3 Sunday A - Reign of God - Come, Follow Me!

Fr. Bill Grimm:

From The Connections:

‘My Monastery Is a Minivan’

When asked our religion, most of us would describe ourselves as “Catholic” or “Christian.”  But we would tend to back away from daring to call ourselves “disciple” or “follower.”  That description rightly belongs to the great heroes of our faith: the apostles and holy men and women of the Gospel, the saints and martyrs, the Francises of Assisi, the Mother Teresas, the Thomas Mertons, the Dorothy Days, the Albert Schweitzers.  Our lives are too ordinary, our professions too worldly to dare imagine that we are doing the work of the Gospel Jesus.

Pope Benedict: Quote for January 20th

"The Church does not engage in proselytism. Instead, she grows by “attraction”: just as Christ 'draws all to himself' by the power of his love, culminating in the sacrifice of the Cross, so the Church fulfills her mission..."

- Pope Benedict XVI

 

Pictures - Perfectly Timed

Puppy Love - Live like the Lamb

 

 

 A farmer had some puppies he needed to sell. He painted a sign advertising the 4 pups and set about nailing it to a post on the edge of his yard. As he was driving the last nail into the post, he felt a tug on his overalls.

He looked down into the eyes of a little boy.

"Mister," he said, "I want to buy one of your puppies."

Latha Kare: 61-year-old woman clad in sari and running barefoot wins Baramati Marathon

By Serious_Sam | Sportskeeda

Age: 61; sex: female; dress code: sari; gear: barefoot; event: Baramati Marathon; finish: FIRST!!
Yes! That is the unexpected and surprising tale that emerged from the Baramati marathon as Lata Bhagwan Kare outran every other conventional runner to emerge victorious at the event.
She took everyone – the organizers, the spectators and fellow competitors – completely by surprise, as not only was this her first ever race of such a kind, but she also established a big lead over the remaining participants within minutes of the start.
Everything about this runner was a surprise element, right from her being 61-years-old, to running barefoot and the fact that she wore a traditional nauvari (Maharashtrian sari) while running.

Conquer stress to keep New Year's resolutions

ANI | From Deccan Chronicle

 

A new research has shown that in order to tackle New Year's resolutions, people will have to counter their stress.
According to a new research, stress negatively impacts people's ability to lose weight, quit smoking and stick with a new healthy lifestyle change.
In The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living, Mayo Clinic stress management and resiliency expert Amit Sood, M.D., draws on decades of groundbreaking research to offer readers a scientifically proven, structured and practical approach to reducing stress.
 He explains the brain's two modes - focused mode and default mode - and how an imbalance between the two produces unwanted stress, and he shares newBook cover Mayo Clinic's Guide to Stress-Free Living, with female doing cartwheel insights about how the mind works, including its natural tendency to wander. 

2 Sunday A -Lamb of God -2014 - Homilies

Fr Bill Grimm's Video at the bottom: Ordinary Times
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Starters......

1) Lamb at the roof:

In the city of Werden, in Germany, there stands a Catholic Church with a lamb carved out of stone and placed on its roof. Centuries ago a worker was once up on the roof of that church in order to repair it. His safety belt snapped and he fell. The area below was filled with large-size rocks. As luck would have it, a lamb was having its lunch on grass growing between the rocks. The craftsman fell on the poor lamb. The lamb was slain… but the man lived. So the craftsman did the decent thing. He sculpted a lamb and, in gratitude, situated it on the roof. Today we come together at this Liturgy to remember and salute another Lamb. Each of us owes Him much. As a matter of fact, we owe Him our spiritual lives because he saved us from the eternally fatal fall from grace. (Msgr. Arthur Tonne).

Today we come together at this Liturgy to remember and salute another Lamb. Each of us likewise owes Him much. He too gave His life for us. But with one substantial difference. Jesus  voluntarily surrendered His life to save ours.
This Gospel opens just after Jesus had finished His forty day fast. He was probably bivouacing in a farmer's reed hut near the Jordan River and near John the Baptist's camp. He would soon head north into Galilee to begin His life's work. One hopes He took the time to put some pounds back on His lean frame after His fast. He had to be just skin and bones.
He had come once again to check out John the Baptist whom He would always admire. He had a premonition He would never see him again. We know He was correct.
What did John have in mind when He excitedly pointed at Jesus and shouted for all to hear, "Behold, the Lamb of God..." (Fr. James Gilhooley)

2) Pastor joke:  

My neighboring pastor put sanitary hot air hand dryers in the rest rooms at his church and after two weeks took them out. I asked him why and he confessed that they worked fine but when he went in there he saw a sign that read, "For a sample of this week's sermon, push the button." (Bret Blair)

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Thomas O’Loughlin
Introduction to the Celebration

We gather here each Sunday to encounter one another and to encounter the Chosen One of the Father. We are, as St Paul tells us, ‘the holy people of Jesus Christ, who are called to take their place among all the saints everywhere who pray to our Lord Jesus Christ’. So let us reflect on who we are as a group and on how we have become this holy people through our baptism.