September 19 2014 - Association Of Catholic Priests

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19th September. Friday, Week 24

When the ministry is going well

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4 Dec 2022 – 2nd Sunday in Advent, A
December 4 2022
Thara Benedicta
Key message: God is asking us to prepare for the birth of our baby Lord Jesus!! Homily: The call on John the Baptist was to prepare the world for the first Christmas!! Now God through His Holy Spirit is asking us to prepare for the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us learn how to prepare from the preparation for the First Christmas: Mamma Mary prepared herself by offering herself to be a virgin for God. Even when God's angel announced that Mamma Mary is going to be the Mother of God, the first thought that arose in Her was about her offering as a virgin. She expressed her will to be a virgin for the love of God and after that submitted herself to the plan of God. As soon as Mamma Mary explained about her offering of virginity, St. Joseph also immediately and willingly offered his virginity to God. Both Mamma Mary and St. Joseph perfected themselves in Holiness to receive our baby Lord Jesus. When St. Joseph came to know about Mamma Mary's pregnancy, He was troubled as He was not aware of the annunciation part. Mamma Mary could have easily explained about God's messenger - Angel coming to her and the complete annunciation story. When Mamma Mary shared with St. Joseph about God's messenger coming to her and telling about the pregnancy of Elizabeth in her old age, St. Joseph believed. He was even happy for Mamma Mary going out and helping Elizabeth in the far off land. So even if Mamma Mary herself would have clarified about her pregnancy to St. Joseph, he would have believed. But Mamma Mary did not even give it a try. She mortified herself. She offered her suffering as a silent sacrifice to God. She searched for sacrifices until she became a sacrifice. Another beautiful preparation from Mamma Mary and St. Joseph is the few words they vocally spoke within them and also with others. They talked when it was required. There were no unnecessary conversations and they were not interested in things not concerning them. There was more peace as there was less talk. After our unnecessary conversations, we will become troubled. Either we will be offended at what others say to us or we will feel sorry for what we have said to others. It is because these unnecessary conversations will not be covered by God's grace. So let us carefully avoid them. Like Mamma Mary and St. Joseph let us talk less and gain more peace. In all her donkey rides, Mamma Mary chose to pray. When Mamma Mary traveled to and fro from her house to Elizabeth's house, or her travel to Bethlehem in both the journeys carrying baby Jesus in her womb, or then carrying baby Jesus in her arms, she was always praising God. Though she did not enjoy the comforts of a luxury trip, she was thanking God. Her travelling moments were peaceful. We can use our mobile phones and headsets to think God and thank God!! Then we will become friends of God. He will enjoy the time we allocate for Him. Enjoying those short intervals, He will excitedly show us revelations!! When we give our time to Jesus, He will give His time for us. Let us sit and enjoy the presence of God whenever it is possible. Mamma Mary has been brought up in the temple and was very thorough with the scriptures. She knew what Isaiah had prophesized about her Holy Son, that He would be a man of sorrows, He would be crushed for our sins, He would be a passover lamb and so on. How terrible it would have been for a mother to know about these future predictions for the child in her womb. She carried Him suffering about the things He had to suffer. We may think from outside how happy it would have been to Mamma Mary to carry God in her womb. But how difficult it would have been for Mamma Mary to know the things that Her baby Jesus had to undergo sooner in His life. Mamma Mary accepted the thorns in her Christmas preparation!! Do not rest on past glory: When the Pharisees and Sadducees approached John the Baptist, he said, "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” We cannot rest on our past glory and neglect righteousness in our today's life. Holy living should be our continuous job. Do not put a materialistic emphasis on Christmas: People spend beyond their capability at Christmas and spend the next few months repaying their bills. Because of the financial burden on them, they are not able to be carefree and are worried on Christmas Day too. Jesus came all the way from Heaven to give joy and peace, not to give unnecessary expenses and loans. A Christian mother was worried because of the financial requirements for Christmas celebrations. She was worried because her non-Christian friends were expecting her to make it a grand Christmas feast for all of them. She was wondering how to go about it. She heard the sweet counselling from the Holy Spirit, "Don't do anything just because others are asking. Do what you think is required". After that clear direction from the Holy Spirit she was happy and did not extend her expenses beyond her capability. Let us avoid unnecessary expenses and enjoy Christmas within our budget!! Prepare by meditating on the love of God: We need to meditate on what Christmas is all about. We came to know that God will bear the penance for all our sins but He cannot bear seeing us suffer for all our sins. He will even hang on the cross for us. Isn't this truth more tastier and more delightful than anything!! Reality of Angels: God has employed visible Holy Angels during the preparation phase of Christmas. We see Angels delivering God's messages to Mamma Mary, St. Joseph, Zacharias. When we pray, God employs Holy Angels to deliver His blessings to us (as explained in Jacob's ladder). The only thing is since we are not very holy, we may not be able to see them through our physical eyes. But still Angels are with us to take care of us and they bring God's blessings to us. Submit all your intentions to your guardian angels. They will take care of bringing blessings from God. Prepare by doing the will of our Lord: John the Baptist was preparing the world for the "First Christmas". When people asked what we should do for preparation, He answered, "Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” When tax collectors asked, he replied, “Don’t collect any more than you are required to”; To soldiers he told, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely — be content with your pay.” In conclusion, preparing well is doing our job well.
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Brendan Hoban: We are all the poorer for the ‘missing God’
November 29 2022
Paddy Ferry
Of course, our land, Ireland, we now know has for decades, maybe centuries, been a Land without God, to quote Gerard Mannix Flynn. And, it must have been the same feeling for all the thousands of children and young women who suffered such unspeakable abuse and cruelty at the hands of those claiming to act on behalf of God. Some God!! I expect the Blackrock Boys -- the most recent addition to the catalogue of horrors -- would have felt the same. I was home two weeks ago for our dental class reunion. The papers were full of it. Two of my classmates were Blackrock boys and knew some of the 77 priests accused. I noticed that there was not a word about it on this site. At least nobody has tried to deflect blame this time from those accused as we have seen in other cases in the past.
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5 comments
Brendan Hoban: We are all the poorer for the ‘missing God’
November 29 2022
Michael Boyle
How can the intellect know of the existence of god before the heart rejoices in His presence ?
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1 comments
2 Dec 2022 – Friday of Advent, Week 1
December 2 2022
Fr matio
Very good thoughts
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