Joseph Wiesenfarth 21 August 2016 Isaiah 58: 9b-14, Hebrews 12:18-29, Luke 13:10-17 Some four score and seven years ago . . . . Wait a minute: somebody else said that before me. So let me just say . . . four score and forget the seven years. I was at that time growing up just south of the borough of Queens in the East New York section of Brooklyn, which is now considered, according to the New York Times, the most dangerous district in New York City to live in or even to visit. But back then my neighborhood …
Libby Caes’ Homily, August 14, 2016
Libby Caes August 14, 2016 Jeremiah 23:23-29; Hebrews 11:29-12:2; Luke 12:49-56 When was the last time you asked yourself the big existential question… What is the purpose of my life? What is it that I really want? It is so easy to get caught up in the day to day activities and busyness of life and lose sight of the larger picture. It is also very easy to become complacent in our spiritual practices, only going through the motions. What is it that I really want? The opening verse of today’s gospel reading could be Jesus’s mission statement. I came …
Lynne Smith’s Homily, August 7, 2016
Genesis 15:1-6 August 7, 2016 Heb. 11:1-3, 8-16 Lynne Smith, OSB Luke 12:32-40 The exchange between God and Abram in the first lesson today caught my imagination this week. It is so down to earth and human. I can hear Abram’s skepticism about this stars-in-the-sky promise. He has heard this promise before but he hasn’t seen anything to assure him it will be fulfilled. He wants to see evidence that God is going to make good on the promise. “O God, what will you give me for I continue childless?” He is thinking, “I’m not getting any younger …
Jim Penczykowski’s Homily, July 24, 2016
In the Roman Catholic Church the so-called twelve apostles are assigned liturgical feast days. I say so-called 12 because St. Paul was assigned a feast as the apostle to the gentiles from earliest times; and now at last St. Mary Magdalene is also assigned a feast as an apostle, a feast day celebrated July 23rd. Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century called her “the apostle to the apostles” because she was entrusted with the joyful news of the resurrection. That title has fitted her to this day. Another small “glass ceiling” has broken. Amen. Alleluia. Have you ever acted …
Mary Gordon’s Homily, July 17, 2016
Mary Gordon’s Homily for July 17, 2016 Delivered by Shiela Reaves Martha and Mary Sermon I am so sorry not to be with you today, as I had very much looked forward to being the homilist as my dear friend Paul Knitter presided. For those of you who don’t know, my husband, Arthur Cash, had a serious fall resulting in brain injury from which he is not expected to recover. He is now in a wonderful hospice facility and we await the end, which may come sooner or later, no one of course, knows. I ask your prayers …
Mary David Walgenbach’s Homily, July 10, 2016
Readings: Deuteronomy 30:9-14; Colossians 1:1-14; Luke 10:25-37 Today’s gospel is a rendition by John Shea with some modifications. I open the parable of the Good Samaritan this morning, by telling today’s gospel as Nathaniel. I am a young lawyer; Luke calls me a scribe. I am an expert in the Law of Moses. As a young and nimble lawyer eager to distinguish myself with the priests of the temple, I, Nathaniel, accepted the request of Caiaphas to join the crowd listening to Jesus. Our purpose was for me to confront Jesus with a question to test his words and …
David McKee’s Homily, July 3, 2016
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time July 3, 2016 Isaiah 66:10-14 Galatians 6:7-16 Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 In meditating on today’s readings, I remembered an experience I had at the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani in northern Kentucky; the Trappist monastery made famous by Thomas Merton, who spent most of his adult life there. Like the experiences of “The 70” who were sent by Jesus to spread the Good News, my being at Gethsemani Abbey was a bit serendipitous. This was when my wife Alison’s and my children were very young and we were taking–or thought we were …
Paul Knitter’s Homily, June 19, 2016
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time The Egalitarian Community Clothed in Christ Readings: Isaiah 65:1-9; Galatians 3:23-29; Luke 8: 26-39 THE COMMUNITY OF JESUS FOLLOWERS IN GALATIA WAS PROPHETICALLY EGALITARIAN I’d like to focus my reflections this morning around the second reading from Paul’s letter to the Galatians – mainly because it gives us such a clear, sobering, and inspiring picture of the kind of communities the early Jesus-followers formed. Galatians is the second oldest of the seven Pauline epistles that we know Paul really wrote. He wrote it around the year 52, so just about 20 years …
Rosy Kandathil’s Homily, June 12, 2016
Do You See This Woman? 2 Samuel 11:26-12:15b; Galatians 2:16-21; Luke 7:36-8:3 When I was a child, I came across a book in the library called One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. You may remember it yourself. A dusty tome filled with the kind of adventure stories I liked as a young girl: Aladdin’s Lamp, Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, genies and sorcerers, caves and palaces. But the main frame story is about a king driven mad by jealousy. He marries a series of women only to execute each one at dawn, before she has the chance to …
Colleen Hartung’s Homily, June 5, 2016
We Have Raised Them Up Homily By Colleen Hartung Luke 7:11-17 June 5, 2016 The first thing I am going to do is remind us, in the wake of today’s readings, that are not exactly celebratory, that our primary task and central theme for this day is the celebration of the Solemn Communion of Nancy Crawford, Katarine Miller, Mercedes Wilhelm and Orion Wilson. One thing I’ve learned about all four of these SA members by doing lexio divina together is that they are careful thoughtful listeners. If the scripture story makes them sad, they say so. If it confuses …