6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

As Christians we are proclaiming ourselves to be in a relationship with Jesus Christ, followers of Christ.  Our Christian life is built on this relationship with the Lord out of which everything else flows.  Daily talking with God is not an achievement in the Christian life, it’s the foundation and the minimum, the beginning of the Christian life!  Christians pray every day.

This Lent, our focus as parishioners of the cluster of St. Joseph and St. Ann parishes will be on prayer – on personally taking one step deeper in our relationship with Jesus Christ, no matter where we are currently at in our life and habits of prayer, taking one step deeper, together.

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

We will be starting a journey as the parishes of St. Joseph and St. Ann beginning this Lent, starting a journey in the direction God is truly calling us as His disciples!  Some things, like the Israelites in our first reading, we will discover to be different than we were originally told or taught, even by those in the Church.  We are going to be hitting the “reset” button on what Jesus truly calls us to as Christians in this beautiful Catholic faith, which will involve detoxing from misunderstanding and false notions.  Step One (and our focus during Lent this year) will be focusing on growing in prayer and our relationship with God.  Step Two, which grows out of our relationship with God in prayer, is uncovering and living out our specific roles in the Body of Christ, which Paul describes in our second reading this weekend.  I’m excited to lead us on down this path which may seem new to us, but is in fact old, very old – it’s the way Jesus Christ Himself called us to live!

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Rules are for children who don’t yet fully understand; as we mature we begin to grasp the deeper reasons behind the rules, along with their nuances and qualifications.  In the Gospel today Jesus heals Bartimaeus the blind man, who then follows Jesus on ‘the way’; Bartimaeus isn’t leaving to follow a set of rules and regulations, He’s leaving to follow a person – Jesus Christ.  An immature understanding of our faith sees Catholicism as a bunch of rules, while an adult understanding acknowledges that all of these rules are for the sake of living out a healthy, strong, mature relationship with a person – Jesus Christ!

Like Bartimaeus, God has done great things for each of us as well!  Can we respond maturely and set out on ‘the way’ with Jesus, next to Bartimaeus, not simply following rules but actually growing in a relationship with a person – Jesus Christ?

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Freedom is a word very often used in society today…but what does it actually mean?  Are there different kinds of freedom?  What kind of freedom leads to happiness and fulfillment?  What kind of freedom does Jesus offer to us if we follow Him?

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

First, I will share a story with you of an inheritance.  Then, moving to our Gospel, Jesus speaks very forthrightly about a place of unquenchable fire called Gehenna and that sin is what leads us there.  Do we believe Jesus’ words?  Do we believe in hell and that sin leads people to it?  Or have we learned now, having outgrown the narrow mindset of that antiquated time that the Son of God walked this earth, that God loves everyone so much that nobody would ever go to hell?  Have we learned that Jesus was wrong?  And what does that have to do with an inheritance?

24th Sunday In  Ordinary Time

Peter is often the first of the Apostles to step up and, while he is also very quick to fall, in today’s Gospel he confidently proclaims that Jesus is the Christ.  I have been proud in these past months when, after a homily, you have responded by acting and living out the challenges — going out of your comfort zone to come to confession, meet new people at Church, or thank others for coming to Church (especially those that might be near the age of your own kids and grandkids that you wish would come back to Church).  I want that to be a common experience: that you’re regularly talking about and celebrating how you’ve gone out of your comfort zone, stepped up by putting into practice what’s been said here, and what happened when you did!  Then step up again…and repeat!

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

We as Catholics have a set of beliefs that stem from a particular, fundamental platform out of which all of our beliefs make sense.  Other Christian denominations and their beliefs stem from a particular, fundamental platform out of which their beliefs make sense.  The problem is, we often use the same words or do the same actions and rituals, but we actually understand them quite differently…which leads to confusion because it looks and sounds like we’re talking about the same things, but we’re actually understanding them quite differently (examples being Communion, confession, and the intercession of the saints just to name a few).

In this homily I lay out the fundamental Catholic platform as well as a best attempt at a fundamental non-Catholic Christian platform (I say “best attempt” because there are so many denominations with various platforms that no one platform unites them all…otherwise it would be one denomination…but I believe the distinctions I make are a fair representative of the whole).  These distinctions help explain a number of differences between Catholic and non-Catholic Christians, with a very important one being a much more complete understanding of the Sacrament of Reconciliation!  Enjoy!

(If you would like to read the text of Deacon Brian’s excellent and challenging homily from last week, it will be available shortly on this page of our website: https://stjoseph-hayward.org/recent-homilies)

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Part 1: The current practice of the Anointing of the Sick.

Part 2: In today’s Gospel Jesus sends out his Apostles two by two to preach repentance and drive out demons.  He doesn’t send them out alone, not one by one, but two by two…together…because we’re always stronger together, and we’re made to walk this path of faith together with other believers, especially Catholic believers.  Being an individual believer…alone…the demons love that!  They have a heyday with our minds and fill us with every seemingly reasonable excuse to  NOT take that next step in faith that we know God is calling us to.  But together, we as fellow Catholics call out each other’s mediocrity, we encourage each other in the faith, we support someone when they’re falling and we are supported when our faith seems to fail, we rejoice with each other in spiritual growth and victories.  Two by two is always better than one by one!