Solemnity of the Holy Family

Posted on by Cassie

This week’s focus is on the family.  The importance of the family cannot be overstated or over emphasized.  The family is where we discover what it means to be human, what are our strengths and weaknesses, where we experience love and forgiveness, where we learn about relationships, unity, sacrifice, loving others, accepting others, where we learn values and attitudes and trust and how to handle stress and how to be responsible.  Family is where we learn to get along with one another.  All these important learning tasks are hopefully learned in a family that is healthy.  The success of society depends on the health of the family.

Today we celebrate the importance of another family, our parish family.  Here too we discover  who we are as God’s children, how to trust God and to love God and one another.  We learn values here too, values that are intended to lead us to eternal life.  Hopefully we learn how to give as well as take, how to forgive as well as be forgiven.  Here we gather around a family table to be fed, not with perishable food but with food that will nourish us eternally.  Our faith community is just as important in its own way as our family of origin.  And the Lords’ supper that we share just as important to our spiritual well being as being together and eating together as a family is to our emotional well being.

Families are strengthened by their meals together.  The Eucharist is our family’s weekly meal.  St Paul gives a wonderful list of virtues that enhance and enrich our relationships within our families:  compassion, kindness, gentleness, humility, patience, forgiveness, etc.  He tells us to be grateful.  He used the word ”Eucharisteo.”  He tells us we are to become “Eucharisteo.”  The Holy Eucharist allows us to perfectly fulfill His mandate.  It is a perfect act of thanksgiving because as God’s children, we give thanks to God in union with His Son, Jesus Christ.  May we be strong and healthy families, full of thankfulness, and may we rejoice one day in the home of our Father in Heaven.

God Bless

Msgr. Powell

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Posted on by Patrick Leyden

Jesus was born at a time when messianic expectations were high.  His whole life would show how He indeed fulfilled these messianic hopes.

The Title Christ was a Greek translation for the Hebrew word “Messiah”, meaning “the anointed one.”  As more and more Gentiles entered the Church, the word Christ gradually lost its distinction as a title and became part of our Lord’s personal name.  “Jesus the Christ” became simply “Jesus Christ.”

If Jesus as Messiah is going to mean anything to us personally, we must acquire some of the attitudes of the Israelites before He was born.  We need a Savior in our life.  Without a Savior we are sinners with no escape.  However, with a Savior we are sinners who are set free.

We also need to acquire the attitude of patient waiting.  Somehow through centuries of trials and exile the Israelites were able to wait patiently for the coming Messiah.  In our fast-paced world we find it more and more difficult to wait patiently for those things in life that need more time to unfold, things like learning and loving, or friendship and family.  Are we able to wait patiently in our struggles and setbacks for the Messiah to come and deliver us?

Finally, we need to imitate Mary’s faith-filled attitude of “let it be.”  God has called us as He did Mary.  We may not be free of all fear when we answer God’s call, but since His Spirit overshadows us, “let it be.”  We may not be too sure about our resources, but since God sends us sometimes to do the impossible anyway, “let it be.”

God Bless

Msgr. Powell

Third Sunday of Advent

Posted on by Cassie

The entire gospel of John is a testimony to who Jesus is, and the first to testify is John the Baptist.  He rejects any messianic designation for himself;  rather his role is to prepare the way for another whom God would send.

That one has already come, but He is not recognized yet by anyone.  He is initially not even recognized by John.  It took a revelation from God to reveal the identity of Jesus to John.  The true identity of Jesus must be revealed to us if we are to know Him – and revealing Jesus’ identity is the purpose of this gospel.

The importance of John the Baptist for us is that he reminds us that Jesus did not appear out of the blue, making incredible claims for Himself.  God worked for centuries to prepare the world to receive His Son.  He worked through the great events of the Old Testament and through the prophets to bring the Messiah and prepare the world for His coming.  As the Messiah was near, God used John the Baptist to make the final arrangements and point out to us our Savior.

Once again, as the Church prepares to celebrate the coming of Christ at Christmas, the Church presents John the Baptist as His messenger to us.  Then we can join Him once again and proclaim the message to others that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and Lord of All.

God Bless

Msgr. Powell