2nd Sunday of Easter
Is it wrong to question God? Is wanting to know how or why something happened considered a weakness or lack of faith, or even a sin? In the Gospel today Jesus appears to His apostles, but Thomas isn’t there. When Thomas comes back and all of the others are claiming that Jesus is risen, he refuses to believe unless he sees it himself. Is that wrong of him? I think not!
Easter Sunday
Happy Easter to all of you and your families!
One question this Easter: What does God want to do for you?
Pentecost
The coming of the Holy Spirit CHANGED the first followers of Jesus. We received the Holy Spirit in baptism, we were sealed by the Holy Spirit in Confirmation, we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus at every Mass…but how much are we CHANGED by these experiences? Do you ever feel like you’re in a spiritual rut? Do you ever long for more in your faith but just not know why you aren’t getting it? If that’s ever been you, listen to this homily, and most importantly – remember to breathe (spiritually)!
Ascension Sunday
Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers! This weekend we celebrate Jesus’ Ascension into heaven – that after rising from the dead and appearing to His disciples for a number of days, Jesus ascends to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father. The ascension is not a one-and-done event, though. We are the Body of Christ still present on this earth, so His ascension is still happening in us. As we follow Jesus, as we run faster and jump higher, as we overcome the obstacles of life and refuse to give up in our pursuit of a more meaningful relationship with God, we also ascend!
6th Sunday of Easter
Love requires both intention AND action: a good action without good intention is not love; the best intention without action is not love. Our readings today challenge us to love if we are to remain in God. But how can we remain in love all day long in the midst of our many different obligations and mundane duties? The good news is that every daily, ordinary action we do can be transformed into an act of love when we attach it to a good intention by offering it up with a short prayer! In our faith life, too, love is intention AND action. Intending to love God isn’t enough: we actually have to act on it!
5th Sunday of Easter
All day, every day, we are making decisions. Ultimately, what we do and don’t do, how we respond or don’t respond to different people and situations, is our decision. I believe everyone WANTS to be a good person: a good mother or father, husband or wife, family member, friend, worker and coworker…but it’s our daily decisions (regardless of what we say we want to be) that determine whether we actually ARE any of those things. In the Gospel today Jesus challenges us to remain in Him always. God never stops being with us, but we often, on account of our many obligations and pressures and duties, choose not to remain in Him. But those things are only excuses, because our decisions are entirely ours. What will I decide to do this week to remain in God just a little bit longer each day?
4th Sunday of Easter
Peter says in our 1st reading today, speaking about Jesus Christ, “There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.” If salvation is only in Jesus, then who can be saved? Can non-Catholics go to heaven? Can Hindus or Buddhists or Muslims go to heaven? And what part do we have to play in it? Listen and find out!
3rd Sunday of Easter
When Jesus appears today to His disciples and says, “Peace be with you,” they at first think it might be a ghost. Ghosts and the supernatural are not talked about very much in our current Church culture. What do we believe as Catholics about ghosts? What if we or someone we know claims to have experienced a presence beyond this physical world? Should we be afraid? Can they hurt us? Or can we help them?
2nd Sunday of Easter
In our Gospel, Jesus appears to the disciples behind locked doors and rather shockingly (since most of these people deserted Him during his arrest and crucifixion) He says, “Peace Be With You.” Then He shows them His wounds – His hands and His pierced side, still present even on His resurrected and glorified body. God wants to give us a deep, abiding peace in this life. The path to that peace, however, is counterintuitive: it involves admitting and confessing just how much we have wounded others and God along the way – our sins – because to the extent that we admit our sinfulness, we experience God’s amazing mercy; and to the extent we experience God’s desire and love for us even in the midst of our brokenness, we experience God’s peace!
Easter Sunday
And I will raise you up
And I will raise you up
And I will raise you up on the last day.
What does God want to do for you? How does He want to raise you up? What does He want to do in your life right now?