Displaying items by tag: Celebrating At Home
Celebrating At Home - 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time
True discipleship
(Matthew 10:37-42)
Today’s Gospel is the final in this section of Matthew’s Gospel about the spread of the Kingdom and the role of the disciples.
Matthew often uses events as a beginning point for Jesus’ sermons. The section we have been listening to began with the call of Matthew and was followed by the instructions given to the disciples before setting out on mission. We heard part of that last Sunday.
So far in this sermon we have heard Jesus teach that the truly virtuous are those who exercise mercy; disciples are to proclaim the Kingdom of God with works of compassion and mercy; they are not to let fear compromise the message, but are to trust always in God.
Today’s Gospel passage highlights both the cost and rewards of true discipleship. The disciples’ relationship with Jesus must be the centre of their lives and the context for all other relationships.
Hospitality and welcome are concrete expressions of discipleship because the disciple is one who witnesses to the compassion and mercy of God with open hearts and concrete good actions.
Even though the first paragraph of today’s Gospel sounds like an exclusive choice must be made between Jesus and family, the idea behind the text is more that: in our relationship with Jesus, all other relationships fall into their proper context.
Without being in right relationship with Jesus we can’t learn how to be in right relationship with others. It is our relationship with Jesus which brings depth and richness to all our other relationships. So, for example, our family relationships become more thanjust fulfilling a social custom. They become true relationships filled with love, mercy, forgiveness and respect.
The Pharisees and Scribes seldom made good disciples because they thought that religion was about doing religious things. They went to the synagogue, kept the Law, fasted, and so on, but their hearts were never changed by their religious observance. They were self-righteous, despised the poor and the ‘sinners’, and acted without justice or mercy.
The truth about our conversion to Jesus (our becoming Jesus) is not so much seen in easily identifiably ‘religious’ things but in concrete good actions and right relationships.
Our religious observance is meant to support and nourish our relationship with Jesus. It is not a substitute for it. That relationship has the power to change and transform us so that we can bear witness to Christ through lives of mercy, compassion, justice and integrity.
- pdf Celebrating At Home - 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time [PDF] (3.12 MB)
- default Celebrating At Home - 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time [ePub] (4.27 MB)
- pdf Celebrando en Familia - 13 Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario (460 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - 13 Domenica del Tempo Ordinario (461 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em familia - 13 Domingo do Tempo Comum (462 KB)
Celebrating At Home - 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Be the living Gospel
(Matthew 10:26-33)
The first reading from the Old Testament book of the prophet Jeremiah reflects Jeremiah’s experience of rejection - no one wants to hear the message God has called him to give. In fact, they want to kill him.
Jeremiah sounds desperate and afraid. But then the reading turns into a prayer of confidence and trust in God’s companionship and spiritual protection - God and Jeremiah will win out.
Preaching in the name of God is a risky and frightening business, as Jesus knows. So he urges the disciples not to be afraid of small beginnings, of those who can kill only the body, or that God would abandon them. He reminds them that God is always mindful of them and accompanies them on their mission. He urges them to be brave and bold in proclaiming the truth about God and in confessing their belief in Jesus before others.
Matthew’s audience, like Jesus, Jeremiah and the disciples, knew all about persecution and rejection.
Their question is also ours: if we allow fear to silence us how will the Good News of Jesus Christ ever be heard in the world? If we don’t speak, who will? If we don’t act, who will?
It is not really a matter of talking at people and quoting at length from the Bible. As St Francis of Assisi said, ‘Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary use words’.
- pdf Celebrating At Home - 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time [PDF] (3.16 MB)
- default Celebrating At Home - 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time [ePub] (4.86 MB)
- pdf Celebrando en Familia - 12 Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario (484 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - 12 Domenica del Tempo Ordinario (591 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em familia - 12 Domingo do Tempo Comum (591 KB)
Celebrating At Home - 11th Sunday In Ordinary Time
Growing disciples
(Matthew 9:36-10:8)
To these twelve Jesus entrusts the mission of proclaiming that the kingdom of God is close at hand.
This is not an ‘end of the world’ prediction. We could better translate it as: the kingdom of God is very close to you. To a people who had constantly been told that God despised them, that they were sinners and very far from the kingdom of God, this was good news indeed.
Jesus gives the disciples the authority to accompany the proclamation of the Good News with the healing of ‘all kinds of diseases and sickness’ to break the idea that illness (in whatever form) was a curse sent by God or punishment for sinfulness. Instead, the disciples are to be a sign of God’s kindness which brings health and wholeness. The proclamation of the Good News is always to be done generously and without counting the cost.
Through the words of the Gospel may we hear again our own call to be emissaries of God’s love and bearers of Good News. May we allow the kindness and compassion of God to touch one another through us.
- pdf Celebrating At Home - 11th Sunday In Ordinary Time [PDF] (3.07 MB)
- default Celebrating At Home - 11th Sunday In Ordinary Time [ePub] (4.49 MB)
- pdf Celebrando en Familia - XI Domingo del Tiempo ordinario (472 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - XI Domenica del Tempo Ordinario (470 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em familia - 11 Domingo do Tempo Comum (473 KB)
Celebrating At Home - Body and Blood of Christ
The real presence of Jesus in us
(John 6:51-58)
- pdf Celebrating At Home - Body and Blood of Christ [PDF] (2.84 MB)
- default Celebrating At Home - Body and Blood of Christ [ePub] (2.73 MB)
- pdf Celebrando en Familia - El Santísimo Cuerpo y Sangre de Cristo (279 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - Santissimo Corpo e Sangue di Cristo (282 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em familia - O Santíssimo Corpo e Sangue de Cristo (290 KB)
Celebrating At Home - The Most Holy Trinity
God enfleshed in us
(John 3:16-18)
A quick look at the readings for today shows very clearly that the Feast of the Trinity is a celebration of God's love for humankind. It is a day for reflecting on who God is, not for trying to figure out how there can be three persons in one God.
The Church’s focus today is on experience, not theology.
In intellectual terms, God remains a mystery. For people of faith, God is known not by the mind, but by the heart. That is what spirituality and mysticism are about - exploring our experience of God.
In the first reading God is proclaimed as a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger and rich in mercy; a God who walks with his people.
Paul’s words in the second reading are born out of his belief that, having been made in the image and likeness of God, Christians must always act in the image and likeness of God.
Through our public liturgy, private prayer and contemplation we come to experience - to ‘know’ and feel in our hearts - that God loves us, accepts us, forgives us and constantly invites us into an ever deeper experience of love.
When we allow God’s heart to speak to ours in love we begin to absorb more of God’s life into our own.
We are being transformed. Our values and attitudes, our ways of looking at and being in the world start to change. We begin to see with God’s eyes and feel with God’s heart.
We become passionate about the things God is passionate about: speaking truthfully, acting with justice and integrity, looking out for each other and especially for the vulnerable, promoting peace and understanding, ending competition and discrimination, respecting life.
That makes us better people and our lives become a blessing for each other and for the world.
That is what it means to live out of God’s great gift to us, the Spirit of Jesus Christ which God has placed in our hearts. God becomes enfleshed in us and we become stewards of God’s grace and life.
- pdf Celebrating At Home - The Most Holy Trinity [PDF] (5.53 MB)
- default Celebrating At Home - The Most Holy Trinity [ePub] (2.81 MB)
- pdf Celebrando en Familia - Domingo de la Santísima Trinidad (486 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - Santissima Trinità (484 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em familia - O Domingo da Santíssima Trindade (579 KB)
Celebrating At Home - Pentecost Sunday
Sent to be God’s love in the world
(John 20:19-23)
At Pentecost we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit to the first group of Christian believers - the disciples.
This gift of the Holy Spirit is the culmination of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
It would be wrong to think that this gift happened only once, in one moment of history. In fact, the gifting of the Holy Spirit is a continuing event in the life of every believing person and, therefore, in every age of human history. The Holy Spirit is the presence of God with us - the enduring way in which Jesus remains present in the Church and in the life of each person.
Today we do not pray to receive the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Holy Spirit in us has been affirmed and proclaimed in the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation. Instead, we pray to grow more aware of the Spirit’s presence in our lives and to allow that Spirit to grow within us, gradually re-shaping our minds and hearts in the image of Jesus.
Pentecost brings to a close the fifty days of the Church’s Easter celebrations. Soon we will begin Ordinary Time again. So, our feast today helps us understand that we take the Holy Spirit with us into the ordinary events and tasks of each day. That is how we allow the sacred to touch, heal and transform us and the world around us.
The spiritual search is for the heart of God within our own. When we enter into relationship with Christ through the Spirit, the gifts begin to flow more abundantly. The Spirit is the source of reconciliation with ourselves and with each other. Reconciliation is essential if we are to ‘hold and guard’ each other in the midst of all that life throws at us, especially at the moment.
The Spirit brings gifts of wisdom, courage, understanding, right judgement, knowledge, reverence, wonder and awe in God’s presence. May we be graced by them all as we discern and decide how we can best work together to build up each other and to let God’s love be seen at work in each of us.
Celebrating At Home - The Ascension of the Lord
Called, chosen & sent
to be God’s heart in the world
(Matthew 28:16-20)
The feast of the Ascension commemorates the return of Jesus to the Father. Jesus leaves in body but remains with us through the gift of the Spirit. We will celebrate the gift and presence of the Holy Spirit in next Sunday’s feast of Pentecost.
The true meaning of our feast today is not found in Jesus’ leaving, but in the way he calls his disciples back together, to re-form them as a new community entrusted with the spread of the Gospel. Jesus sends the disciples out to make disciples of all nations, to baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and to teach them his way. But the disciples are not left to do all that on their own.
Jesus promises that he is with them always.
Jesus has called the ragged, group of disciples, scattered after his crucifixion, back to himself to form them, fragile and doubtful as they are, into a community for mission in the name of God. It is comforting to recognise that Jesus doesn’t insist on perfection before he calls us and entrusts us with his mission.
This mission is authorised by God and passed on to us through Jesus. It is not about authority over others. It is actually a call to act as God would act, true to God’s heart as Jesus has taught us.
Ever since Easter, we have been proclaiming that Jesus is alive. The feasts of the Ascension and Pentecost help us to realise that we are part of a long tradition of faithful disciples. We have our faults and failings, but our call is to witness to and teach the way of Jesus by the kind of people we are, the values and attitudes we hold, in thought, word and action - to be the living presence of God in the world today.
- pdf Celebrating At Home - The Ascension of the Lord [PDF] (6.12 MB)
- default Celebrating At Home - The Ascension of the Lord [ePub] (2.97 MB)
- pdf Celebrando en Familia - Domingo de la Ascensión (349 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - L'Ascensione del Signore (354 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em familia - Domingo da Ascensão (586 KB)
Celebrating At Home - Sixth Sunday of Easter
Promise of the Spirit, Love among us,
Love within us
(John 14:15-21)
As we approach the coming feasts of the Ascension and Pentecost, the Gospel today focuses on the Holy Spirit.
Jesus returns to the Father in the Ascension, but remains with his disciples through the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This Holy Spirit keeps us in a communion of love with Jesus, with the Father and with one another.
The commandments of Jesus are always about love - love of God and love of neighbour. Those who live by these commandments of Jesus abide with him, others and the Father in love.
Along with the call to love comes a gift to help us, to accompany us on our journey, lending knowledge, courage and a deep experience of God’s life and love.
Jesus is the reign of God in person. He is both the image of God and the model of the redeemed human being that each of us is called to be.
The Gospel makes a number of important points: the basis of our relationship with Jesus is love; Jesus’ return to the Father does not leave us orphans because his spirit, the Spirit of truth, the Advocate, will be with us always; Jesus will, one day, return.
The whole Gospel reading today is like a love poem.
God’s love for us, shown clearly in the life of Jesus, draws us into love with him and one another and allows us to share God’s life both now and for ever.
May the new life we celebrate over the next fifty days bring us the creativity of Spirit we need to be the living heart of God in our world today.
- pdf Celebrating At Home - Sixth Sunday of Easter [PDF] (5.68 MB)
- default Celebrating At Home - Sixth Sunday of Easter [ePub] (4.33 MB)
- pdf Celebrando en Familia - Sexto Domingo de Pascua (402 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - Sesta Domenica di Pasqua (401 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em familia - Sexto Domingo da Páscoa (404 KB)
Celebrating At Home - Fifth Sunday of Easter
Jesus, our Way, Truth and Life
(Jn 14:1-12)
In the opening words of the Gospel Jesus calls the disciples to trust him and to trust God. He does so in the context of announcing his departure to them.
Understandably, the disciples are afraid and uncertain which the questions of Thomas and Philip show.
Jesus calls them to trust him as the way to the God, the living truth about the God and the very life of God.
In a sense, Jesus is our map, our road and the destination of our journey. But arriving at the destination is not something which only happens in heaven. We are meant to start arriving now through the gift of the Spirit.
It is the spirit of Jesus who holds us in communion with God, who reveals to us the truth about God and who is the very life of God within each of us. Jesus is the reign of God in person and that is what we are called to be, too.
We want to live true to the vocation God has given us, aware of the Spirit which has been placed into our hearts, allowing that Spirit to change us into true believers so that the face of God might be seen within our own.
- pdf Celebrating At Home - Fifth Sunday of Easter [PDF] (5.93 MB)
- default Celebrating At Home - Fifth Sunday of Easter [ePub] (4.69 MB)
- pdf Celebrando en Familia - Quinto Domingo de Pascua (431 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - Quinta Domenica di Pasqua (423 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em familia - Quinto Domingo da Páscoa (415 KB)
Celebrating At Home - Fourth Sunday of Easter
The Good Shepherd calls his own by name,
and they recognise his voice
(John 10:1-10)
The Fourth Sunday of Easter is often called “Good Shepherd Sunday” because no matter what reading cycle we are in, the Gospel always focusses on the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd.
This year, the Gospel reading talks about Jesus as the ‘gate of the sheepfold’, that is, Jesus is the one through whom we truly enter into the fold of God. The reading implies that those who get into the sheepfold some other way bring only disaster and destruction. Those who enter the fold through Christ, the Good Shepherd, will be safe, will be led to good pasture and have life in all its fullness.
Jesus acts towards us like a good shepherd: feeding, nurturing, defending and even laying down his life for us. Our Good Shepherd is deeply concerned about us, the flock and there is a deep sense of warmth and intimacy in the realisation that Jesus knows each one of us by name. Like a good shepherd Jesus is the source of life, nourishment, and safety for the sheep.
Any reflection about Jesus as the Good Shepherd also serves as a reminder that shepherding each other in Jesus’ name is part of the vocation of every disciple.
We are very used to thinking about Jesus as the Good Shepherd, but we also need to think about being/ becoming good shepherds to each other.
One of the very encouraging things about the pandemic was the number of people who became good shepherds to others, providing safety and security to vulnerable people, supporting health workers, providing meals and companionship. Yes, there were the ‘thieves and brigands’ too who preyed on others by hiking prices, selling goods which were never delivered and various other online scams.
But, like Jesus, we are called to bring life in all its fullness to one another.
- pdf Celebrating At Home - Fourth Sunday of Easter [PDF] (5.38 MB)
- default Celebrating At Home - Fourth Sunday of Easter [ePub] (2.63 MB)
- pdf Celebrando en Familia - Cuarto Domingo de Pascua (327 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - Quarta Domenica di Pasqua (344 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em familia - Quarto Domingo da Páscoa (324 KB)
