May 2016

Sunday in the Octave of Corpus Christi (“C”) – May 29, 2016

From the Pastor /

All meals carry with them the potential of nourishment and healing and more. Particularly important meals of celebration, shared with others, confirm our identity and allow us to celebrate our very existence and all our lives give to us. We need the food and drink to sustain us, and we need to be thankful for what life provides for us not just in the meal but in the people with whom we share our lives. All these elements are present when we celebrate the Eucharist together. As we come together to remember what He did for us, as we share the message of God’s kingdom, as we pray for healing, as we eat the bread and wine that have become the body and blood of Christ, we make present the mystery of the cross and resurrection. We are truly Christ’s body in and for our world. Christ’s body is made incarnate again through our own humanity, offered to each other as food and drink to nourish and to heal.

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Most Holy Trinity (“C”) – May 22, 2016

From the Pastor /

The Spirit of God lives in the Church and in each person. This is the gift and the promise that the Lord made to us. And so if we turn to the Spirit and ask for guidance and inspiration our prayer will not go unheeded. We will be given sensitivity to the needs of others and a loving desire to help them. These gifts of the Spirit are all forms of “seeing” and once we see, we will not know how to act. St. Paul in his life journey, was given new sight by the Lord after being struck blind on the Damascus road. His new sight proved to be tremendous vision. He could see the glory of God ahead of him as our glorious destination. He could also see that even our sufferings can be beneficial events in our life, that we can bring good out of them. Suffering leads to patience, and patience leads to perseverance, and perseverance to hope, and our hope will not deceive us. The brightness of God now blesses our lives and calls us to bless one another, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

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Pentecost (“C”) – May 15, 2016

From the Pastor /

The apostles are no longer terrified and in hiding after Jesus’ crucifixion, but, driven by what seems like a powerful wind from heaven and tongues of fire, they go out into the market square proclaiming the marvels of God. The people are from many foreign places but everyone hears and understands in his or her own language what is being said. It signifies a reversal of the confusion of language in the story of Babel and the beginning of humanity’s restoration to unity.

Not only is the Spirit of God our helper but also, as St. Paul says in the second reading, He has “made His home” in us. The source of this divine life of the Spirit within us is the Father “who raised Jesus from the dead”. Having received the gift of the Spirit we are called to live “spiritual lives”. We may lack the power to describe the beauty of God’s creation, but with the help of the Holy Spirit we can speak in words that bring love, healing and reconciliation. When the words are accompanied by actions of self-giving they will be understood and accepted, whatever the language of the recipient.

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Seventh Sunday of Easter (“C”) – May 8, 2016

From the Pastor /

Christian communities are not always the most united of groups. Yet Jesus asks us to go out preaching the need to be one with others as well as ourselves. Can we do this without being hypocritical? We can reassure ourselves by looking at the early disciples. The were often at odds with each other both before and after their experience of the risen Lord and His gift of the Holy Spirit. However, they do appear to have been better at sorting out their differences after Pentecost than before. It is as though they recognized in each other that gift of God’s love and so gave each other the space to explore what that love was saying.

Our ability to be one and to live, believe and work together in harmony is ultimately the gift of God’s own love within us. It will always be a challenge to express this fully. We will try shortcuts, make assumptions, identify God’s will too quickly with our own. We will be afraid. But like the sunflower constantly turning its face to find the sun, so we are asked to turn our faces again and again to God, that it may be God’s love that truly enlightens us and helps us to choose the right path.

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Sixth Sunday of Easter (“C”) – May 1, 2016

From the Pastor /

In today’s Gospel, Jesus assures us that we are more than any earthly group can make us, and we are interior led by more than any human code or sense of honor. Through the giving of the Spirit, we become dwelling places of the Holy Spirit, and if the Holy Spirit, then the whole of the Blessed Trinity. This teaching of Christ on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is absolutely central to the New Testament.

Like any adventure in living together, allowing the Holy Spirit to dwell within us requires certain things. First of all, spending time with God in prayer. Not only do we raise our minds to God, but our hearts become aware of God’s presence within us and in the Church. Secondly, living together with friends requires communication. We need both to speak and to listen. The time we spend in prayer helps us reveal our joys and sorrows, our hopes for this world and our desire for eternity.

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