Category: Feasts

Remember To Breathe

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Easter Season, Feasts

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)!

Ascend

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Easter Season, Feasts

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!

I Saw The Sign

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Christmas Season, Feasts

Epiphany

Today three wise men/three kings/three magi arrive at the place where Jesus was born after following the sign of a star.  The presence of these three non-Jewish kings reveals that God is not only calling the Jewish people but ALL people of the world to believe in and follow His Son Jesus.  God’s sign was a star; presumably everyone could see it.  So why is it only these three wise men who followed that star?  Was everyone else just too busy?  Were they so caught up in life that they didn’t even notice the sign?  We encounter three different kinds of people in the Gospel today: those who don’t notice the sign, those who notice the sign but don’t follow it, and those who notice the sign AND follow it.  This week: What are the signs God is placing in your life (what are the stars)? And when you see a sign, do you follow it?

How to Live as a Family

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Christmas Season, Feasts

Feast of the Holy Family

In today’s readings we get some very practical advice about how to live as Christians: put the wants and needs of others before your own…as Christ did.  Paul gives us a very concrete example of how this looks in one of the most fundamental sets of relationships we find ourselves in: the family.  Before getting up-in-arms about how Paul could write, “Wives, be subordinate to your husbands,” let’s look at the reading in context and see how Paul is challenging everyone to stretch their hearts and love others the way Christ loved us.

Exactly Where We’ve Chosen

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Feasts, Ordinary Time

Feast of Christ the King

God’s judgment is totally different than ours.  Our judgment of people and situations is narrow and subjective – concluded based on our limited perception.  God’s judgment, on the other hand, takes into account every thought, every inclination, every factor, every pressure, every influence – God’s judgment is absolutely fair.  After our own particular judgment at the end of our life, and after the final judgment at the end of time when everyone’s life will be completely laid open for all to see and we will understand how our life fit into God’s great story, we will know ourselves (and others) as God knows us (which is fully and entirely, nothing hidden)…and we will end up in exactly the place we belong in God’s love: no shame, no pride, just an honest acknowledgment of the decisions we freely chose to make in this life, whether for God, others, or ourselves.  God is absolutely fair, and we will end up exactly where we’ve chosen to be.

Experience the Trinity

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Feasts, Ordinary Time

Most Holy Trinity

Every time we say, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” we are proclaiming that our God is a Trinity – that from all time our God has been a relationship of love: 3 distinct Persons, fully united as 1 God.  And this God made us – humanity – to share in His love!  But to know God as Trinity is not something we can describe with words alone, it is something that has to be experienced to be believed!

Unleash the Holy Spirit

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Easter Season, Feasts

Pentecost

In our baptism we received the same Holy Spirit that the disciples received 2,000 years ago.  By our Confirmation we were sealed and strengthened in that Holy Spirit.  So why don’t we see the miracles and wonders that the presence of the Spirit brings, like those in our 1st reading?  In order for the power of the Spirit (which is already within us) to be unlocked and unleashed through our lives, we have to be able to say, in all areas of our life, with our whole heart, “Jesus is Lord!”  The more we can say that, the more the Holy Spirit can come out with power!

Jesus Physically With Us

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Feasts, Ordinary Time

Corpus Christi

At the Mass we celebrate each weekend, when the priest says those words in the name of Jesus – “This is my body…this is my blood….” – bread and wine are transformed entirely into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.  How might your daily life be different if you experienced Jesus Christ with you, in you, next to you every hour of every day of your week?  When we receive Communion, Jesus is physically with us, in us, next to us…and He stays with us every hour of every day, even if we don’t realize it.  How will this change your week?

Trinitarian Love

On By Fr. David NeuschwanderIn Feasts, Ordinary Time

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

From all eternity God has existed in a relationship of love – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  These Three Persons of the Trinity are so united in love that they are actually 1 God.  This is the amazing faith we proclaim every time we make the sign of the cross.  And we have personally experienced this life of God: every single time we experience love, we taste for a moment the Trinity – for ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:8).  That’s what we look forward to in heaven.  That’s why, when we don’t feel like we have anymore love, patience, kindness or compassion to give during the daily grind, we ask for strength from God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Then we start loving with Trinitarian love.