13 Sunday-B- Reflections and Prayers

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Gospel reading: Mark 5:21-43 

Today’s gospel comprises two distinct stories with no particular connection between them so you should decide to meditate on one or the other.
- there is the raising of Jairus’s daughter to life, which by a peculiar arrangement is told in two separate sections (verses 21-24,+ 35-43);
- and there is he healing of he woman with the haemorrhage (verses 25 to 43).
Remember that the miraculous cures by Jesus, while they record historical facts, are also lessons in how God works and invites us to enter with gratitude into his work of grace in our own lives and in the world today.

13 Sunday - B- July 1-Homily 1

Jairus' Daughter

Mark 5:21-43 - "The Healing of Jairus' Daughter and the Hemorrhaging Woman"

Mark 5:21-43 - "Be Healed, Be Held" by Leonard Sweet

A business executive became depressed. Things were not going well at work, and he was bringing his problems home with him every night. Every evening he would eat his dinner in silence, shutting out his wife and five-year-old daughter. Then he would go into the den and read the paper using the newspaper to wall his family out of his life.

Funny Photos

Double Amputee West Climbs Kilimanjaro for a Cause

Rock Springs native Spencer West to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in wheelchair and on hands

Spencer West, who lost his legs as a toddler when he was diagnosed with Sacral Agenesis, poses for a photo on Friday, May 18, 2012 in Casper, Wyo. The condition made the muscles in his legs useless, and his legs were removed to essentially eliminate "dead weight," as West puts it. West endured bullying in school and stares from strangers, but went on to become a state champion cheerleader at Rock Springs High School and earn his communications degree from Westminster College in Salt Lake City. West is now a motivational speaker, and plans to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for relief aid for the people of Kenya, who are suffering from the worst drought the country has seen in 60 years. West made a trip to the country years ago, and has been moved to help the area since. (AP Photo/Casper Star-Tribune, Kyle Grantham)

John the Baptist - June 24 - Several Homilies -3

John the Baptist  - June 24

 Homily from Father Joseph Pellegrino

http://www.st.ignatius.net/pastor.html

John the Baptist

 Nativity of John the Baptist: The Exigency to Prophesy

John the Baptist June 24 - Homily-2

Solemnity of the birth of St. John the Baptist
(June 24) L/12
Is 49: 1-6; Acts 13: 22-26; Lk 1: 57-66, 80

Anecdote: Be the finger of John the Baptist: Karl Barth the great 20th century Calvinist theologian  would  wake  up early  in the morning, read  the newspaper,  and  stare  at a painting  by Grunewald  called  Crucifixion.  Jesus  is hanging  from  the cross,  apparently dead,  while Mary and others morn. John the Baptist, holding the Scriptures and leaning away from Christ, is pointing to Jesus on the Cross. Before he would teach  theology or write in his famous work Church Dogmatics, Karl Barth would meditate on this painting, particularly  on  John the  Baptist.  He said  that,  as  a  Christian  (whether  a  theologian, pastor, teacher, mother, doctor, storekeeper, etc.), our job is to be the finger (and only the finger), of John the Baptist. The only thing we should do – indeed, the only thing we can  do – is simply point to Jesus on the cross. This scene painted by Grunewald is the sum of all history, from Creation in the past to eternity. And we are that finger, and within that finger rests the weight of salvation.

John the Baptist - June 24

Our God-Given Names

Isaiah 49:1-6

Acts 13:22-26

Luke 1:57-66, 80

“Among those born of women no one is greater than John” (Luke 7:28). These words which our Lord said about John the Baptist are probably behind the solemn feast of the birthday of John the Baptist which we celebrate today. As a rule, the church celebrates the feast of a saint once a year, on the anniversary of the saint’s death. In the case of John the Baptist we celebrate his death as well as his birth. John is the only saint after Christ whose birth we celebrate with a solemn feast. This is the church’s way of saying with Jesus that “among those born of women no one is greater than John.” The gospel story of the birth of John focuses on the naming ceremony. Why does the gospel show such an interest in the naming of the child? We tend to ask Juliet’s famous question to Romeo in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, “What’s in a name? that which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet.” But not everybody would agree with this view. In biblical times, and still today in many African cultures, personal names function the way business names do, that is, they aim to convey what the bearer of the name stands for. When Simon shows that he could be relied on as a leader of the apostles, he gets the name “Rock.” When the sons of Zebedee, James and John, petition Jesus to call down lightning from heaven to burn up the inhabitants of a Samaritan village who do not welcome Jesus, they get a new name “Sons of Thunder.” Names reveal an essential character or destiny of the bearer.