32 Sunday A and Dedication of Lateran Basilica

Reflections on Both the Themes. - TK

3 Readings talk about God's presence in three areas: Nature (water & Herb) or creation. This is first temple. Second human persons, second temple. Third: social, civil and ecclesial structures. God first created time, space and context. Then created human beings. Sin and grace take place at a particular, location and context. Paradise had everything for grace and growth. Also the apple tree that caused sin.
During the plague in France, those who sought refuge in the churches were saved. This was because of the candle lights and incense that kept the rats away. context and time and place in God's plan! - TK

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Thomas O’Loughlin
Introduction to the Celebration

Sisters and brothers, each week when we assemble for the Eucharist we enter into the presence of the Father, and offer him the sacrifice of praise in union with Christ Jesus. We enter into the presence of Christ, and through him into the presence of the Father. Today we reflect that as the people of the Lord Jesus we are called to be always awake and ready to bring his wisdom to our world and to be his presence among all the people we encounter.

31 Sunday A - Preaching without Practising

Thomas O’Loughlin
Introduction to the Celebration

One of the great gaps in each of our lives is between intentions and actions; we often have only the best intentions but what we actually do is a lot less wholesome. We have noble words and ig­noble deeds. We make professions of faith with our lips, but not with our deeds or our wallets; we say we are willing to be disci­ples of the master, but we often find easier paths and other guides. We claim the enlightenment of the gospel and to be the people of love and peace, yet our behaviour often brings the very name of Christ into disrepute. It is this gap that is the focus of our thoughts and prayers in this assembly. Let us reflect now on this chasm that opens up between our public religious identity and our ways of living. 

Nov 2 - All Souls

Fr. John Speekman

In the eyes of many purgatory is a bit of a ‘nuisance’ teaching belonging in the same category as angels and indulgences and even hell. It’s not easy to explain because not many understand it deeply and so it’s always making us run up not only against our own ignorance but the disbelief of our modern world as well – and that’s a real nuisance. 

The word purgatory comes from the Latin "purgare" to make clean or to purify. The Catholic Encyclopedia defines it as: a place or condition of temporal punishment for those who, departing this life in God's grace, are, not entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions. 

30 Sunday A - Prayers for the Liturgy

A QUICK PURVIEW OF MATTHEW'S THEME OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD DURING THESE SUNDAYS: TK

Commentary: The year grows short and the questions more direct. Once again they are going at Jesus. He has just silenced the stupid arguments of the Sadducees who did not believe in resurrection or judgment. Now the Pharisees will have another go at Jesus and one approaches with the age-old Jewish question: "Which is the most important commandment in the Law?" Jesus answers with the Shema -which is both a prayer to the holiness of God and the foundational call to the covenant and basis of all the law-to love God with all your mind, heart, soul, and resources. But Jesus adds in the second (like both sides of your hand) to love your neighbor with the same passion and wholeheartedness. Everything in the law, the prophets, the history of faithfulness in the Jewish covenant is based on putting these words into practice and obeying the intent of God that all who are made in his image, live in his image as truthfully as we can. And there is no getting around it-no hedging, no rationalizing. And we-who are we like: the Sadducees playing games with theology; the Pharisees and those using the law to test, trick and make others stumble-or are we with Jesus, intent on the worship of God and the care of human beings?

30 Sunday A - Foundations of the Kingdom: The 2 Commandments

A QUICK PURVIEW OF MATTHEW'S THEME OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD DURING THESE SUNDAYS: TK

Thomas O’Loughlin
Introduction to the Celebration

Why have we gathered here? One answer is to assemble together to show our love for God and for one another – because the whole of the Christian way can be summed up in these two commandments. But let us pause and recall that we do not always love God with our whole hearts nor our neighbors as ourselves.

29 Sunday A - Taxes to Caesar and to God

Thomas O’Loughlin
Introduction to the Celebration

The Holy Spirit has gathered us here to offer thanks and praise to the Father through our union with Jesus. But in discovering our relationship with God, we also discover our relationship with other human beings, and our place within God’s creation. So we are called to love and serve God and we are called to love and serve others. We often think that it is enough to serve either God or humanity: serve one and ignore the other. But life just isn’t that simple: we have to give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give back to God what belongs to God. Part of our mission as Christians is to negotiate and balance these responsibilities. It is this mission we are going to reflect on today.

Michel DeVerteuil
General Comments

 

28 Sunday A - Wedding Feast and Invitees

Starter Stories:

Post-World War II Banquet:

At the end of World War II, the Russian head-of-state gave an elaborate banquet to honor the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.  The Russians arrived in their best formal wear -- military dress uniforms -- but their honored guest did not.  Churchill arrived wearing his famous zipper coveralls that he had worn during the German bomb attack in London.  He thought it would provide a nostalgic touch the Russians would appreciate.  They didn’t.  They were humiliated and insulted that their prominent guest-of-honor had not considered their banquet worthy of his best clothes.  Wearing the right clothing to a formal dinner honors the host and the occasion; neglecting to wear the right clothing is an insult.  Weddings were such an important occasion in Palestine in Christ’s days that people were expected to wear the proper clothing to show appreciation and respect for the invitation.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus demands the wedding garment of righteousness from his followers. (Fr. Tony Kadavil)

Rare Images and Quotes of Mahatma Gandhi

27 Sunday A - Vineyard and Stewardship

Story Starters: From Fr. Tony Kadavil’s Collection 

1) Wild Vines in the Lord’s Vineyard

In his book From Scandal to Hope, Fr. Benedict Groeschel (EWTN), examines the roots of the clergy sex-abuse scandal. He details how disloyalty spread through seminaries, universities, chanceries and parishes. The most notorious case was that of Fr. Paul Shanley who helped found the North American Man-Boy Love Association in 1979. He lectured in seminaries, once with a bishop in attendance, maintaining that “homosexuality is a gift of God and should be celebrated,” and that there was no sexual activity that could cause psychic damage-- “not even incest or bestiality.” No wonder Fr. Charles Curran had little trouble getting seventy-seven theologians to sign a protest against Humanae Vitae, an encyclical which reaffirmed marital chastity! A few years later the Catholic Theological Society (CTS), published Human Sexuality: New Directions in American Catholic Thought, a study which accepted cohabitation, adultery and homosexuality. Now, however, all these chickens have come home to roost. We are paying the price – in lawsuits, public humiliation and loss of credibility. The media gave us a glimpse of the enormous destruction in the Lord’s vineyard done by those wicked tenants. They did so with great relish because the scandals discredit a teaching authority they, by and large, find annoying. But this attention by the media has had consequences the media probably did not intend. It has alerted Catholics to the widespread pillaging of the vineyard, which ultimately means the damnation of souls. Fr. Groeschel asks, “Does all this scandal shake your faith in the Church?” He answers, “I hope so, because ultimately your faith should not be in the Church. Ultimately your faith is in Jesus Christ. It is because of him that we accept and support the Church. We believe in and belong to the Church because Christ established it on his apostles." We see in today’s Gospel that the owner of the vineyard is God. He will care for his Church, not by committees or document, but by raising up saints who will properly tend the vineyard.  

Marriage Secret: How the wife of a severely brain injured man can say she's in Love

Happy and Every year is more Fun Two college sweethearts, who learned the meaning of unconditional love after one of them suffered a brain injury, which left him subsequently mentally and physically disabled, are set to celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary this week in conjunction with the release of their book, Eight Twenty Eight, which chronicles the journey of their special marriage. Ian and Larissa Murphy have experienced life's lowest lows since the day Ian got into a car accident in 2006 on his way to work. He had been saving up for an engagement ring after having dated Larissa for 10 months when that tragic accident occurred. Larissa could have moved on with her life, but instead she moved in with his family to help care for him during a time when he could not walk, talk or eat.