Displaying items by tag: Celebrating At Home
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)
Celebrating At Home - Third Sunday of Easter
Strangers share a journey, hearts begin to burn
and they recognized him
(Lk 24:13-35)
Luke’s wonderful story of the two disciples on the way to Emmaus is another story of transformation through personal encounter with the risen Jesus.
It is a heart-warming story and we can easily identify with the two disciples feeling crushed by the weight of their shattered dreams. They don’t believe the story of the women that Jesus is alive.
They don’t recognise the stranger when he walks beside them. Perhaps that’s because they are so involved in their own hurt and disappointment, and doesn’t that sometimes happen to us, too?
What does Jesus do? First, he invites them to share with him their story, he lets them talk it out. Then he draws them into the bigger story of his life, death and resurrection by unfolding the scriptures for them. In other words, he gives them a sense of perspective. He puts their story in touch with the bigger story of God’s purpose.
Their hope is being rebuilt and their hearts are beginning ‘to burn’ as Jesus talks. They are beginning to ‘catch fire’ again. When they arrive at Emmaus, Jesus makes as if to go on, but the disciples beg him to stay.
At table Jesus takes the bread, says the traditional Jewish blessing (like Grace Before Meals) and breaks the loaf and the eyes of these faithful, yet blind, disciples are opened to recognise him.
The disciples can scarcely contain themselves and set out immediately to return to Jerusalem, eager to share their story. To travel at night in the ancient world was to risk robbery and death, but, they just can’t wait.
From being two sad, depressed, down-hearted, grieving men the disciples have been transformed into impatient, enthusiastic heralds of good news through their encounter with Jesus.
It is the same Jesus whom we encounter in our hearts and in the Eucharist.
Maybe we could spend a little time sharing with Jesus our story and listening more deeply to his.
- pdf Celebrating At Home - Third Sunday of Easter [PDF] (6.61 MB)
- default Celebrating At Home - Third Sunday of Easter [ePub] (2.81 MB)
- pdf Celebrando en Familia - Tercer Domingo de Pascua (354 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - Terza Domenica di Pasqua (353 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em familia - Terceiro Domingo da Páscoa (363 KB)
Celebrating At Home - Second Sunday of Easter
A joyful meeting, the Spirit received,
doubts transformed
(John 20:19-31)
The great Easter feast of last Sunday began the Church’s fifty-day celebration of the Resurrection which concludes with the feast of Pentecost in six weeks.
The Gospel of each Sunday is a meditation on Jesus as: the resurrected Christ, made known in the scriptures and the breaking of the bread, the bearer of life in all its fullness, our way, truth and life, pledge of God’s love.
In today’s Gospel reading there are two stories of transformation through encounter with the risen Jesus.
Firstly, Jesus appears to a group of frightened and bewildered disciples hiding in a room. His first words are, ‘Peace be with you’. Fear and bewilderment turn into joy as the disciples recognise the presence of the Risen Jesus with them. But that’s not all. He then sends them out to be missionaries of peace and forgiveness.
In receiving the Holy Spirit they are transformed from a group of frightened people, hiding in a room, to bold proclaimers of God’s love and mercy.
The second story in today’s Gospel is the one we all know as doubting Thomas, though, really, it should be known as believing Thomas - doubt is only the beginning of the story.
Jesus doesn’t scold or rebuke Thomas. If Thomas is looking for proof, he has only to touch Jesus to see he is real. But Thomas doesn’t do that. It is his personal encounter with Jesus which transforms him from doubter to believer.
It is yet another Gospel reminder that faith is not about believing with our minds or in looking for proof.
It is found only in our living relationship with Jesus.
Perhaps these days give us a bit more time just to sit and chat with Jesus, to recognise him already present in our hearts, to allow our fears and doubts to be overcome by love, to find new, creative ways of transforming darkness into light, peace and joy for others.
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 - Second Sunday of Easter [PDF] (5.86 MB)
- default Celebrating At Home - Second Sunday of Easter [ePub] (2.25 MB)
- pdf Celebrando en Familia - Segundo Domingo de Pascua (281 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - Seconda Domenica di Pasqua (281 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em familia - Segundo Domingo da Páscoa (286 KB)
Celebrating At Home - Easter Sunday of the Resurrection
An empty tomb, lives changed for ever,
enduring presence
(John 20:1-9)
When someone dies, one of the things we often feel is their absence. The rooms where they lived with us, the places where they sat are now empty and our hearts ache.
Its not hard for us to share Mary’s sense of emptiness and bewilderment when she arrives at the tomb.
If we were to read the next few verses from John’s Gospel, we would read a story of overwhelming joy as Mary Magdalen meets the risen Jesus. When Jesus speaks her name, Mary recognises him and sadness and emptiness give way to joyful reunion.
It’s a story of transformation - how things can change when we meet the risen Jesus.
In a way, we are all caught in tombs which hold loved ones, our experiences of hurt and harm, our fears and anxieties, especially now.
What we seem to need above all at this time is presence. Yet, this is the time when we experience absence most of all - being apart from loved ones, family and friends.
The practice of the presence of God can help us - just frequently reminding ourselves that we always in the presence of God, that we can talk to God as one friend to another, that God is in this moment with us, that God is on our side no matter what comes our way, that God is our constant companion.
Eventually, we will begin to feel more deeply God’s presence, not just beside us, but within us. Eventually, the fears and anxieties, the past hurts, and disrupted relationships begin to melt away.
Where once there was only absence, now there is calm, loving, healing Presence and we know we are not alone. Our tombs begin to empty and joy becomes possible again.
Resurrection is all about death giving way to life, the impossible becoming possible, absence becoming presence.
May all your tombs be empty!
- pdf Celebrating At Home - Easter Sunday of the Resurrection [PDF] (6.00 MB)
- default Celebrating At Home - Easter Sunday of the Resurrection [ePub] (3.34 MB)
- pdf Celebrando en Familia - El Domingo de Pascua (310 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - La Pasqua (305 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em familia - Domingo de Páscoa (304 KB)
