The Hidden Depths of the Mass #4Preparation for Mass What do we mean by preparation? It should include taking a few minutes before Mass to quiet our thoughts and to center ourselves on the Lord. This is often best done by spending a couple of minutes just before Mass begins in silent prayer in church. If something keeps …
Pope Francis recently encouraged a group of young Russians to be “bridge builders.” I think this is something we all need to think about. Before I entered seminary, I literally helped build bridges. I worked for the New York State Department of Transportation as an engineer on projects designing, building, and reconstructing bridges. The bridges …
God is the ultimate source of authority. During the days of Isaiah in our first reading, Shebna had been authority as “master of the palace.” He did not use his authority well, He became prideful and brought shame to the king. So, the Lord declared to Shebna, “I will thrust you from your office and …
The Hidden Depths of the Mass #3 Can We Fully Understand It? As we learn more about the Mass, an important piece to consider is that the Sacraments, including the Eucharist are rooted in mystery. We are not going to understand everything. For example, how God changes the bread and wine into the Body and …
The national and world news has been a little different in the last week or two. First, I would like to mention the situation in Niger. Where is Niger? It’s in Africa. What happened? There was a coup by the military to take over from the democratically elected government. You might say why does that …
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year AIsaiah 56:1, 6-7Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8 (4)Romans 11:13-15, 29-32Matthew 15:21-28August 20, 2023 Jesus entered the land of Tyre and Sidon. There He encountered a Canaanite woman. As a Canaanite, she would not have been a Jew. She has heard of the miracles Jesus has been doing. She has …
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The Origins of the Mass Initially, Christians gathered with Jews on the Sabbath for the Jewish worship that included readings from the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and a sermon. Then the Christians gathered on Sunday for the Eucharist. As hostility developed between Jews and Christians, Christians stopped going to Jewish services and made Sunday their …
Today we celebrate the Assumption of Mary. We give our praise and worship to God alone. We venerate (honor) Mary but we do not worship her. Our gospel reading today is the story of the Visitation of Mary. When Mary learned that she had been chosen to be mother of Jesus, the angel Gabriel also …
After Jesus had multiplied the loaves and fed the vast crowd, He “made the disciples get into a boat and precede him to the other side.” So begins today’s gospel. As He made his disciples leave in the boat, He would have known that a storm was coming. Yet, He sent them anyways. It will …
Beginning this week you will see a new series of articles in our parish bulletin for St. Mary’s of the Lake and St. Benedict’s that I am writing to help people better understand and better appreciate what we do at Mass. I’ll also post it here and on a page I will be creating on my …
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