18th Sunday OT Year A Homily

One of the biggest revelations of a seminarian is why am I still here? It is a normal question to ask when you see a fellow classmate decide that this is no longer for him. Knowing that this person seemed to be the total package when it came to being a future priest really makes you start to evaluate yourself. This person seemed to know scripture well and had a great understanding of theology! This person decently had a great relationship to Our Lord in prayer. Despite these thoughts I still find myself here in all of my lowliness. As of June 11, 2011 I find myself here before you preaching and administering the Sacraments and yet I am still lowly and in need of growth. Never in the ministry that I have been asked to give the Church can I forget this fact.

In today's Gospel the disciples looked out upon the crowd and realized that they did not have what it took to feed all the people who were gathered before them. How in the world could they feed so many people when all they possessed where some bread and fish. On there own they never would of been able to feed these people, but they turned towards Christ for his assistance in the matter. They turned towards him, so that he could give them the strength needed to overcome their lowliness and begin to serve the crowd.

Each of us gathered here today are lowly and in need of assistance. There is nobody here today who can say that life is going completely grand and there is nothing that we are weak in. Not everyone gathered here could go onto American Idol or America's Got Talent and walk away with the first prize. It is doubtful that we have a football player here who will move onto the NFL to be the next Bret Farve. Our spiritual life also resembles this reality because we must get onto the path towards sainthood and it is a hard path to walk.

In our spiritual life many things jump out to attack us, so that we may never gain strength, but instead remain lowly. It therefore becomes easy to make excuses to why we are limited in our spiritual growth. We might admire the lives of the saints, but remain scared that we are currently to lowly to give this path a try. It is true that things often seem like they will be easier in the future, but the future never seems to come! In our weakness Christ is calling out to us and has the desire to feed us. Despite this great invitation we get caught up in the world around us and push this voice aside.

In our lowliness Christ calls out: "Come all you who are thirsty." Only if we are able to respond back to this call by turning towards Christ. Christ will take what little we have and He will multiply it to make it so much more. If he was able to do this to the masses some 2,000 years ago surely He can do it to us now. By having the faith to fully hand ourselves over to Him may we pray that we will be given the graces needed to make up for our lowliness. No matter how weak and in need that we may find ourselves Christ is truly there to embrace us and to give us the strength to walk the path that the saints once trod.

The crowds of the Gospel gathered around the disciples and were ready to be fed. Christ was able to show to them the important need of handing over all that we do to the Lord. These people gathered were each filled with their own lowliness and yet they were called to partake of this meal. Here at each and every Mass we come together in our lowliness to receive Christ in His Body and Blood. With great faith we know that through this meal we will have the strength to encounter our lowliness and overcome it with the help of Christ. The disciples lacked so much and were given beyond belief when they dared to come to Christ with their problem. May we take our struggles and lowliness and place them into the chalice, so that we may ever be strengthened by God. If we can begin to invest ourselves fully in this offering there will be nothing which can separate us from this great love.

Sin may seem so powerful, and yet the Church gives us the Sacraments of Reconciliation were the shackles of sin can be broken. Each Saturday evening when I enter this Church I see the huge line of people who have come in lowliness to be strengthened. Now with two priests at this parish we will be blessed with the Sacrament being offered not only on Saturdays from 5pm to 5:50pm, but also on Wednesdays from 3pm to 4:20pm. With this addition to the schedule we will have more opportunity to come to our Lord to be strengthened in our weakness.

Yes seminarians, priests, and deacons are all lowly just like everyone here. Let us never second guess ourselves, but instead come to Christ so that we may be filled. No matter where we have stumbled and fallen Christ is present with arms wide open giving us the invitation to come to Him. Are we prepared to react to this invitation or would we rather stumble about lost with little to eat? No matter what little we have to hand over to Christ it will be taken and made so much greater.

May we not fear to present ourselves to Him at this Mass and within our daily lives for here we can draw our strength!

Memorial of St. Martha Homily

It easy to forget why we are here and begin to lose focus upon our goal. The most trivial of things seem to be blown up hundred percent, but in reality our attitude is making things out to be worse then they really are.

I believe that both Martha and Mary had full knowledge of all the work that had to be done on that day. It therefore would seem like Mary was being lazy, but in reality she never lost focus of Christ and His wisdom. Martha on the other hand quickly got caught up in the work of the world and lost the focus of Christ in her life. Martha was indeed frustrated, but the voice of Christ called out to her to keep her focus upon Him.

We will leave this Church today and for each of us there will be a lot of work to be done. Some events that we encounter will come easy and without struggle while others will make us angry beyond belief. No matter what we encounter we must do "all things through Christ." By letting Christ into our daily work we will indeed have all that we need.

Wed 27th Week OT Year I Homily

My Scout Troop was very competitive and would always set out to receive first place in every competition that we entered. There was no better treasure out there then a first place ribbon and a trophy for best over all troop. No matter what obstacle we would face we would come together as a troop to overcome it, so that we could always be named the best overall troop. Knot tying, first aid, fire building, orienteering, and other activities were a few things that we had to master in order to journey towards our treasure of first place.

Our religious experience should send us on a journey to get closer and closer to the divine. Upon this journey obstacles will arise and try to send us on a detour, so that we may become lost and never find the treasure that lies in wait for us.

No matter where we find ourselves today God is calling out for us to stay on the path and one day reach the treasure that we are in search of. Each time that we receive a Sacrament of the Church in a proper state the needle of the compass points us towards this wonderful treasure that is lying in wait for our arrival. As we draw closer and closer to our goal our appearance will indeed change because we have drawn closer and closer to God. The people in today's first reading could not glance at Moses due to how radiant his skin had become due to his relationship with the divine.

Today we dare to draw closer to God to receive Christ in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar and in doing so may our appearance change to be in union with God and may it give us the strength to continue our journey towards the Kingdom of Heaven which is the treasure that we are in search of.

Memorial of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne Homily

Sunday was always a special day for my family. We would travel 30 minutes to get to the closest Church to attend Mass. My grandparents would always meet us and we would attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass together. Following the Mass we would gather at their home to eat and spend the day enjoying each others company as a family. I with great gratitude give thanks to my parents and grandparents for the time that we spent together on the Holy day because it instilled in me the importance of Church in my life.

Today we gather together as a family for the memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne. We remember not only the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but the grandparents of our Lord, Jesus Christ. These saints had great effect upon their daughter, Mary, because they raised her in a household which reflected moral values and respected the Jewish faith. I am sure that they had relations with her Son and helped to teach him as they did his mother.

Tradition states that Saint Anne was unable to bear a child and many interpreted this as divine displeasure towards her family. Due to this Saint Joachim would travel off to the desert to fast and do penance for 40 days. Eventually an angel came to the couple and they were promised a child. Even prior to the birth of Mary we can see the tradition that this family had great faith and trust in God that would be worth wild to be handed down to their child.

On this wonderful memorial may we call to mind our parents and grandparents and all that they have handed onto us. In a special way we join our prayers especially during this liturgy for them. For parents and grandparents here today we call to mind our great responsibility that we have been in trusted with in handing on the faith to others. May Saints Joachim and Anne walk with us today to help us to always draw others to the greater glory of God.

16th Sunday OT Year A Homily

I have been in this parish for about a month and the biggest complaint that I am informed of is the inability to hear. Each of us has a desire to hear what is going on within the walls of this Church. Hopefully once all is said and done with this current sound system update we will be able to hear clearly. I remember one of my first daily Masses at this parish when Father Garrity was preaching and turned to me during his homily. Speaking to me I only heard the word "green." He wanted me to get something green, but what I had no idea? I walked into the vesting sacristy where he pointed and went in search of something green. The only thing that I saw was the green vestment that he wears, but why would he want that? I grabbed that green garment and walked back into the Church with it. Father Garrity then looked as confused as I was. It turned out that he was wanting a green battery. Only if I could of heard better!

In today's Gospel Christ has a desire for us to clearly hear this parable. He tells us the parable once and then we are given it a second time, so that we may better hear what we have been told for "whoever has ears ought to hear."

In our spiritual life we want to overcome false messages which get in the way of Christ's love. Adam and Eve committed sin in the garden and thus their ability to hear God clearly was blurred. Through the waters of baptism we were allowed to hear Christ clearly, but sin continues to come into the world and call out to us in a roaring manner. Messages have been sent out from the evil one which strike our beliefs to the core. You are tired, so do not go to Mass today! Everyone else is doing it, so can it really be so bad! Once can not hurt, so try it! Is it really wrong if nobody was around to see it? These demands come to us everyday and their sole mission is for us to give in and stop hearing the voice of comfort which is sent to us by Christ our Lord. The devil is yelling out to us, so that we can resemble the weeds mentioned in the parable proclaimed in the Gospel. May we never allow ourselves to enter into this state, but tune our ears towards Christ's infinite mercy.

With our ears turned towards God most high we can truly hear the call of His voice. We will finally be able to transcend the calls of evil because our ears will be tuned to a different voice. As we continue to trudge along the path towards holiness the voice of the evil one will no longer be heard because we could think of nothing more beautiful then the voice of God. Trusting in this voice will not cause us to end up resembling useless weeds which need to be plucked up and destroyed, but instead a good seed will be sown.

As nice as this may sound we know that it can be hard to listen to God when His voice is bouncing off of the walls and you can not make out anything that is being spoken. It is the desire of God that his voice may clearly come to each and everyone of us. We must continue to allow ourselves to be nourished by the word of God and by all the Sacraments that the Church has to offer. Sin clouds our ability to hear God, but the Church has been given the gift of the Sacrament of Confession which can help us to enter back into this spoken relationship. When we feel weak and as if we have had enough because we are unable to hear this beautiful voice may we join with Saint Paul in his letter to the Romans by allowing the Holy Spirit to come into our lives and help to lead us down the path that we must encounter. This path may be hard, but may we truly be able to hope to continue to hear your voice within our lives O Lord for by doing this we will finally be able to have the comfort that we are in search of.

Christ is calling out to us and he wants us to hear him clearly. At the same moment the devil does not want us to hear Christ and wants to put things in our way that will buffer him out from our ears. Every time that we renew the vows of our baptism we are asked if we "reject Satan and all of his works." We cry out "I do!" In our lives we must remember this cry to the ears of Our Lord and reject the things which will make us hear Christ less and less.

If the attitude of this Church resembles our spiritual life it is our goal to overcome our inability to hear and to finally be able to come in contact with the Word of God that is continually being spoken to each one of us.

Thursday 14th Week OT Year I Homily

I had just ordered my food at a Japanese restaurant and was waiting for my food to arrive when I decided to pray Daytime Prayer. A man walked by my table and glanced at what I was doing and asked if I was praying the Bible. I said I was praying the Psalms which were found in the Bible and that I was studying to be a priest. The man smiled and said he had something in his car that I would like. He came back with a newspaper which explained why the pope was the Antichrist.

We have a faith which is worth sharing with the world. It can be easy to get caught up in the importance of the faith and desire to run into the world and share it with everybody that we meet. This excitement that we might want to share is fine, but we must also remember that we will not always be accepted. Christ understood that people would come into the world who would not follow along with his teachings, but instead of getting caught up we must wipe the dirt off of our shoes and move onto the next city. When people challenge our beliefs or want to press you to turn away from what you believe we must take this passage to heart and remember that not everyone will be converted at that moment.

When we enter back into the world what experiences will look us into the eyes. I never would of figured that I would of been challenged while eating Japanese food, but it happened. It would of been pointless for me to allow this moment to hurt me because I needed to get up from that table and continue to go into the world and live out my Christian mission. May we go out from here and bring Christ into the world and fear not when we are not accepted because we have so much work to do we must continue to bring Christ into the world even if we are not accepted.

Sacred Heart Adoration Homily

We have gathered here today in adoration of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar to call to mind the merciful heart of Jesus. Jesus is present here with us and is calling out to us that we need to humbly kneel before Him, so that we can be drawn back towards His love for us.

From the beginning of time man has sinned against God. Adam and Eve were created free from sin, but due to their sin man has inherited original sin. Moses showed the faithfulness of God for the Israelites and yet they ended up complaining and turning away from that mercy that was shown for them. Christ came into the world and died to save sinners and give us the ability to turn back to our original state of innocence. Despite this great love we continue to be ungrateful and continue to give offense against Our Lord. Despite our sin we must remember that we have not been cast out, but that Christ is present with a merciful heart and desires us to return to his mercy.

In the message of the Sacred Heart we are promised that Christ has mercy that He desires to share with us. The Sacred Heart of Jesus desires that our world will be transformed from it's state of sin and return to Him. Promises were given to St. Margret Mary from the Sacred Heart which speaks to each person gathered here today.

There is no greater place for us to come then here in devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is present here and it pouring his infinite mercy out upon each of us. May we pray that our families will be transformed, so that all we do will be in union with the Sacred Heart. May we pray that our parish will be transformed through the Sacred Heart that those far away from the Church may return to Her and those active within the Church may grow in their mission of holiness ever growing closer to Christ and His Sacred Heart. Let us pray for those in the world who are sick and on their deathbed that they may trust in the Sacred Heart at the moment of death. Through this Holy Hour may we encounter the Sacred Heart and transform our lives to new heights.