August 4 2020 - Association Of Catholic Priests

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03 Dec 2023 – 1st Sunday in Advent, B
December 3 2023
Thara Benedicta
Key Message: Begin with the end (God) in mind!! Homily: Dr. Steven Covey's book "Seven habits of highly effective people", talks about beginning with the end in mind. In the Holy Bible, God our Father promised, "I have prepared a prosperous plan for you to live on earth". Our Lord Jesus promised, "I will go and prepare a place for you to stay in Heaven so that wherever I am, you may be there too". God our loving Father and our Lord Jesus, both of them have the plans chartered for our prosperous future in earth and in Heaven. So Heaven and earth is all set ready for us. Our end goals are ready. How do you live keeping the end in mind? Our future is not limited by our past but we can limit our future by our own limited thinking: None of our past sins can overshadow our bright future, unless we allow it by our own limited thinking. We may think that we cannot live the best life which our God had originally prepared for us, since someone else has messed up our lives or we have messed up our own life. But our Lord Jesus is waiting to change our lives. When our Lord sojourned on the earth, all the people who came to Him were healed, delivered and got a bright future. He is real and is doing the same even now. Once we turn to Him, He will be close to us and guide us on how to change our messed life into a bright one. But people who continually just complain and continually live in their regrets do not aspire towards a bright future. Since we have our Almighty God within us, what is impossible to change in us? The Apostle Paul regretted his sins but He did not allow the regrets of his past life to shadow his future. He simple obeyed God and God guided Him always. When the prophet Solomon was mourning for Saul, God asked him, "How long will you mourn for Saul?" and He presented His plan B to Solomon. God's plan B was the shepherd boy David. God is never without a plan. He has a plan for each one of us and also for your family. We should never think that it is too late for us to reform our lives. In the Old Testament, there was only a stipulated time for mourning when someone died. We cannot waste our life in mourning. There is no use in mourning for something that we cannot change. Our bright future starts at the feet of our Lord Jesus: We may think that since we have messed up our past life, we will not have a bright future. But our Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary is ever ready to forgive our past sins, and give us a bright future, brighter than it would have ever been. The sinner Mary Magdalene became a preacher of God's word. People who ignored her because she was a sinner respected her because she became the preacher of God's word. All that Mary Magdalene did was repent and become close to our Lord Jesus. Always and always there is our precious Lord Jesus hanging on the cross, pouring out His blood to cleanse our sins and pouring out His water for grace, wiping out our tears. Let us closely cling to Him. Are we smart? We are smart only when we walk with God. Smartness is walking with God since we will become co-partners with God. When we repent and go to God, He will take His notebook and pen and write a new future for us. He has said, "My thoughts for you are more than the sands of the sea. I plan to prosper you". When we are close to Him, He will silently work for us. We will not be aware of it. One day it will dawn to us when we see the result of work after a long time. Then we will know why God needed the time. It will be to teach and transform us to handle the blessings in store for us. A Catholic family was continually insulted by their neighbours because they were jealous of this family. In a short time this family prospered and built a nice beautiful house with three floors. The neighbours were not able to finance to repair their houses. So they kept complaining about this family all the time and continually screaming at them even for a small inconvenience. When this Catholic family prayed for the neighbours to be blessed gloriously, our Lord Jesus revealed, "You know why I have not blessed them with a good house. It is because they keep continuously torturing you". So their own jealousy was blocking God from blessing them. Blessing others blesses us: When we bless everyone God will also bless us. This is a great truth which we know but we do not do. This is a secret for success. Jealousy is one of the secrets for failure. Have we seen any character in the Bible who was filled with jealousy but still blessed by God. King Saul was filled with jealousy when David the shepherd boy was praised by the women in his kingdom, "Saul killed thousands but David killed tens of thousands". Saul chased David and tried to kill him but he lost his life and his throne came to David. One of my relative's family was suffering financially and had health issues but they continually clung to God. In spite of their difficulties they would always take the initiative to go ahead and help someone. They would think what people around them required and go forward and help them. Everyone who felt uncared for felt at home in their family. They cared for everyone. Over the years the children started their own business and are flourishing financially. They continue to serve God and His people. Blessings others brings blessings to us. As our Lord Jesus says in today's Gospel reading, "Suddenly the master will come", the end day will come. Then our time will have stopped. We cannot do anything more. We cannot say to the judge, our Lord Jesus, "I do not know what I was doing with my life. I was living in stress just wanting more of worldly things. I did not think that I have to give my time, prayers or finance for others. I did not realize that this day would come". Let us realize and begin living today keeping the end in mind!!
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Euronews: A Catholic crisis: why priests in Ireland are fading into history and not being replaced
November 27 2023
Peadar O'Callaghan
How does one translate into words or make sense of an encounter with a god-man? So many memories of Shane MacGowan known by many through personal friendship and by others through his lyrics are everywhere in the media this weekend. Reading them makes one amazed at the task of the evangelists who found dialogues, parables, reminiscences, and stories of encounters with the God-Man Jesus of Nazareth to translate into ‘gospel’ that have stood the test of two millennia of time. The memories of MacGowan being recounted reveal the uniqueness of each individual God-gifted life. Shane was the hero of his own story. One wonders - Is Redemption a prelude to Deification that only ‘grace’ makes possible? In this year dedicated to ‘recruiting’ apprentices to priesthood the life of MacGowan might make us reflect that the many ‘tongues of fire’ in the Upper Room came down on not just “a small number of apprentices” and that if one stretches out a hand to the man from Galilee one must be prepared to walk on the waves. Personally, the untimely passing of MacGowan leads me to reflect on Rilke: ‘And then the knowledge comes to me that I have space within me for a second, timeless, larger life.” [I Love My Being’s Dark Hours]
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Synodal Pathway: Irish Bishops at the Synod in Rome – Report from Bishops Brendan Leahy and Alan McGuckian
November 30 2023
Joe O'Leary
The failure to mention lgbt folk, the chief instance of a vast population who have suffered greatly, both directly and indirectly, at the Church’s hands, consigns this pious message to the register of cagey, tailored, hypocritical utterance, not making any real effort to connect with people where they are. The lay people who sent reports to the Synod are far more intelligent and clued in than the bureaucrats crafting these soothing platitudes.
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Newman Meeting – Ecumenism and the Synodal Church – 21st November 2023.
November 16 2023
Paddy Ferry
Thank you for posting this prior to our Edinburgh Newman meeting. We had an excellent meeting and a full house so, it seems, there is still life left in the ecumenical dream. I hadn't realised that there was such an important section of the Synod devoted to Christian Unity. Philip took us through all of Section 7, On the Road Towards Christian Unity. a) to f) are the Convergences. c), for example, states that Ecumenism is first and foremost a matter of spiritual renewal that also requires processes of repentance and healing of memory. g) to j) are Matters for Consideration. Especially important, I thought, especially having read Tom O'Loughlin's excellent book, "Eating Together, Becoming One", is i) which states that we need to examine the issue of Eucharistic hospitality (Communicatio in sacris) from theological, canonical and pastoral perspectives in light of the link between sacramental and ecclesial communion. Finally, k) to o) are the Proposals. m) There is also a desire to continue to involve Christians of other Churches and ecclesial traditions in Catholic synodal processes at all levels and to invite more fraternal delegates to the next session of the Assembly in 2024. n) A proposal has been put forward by some to convene an ecumenical Synod on common mission in the contemporary world. All in all, this seems like a renewal of the "not an optional extra" understanding of our commitment to the goal of Christian Unity which we don't seem to have heard much of for a very long time. "There is also a desire to continue to involve Christians of other Churches ...." so, other Christians do belong to a body we can recognise as "church", after all. Remember Ratzinger and the CDF's Dominus Iesus in August 2000. Perhaps, I need some healing of memory myself.
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03 Dec 2023 – 1st Sunday in Advent, B

Euronews: A Catholic crisis: why priests in Ireland are fading into history and not being replaced

Synodal Pathway: Irish Bishops at the Synod in Rome – Report from Bishops Brendan Leahy and Alan McGuckian

Newman Meeting – Ecumenism and the Synodal Church – 21st November 2023.

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