Matthew which was adopted by the church as the version for use in the liturgy. In its short form we see even more clearly how this simple prayer has all that we need. We praise God as Father, we acknowledge that we want what he wants and that we trust him to look after us. We also recognise our need for forgiveness and our willingness to forgive. Finally we ask that in the life of faith we will not have to endure anything that would cause us to lose that faith. In what follows, Jesus uses the images of the unwilling friend and the caring parent to make us think about the relationship with God that should lie behind our prayer. God is the loving Father and in giving us the Holy Spirit he is holding back nothing.

New Generation

Girl: Dad, I'm in love with a boy who is far away from me. I am in Ghana
and he lives in UK.

Benefits of Walking

 

HR Manager in Heaven!!!

One day while walking down the street a highly successful Human Resources Manager was tragically hit by a bus and she died. Her soul arrived up in heaven where she was greeted by God himself. "Welcome to Heaven," said God. "Before you get settled in though, it seems we have a problem. You see, strangely enough, we've never once had a Human Resources Manager make it this far and we're not really sure what to do with you." "No problem, just let me in," said the woman.

Angel of Death - Story

Its time we realize what is most important

When the angel of death came to Joe Smith, to accompany him to his real home, Joe dismissively responded “I am not ready to die as I have so much left to do. Do you mind coming back later?”

Better Management of Church Finances

Francis, Bishop of Rome, has appointed an eight-member commission to study the function of the Vatican Bank, and to suggest steps to be taken to improve not only its functioning but also its integrity. For some years the Vatican Bank has been functioning like ‘a den of thieves’ (Mk 11.17). When John Paul I became the Bishop of Rome there was fear that he would go into the functioning of the Vatican Bank. That was one reason why he was murdered. The eight-member commission appointed by Francis has seven lay persons and only one cleric. The president of this commission is a lay person. Can we learn something from Francis?

Practical and Innovative Modern Furniture

Practica,l Innovative, Italian Furniture - Video

Only in Africa - In Pictures - Humour

  Ideas we could adopt ??? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tiger's Tail and Conversion

It has been said, “Be contented with what you have, but never too contented with what you are.”
There is a story that comes out of Asia about a farmer who saw a tiger’s tail swishing between two large rocks. In a moment of haste, he grabbed the tail and pulled. All of a sudden he realized he had an angry tiger by the tail and only two rocks stood between him and the tiger’s teeth and claws! So there he remained, afraid to loosen his grip on the enraged animal’s tail lest he surely be killed.
A monk happened by and the farmer called out in desperation, “Come over here and help me kill this tiger.”
The holy man said, “Oh, no. I cannot do that. I cannot take the life of another.” Then he went on to deliver a homily against killing. All the while, the farmer was holding tightly to the tail of an angry tiger.
When the monk finally finished his sermon, the farmer pleaded, “If you won’t kill the tiger, then at least come hold its tail while I kill it.”
The monk thought that perhaps it would be all right to simply hold the tiger’s tail, so he grabbed hold and pulled. The farmer, however, turned and walked away down the road.