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Sunday, August 10, 2025

Observation - August 10th, 2025, Sunday

the morning light is soft and gray

there is small-movement in the green leaves

outside the windows

 

the air is still in the stuffy office

facing east the sun is rising

behind a veil of clouds

 

a small dog is talking to me

about returning to the bedroom

the air conditioner is humming there

a fan is blowing

my lady sleeping with her golden hair

upon the pillow






A Homily – The Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

First Reading – Wisdom 18:6-9 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 32(33):1,12,18-20,22 ©

Second Reading – Hebrews 11:1-2,8-19 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 11:25

Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 24:42 44

The Gospel According to Luke 12:32 - 48 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

There is no place for jingoism for those who follow the way; remember what Jesus said, “take no oaths for me or against me” and apply these to the teaching of the prophet.

God loves all people and desires their deliverance, God has a plan and works for the salvation of everyone, bearing no enmity to anyone.

Be mindful

Our adversaries, if we have them, are also God’s children, and there is no one alive who may boast of piety; all our pretensions to it are merely charades, just as the sacrifices we make are rendered meaningless in the absence of love and mercy…reject the false wisdom that suggests there is any other way. 

Consider the wisdom of the psalmist who says that it is fitting to praise God, to praise the creator of the universe every day, and give thanks to the creator for the life you have in it, as burdensome as it may be, do your part to make it a better place.

It is wise to trust in the counsel of God and to have faith in God’s mercy; and though this is wise, do not expect God to rescue you from danger, or believe that God’s loves any one of God’s children more than any other, or that you are loved by God in a unique and special way.

God knows all things and God understands all things, you have heard this said:

God’s knowledge is not an abstract knowledge of the particulars details of individual events, God understands our person, our choices, our lives and experience; even as we understand them ourselves; God understands with a clarity we do not possess.

Trust in God’s plan for you, and God’s plan for creation…trust is the essence of faith.

Do not wait for salvation, there is nothing you can do to effect it, you cannot purchase it with good deeds, or trade for it on faith. Salvation is already yours, go out and share the good news, salvation is the inheritance of everyone.

Now reflect for a moment on the meaning of faith and the teaching of the apostle, who is mistaken.

Faith is not a thing, like a key, such that when it comes into your possession you are able to do miraculous things. Faith is not a substance, faith is not quantifiable.

The simple meaning of faith is this: to trust, it guarantees nothing…it proves nothing.

Placing your trust in the way is its own reward. Faith in the heavenly will brings peace of mind, faith frees us from fear and anxiety, faith facilitates love and promotes caring, it leads us into the way of justice and mercy.

Abraham may have obeyed his calling out of faith, his faith may have endured undiminished when he arrived at his journey’s end, a stranger in a strange land. He may have instructed his heirs to trust in God in the same way that he and his wife Sara did, all of them may have trusted the vision that they shared, but it was not because of their faith that they thrived on land, and it was not because of her faith that Sara conceived a child after a lifetime of barreness.

Be mindful.

Faith is not a coin that we exchange for the blessings of God, and make no mistake, God does not interfere in our affairs; faith will not engender that.

The teachings of Jesus cannot be treated like a shell game, though they often are, and often have been since the beginning of the church, as Matthew’s Gospel illustrates.

The way of Jesus is not a long con, it is not a bait and switch, it is a simple and cannot be controlled or owned by any one group of people.

God has hidden nothing. The truth is in the open for anyone to see.

The wise and the powerful, the learned and the clever, the weak and the meek, everyone has access to the same truth, to the knowledge of God and the way of justice, of hope and love.

Know this!

The future history of the world has not been written.

Any supposition we might make about our future on earth is merely guesswork. Some guesses are more informed than others, we can speak about the future in terms of possibility and probability, but we cannot know anything about the days and nights to come.

There are thousands of ways in which the plans we have laid or the hopes which we cherish can come undone; lightening will strike, a tornado will blow, a meteor will fall, a volcano explode. A person in the fullness of their life may trip and fall and hit their head and die, leaving everything they have accomplished behind them.

The promises we have received from God regarding our salvation, those promises are not of this world. God has promised to bring an end to suffering, injustice, hunger, illness; believe that these will come to pass…in a world in which we are not subject to the vicissitudes of the material condition.

I cannot speak of that world. I have never seen it…no one living has.

Our belief in a loving God, our hope in the testimony of the prophets, our trust in the Gospel, these are what allow us to believe that God’s promises are true. Through faith we can live our present lives as if the reality of these promises were true, this is how we realize the promise and make it present among us…this is the secret of the way which Jesus taught.

If we are just and loving, if we care for one another, we do not have to wait for salvation, we are already well.

Know this!

Because the Gospels were written by human beings (mostly men), written by communities of people long after Jesus’ death, we are often confronted with passages that appear to vacillate between hope, joy and optimism for the way, and the demands of those who were seeking to enshrine his teachings in institutions like the burgeoning Church.

The Gospel must be read carefully, from time to time we have to peel away those segments that speak to us from a place of fear and the doubt, to place in their proper context the conservativism and protectionist teachings of those who came after Jesus, as they wrote about the challenge of their own experience in the second and third generations after his passing.

The opening of the gospel for today represents the heart of Jesus’ teaching: there is no need to be afraid, Jesus says. There is no need to fear.

The parable that follows must be read in the context of these hopeful words. The parable speaks to the roles of a householder and his servants, it does not address whether the servants were members of his family, hired hands or slaves, it does not need to, because for the purpose of the reading those distinctions are immaterial.

The parable is concerned with preparedness, the fulfillment of the obligations assigned to the role a person occupies, and the vital necessity of cooperation. The setting is the walled house of the householder, this is a metaphor for the believing community, and we are told that the householder represents, Jesus the founder of the Church (and in popular mythology the Son of Man who has promised to return), the householder also represents the head of the believing community, in its contemporary time and place. The servants of the house represent the community of believers.

Be mindful.

In the Christian tradition, as it is properly constructed, the householder represents head of the believing community, it is to be understood as the chief among servants. The parable calls us to be happy in our work, to go to it joyfully, to faithfully execute the responsibilities we are given (the responsibilities we have sought), to anticipate the needs of those in our care and fulfill them.

Preparedness is about expectation, expectation is about hope, and hope is the core of the Gospel.

Note well: the narrative changes in response to Peter’s questioning, and this change marks a deviation from the way. It is a reflection of the teachings of the church in the generations following Jesus and the and the message has become harsh; the merciful heart of Jesus are absent, in its place are judgements, beatings, lashings and the alienation of others.

Remember.

Jesus taught us to come together, to be as one. He taught in the spirit of compassion, he forgave those who persecuted him, as well as the disciples who sold him out and abandoned him at his darkest hour…Jesus had taken their measure and knew that they would…he loved them anyway.


First Reading – Wisdom 18:6-9 ©

You Made Us Glorious by Calling Us to You

That night had been foretold to our ancestors, so that, once they saw what kind of oaths they had put their trust in, they would joyfully take courage.

This was the expectation of your people, the saving of the virtuous and the ruin of their enemies;

for by the same act with which you took vengeance on our foes you made us glorious by calling us to you.

The devout children of worthy men offered sacrifice in secret and this divine pact they struck with one accord: that the saints would share the same blessings and dangers alike; and forthwith they had begun to chant the hymns of the fathers.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 32(33):1,12,18-20,22 ©

Happy are the people the Lord has chosen as his own.

Ring out your joy to the Lord, O you just;

  for praise is fitting for loyal hearts.

They are happy, whose God is the Lord,

  the people he has chosen as his own.

Happy are the people the Lord has chosen as his own.

The Lord looks on those who revere him,

  on those who hope in his love,

to rescue their souls from death,

  to keep them alive in famine.

Happy are the people the Lord has chosen as his own.

Our soul is waiting for the Lord.

  The Lord is our help and our shield.

May your love be upon us, O Lord,

  as we place all our hope in you.

Happy are the people the Lord has chosen as his own.

 

Second Reading – Hebrews 11:1-2,8-19 ©

Abraham Looked Forward to a City Founded, Designed and Built by God

Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen. It was for faith that our ancestors were commended.

It was by faith that Abraham obeyed the call to set out for a country that was the inheritance given to him and his descendants, and that he set out without knowing where he was going. By faith he arrived, as a foreigner, in the Promised Land, and lived there as if in a strange country, with Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. They lived there in tents while he looked forward to a city founded, designed and built by God.

It was equally by faith that Sarah, in spite of being past the age, was made able to conceive, because she believed that he who had made the promise would be faithful to it. Because of this, there came from one man, and one who was already as good as dead himself, more descendants than could be counted, as many as the stars of heaven or the grains of sand on the seashore.

All these died in faith, before receiving any of the things that had been promised, but they saw them in the far distance and welcomed them, recognising that they were only strangers and nomads on earth. People who use such terms about themselves make it quite plain that they are in search of their real homeland. They can hardly have meant the country they came from, since they had the opportunity to go back to it; but in fact they were longing for a better homeland, their heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, since he has founded the city for them.

It was by faith that Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac. He offered to sacrifice his only son even though the promises had been made to him and he had been told: It is through Isaac that your name will be carried on. He was confident that God had the power even to raise the dead; and so, figuratively speaking, he was given back Isaac from the dead.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 11:25

Alleluia, alleluia!

Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom

to mere children.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 24:42 44

Alleluia, alleluia!

Stay awake and stand ready, because you do not know the hour when the Son of Man is coming.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Luke 12:32-48 ©

You too Must Stand Ready

Jesus said to his disciples:

‘There is no need to be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom.

‘Sell your possessions and give alms. Get yourselves purses that do not wear out, treasure that will not fail you, in heaven where no thief can reach it and no moth destroy it. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

‘See that you are dressed for action and have your lamps lit. Be like men waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast, ready to open the door as soon as he comes and knocks. Happy those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. I tell you solemnly, he will put on an apron, sit them down at table and wait on them. It may be in the second watch he comes, or in the third, but happy those servants if he finds them ready. You may be quite sure of this, that if the householder had known at what hour the burglar would come, he would not have let anyone break through the wall of his house. You too must stand ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.’

Peter said, ‘Lord, do you mean this parable for us, or for everyone?’ The Lord replied, ‘What sort of steward, then, is faithful and wise enough for the master to place him over his household to give them their allowance of food at the proper time? Happy that servant if his master’s arrival finds him at this employment. I tell you truly, he will place him over everything he owns. But as for the servant who says to himself, “My master is taking his time coming,” and sets about beating the menservants and the maids, and eating and drinking and getting drunk, his master will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not know. The master will cut him off and send him to the same fate as the unfaithful.

The servant who knows what his master wants, but has not even started to carry out those wishes, will receive very many strokes of the lash. The one who did not know, but deserves to be beaten for what he has done, will receive fewer strokes. When a man has had a great deal given him, a great deal will be demanded of him; when a man has had a great deal given him on trust, even more will be expected of him.’

 

A Homily – The Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)




Sunday, August 3, 2025

A Homily – The Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year C)

First Reading – Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 89(90):3-6, 12-14,17 ©

Second Reading – Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 17:17

Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 5:3

The Gospel According to Luke 12:13 - 21 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 We live and we die, we leave everything behind, within a generation or two we ourselves will be forgotten, reduced to a name etched in stone, on a metal plate, some papers… somewhere,  perhaps a digital image drifting in cyberspace.

 In time all of our work will be undone and we ourselves become nothing to the world, even as the Earth itself is swallowed by the sun.

 If our ambitions are set against these eventualities, then they are as the prophet said they are, merely vanities…nevertheless we continue.

 Consider what the psalmist says and know that God does never intervene to change the course of our lives. God is with us, yes, God is with us; God has created in each of us the desire and longing for God’s own self and made it a constitutional element of our being. This draws us to the divinity, but beyond this subtle pull, God does not intercede in our lives, does not interfere with our choices, does not intervene in the consequences of those choices. God neither works for us or against us in relation to our individual ambitions, or the many objects that occupy our hearts desire.

 God is the eternal—creator of all that is, and we are but motes of dust in the face of the infinite. We are; each of us individually and all of us together, infinitely less than the infinite God.

 God is never angry with us. We do not suffer because God desires to see us suffer, we do not sorrow because it please God to see us sorrowful. We are created with these capacities because they teach us something about joy and foster in us a want for peace.

 When we suffer and when we are sorrowful, we cause others to suffer and we bring them sorrow. When we rejoice and are glad the same is true, and God is with us through it all, feeling what we feel, knowing what we know, going through our experience even as we do.

 Consider the teaching of the Apostle and be wary of the desire for perfection. Though God has called us all to perfection, and though God has given us the example of Jesus to follow…Jesus who showed us the way; both our continuing and future failures are known to the divine and like all of our past failures they are forgiven even before they are instantiated.

 Have no fear…forgive yourself and forgive all of those whom you have harmed. Forgive those who have harmed you, for in the end, just as the Apostle promised, and all of our pretenses toward perfection will be revealed for the vanities they are.

 Be mindful.

 Do not shun the prophet when the prophet says: give up your earthly desires, for these desires are the root of all suffering, or that our greed and lust for material things are akin to the worship of false idols.

 Remember!

 In God there is no distinction between nationality, ethnicity or class; we are all one creation.

 Know this!

 You cannot prevaricate and serve God at one and the same time.

 We must navigate the course of our lives and through the countless paradoxes that present themselves as we read along the way. Take joy is the smile of a stranger, the kindness of your beloved, the opening of a flower, the smell of bread in the oven or a drink of cool water, and share it.

 The Gospel reading for today commends us to contemplate these three things:

 Know who it is to whom you are speaking. Do not ask you God to arbitrate a matter of inheritance; Jesus did not come to settle disputes over the distribution of a family’s fortune.

 Know that life is uncertain, our bodies are subject to the vicissitudes of chance. At any moment the expected life of a human could be expressed in years or months, in minutes or seconds.

 The truth is that we do not know, that we can never know; therefore, it is pointless to hoard wealth in preparation for the fantasy of a long life, or for a life of leisure as a reward for years of labor, any other consideration is vanity.

 Know the end to which God would have us direct our strengths, resources and talents; God would have them directed toward the benefit of all people, God would not have us hold them in reserve to serve the appetites of single person or their family…what you have you cannot take it with you…share it while you have it, and you will be on the way to the garden of peace and everlasting joy.


First Reading – Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23 ©

Vanity of Vanities; All is Vanity

Vanity of vanities, the Preacher says. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity!

For so it is that a man who has laboured wisely, skilfully and successfully must leave what is his own to someone who has not toiled for it at all. This, too, is vanity and great injustice; for what does he gain for all the toil and strain that he has undergone under the sun? What of all his laborious days, his cares of office, his restless nights? This, too, is vanity.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 89(90):3-6, 12-14,17 ©

O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.

You turn men back to dust

  and say: ‘Go back, sons of men.’

To your eyes a thousand years

  are like yesterday, come and gone,

  no more than a watch in the night.

O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.

You sweep men away like a dream,

  like the grass which springs up in the morning.

In the morning it springs up and flowers:

  by evening it withers and fades.

O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.

Make us know the shortness of our life

  that we may gain wisdom of heart.

Lord, relent! Is your anger for ever?

  Show pity to your servants.

O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.

In the morning, fill us with your love;

  we shall exult and rejoice all our days.

Let the favour of the Lord be upon us:

  give success to the work of our hands.

O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.

 

Second Reading – Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11 ©

You Must Look for the Things that Are in Heaven, Where Christ Is

Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ, you must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand. Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are on the earth, because you have died, and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God. But when Christ is revealed – and he is your life – you too will be revealed in all your glory with him.

That is why you must kill everything in you that belongs only to earthly life: fornication, impurity, guilty passion, evil desires and especially greed, which is the same thing as worshipping a false god; and never tell each other lies. You have stripped off your old behaviour with your old self, and you have put on a new self which will progress towards true knowledge the more it is renewed in the image of its creator; and in that image there is no room for distinction between Greek and Jew, between the circumcised or the uncircumcised, or between barbarian and Scythian, slave and free man. There is only Christ: he is everything and he is in everything.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 17:17

Alleluia, alleluia!

Your word is truth, O Lord:

consecrate us in the truth.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 5:3

Alleluia, alleluia!

How happy are the poor in spirit:

theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Luke 12:13 - 21 ©

Fool! This Very Night your Soul Will be Demanded of You

A man in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance.’ ‘My friend,’ he replied, ‘who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?’ Then he said to them, ‘Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for a man’s life is not made secure by what he owns, even when he has more than he needs.’

Then he told them a parable: ‘There was once a rich man who, having had a good harvest from his land, thought to himself, “What am I to do? I have not enough room to store my crops.” Then he said, “This is what I will do: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them, and I will say to my soul: My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time.” But God said to him, “Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?.” So it is when a man stores up treasure for himself in place of making himself rich in the sight of God.’

 

A Homily – The Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year C)




Sunday, July 27, 2025

A Homily - The Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year C)

First Reading – Genesis 18:20-32 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 137(138):1-3,6-8 ©

Second Reading – Colossians 2:12-14 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 1:14, 12

Alternative Acclamation – Romans 8:15

The Gospel According to Luke - 11:1 - 13 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

This is the way:

Speak the truth, love justice and seek mercy all the days of your life; insofar as you are able to do this you show your love for God.

Consider the Shema:

Hear O’ people of the world, God is one.

Love God with all your strength, all your heart and all your mind…and love your neighbor as yourself; this is the whole of the law.

It is right to praise God, the creator of the universe; it is right to lift your voice in witness to any acts of mercy you may see, because mercy is what God desires more than anything…more than all of our creeds and confessions and ritual pieties.

Trust God, who does not desire glory; have faith in God’s humility.

Understand this.

God made us and the entirety of creations in a state of radical freedom and will not intervene in the material order of the universe, including our affairs; do not expect God to take sides in our struggles with one another, even in the face of true evil…because the salvation we are promised is not of this world, and the whole of sin and evil are bound to time and space.

Know this!

Baptism is a right of initiation, it signifies the intention of the individual to follow the way that Jesus instructed us to follow. It does not confer a special status on us or give us any special powers. Baptism does not confer extraordinary grace or enhance God’s love for us or desire to see us well and whole.

As scripture says:

God has forgiven us our sins, God forgave them at the beginning, in the first moment of creation God knew all that we would become and accepted us for who we are.

God’s love is free as with the love of a parent for a child, there is no debt and there never was; there were no accounts to settle.

Do not repeat John’s errors; be mindful of the fact that we are all born the children of God, every single one of us. We are not made into the children of God by any power (mundane or divine), not by any power that comes from within us, nor external to us…we come into being as children of God, in the Word, by the Word and through the Word.

Our status as children of God is as unconditional as God’s love for us; we are loved because we are.

Remember!

God is the cosmic parent; father, mother and we are the children of God, each and every one of us, not by adoption but by birth; God’s spirit dwells within us, animating us, speaking to us from the recesses of our heart.

When you look on your mother and father, your brother and sister, your friends and family, when you see the stranger in your midst, you are looking on a child of God, a person who carries the fullness of God within them, therefore treat them as you would treat God; love them, be just to them, honor them, show them mercy in a spirit of contrition and humility

Consider today’s reading from the Gospel of Luke, and know this:

Christians pray a version of this prayer every day, every week, every time they are at mass; at every hour of every day this prayer is said in churches all around the world. It is quite possible that not a minute goes by without this prayer being said somewhere.

God is the creator of all that is, of everyone who is, ever was and ever will be.

God is not a king, a lord or a prince, God’s heart does not have the capriciousness of royalty, and because of this we pray that God’s eternal will serve as the measure of our lives. We thank God for the life and the foods that sustain us, work toward a time when no person will be hungry, thirsty or bound by chains.

The first act of someone who follows the way is to repent…to repent means simply to return to God; from our desire to repent we forgive those by whom we have been hurt, love them and work toward a reconciliation with them. This is the way that Jesus walked.


First Reading – Genesis 18:20-32 ©

Abraham Negotiates with the Lord

The Lord said, ‘How great an outcry there is against Sodom and Gomorrah! How grievous is their sin! I propose to go down and see whether or not they have done all that is alleged in the outcry against them that has come up to me. I am determined to know.’

The men left there and went to Sodom while Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Approaching him he said, ‘Are you really going to destroy the just man with the sinner? Perhaps there are fifty just men in the town. Will you really overwhelm them, will you not spare the place for the fifty just men in it? Do not think of doing such a thing: to kill the just man with the sinner, treating just and sinner alike! Do not think of it! Will the judge of the whole earth not administer justice?’ the Lord replied, ‘If at Sodom I find fifty just men in the town, I will spare the whole place because of them.’

 Abraham replied, ‘I am bold indeed to speak like this to my Lord, I who am dust and ashes. But perhaps the fifty just men lack five: will you destroy the whole city for five?’ ‘No,’ he replied ‘I will not destroy it if I find forty-five just men there.’ Again Abraham said to him, ‘Perhaps there will only be forty there.’ ‘I will not do it’ he replied ‘for the sake of the forty.’

  Abraham said, ‘I trust my Lord will not be angry, but give me leave to speak: perhaps there will only be thirty there.’ ‘I will not do it’ he replied ‘if I find thirty there.’ He said, ‘I am bold indeed to speak like this, but perhaps there will only be twenty there.’ ‘I will not destroy it’ he replied ‘for the sake of the twenty.’ He said, ‘I trust my Lord will not be angry if I speak once more: perhaps there will only be ten.’ ‘I will not destroy it’ he replied ‘for the sake of the ten.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 137(138):1-3,6-8 ©

On the day I called, you answered me, O Lord.

I thank you, Lord, with all my heart:

  you have heard the words of my mouth.

In the presence of the angels I will bless you.

  I will adore before your holy temple.

On the day I called, you answered me, O Lord.

I thank you for your faithfulness and love,

  which excel all we ever knew of you.

On the day I called, you answered;

  you increased the strength of my soul.

On the day I called, you answered me, O Lord.

The Lord is high yet he looks on the lowly

  and the haughty he knows from afar.

Though I walk in the midst of affliction

  you give me life and frustrate my foes.

On the day I called, you answered me, O Lord.

You stretch out your hand and save me,

  your hand will do all things for me.

Your love, O Lord, is eternal,

  discard not the work of your hands.

On the day I called, you answered me, O Lord.

 

Second Reading – Colossians 2:12-14 ©

Christ Has Brought You to Life with Him and Forgiven Us All Our Sins

You have been buried with Christ, when you were baptised; and by baptism, too, you have been raised up with him through your belief in the power of God who raised him from the dead. You were dead, because you were sinners and had not been circumcised: he has brought you to life with him, he has forgiven us all our sins.

  He has overridden the Law, and cancelled every record of the debt that we had to pay; he has done away with it by nailing it to the cross.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 1:14, 12

Alleluia, alleluia!

The Word was made flesh and lived among us:

to all who did accept him he gave power to become children of God.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – Romans 8:15

Alleluia, alleluia!

The spirit you received is the spirit of sons, and it makes us cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Luke - 11:1 - 13 ©

How to Pray

Once Jesus was in a certain place praying, and when he had finished one of his disciples said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘Say this when you pray:

 

“Father, may your name be held holy,

your kingdom come;

give us each day our daily bread,

and forgive us our sins,

for we ourselves forgive each one who is in debt to us.

and do not put us to the test.”’

 

He also said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him in the middle of the night to say, “My friend, lend me three loaves, because a friend of mine on his travels has just arrived at my house and I have nothing to offer him”; and the man answers from inside the house, “Do not bother me. The door is bolted now, and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up to give it you.” I tell you, if the man does not get up and give it him for friendship’s sake, persistence will be enough to make him get up and give his friend all he wants.

  ‘So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him. What father among you would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread? Or hand him a snake instead of a fish? Or hand him a scorpion if he asked for an egg? If you then, who are evil, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’

 

A Homily - The Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year C)