32 Sunday B Nov 11 - Homilies

Thomas O'Loughlin
Introduction to the Celebration  

We can gather here because each of us has heard, in some way or another, the divine invitation to become beloved daughters and son of the Father. The Spirit has moved our hearts to set out to follow the Lord, and we have started on a journey towards the Father in the way we live our lives. However, as we gather today to celebrate this journey, we are also conscious that we often fail to live life in accordance with this invitation. The gospel recalls Jesus seeing a poor widow in the temple treasury and his way of looking at this woman is a challenge to all of us who accept his invitation to follow him. 

Quotes 41 - Accomplishment

"There's a very positive relationship
between people's ability to
accomplish any task and the time
they're willing to spend on it."
- Joyce Brothers

The Old Man and His Son - A Story with a Lesson

A short story with a lesson

 

An old man, staying in a small south Indian town came to visit his son in Mumbai recently. The son in his early thirties is a successful businessman living with his wife and son. The father, having spent most of his life at his birthplace, hardly understands Hindi English, Marathi. But he doesn’t care. ‘I have come here to spend a few days with my son and his family. I don’t have to go out and socialize with the city people,’ he said.
But the son is very excited about his father’s rare visit to Bombay. He wants to make the best of it. He and his wife want to show him around the city. And yes, the son enjoys those evening hours too, when he and his father go out and sit in a good bar, sipping their favourite drink.
Last week he told his father ‘Let’s go to a five star hotel’s bar tonight’. It was a beautiful evening. Talking about everything under the sun they had a few drinks. As usual they were offered some salad, peanuts, wafers etc. as accompaniments with their drinks. The old man being almost toothless was not much interested in eating. But that day when they got up to leave, he simply took a handful of chana (roasted grams) and stuffed it in the fold of his dhoti. He might have thought > about munching on them, sitting in the car.

World's Largest Funerals

 Some people touch us in an amazing way. When they pass away their funeral becomes a public affair where people who have often only seen them on TV perform a public outpouring of emotion. I may be lucky to have two or three people attend my funeral. S

Shapeshifter Body Redesign

ome people have had a few more though. Occasionally around the world there are people whose funeral brings millions of people onto the street to mourn. Here are the biggest ones.

1. Princess Diana

Princess Diana was known as the Princess of the People. The world was shocked by her sudden death and in the UK she turned overnight from an oft ridiculed Princess, into a national heroine. The funeral of Diana was held in London on September 6^th 1997. The procession drew an estimated three million mourners, who lined the streets of London to pay homage to their Princess.

Health Tips - Fruits and Vegetables

” Info You Can Well Use … ”

 

” Health Benefits of Consuming Dates ”
1. Dates are free from cholesterol and contain very low fat. Dates are rich in vitamins and minerals.
2. They are rich source of protein, dietary fiber and rich in vitamin B1, B2, B3 and B5 along with vitamin A1 and C.
3. It helps improve the digestive system as it contains soluble and insoluble fibers and different kinds of amino acids.
4. Dates are great energy boosters as they contain natural sugars like glucose, sucrose and fructose. To get more advantage add dates to milk and make it a very nutritious snack.
5. Dates are very low in calories and are extremely suitable for health conscious people.
6. Dates are rich in potassium and reduced in sodium. This helps regulate a healthy nervous system. Researchers have revealed the fact that potassium intake up to a certain extent can reduce risk of stroke.
7. Dates also help in lowering of the LDL cholesterol.
8. Dates have high iron content and are very useful in treating anemia. The patients can eat many dates for better advantages.
9. Dates also have fluorine that slows down the process of tooth decay.
10. It helps people suffering from constipation. Soak dates overnight and take it along with water to have added advantage.
11. Dates help in weight gain and are beneficial for those who suffer from over slimming problem.
12. Dates are excellent for alcoholic intoxication.Cures abdominal cancer.
13. It also helps in improving eye sight and helps in curing night blindness as well.
14. It also improves the sperm count when taken with milk.
“The best thing is that it does not have any side effect on the body and is completely natural as well as it works better than medicine.”

































 

How to go to Heaven - Childrens' Answer

I was testing the children



in my Sunday school class





to see if they understood the concept
of getting to heaven.


I asked them, 'If I sold my house and my car,



had a big garage sale



and gave all my money

 to the church,



Would that get me into Heaven?'
'NO!' the children answered.



'If I cleaned the church every day,


mowed the yard,



and kept everything neat and tidy,
would that get me into Heaven?'

Again, the answer was, 'NO!'



By now I was starting to smile.

Hey, this was fun!



'Well, then, if I was kind to animals


and gave candy


to all the children,



played with them and loved them



 and loved my husband,


would that get me into Heaven?'
I asked them again.
Again, they all answered, 'NO!'



 I was just bursting with pride for them..
'Well,' I continued, 'then how can I get into Heaven?'




A five-year-old boy shouted out,










'YOU GOTTA BE DEAD.'

Quotes 40 - Reading Habits

"The man who does not read good
books has no advantage over the
man who cannot read them."
- Mark Twain

31 Sunday B - Great Commandment - Shema

Reflection

‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength.’ Was this simply the setting of an impossible ideal? For it would seem that much of the history of the People of God is merely a demonstration of how much they failed to live up to their calling. It is as though the priests offering sacrifices in the temple were busy trying in vain to keep open the lines of communication between heaven and earth. Jesus, however, lived out the Shema to the very point of laying down his life and in so doing he unblocked the path between God and humanity. This is how he became our way to the Father and changed what seemed like an impossible ideal into a wonderful opportunity. We really can love God because he has loved us first.

 

Sean Goan

One of the earliest heresies dealt with by the early church was led by Marcion, a man who taught that the Old Testament had nothing useful to say about God. He affirmed that Jesus presented a new God in his Father. Marcion failed to grasp that the prophetic vision of Jesus was entirely rooted in the scriptures of the chosen people and this is very evident in the scene put before us now. At the heart of Judaism is the She ma, the call to love God wholly and completely. The reason for this call was an awareness that Yahweh had revealed himself to his people through the Sinai covenant and, in the events of the exodus, had shown himself as a compassionate saviour. The chosen people where therefore acutely aware that their faith was based on practice and could not be separated from love of neighbour. In the gospel, Jesus and the scribe agree on these essentials and so offer us a reminder of what is also at the core of Christianity.

Quotes 39 - Success

"To guarantee success, act as
if it were impossible to fail."
- Dorothea Brande

Quotes 38 - Habits

"We first make our habits, and
then our habits make us."
- John Dryden