By Reverend Katherine Elsner Our readings today don’t mince words. It’s no wonder with these strong people in our heritage from many years ago: Isaiah, Paul and John the Baptist. In our day and age we are surrounded by would-be prophets; I guess we could even say “false prophets”, those who speak to us in […]
Homily for Second Week of Advent, Year A Read More »
By Reverend Katherine Elsner Today’s first & third readings convey stark warnings for those who live their lives with integrity and justice. This warning became a reality 36 years ago this week, in 1989 in El Salvador, when six Jesuits, their house keeper & her daughter were murdered by Salvadoran government forces. These Jesuits were
Homily for Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time, Year C Read More »
By Reverend Katherine Elsner The Tax Collector and the Pharisee (Luke 18: 9-14) In the last two weeks, Mary Keldermans and Jerry Bauman have each preached wonderful homilies about prayer. Again, today’s gospel relates a well-known story about prayer. For those of us who were raised in the Catholic faith or probably in any Christian
Homily for Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time, Year C Read More »
By Reverend Deacon Jerry Bauman God’s people never had it easy. There was always some reason to shout out, to-or-at God for something. Whether they were crying out in distress, expressing gratitude, celebrating God’s goodness, needing practical instruction, or calling for divine judgment, the Israelites were always crying out! Today’s first reading was from the
Homily for Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time, Year C Read More »
by Bishop Mary Keldermans I usually focus on the gospel for my homilies but today I am going to focus on the first reading from the prophet Amos. Who was Amos? Amos was a shepherd and a farmer who lived near the city of Jerusalem. He would go to towns and villages to sell his
Homily for Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, Year C Read More »
By Reverend Deacon Jerry Bauman Our reading from Genesis today (Genesis 1:11,12, 20-22, 24-30) is an allegory. It is a symbolic story of How God gave us everything and called us to share in the creative process. Rather than to provide a scientific or historical timetable of the universe’s origins, this story aims to show
Homily for Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time, Year C Read More »
By Reverend Katherine Elsner Once again this week the readings provide multiple ideas that we can use in our daily lives. The readings share with us some things we need to do and some things to avoid. In the first reading from the ancient book written by Sirach around 150 yrs BCE, we heard words
Homily for Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time, Year C Read More »
By Reverend Deacon Jerry Bauman Our first reading today, (Sirach 4: 1-10) from the book of Sirach, was written around 200-175 BCE, in the time of Greek rule over the Middle East. The book of Sirach concerns itself with maintaining Jewish identity while living under Greek captivity. Sirach teaches that acting as a father to
Nineteenth Week in Ordinary time Read More »
With our celebration of the First Week of Advent we enter into a new liturgical year. We can wish each other Happy New Year and be correct in doing so. Would it surprise you to know that the Church hasn’t always celebrated Advent with three purple candles and one rose colored candle? Or that She
O Come O Come Emmanuel Read More »
by Bishop Mary Keldermans What do you think of when you think of the season of Lent? Gloom? No meat? Giving up candy, soda or ice cream? Crowns of thorns? Stations of the Cross? Lent used to be that way for me until I started to teach our Catholic Faith to folks who wanted to
Lent: New Life or Guilt? Read More »
