AD SENSE

Lent 1 Sunday B - Repent and Believe


1) We reflect today on the deserts to which people have been driven away: psychological, sociological, political and economic deserts:
-by ISIS and Al Qaida creating homeless and stateless refugees
-asylum seekers, job seekers
-divorces, unwed mothers and their children
-gambling and alcoholism
-terminal illness and elderly people
-stock markets, greed and fraud
-abandoned children, reckless teenagers

2) Living among wild beasts:
-hostile environment
-in-laws
-foreign govts. and religious fanatics
-slave traders and harsh employees of domestic helps and daily wage earners

3) However, believing in God's presence and assistance through angels comforting and consoling:
-through Mother Teresa's, Satyarthi's
-NGO's and social workers
-Priests and sisters, Brothers

4) We are simply asked to repent and believe in the Gospel:
- our deserts are a good place or a good opportunity to reflect on our life. It shouldn't be taken as a punishment, but rather as a moment of purification (Indians call it an agnipariksha - test by fire); a time to take stock of our life; a retreat; no other distractions - TV, friends, work - to focus on life's core issues.
- Repent: be sorry for our sins and he will purify and strengthen us
-we need this period (if even Jesus needed it) to pause and look at our life
-our belief is he will remove these current advertise and turn our lives into a joyful celebration. He will come for the one sheep that had strayed away, look for the coin that was lost and wait for that son who had gone away.
--Tony Kayala, c.s.c.

Ash Wednesday - 2015

1.     From Fr. Tony Kadavil’s Collection 

Introduction

Ash Wednesday (dies cinerum) is the Church’s Yom Kippur or the “Day of Atonement.” Its very name comes from the Jewish practice of doing penance wearing “sackcloth and ashes.” In the early Church, Christians who had committed serious sins were instructed to do public penance wearing sackcloth and ashes. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of full fast and abstinence. Fasting is prescribed to reinforce our penitential prayer during the Lenten season. The prophet Joel, in the first reading, insists that we should experience a complete conversion of heart and not simply sorrow for our sins. Saint Paul in the second reading advises us “to become reconciled to God.” Today’s gospel instructs us to assimilate the true spirit of fasting and prayer.  

Transfiguration

From Lenten Series Collection - TK
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Opening Stories:
1) The Samurai Warrior and the Zen Master

One day, a Samurai warrior went to a Zen master for instruction. "Please," the huge man asked in a thundering voice that was used to instant obedience, "teach me about heaven and hell."
The master scowled at the swordsman, then broke into mocking laughter. "Me, teach you about heaven and hell? I wouldn't waste a moment trying to instruct the brain of an overweight ignoramus like you! How dare you ask me for such a lofty insight?"

6 Sunday B - Healing of the Leper


3 Sundays - 3 healings: One at the Synagogue, second at the home and the third at the market place (outside). These are the locations of our ministries. These are places we do our healings/ministries.

At the synagogue the man with the unclean spirit shouts at Jesus as the "Holy one of God" (first recognition of Jesus in Mark). Peter's mother-in-law makes no declaration but gets up and serves him whereas the leper goes around proclaiming him. He announces abroad. Visible missionary zeal. Again three attitudes of response to healing: out of fear, out of love and out of faith.

In Madison, Alabama, a 57 year old Indian, Sureshbhai Patel, was doing his morning walk two days' ago while visiting his son. Two police officials pull up to him to question him and he says, "No English". They eventually toss him violently to the floor face down, handcuff him and tries to raise him. They damaged his spinal cord in the act. He's partially paralyzed and fighting for his life in a hospital. Our revulsion to dirt, disorder, color, differences cause so much of damage to national pride, human rights, Christian beliefs and simple humanity. Leprosy happens to be one of them. It was that embrace that Francis of Assisi and Cardinal Paul-Emile Leger of Montreal did changed their lives forever. It was that embrace Pope Francis did while washing the foot of a Moslem woman prisoner in Rome last Maundy Thursday that the world sat up and took notice of.

What's that repulsion or aversion or repugnance that still keeps us captive in our prejudices and does not allow us to expand the boundaries of our value and belief systems? Where is the "stretching out" of the hand and "touching" moment in our lives?

Tony Kayla, c.s.c.
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5 Sunday B: Mission - Action and Contemplation


Jesus' mission is Church's mission: Preaching, teaching and healing. That's why we have churches, schools and hospitals. These ministries seem to be our primary mission. This might get us busy, tired, stressed and can get us out of our wits. That's when we need that space to recharge our spirits and bodies. That's what the Lord did. However, he doesn't seem to complain when "they" came to "disturb" him out of his "space". For Jesus the "action-contemplation" space was seamlessly woven into his mission-presence space.

-Tony Kayala, c.s.c.

4 Sunday B - Zeal and Authority for the Mission


Tony Kayala, c.s.c.: 

Zeal: The components for right motivation, they say, are
 
a) Passion (zeal, intensity, enthusiasm),
b) Direction (remember even the terrorists and ISIS have passion, but not the right direction. St. Paul had a great passion as a persecutor until the Damascus experience)
c) Perseverance (persistence, never give up. Abraham Lincoln faced every sort of setback, adversity and failure from 1832 to 1856 but was elected President in 1860) 

Zeal without direction can be due to excessive emotional or ideological or childhood issues. That's where some inner exorcisms are required to cleanse our inner world of many demons that direct our paths and ways and styles. To have the right authority directed by the Lord and his word, one has to constantly check one's motives for action or preaching.

Jesus spoke and acted with authority: St. Claire had developed the meaning of authority as authoring life, giving birth, or empowering people to bring forth. For her authority was always for service. When we say s/he is an authority on that subject, we mean to say that person has explored, researched, understood the matter in such a way s/he can talk about teach about it as if the matter has become his/her own. 

3 Sunday B - Come, follow me

Third Sunday B: Homilies and Stories
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Thomas O’Loughlin
Introduction to the Celebration

During this coming year we are going to read our way through the gospel preached by St Mark. And today we hear about Jesus’s first actions in inaugurating the kingdom of God. He proclaimed the good news that we should repent and begin life afresh; and he gathered about him the first members of his new people.
Here, now, today, we are gathering as that new people, gathering around him and listening to him in the Liturgy of the Word; and then with him we are going to offer thanks to our heavenly Father in the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
 

2 Sunday B - Come and See - Homilies


Tony Kayala, c.s.c.

As much as Jesus had to leave Nazareth (home and comfort, familiarity and family) to come to the Jordan (last Sunday) to be baptized, the disciples too have got to "leave" in order to "come" (No arrival without a departure). We are used to checking out a product before buying or a person before hiring or we "see" and choose (come). We check it out before stepping out. Abraham and other prophets have to leave for an uncertain task and territory; Abraham must first accept to sacrifice his only son, then he will see God's plan. He didn't doubt in God's promise of progenies like the sands and the stars even though the only son was going to be sacrificed! Joseph had to first accept Mary pregnant as she was and then he will see God's plan. Come so that you may see. Step in, walk in, follow me, leave behind ....so that you may see plans, actions, results for you. "Come" is an invitation and "see" is the promise. You can trust the Lord for his promises.

Then the uncertain, doubtful, denying Simons will have to become Cephases and solid rocks on which the Lord can build his Church.

Baptism of Our Lord 2015


Thomas O’Loughlin
Introduction to the Celebration

Today marks the beginning of the public life and ministry of Jesus Christ as he set out to do the Father’s will and announce the arrival of the kingdom of God. And the moment of the beginning of the messianic work of Jesus is marked by the moment of his baptism in the Jordan. He is acclaimed on earth by the prophet John and links himself to John by being baptised by him. He is acclaimed from heaven by the voice of the Father and the presence of the Spirit. As the people who have heard his preaching and accepted his call, who have confessed him as the Christ, and set out to follow his way, let us pause and consider the words addressed to Jesus: ‘Thou art my beloved Son, with thee I am well pleased.’ 

Epiphany 2015


Story: A husband asked his wife, "Why would God give the wise men a star to guide them?" She replied, "Because God knows men are too proud to ask directions."

"When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flocks, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, heal the broken, feed the hungry, rebuild the nations, bring peace among people, make music in the heart." So wrote Howard Thurman.
  

More from last year’s post: