12 September 2012

Coffee Cup Browsing

And our descent into the Abyss continues. . .can't say we weren't warned!

Coming to the U.S.: your job or your faith.  Your choice.

An alternative remedy to curing dissident clergy/religious:  sue them for fiduciary malpractice.

ObamaCare described in one (long) sentence.

Rare photo of one of my fav poets, Emily Dickinson.  NB.  Ignore the intentionally provocative headline.  It's a product of 90's feminists inventing history to push an agenda.

This looks oddly familiar. . .didn't something like this happen when Jimmy was Prez?

Russian female choir sings "By the Waters of Babylon" (Ps 137). . .Beautiful!

Religion is an inherently public practice.
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11 September 2012

Novena for Religous Liberty

Fr. Frederick L. Miller, Professor of Systematic Theology at Mount St. Mary Seminary in MD has written and published. . .


The novena addresses our Blessed Mother and begs her to intervene with her Son for the protection of our God-given religious liberties.

You can download the novena in pamphlet form and print it out.

By Sept 29th (the first day of the novena) I hope I will no longer be this awful Envy-Green color!
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On not forgetting that we have an Enemy



A 9/11 note from Instapundit:

And here’s a passage from Lee Harris’s Civilization And Its Enemies.

Forgetfulness occurs when those who have been long inured to civilized order can no longer remember a time in which they had to wonder whether their crops would grow to maturity without being stolen or their children sold into slavery by a victorious foe …
They forget that in time of danger, in the face of the Enemy, they must trust and confide in each other, or perish.

They forget, in short, that there has ever been a category of human experience called the Enemy. And that, before 9/11, was what had happened to us. The very concept of the Enemy had been banished from our moral and political vocabulary. An enemy was just a friend we hadn’t done enough for — yet. Or perhaps there had been a misunderstanding, or an oversight on our part — something that we could correct. And this means that that our first task is that we must try to grasp what the concept of the Enemy really means.

The Enemy is someone who is willing to die in order to kill you. And while it is true that the Enemy always hates us for a reason — it is his reason, and not ours.

I would add:  When a society loses the ability to remember its past--discards its grounding in history--and lives its God-given freedom as an entitlement, that society has put a loaded gun to its head.  The 9/11 terrorists pulled the trigger. And we're still cleaning up the mess.
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Interpreting the Bible



In our Intro to the Old Testament class this morning, we'll be reading and discussing the 1994 document of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, "The Interpretation of the Bible."

This means I get to use my favorite $15 theological word, hermeneutics.

Ya know, it's the small things in life. . .
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10 September 2012

Love is always a public act

23rd Week OT (M)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Our English translation of this gospel really doesn't capture an important element of the event it describes. What at first reads like a standard “Jesus vs. the Pharisees in the synagogue” story is actually much more complex. This complexity is brushed over by the way the translators chose to translate the manner in which the Pharisees observe Jesus and the man with the withered hand interacting. Our version reads, “the Pharisees watched him closely.” Older versions do a better job: they were “spying.” To describe their behavior as “spying” helps us to understand the question Jesus asks of them, “. . .is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” Jesus will do good on the Sabbath by healing the man's hand; while the Pharisees do evil on the Sabbath by spying and plotting evil. Jesus will save the man's life; while the Pharisees conspire to take Jesus' life. The more fundamental contrast here btw Jesus and his enemies is the contrast btw secrecy and publicity. When following the first commandment of love, Jesus holds himself (and us) to a higher standard of public behavior. Loving or failing to love are always public events. 

The basic theological difference btw Jesus and the Pharisees comes down to how they answer the question: how do we become righteous?; that is, by what means do we enter into a right relationship with God? The Pharisees teach that entering into a right relationship with God requires that we studiously observe the Law. Jesus doesn't disagree. But he does teach that “observing the Law” requires much more than simply “following the rules.” In order to observe the Law faithfully, we must go underneath the Law, seek out what motivates its rule and regulations, and align ourselves with the living spirit of the Law. What's the one commandment that grounds all the others? The originating rule that motivates all the rules? Love God, self, and neighbor first; then, all the other commandments may be properly observed and righteousness obtained. In fact, love first and then observing all the other commandments comes naturally! And note: there is no way to follow the first commandment of love secretly or privately. Loving God, self, and neighbor is always public, always a public testimony to one's righteousness. 

If following the first commandment of love always entails public acts that witness to your right relationship with God, then your public behavior must be worthy of the one who died to make that relationship possible. Paul writes to the Corinthians about a man in their church who's taken up with his father's wife. It's not clear if this woman is the man's mother or step-mother; regardless, it's an incestuous relationship—a sin that even the pagans of the day condemned. Paul urges the church to toss this guy out so that he might repent and be saved. By tossing him out of the church, the church will also prevent his sin from corrupting the whole body. This is a medicinal move, a cure meant to spare the man and the church from eternal death. The man's public behavior does not give testimony to his right relationship with God; in fact, it does just the opposite: it bears witness to the fact that he is not aligned with Love and threatens—by example—to leaven the church with “malice and wickedness.” Keeping his sin private might stall public scandal, but an injury to a part of the Body is an injury to whole Body. Heal one part, the whole is healed. 

Jesus publicly violates the Law of the Sabbath in order to obey the Law of Love, thus teaching the Pharisees and us that the rules flow from Love as a means for us to love publicly. Just as the Pharisees fail to love when they plot evil on the Sabbath, so the man in Corinth fails to love by sinning. The cure—for the Pharisees, the man, and for each of us—is repentance, confession, penance, and the healing word of God's mercy. 
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09 September 2012

Jesuits Bully Archbishop (not exactly!)

Way back in the late 80's I discovered that I'm dyslexic.  By this time, I'd earned a B.A. in philosophy and history and a M.A. in English.  Apparently, I'd found ways to cope.

In case you're wondering what dyslexia looks like to the dyslexic, here' an example. . .

I saw this headline on a Catholic news aggregate site:

"Jesuit university to buy Philly archbishop's residence"

My response, "How does a Jesuit university bully an archbishop's residence?!"

So, then my overactive imagination takes over and I start running scenarios through my head where a black-cassocked university building shoves a purple-surpliced mansion into his locker and gives him a wedgie.

Yea.  That's how my brain "works."  Go figure.
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08 September 2012

Stand Strong & Do Not Fear!

23rd Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Audio File

Hear God's promise. If your heart is weary and your mind confused: Stand strong; do not be afraid! Here is your God! The Lord, He comes to our defense. With justice, with divine restitution, He comes to heal all our afflictions, rescue us from all our foes. Then, will the eyes of the blind see and the ears of the deaf hear. Then, will the beaten and bruised find shelter and the hungry recline to feast. Then, will the tongue of the mute sing and the innocent find protection. Rivers will freely flow in the wastelands, and springs will water the deserts. Thus says the Lord to His prophet, Isaiah. And thus, do we—the adopted children of God the Father; brothers and sisters in His Son; and heirs to the Kingdom through His Holy Spirit—lay claim to this promise and bear faithful witness: the Lord God fulfills His promises and has done so in Christ Jesus. Our ears are open and our tongues set free. We see clearly and speak the truth. Nothing and no one frightens us. As the one body of Christ—living in the world but not of it—we are servants of God and stewards of His mysteries. So, if your heart is weary and your mind confused: Stand strong and do not be afraid! 

We need to this reminder of God's promise of salvation b/c underneath Isaiah's prophesy of renewal is a potentially crippling reality: fear and confusion—if left to fester—will deafen us to the Lord's word and still our tongues in speaking His truth. That Isaiah is given this prophecy is evidence enough that God's people are edging toward spiritual deafness and silence. And it's fear that's pushing them. Amidst every human failure and flaw we can list—war, famine, poverty, political and religious oppression—right in the center of every disaster writhes the dark spirit of fear. Fear drains away hope and attacks faith; it lifts up disorder and discord as the exclusive and inevitable finish-line for being alive. What does the spirit of fear want us to believe about ourselves and our world? To thrive in the hearts and minds of God's creatures, fear must convince us that we are wholly subject to the random workings of a universe w/o purpose; that we are nothing more than the most highly evolved animals currently occupying a delicate fly-speck planet in a fly-speck galaxy; that even as we live and move among six billion other highly evolved animals, we are, in the end, completely alone. And more than all of these combined, fear must convince us that in our aloneness, we are nothing. 

We need Isaiah's reminder of God's promise of salvation b/c fear does its best work when we surrender to the lie that we are nothing. Our philosophers and theologians have given this lie a name, Nihilism. Nihil is the spirit of nothingness, a devil that can possess a single soul, a family, a nation; and it drives one and all to embrace existence w/o meaning or purpose. French novelist and philosopher, Albert Camus, asks the ultimate nihilist question, “Why not commit suicide?” If you are a random genetic accident, an animal who just happens to think, and your life is nothing more than pain and suffering, why not skip to the inevitable end and kill yourself? Nihil speaks the language of despair fluently and sometimes persuasively. In fact, if you close your ears to God's word and refuse to speak His truth, you begin the process of learning Nihil's preferred way of speaking, phrases like “product of conception,” “termination of pregnancy,” “painless expiration,” “acceptable collateral damage,” and “capital justice.”* When you become comfortable using Nihil's voice, you have been emptied of hope, and bereft of faith. Love—God's own life-giving presence in each of us and among us—is abandoned. And what do we get in exchange? Not hate. Not anger. We get Fear. 

He couldn't hear, couldn't speak. Jesus takes him away from the crowd and ministers to his closed ears and his locked up tongue. “Be opened!” And the man hears and speaks, and the crowd is exceedingly astonished. Jesus orders them to keep quiet about the miracle, but the more he insists on their silence, the more they witness to his power, “He has done all things well.” They could not be silent about this miracle of hope. They would not be silent about the awesome power of a loving God. Nor can we. Our silence now is a vanity, a luxury. We cannot afford to pretend that we do not hear God's promise to Isaiah, “Here is your God, He comes with vindication!” We cannot afford the social privileges and cultural power that our collective silence buys us. We cannot hide behind modesty, “tolerance,” or the dubious benefits of accommodation. Jesus frees the poor man's ears so that he might hear. And he frees his tongue so that he might speak. Whether or not he will listen and speak, whether or not he will put these gifts to work for the sake of Christ is his choice. Nihil is at work on him already, encouraging the man's disobedience and silence. And he is constantly at work on us as well. 

Thus, we hear Isaiah prophesy, “Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you.” And we hear Jesus say to the man who cannot hear or speak, “Be opened!” And we hear the Psalmist sing, “Praise the Lord, my soul!/The God of Jacob keeps faith forever; He secures justice for the oppressed. . .” We heard and we hear. But do we listen, and do we speak? Through all the white noise and violence at us thrown by Nihil and his servant, Fear, do we listen and do we speak? If our hearts are frightened and our minds confused, then listening is not only difficult but probably impossible. If we do not listen to God's word, how can we speak His word? And if we are unwilling to speak, to give witness to His power in our own lives, how will anyone else hear Him speak? God says to us, “Be strong and do not fear!” It's not our own strength that we rely upon. It's not our own words that move hearts and minds toward Him. In that moment of crisis—physical or spiritual—that instant of emergency, it is the Holy Spirit who stands us up and gives us the words we need to speak. This is why there is nothing and no one for us to fear. 

So, how do we conquer fear and clear our minds? A good start to answering this question is to remember God's promise and keep our eyes squarely focused on where we are headed. Of course, we must pay attention to where we are at the moment, but everything we say and do in the moment is given its meaning, its purpose by our final destination. Nihil would have us believe that our end is nothingness. Fear pushes us to panic and passion. As the world around us swirls the bowl, we swirl along with it: we're in it but not of it. With our hearts and minds wholly owned and operated by the Holy Spirit, we believe—we know—that nothingness is not our end. Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled in the coming of the Christ. And we are his brothers and sisters. Not random collections of thinking genetic material. Not cosmic accidents just eating and breathing 'til we drop dead. But children of a loving God who promises a restoration, a renewal in His mercy. That's the Good News that we must share and share often. Therefore, stand strong and do not be afraid!

* A very attentive parishioner brought to my attention that this sentence appears to draw a moral equivalence btw abortion and capital punishment.  I disagree.  The plain language of the sentence indicates that I am talking about how nihilism encourages us to use sterile, medical, or high-minded terms for what is basically killing.  There is no mention of the relative moral status of the related acts described.  My point is that nihilists' want us to use language that strips killing of all teleological sense.   Besides, there is no moral equivalence btw abortion and capital punishment.
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07 September 2012

Stewards & Fools

22nd Week OT (F): Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Paul has spent this week surprising us with his take on the difference btw being “wise in the world” and “foolish for God.” Just yesterday he told us, “If anyone among you considers himself wise in this age, let him become a fool, so as to become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God.” For the followers of Christ, salvation depends on becoming increasingly foolish—as the world sees it. And looking around the internet and cable news, it's clear that the world sees us as Big Fools Only Getting Bigger. From their perspective—atheist, materialist, secular, nihilistic—it's easy to see why Christians in the 21st century would look foolish. We believe all sorts of bizarre things: the existence of angels, saints, miracles, God; the efficacy of sacraments; the intelligibility of truth; objective moral standards; the natural law. Just weird stuff like that. This is why Paul's description of Christ's 1st century followers in Corinth should ring particularly true for us today: “Brothers and sisters: we should be regarded as the servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” 

We know what it means to be “servants of Christ.” Serving Christ means serving the least among his people, both the materially poor and the spiritually poor. As we have already heard this week: proclaiming the Gospel is doing the Gospel. Word and deed, faith and works. Done for the greater glory of God, there is no difference btw the two. But what does it mean for us to be “stewards of God's mysteries”? In Paul's day, stewards were usually slaves, educated slaves who managed the household of his owner. He was in charge of the other slaves; responsible for shopping, accounts, payroll. In the absence of the owner, the steward was the de facto Head of Household. When Jesus gives the keys to the kingdom of heaven to Peter, he is making Peter his steward, his vicar. Peter and his successors become the ones who manage, administer Christ's Church on earth until he returns. More than anything else in the Church, Christ's steward “manages” the mysteries that bring us closer to God, the sacraments. But what does it mean for you to be a steward of the mysteries? This is where we become better fools for God. 

While the Church has her ordained ministers to manage the sacraments, what mysteries do her lay members manage? The first and greatest mystery that needs careful lay management is one's faith. Faith is the good habit of trusting in God's providence, His loving-care. For a habit to remain a habit, it must be exercised, worked-out—vigorously. This means setting aside, willfully pushing aside, all anxiety about the future. It means setting free the obsessive need to control people and events, to make sure that you get your way. It also means believing w/o empirical evidence, or persuasive argument. Faith never utters the phrases, “Show me” or “Prove it” when it comes to the will of God. In this world, faith is pure foolishness, the greatest foolishness. We are an evidence-based, outcomes-driven culture that demands empirical, verifiable, repeatable results. Faith sees and hears the world with the mind of Christ. The world's wisdom teaches us that we are nothing but our bodies. Faith teaches us—through the dual lenses of enduring hope and sacrificial love—that we are made perfect (body and soul) in Christ. The world fears its limits, loathes its finitude, and works tirelessly to gather to itself any and everything it can to stall annihilation. Faith knows that nothing gathered here will last, nothing won here will bring final victory. As the wise of the world wail against our foolishness, remember: we are stewards of the mysteries of God, His faithful servants, His hard-headed slaves.
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Coffee Cup Browsing (en breve)

Dem convention officials refuse non-political gift baskets from local churches.  These people really just don't get it do they?

Court Prophetess tells the screaming pro-abort mob exactly what it wants to hear. 

"All chair, no substance." Something Really Important and Unprecedented was suppose to happen last night.  [crickets]

Is the Church 200 yrs "out of date"?  Probably.  But the Gospel is eternal and therefore dateless!

When you've tried everything else. . .pray.  (Hint:  you probably shouldn't pray for a schism though).

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06 September 2012

Go Out into the Deep! (Homily audio file)








Homily for 22nd Week OT (Wed):  Go Out in the Deep!












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05 September 2012

Scary: We are co-workers with God. . .

22nd Week OT (W)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Paul writes to the Corinthians, revealing to them one of the scariest truths I've ever heard, “. . .we are God's co-workers; [. . .] God's building. . . .” Upon being reminded of this scary truth, my first thought is, “No, no. I'm one of His more difficult building projects. Over budget, behind schedule, and poorly maintained.” But then it dawns on me that God will not build me w/o me; He will not remove my freedom to participate willingly in my own construction. When and where I fail, I fail to work with God's divine blueprint. How do I get back on schedule, on budget, and well-maintained? Jesus cures Simon's mother-in-law. Others with various illnesses came to him and “he laid his hands on each of them and cured them.” So impressed were the crowds that “they tried to prevent him from leaving them.” But Jesus was sent for another reason. He says to them, "To the other towns also I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God. . .” When did he proclaim the Good News in this town? He didn't preach or teach. There were no reported debates. So, how exactly did he proclaim the Good News? “He laid his hands on each of them and cured them.” 

If you too are over budget, behind schedule, and poorly maintained as a building project of the Lord, let me suggest a possible reason for your decrepitude: you have made too much of the difference btw “proclaiming the Good News” and “doing the Good News.” I mean, you have either placed Being a Christian over Working as Christian or Working as a Christian over Being a Christian. Simply being as a Christian is well and good. But where are your works? What legacy of charitable action do you leave behind? How much real, living hope have you sown? Simply working as a Christian is well and good also. But where do you place your trust? Why are you working so hard for the poor, the oppressed, the sick? Are you more than a religiousy social worker? In our gospel this evening, Jesus shows us that proclaiming the Good News is doing the Good News. Not simply saying stuff about the gospel but actually working in mercy, charity, and hope. And none of this is possible if we do not acknowledge and celebrate the Christ as our Lord, One to Whom we are obedient. The foundational motivation for all gospel labor must be to give glory to God so that His mercy to sinners may be made evident, plain as day. Every act of gospel labor is precisely an act of gospel labor b/c it is done for the sake for Christ. 

If you are a faithful soul, a thoroughly convicted believer in the Gospel and you are still struggling with persistent sin, dry in prayer, consider this: you aren't working with God to build a better you. If you are a zealous defender of the oppressed, a totally committed activist for justice and you still find yourself frustrated, angry, depressed by failure, consider this: you aren't trusting God, not giving Him the glory through Christ. Catholics can rattle off the phrase “word and deed” faster than most of us can blink. But do we hear what we are saying? The revelation of God in Christ Jesus is given to us in and through his words and in and through his deeds.* Not one OR the other. Both. With ears to hear, we listen to his teaching. With eyes to see, we watch his behavior. What does Jesus say? What does Jesus do? Being a follower of Christ and working as a follower of Christ is always, always about the gospel word-deed. An act done with God. With God an act done. More than His projects, we are fellow project managers. We are co-workers with God for His glory. 

* "This plan of revelation is realized by deeds and words having in inner unity: the deeds wrought by God in the history of salvation manifest and confirm the teaching and realities signified by the words, while the words proclaim the deeds and clarify the mystery contained in them. By this revelation then, the deepest truth about God and the salvation of man shines out for our sake in Christ, who is both the mediator and the fullness of all revelation" (Dei verbum 2).
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Coffee Cup Browsing

Taxpayer funded abortion on-demand, same-sex "marriage," and God deleted.  Dems are off to a great start!

Oh, and we belong to the Gov't.  Had no idea.

An atheist schism?  Well, fundamentalists are known for splitting off into factions.

B.O.'s definition of sin.  Wow.  You can't get more Baby Boomer than that.

Just how Pro-Life is Mitt?

Self-anointed "Messiah" dies.   Or did he. . .?  Hmmmmmm. . .

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03 September 2012

A question for my tech-enhanced readers. . .

UPDATE:  Problem solved.  I threatened my laptop with an exorcism and now the little "Sign In" thingie is back where it's supposed to be.  Go figure.  Thanks for the suggestions!


Up until yesterday I could sign into my blogger account from the blog itself.  The little "Sign In" link was on the top right hand side of my browser window.  Now, it's gone.  

Today, I went to my office and clicked on the blog and the little "Sign In" thing was right where it was supposed to be.

So, why does it appear on my office computer but not my laptop?  
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A lifetime acceptable to the Lord

St. Gregory
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Have you ever had an ancient prophecy fulfilled in your hearing? I haven't; at least, I don't think I have. Wouldn't there be thunder or bells or a flashes of light? Some physical wonder to mark the occasion? When Jesus announces that Isaiah's messianic prophecy has been fulfilled in the hearing of those present, there's not much to mark the event. No angels or raging wind or fiery words written across the sky. Jesus reads the prophecy, rolls up the scroll, hands it back to the attendant, and sits down. The others stare at him for a minute or two and then Jesus says, almost casually, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” You almost expect him to ask for a cup of tea. The fireworks don't start until after he is challenged to prove his claim. Those in the synagogue don't want a rational argument or scriptural proof-texting. They want physical evidence. Jesus really riles them up when he reminds them of a time in their people's history when idolatry and the rejection of the prophets gave God reason to send His miracles to the Gentiles. Well, that's too much for these folks. They run Jesus out of town. What he really needed in the synagogue that morning was some showmanship! Or maybe just a crowd ready to hear a prophecy fulfilled. 

 To understand exactly what Jesus laying claim to we need to look at Isaiah's prophecy more closely. So, let's break it down. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me. . .” Here Jesus is saying outright that he is the Anointed One of the Lord. “Messiah” and “Christ” both mean “Anointed One.” He is possessed by the Spirit of the Lord in virtue of having been anointed. Why has he been sent? “. . .to bring glad tidings to the poor.” Who are the poor? In other parts of the Gospels, the poor are the “poor in spirit” and “the humble.” He's certainly talking about the destitute, but the broader category here is “those in spiritual poverty.” Jesus is not announcing the start of a socio-economic revolution. His is a spiritual revolution fought in the flesh. We know this b/c he elaborates, “[The Lord] has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free. . .” All metaphors couched in more or less physical terms, indicating a release from spiritual bondage. We are captives of the Devil; blinded by ignorance, and oppressed by sin. He here's to free God's people from an ancient and obstinate slavery. And not just God's people in first century Nazareth. He was also sent “to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” 

Now, here's where we come in. A “year acceptable to the Lord” means a Jubilee year, a Sabbath year celebrated every 50 yrs during which all debts are canceled and all slaves are freed. Also during this year, all property is returned to its rightful owner or his heirs. Jesus is proclaiming a spiritual Jubilee for those who heard him fulfill Isaiah's prophecy and for all of his Father's children until the Kingdom comes. All slaves to sin are freed. All debts incurred by sin are canceled. And God's property—that's us—is taken from the Devil and returned to its rightful owner. All of this made perfect sense to those in the synagogue. What they didn't believe was that Isaiah's prophecy had actually been fulfilled by Jesus of Nazareth. Having failed to see and hear who was with them, they ran him out of town and tried to kill him. Is this what we do when confronted by the hard work of the Gospel? Rather than throw our trust to the Lord, we question, doubt, find excuses, and waffle. If so, this is a sure sign that we have not embraced the Lord's Jubilee gift.
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Mass in the Dominican Rite

There will be a Missa Cantata in the Dominican rite on Thursday Sept. 27, 2012 at 7:15PM in the Main Chapel of the Dominican House of Studies.

For more information on our provincial website click here.

Some of our student friars will also be undergoing training in the Dominican rite during these days.  It has been many years since this Mass has been celebrated in our main chapel. Though the Dominican Rite has been celebrated here as early as last year.  
                                     
This Mass directly precedes our September 28-30, 2012 vocation weekend. If you are coming to the vocation weekend and would like to attend this Mass you are welcome to come early, just let me know.








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