Homily: 3rd Sunday of Easter

How does this Easter Season call us to change in order to gain focus and direction within our lives and our faith?  It would seem the release of Pope Francis’ latest exhortation, Rejoice and Be Glad!  lends perfect timing to help answer that question. What suggestions does the Pope make to you and me on how to answer the “call to holiness in a practical way for our own time, with all its risks, challenges and opportunities?”  The answer partly lies with one word echoed throughout Lent and in today’s readings…but it doesn’t mean what you think it does!  So what is it and what did the Pope have to say?  Well better check it all out!

For the podcast of the homily, click here

For the transcript of the homily, click here

For the readings of this Sunday, click here

For a complete copy of the Pope’s Exhortation – Rejoice and Be Glad, click here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holy Week - The Holiness of Your LIfe

One of the many blessings of being married clergy...is having a wife who is so centered, grounded and supportive. Enjoy this blog post she wrote to be posted here!

As we held our Palms today and heard Mark’s gospel proclaimed I was most struck by the line where temple veil was torn in two. At this moment of Jesus’ death, there was no longer separation of sacred to profane. Thus it is a time to remember that our bodies, our lives…doing dishes, weeding a garden, making food for our families, caring for elderly parents or small children…all of our daily activities are holy.

There is never a moment when Christ is not present in our lives—even when they seem mundane.

The Ancestral Pueblo people of the Southwestern United States constructed kivas like the one in this photo which I took at Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico. These Ancient Pueblo people were aware of the sacredness and sanctity of the earth and of all their daily activities. That brilliant ray of sunlight streaming into this sacred and quiet place in the earth reminds me of the need to always be in communion with this holiness.

In the Catholic tradition, the joy of Holy Week is that we take very ordinary materials, palms, oil, water, and incense in order to not to MAKE us holy but to remind us about and to re-connect us to our own inherent holiness.

Carrie Newcomer reminds us of this sacredness of the ordinary in her song Holy As the Day is Spent. My favorite line is “folding sheets as folding hands.” Maybe you could start this Holy Week by listening to this song and being aware of how very holy your own life really is…it really is...really.