14th Sunday of Ordinary Time (A)

"Rejoice heart and soul, daughter of Sion."
"Your interests are not in the unspiritual but in the spiritual, since the Spirit of God has made his home in you"
"Come to me all you who labour and are over burdened and I will give you rest."

After the feasts and holy days of the last couple of weeks we have found ourselves in Ordinary time. The Sundays between Trinity and Christ the King are marked by the green vestment and the ever increasing number of the Sunday was we journey towards the years end and Advent. Why do I mention this? Is this just an irrelevant piece of trivia that the members of our congregations need not concern themselves with? Possibly, however, I can see a significance in this season we called Ordinary.

Most of our lives are spent in the realm of the ordinary. Normally our days are plain sailing, day to day, week to week, we just get on with things; our work, our families, our parishes. Now and again this ordinary is punctuated by the less ordinary. Life can take turns and things can happen that make us change. We can experience joys and sadness, sickness and health, disappointment and surprise, things good and bad on the journey.  The Pope recently commented, on the jubilee of his priestly ordination, that the fruit of the vine, the grape, need sunshine and rain to make it mature. But back to the ordinary. Even though our experiences can be punctuated by ups and downs, the majority of our lives are lived in a place between the two. We can feel the presence of God, maybe, more keenly in drama - but there is not one second of our existence that is not touched by the presence of the love of God. It is mostly in the regular that we  find Him, in the regular we have a chance to grow in his love, in the regular we can lean who God is and the life that gives.

God has made himself known to us in Jesus. Sometimes there is a temptation to think that friendship with Jesus is for 'other people'. Sometimes can only imaging the saints or great priests and bishops really knowing God. And while it is true many of the great legends of our faith were blessed with heroic lives of faith, we lesser mortals can have a really intimate and profound experience of God. I could list of any amount of ordinary things that speak to us of God; a visit, a help out, a baby laughing, the dawn chorus, everyone has their own example. In the Word of God and the celebration of he Sacraments, particularly the Eucharist, we can come face to face with God who wants us to know Him and love Him, just as He knows and loves us.

The Gospel today says "Jesus exclaimed" that the knowledge of God is revealed to mere children. He exclaimed, he just didn't say or teach, he exclaimed this. Then what does He say? He says what I believe to be some of the most beautiful words ever recorded; "Come to me all you who labour and are heavy burdened..and I will give you rest."

Where ever you are in life as you read or hear this, Christ invites you to come to Him. You may be in the depths or on high, most probably you are somewhere in between, where ever you are he says come. Jesus wants to to learn from Him, to be like Him, to be close to Him and when we do the prophesy of Zachariah in the first reading come true; we "rejoice with heart and soul, because the King comes to you" not in splendour but on a donkey, in the ordinary moments of life.

I can't find a Gregorian setting of Venite ad me, so I include an Ambrosian one. Pardon the quality of the video, but you can hear the magnificent sounds of the Church of Milan's setting to the Gospel acclamation on All Saints:

Corpus Christi

The story goes that when the Feast of Corpus Christi was established in 1264, by Pope Urban IV a competition was held for the music that was accompany the feast - that time of course, it was all Gregorian chant. Two great theologians St Bonaventure and St Thomas Aquinas got to work on the texts and the music. When the day came for the compositions to be heard by the Pope, St Thomas was the first to present. When he came to the end, there was silence in the room. St Bonaventure who was beside Thomas took the text he had prepared and placed it on the ground. He looked at Thomas and said, nothing could compare to the beauty and faith of what just been heard. Whether the story is true or not, it cannot be denied that the music associated with this feast is beautiful.

The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ is beautiful. When we pause and think about the mystery of what we celebrate, we can only do what the words of the Adoro Te says; we can only get lost in wonder. I think a problem we have in our words today is that we have lost the ability to get lost in wonder!
When we celebrate the Eucharist  we celebrate the unending presence of God in our midst. Not only that, in the celebration of the Sacred Mysteries we remember all that Christ has done for us.

There are two antiphons associated with evening prayer for the feast. The O Sacrum Convivium from second vespers:

O sacred banquet!
in which Christ is received,
the memory of his Passion is renewed,
the mind is filled with grace,
and a pledge of future glory to us is given.
Alleluia.

and a less celebrated one from first vespers:

Lord, how good you are and how gentle your spirit.
When you wished to show your goodness to your children
 you gave them bread from heaven filling the hungry with good things
and sending the rich away empty.

Both of these reveal a little of the great beauty of the Eucharist - the memory of the Passion is renewed, our minds are filled with grace and the pledge of future glory is given to us. We are reminded of how generous God is to us, giving us everything in Christ. On this feast day may we have a chance to experience the beauty of the mysteries we celebrate day after day and week after week. Stay with us Lord, for evening is approaching. We are also reminded of the gentleness and the kindness of God. "To ransom a slave you gave away your Son"

The Eucharist is in the heart of countless communities throughout the world. As we celebrate Corpus Christi we remember that Jesus is with us. We partake in His sacred passion. He stays with us to make us one with one another and with Him. The Eucharist is unity; the Eucharist is beauty: the Eucharist is love.

This a good reflection written the Mass by Gregory Dix in his work 'The Shape of the Eucharist'

"Men have found no better thing than this to do for kings at their crowning and for criminals going to the scaffold; for armies in triumph, for a bride and her groom in a little country church; for the proclamation of a dogma or for a good crop of wheat; for the wisdom of a parliament of a mighty nation or for a sick old woman afraid to die; for a school boy sitting an exam or Columbus setting out to discover America; in thankfulness that my father did not die of pneumonia; for the village headman tempted to return to fetish because the yam crop had failed; for captain so and so, wounded and a prisoner of war; while the hiss of scythes in the think June grass came faintly through the windows of the Church; tremulously, by the old monk on the fiftieth anniversary of his vows; furtively, by an exiled bishop who had hewn timber all day in a prison camp near Murmansk; gorgeously for the canonisation of St Joan of Ark - one could fill many pages with the reasons why people have done this, and not yet tell a hundredth part of them. And best of all, week by week, and month by month, on a hundred thousand successive Sundays, faithfully, unfaithfully, across the parishes of Christendom, the pastors have done this just to make the plebs sancta dei - the holy common people of God.

Adoremus in aeternum Sanctissimum Sacramentum!




This is a childhood favorite of mine:

Trinity Sunday

On the Sunday after Pentecost we celebrate the mystery of the Trinity. After  Eastertide we have the chance to draw a breath and think for a moment about God Himself. It is a part of our faith that is a huge mystery; One God, in three persons, equal to each other, of the same substance, yet totally distinct. Everything alive has its own mystery - no matter how much we discover and uncover about the natural world, there is always more to learn. The mystery of God’s life is truly on an infinite scale.

But what we do know about God? Has anyone ever seen Him? Not many people I know had Moses’ experience of meeting God in the form of a cloud on the mountain, as we heard in the first reading.  Sometimes we have an idea of God that seems to be straight out of a comic – a nice story for children. God is not just a concept up in the sky that is beyond our reach. We believe that Jesus has revealed God to us and when we look to Christ we see the face of the Father. So what did Jesus tell us? The first thing he revealed was the Father’s endless love for us all. God is love. That is a tremendous statement -  God is Love! Jesus tells us in the Gospel that not only does God love us, but that He sent His Son, Christ himself, into the world not to condemn the world but to save it, in other words to bring the world back into the very life of God, despite our sins and failings. Jesus also says that he does not leave us alone, he has asked the Father to send the Holy Spirit to us to keep us on the right track. Our faith tells us that God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit - is near, within our very being, we become living temples of God by the gift of baptism.

The Trinity can be experienced in a million ways.  One of the most special moments of my life, so far, was the birth of my first little niece last December. In the middle of the cold and hardship that we experienced before Christmas little Hayleigh Rose came into to world. Every human life is sacred, and this is most clearly seen in the life of baby. When she was born, just like any little one, there was only one to communicate with her – simply by love. I remember marveling at how her first time parents, took so naturally to their new role. Passing the child to each other, holding her, welcoming her into life – every action was action love. Our very nature calls us to live in family, community and love – a love which reaches out to embrace, holding everything in being.  The ultimate experience of community is the life of God.

 From all eternity the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit live in the happiness of their own presence. In the mystery of creation God opened life to us all, and in Jesus we are invited to share that very life; we become part of the mystery of the Trinity

You know, more than anything in the world we want to be happy. If we had every material thing we ever wanted and did not have happiness my might as well have nothing. Our true happiness is found in love.  What is love? Love is the very nature of God - real love that gives life in all its fullness. The Trinity’s invitation to you and me is to live forever in the happiness of Heaven where all our longings will be fulfilled. We can spend a lifetime desiring happiness, seeking it on the out side. Happiness begins in the depths of our own souls; in our own hearts where God has made his dwelling.

As a society, we have taken a huge knocking. Prosperity and economic success has been replaced with much hardship. No doubt many of you have your own worries and fears – fears for yourself and your loved ones, particularly the young. So much is beyond our control. Life can very hard and despair can seem to be a very easy option.

Today’s feast is a source of great hope. We come face to face with God who is love, not just of Himself, but every human being that is made in God’s image and likeness. Our destiny as God’s children is nothing less than being part of God’s very life. Our hearts are restless until they rest in God, St Augustine famously said, but already in this life we can rest in faith that Father who created us, the Son who redeemed us and the Spirit that makes us holy is with us – in the depths our very being.

Pentecost

Ireland has a new energy.

Ads are great! It is obvious that hours and hours go into the construction of advertisements. On tv, the radio and in the printed media ads are everywhere. You can't look at something on the internet now with out an ad popping up, and even if it lasts 30 seconds, you are coerced into the word of the 'mad men'.
One ad recently has being playing on RTE Radio, for those of you not too familiar with Irish media, that is, the State's national broadcaster. It is amazing that they can pop in ads everywhere. This one comes in just before the weather after the news and Irish people being so preoccupied with the weather, the sponsor  can be guaranteed a very wide audience. The jingle is very simple "Ireland has a new energy" - it is for an electricity provider. It is clever for a number of reason, the most compelling I suppose is a the juxtaposition of 'new energy' with the reality of a county that has taken a bit of a battering of late.

A question came up recently in a parish prayer group; what is the difference between an apostle and a disciple? A disciple follows a teacher, an apostle is sent to proclaim. The Church was built on the foundations of the Twelve, which is continued to this day. The Holy Spirit gives disciples apostolic zeal to go forth and preach the Good News as Jesus as asked us to. On Pentecost the whole Church is invited to open wide to the Holy Spirit to help us make knows to all people the saving message of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is God. We do not celebrate the feast of the Holy Spirit any more than we celebrate the feast of God the Father or God the Son. We celebrate His coming upon the apostles and Our Lady on this day giving the Church its new energy. On this Pentecost Day we earnest ask the Holy Spirit to enkindle within us the fire of his love. 

A few weeks ago we celebrated the feast of St Charles Lwanga. I often wondered what made these great saints so special? If i was in the face of martyrdom  would I be as brave as they were? Or even saints who did not suffer death for the faith like Blessed John Paul or St Columba, why did these people make such a great impact on the Church and the world? By themselves they were no different to any other Christian. Their response to faith is what made them great. They were truly anointed by the Holy Spirit who made them strong in the face of their own weakness and the threats of the world. We are not all called to such heroism, but we are all called to the be open to the Spirit and working  with his grace we can do more than we could ever dream possible. 

Come Holy Spirit! Fill our hears, fill the Church! Make everyone one of us burn with the love of God and neighbour, so that people will see in us the seeds of the Kingdom and reality of the presence of Christ in the world, to the glory of God the Father. 

Ascension (Word Communications Day)

(My internet has been on the blink the last few days, sorry for the delay.)

The Ascension of the Lord and the World Day of Communications.


When I was growing up, today’s feast day was on a Thursday; Ascension Thursday. Both it and Corpus Christi were holidays from school and more often than not we would get the Friday of; a joyous event! (the day off more so than the Feast)

Today brings to an end this part of the wonderful journey of Easter. While the liturgical season has another week to go, there is now something different about the celebration. We wait for the Holy Spirit as we witness that Lord goes up with shouts of joy. Just like the men of Galilee, we wait for the Lord to return in the same way he has gone. Jesus has not abandoned us, he has gone to prepare the place for us that he told us he would.

Jesus ascends into Heaven the Acts of the Apostles tells us. It’s the second time in just over 40 days he has been taken away from the disciples. The first time they scatter to hide in Jerusalem for fear, this time they go back to wait for the Holy Spirit to give them all they need for the great commissioning they have received from Jesus.

A colleague of mine in the Diocese had an unusual request a few weeks ago. A man called to the door of the presbytery with a medal of St Christopher. He wanted it blessed and the priest duly obliged. The man told him the reason he had gotten the medal and had come to have it blessed was that he was about to climb Mt Everest, as he was setting out on this huge journey we wanted something to him to remind him of God and keep him safe. The faith displayed by the climber can be tied very much into what we celebrate today.

The Ascension, in itself, is a part of the Mystery of Faith. From the earliest times it was included as part of the profession of the Christian faith. Every Mass is a celebration of what we celebrate today. The preface says “today the Lord Jesus, the King of Glory the conqueror of sin and death, ascended to heaven while the angels sang his praises” The Eucharistic Prayers I, III and IV also make reference to it. Jesus ascended into glory and as he ascends we ascend with him. The fruits of faith in Christ are not just reserved for the end of time, every moment of every life is a opportunity of ascension. Of course only in the hereafter will we experience the true meaning of union with God, but even now we can experience that glory.

The man that climbed Mt Everest had in his pocket, or around his neck a tiny piece of metal with the image of a saint, blessed by a priest. In itself it is insignificant, what it symbolizes is infinitely greater. He believed that God was going to help him as he climbed the highest mountain on earth and when he got there, taking in what must be a spectacular view, no doubt he thanked the Almighty for what he achieved.

Jesus journeys with us as we ascend. As we gather to celebrate the Mass we celebrate the mystery of faith; from where Christ is, he will return to bring us home. As we receive the Eucharist we receive his unfailing presence which guides and brings us to the summits and through the valleys of life. Christ has not left us alone. He has sent us the Holy Spirit and has called us into the family of the Church. Unlike Good Friday this time we can return to Jerusalem joyful knowing that Jesus has not abandoned us and will keep us close if we but let him.

All peoples clap your hands
cry to God with shouts of joy!
For the Lord, the Most High, we must fear,
great king over all Gods.


God goes up with shouts of joy.
The Lords ascends with trumpet blast
Sing praise for God sing praise
Sing praise to our king sing praise


God is king of all the earth
Sing praise with all you skill.
God is king over the nations
God reigns on his holy throne.