Update & Thanks

Still sunny and hot here in the Big Easy. . .no orders to evacuate yet.  Seems like most around here are hunkering down for a Cat 1 hurricane and not much more.  The city gov't is assuring everyone that the levees and canals have been sufficiently upgraded to deal with any serious flooding.  We'll see.

Also, I rec'd a book today from the Wish List, Pelikan's Credo.  No name on the invoice, so I don't know who to thank.  Anyway:  Thanks!

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Be worthy of your call from God

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

As we wait for Tropical Storm Isaac to become Hurricane Isaac and make landfall, we read this morning about another storm, an ancient storm, Hurricane Jesus, who plows through the arrogance and hypocrisy of an even older religious mindset. With a storm surge rating a Category Five, Jesus doesn't mince his words; he hits the Pharisees right in the face with all he's got. Three times he uses the phrase “woe to you,” a formula of judgment and condemnation. Three times he bitterly accuses the Pharisees of blindness and hypocrisy, revealing their love of power and prestige. Three times he calls them out for the sin of abandoning their people to the false idol of greed. In a devastating accusation, Jesus says, “You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves.” In other words, he accuses the Pharisees of abandoning God's people—one by one—to the burning landfill of spiritual ruin. This is not our Sunday School Jesus. This is Hurricane Jesus set to make landfall, full force, right up the Pharisee's noses! Their most damaging spiritual fault? They are not worthy of their call from God. 

As men charged with leading God's people to righteousness through the Law, the scribes and Pharisees are set aside by God to provide instruction, direction, spiritual leadership. Their job is to help those who will to enter a covenant-relationship with God, give access to His wisdom and love. Instead, Jesus says, “You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.” Not only do they themselves refuse to enter the Kingdom, they prevent others from doing so as well. This is a failure in leadership, and more so a disastrous failure to be worthy of their calling from God. With their hearts set to love the power, riches, and celebrity that comes with their calling, the scribes and Pharisees become “blind guides” to a population of blind seekers. Lest we spend too much time and energy sneering at their many failures and forget our own, remember: we are no less vulnerable to this same failing, no less prone to holding onto our access to the Father through Christ, and becoming self-appointed Gatekeepers of the Kingdom rather than Missionaries of the Good News. 

 The scribes and Pharisees are unworthy of their divine calling b/c they have chosen to use the authority of their vocation as a tool to exalt themselves. Rather than exhaust themselves in making sure that every living soul in their charge knows and understands the Law as a means of growing in righteousness, they use the Law to set up more obstacles, higher hurdles, deeper moats. We too are guilty of this when choose to see the Church as a social club with strict membership rules; or as an exclusive retail boutique serving privileged clientele; or as a remnant of the last remaining faithful who must jealously protect God's precious gifts from those we find undesirable. Woe to us if we fail to recognize and give thanks for the inexhaustible gifts of our loving God. Woe to us if we set up social, political, cultural, racial obstacles to those gifts. Woe to us if we preach the Good News but dwell in the hypocrisy. Paul urges us to live lives worthy of our divine calling; to live the Gospel life with grace, reckless abandon; always throwing ourselves on the mercy of God, and forever depending entirely on His never-ending abundance. When we share His Good News without hesitation or worry, we offer Him thanks. Generosity multiplies generosity. Welcome and be welcomed. 

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Audio for 21stSunOT w/comments

Here's the audio file for my homily from the 21st Sunday OT, "Are you prepared for radical transfiguration?"

A couple of parishioners said things like, "Too intellectual for this parish, Father."

Others said things like, "Enjoyed it.  Didn't understand some of it."

A couple encouraged me to preach this way more often.

One faithful soul chastised me for "apologizing" for quoting difficult material from BXVI, "Don't ever apologize, Father, for making us grow!"  Yes, ma'am, said I.

No one dumped on it, but they probably wouldn't say anything too negative to me personally.  Too bad.

As a Dominican, I refuse to coddle Catholics when I preach. . .meaning, no New Age Oprah Pablum; no social-justicey cliches; no "Jesus Loves You" greeting card verse; no Boil It All Down junk.  

  

I want to challenge w/o alienating; dare without being needlessly aggressive.  Catholics are always smarter and tougher than priests think they are.  Give it to them, Fathers.  They can take it.

What say you?

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Hurricane, hurricane, go away!

Just finished watching an hour's worth of the Weather Channel and local weather. . .

Looks like Isaac is going to hit a little east of us, which is good for us here in Lakeview.

If he hits west of us, then that's bad.  Lower parishes (counties) of LA are being evacuated already.

I went out twice this afternoon and the gas stations in the immediate area are backed up with cars for blocks and blocks.  

Parishioners told me after the Masses this morning that it took between 12-18 hrs to get to Jackson, MS from here during evacuation.  YIKES!  That's normally a 3.5 hr drive.  

Pray for us.  We need it.

P.S.  If you are a Map Nerd (like me), St Dominic's neighborhood is located at the conjunction of the horizontal line marked 3ON and the vertical line marked 9ON.  IOW, right in the middle of the hurricane warning area. 

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Are you prepared for radical transfiguration?

 21st Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

AUDIO file

Before his disciples and a curious and quarrelsome crowd, our Lord teaches his most sensational lesson, saying, “. . .my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” There must've been a pause, a small moment of total silence for the import of this outrageous claim to sink in. His disciples, his best students and closest friends, start murmuring, perhaps trying to find some sense in his words, or perhaps they are questioning their decision to follow a mad man. They ask, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” Is this a challenge, like a dare? I dare you to accept! Or is it a declaration of disbelief, an incredulous outcry? No one can believe this nonsense! Or is it something more subtle and strange, like a question that answers itself and in doing so blows away the closed doors and rusty locks of ignorance? Jesus knows their hearts and so he asks, “Does this shock you?” If the disciples answered him, we do not know what they said. What do you say? More importantly, if you eat his flesh and drink his blood, are you prepared to live in Christ and have him living in you? 

Many in that curious and quarrelsome crowd were shocked. Some who were shocked walk away from Christ and “return to their former way of life. . .” Watching them as they walk away, Jesus turns to his closest friends and students and asks, “Do you also want to leave?” Is he worried that they might leave him? Is he indifferent? Angry? He gives them a choice: stay and follow me to eternal life, or leave and follow death to eternal darkness. As usual, Simon Peter speaks for the disciples, “Master, to whom shall we go?” Who else teaches the Father's truth? Who else can show us the Way? Who else can feed us with the bread of heaven? Peter then explains his response, “You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” Are the disciples shocked? Yes. Shocked into belief and conviction; shocked into the truth of Jesus' outrageous claims; shocked by the hard reality that standing with them is divine truth given flesh and blood. All that they have ever sought, all that they have ever truly needed. . .is with them: body, blood, soul, and divinity—the Holy One of God. Again, if you eat his flesh and drink his blood, are you prepared to live in Christ and have him living in you? Are you prepared? 

Before you answer, please bear with me as I read a longish passage from BXVI's 2007 exhortation, Sacramentum caritatis: “In the sacrament of the altar,. . .the Lord truly becomes food for us, to satisfy our hunger for truth and freedom. Since only the truth can make us free, Christ becomes for us the food of truth. . .Each of us has an innate and irrepressible desire for ultimate and definitive truth. The Lord Jesus. . .speaks to our thirsting, pilgrim hearts. . .our hearts longing for truth. Jesus Christ is the Truth in person, drawing the world to himself. 'Jesus is the lodestar of human freedom: without him, freedom loses its focus, for without the knowledge of truth, freedom becomes debased, alienated and reduced to empty [whim]. With him, freedom finds itself '”(2). That's a lot to take in, I know. But here's what I hope you heard: as rational creatures created by a loving Creator, we are made to long for the Good and the Real; we desire Truth and Freedom; and we have come to believe and are convinced that Christ Jesus is our Truth, our Freedom, our Good, and our most basic Reality. “In the sacrament of the altar,” our Holy Father writes, “. . .the Lord truly becomes food for us, to satisfy our hunger for truth and freedom.” Are you prepared to receive the truth and freedom of the Lord? 

Before you answer, bear with me one more time as I read another passage from the Holy Father's work: “The substantial conversion of bread and wine into his body and blood introduces within creation the principle of a radical change, a sort of 'nuclear fission,'. . .which penetrates to the heart of all being, a change meant to set off a process which transforms reality, a process leading ultimately to the transfiguration of the entire world, to the point where God will be all in all”(11). When we celebrate the Mass, when we witness the transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, and when we commune on his sacrament, we begin a process that radically changes all that is real; reconfigures at the root of reality not only our individual lives but our communal life together so that God might work through His love in me, you, and all of us at once to bring His whole creation to redemption. Fission sparks out, dividing into smaller and smaller parts. When we eat his Body and drink his Blood, we are saying, “Yes, Lord, I will go out and be Your love in the world so that the world will see in me what You see in Your Son!” Are you prepared to be a spark for the radical transfiguration of the world in Christ? If not, walk away. “Does this shock you?. . .The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.” 

Our Holy Father, mediating on the Jewish origins of the Mass writes, “. . .[The] Eucharist demonstrates how Jesus' death. . .became in him a supreme act of love and mankind's definitive deliverance from evil.” The supreme act of love and our deliverance from evil. We are delivered from evil in this sacrament of love. But finding ourselves so delivered, what next? Freed from the Enemy and set loose to return to the world, what next? Here we are flush with the recreating love of God and wholly prepared to participate in the radical transfiguration of the world and. . .what? We go out and we keep on doing all that we have done here and will do here. Gather in his holy name with family and friends. Confess our faults and receive His mercy. Listen to His Word and give witness to His mighty deeds. Give thanks and praise for His abundant blessings. Sacrifice in love and offer one another to Him in prayer. Seek out all that is true, good, and beautiful, and exhaust ourselves in being true, good, beautiful for others. Invite the stranger. Fight against injustice. Visit the sick, the dying, the lonely. Take Christ's light anywhere and everywhere darkness hopes to rule. 

If there is one evil we must resist in 2012, it is the evil that tempts us to turn inward and away from the world; tempts us to hide the light of Christ for the sake of a worldly peace, a peace settled against the Church through fear and intimidation. This is why I have asked you if you are prepared to be a spark for the radical transfiguration of the world. Even as we move out of the sanctuary, suffused with the love of Christ, we are met with demands that we silence our praise and thanksgiving for the sake of propriety. That we continue our good works but cease offering them for the greater glory of God. Without Christ, we can do nothing good. Without Christ, we are nothing. Christ is who and what we are. And when we step outside these walls, if we are prepared, we take him—Body and Blood—into a world dying for its Creator. You—each of us—leaves here as a spark shot from the Sacramental Fission of the Eucharist. If Christ lives in you, bring him to another and another. Go out there and set fire to a world that's falling quickly into darkness. Make it a holy conflagration, a world set ablaze in the love of the Holy Spirit. 

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We call your hurricane and raise you one BVM. . .

Oh. . .just great!

If we have to evacuate. . .how am I going to squeeze my 500 + books into my little Toyota???

Mother Nature's got Hurricane Power. . .we've got Blessed Mother Power!

O, Mary, Mother of God, who, amidst the tribulations of the world, watches over us and over the Church of your Son, be to us and to the Church truly Our Lady of Prompt Succor, make haste to help us in all our necessities, that in this fleeting life you may be our succor, and obtain for us protection from Tropical Storm Issac. Help us to gain life everlasting through the merits of Jesus, your Son, our Lord and Redeemer. AMEN!

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On translations & paraphrases

As usual, Fr. Z. offers his invaluable services as a Slavish Translator of Liturgical Texts!

Here's the Latin text of the Opening Collect for the 21st Sunday OT:

Deus, qui fidelium mentes unius efficis voluntatis, da populis tuis id amare quod praecipis, id desiderare quod promittis, ut, inter mundanas varietates, ibi nostra fixa sint corda, ubi vera sunt gaudia.

Here's that same Collect in English from the 2011 Missal:

O God, who cause the minds of the faithful to unite in a single purpose, grant your people to love what you command and to desire what you promise, that, amid the uncertainties of this world, our hearts may be fixed on that place where true gladness is found.

Here it is from the 1973 Sacramentary:

Father, help us to seek the values that will bring us lasting joy in this changing world. In our desire for what you promise make us one in mind and heart. 

Now.  Tell me the 1973 version is a translation and not a paraphrase. . .a bad paraphrase at that.

NB.  Catholics must eliminate the word "values" from their moral vocabulary.  It's a modernist weasel word that allows us to shift and shake ourselves away from Christ's teachings.  We do not vow ourselves to seeking Christ's values.  We vow ourselves to following Christ's teachings.

Check out Fr. Z.'s full post if you're interested in exactly why the 1973 version is dodgy.

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Just three words

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

Philip finds Nathanael and says to him, “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law. . .Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” Rather than leap for joy or ask for evidence, Nathanael asks a rather sarcastic question, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Rather than thump him upside the head or walk off mad, Philip answers Nathanael with an apostle's challenge, “Come and see.” Just three words. He doesn't waste time with a persuasive argument, or a professorial presentation of the evidence. He issues an invitation. With just three words, Philip answers—in a way only a believer can—every objection to the faith, every doubt, every question. Don't believe me? Come and see. Nathanael follows Philip to Jesus and he's rewarded with a greeting from Christ, “Here is a true child of Israel.” Nathanael is surprised that Jesus knows him, and Jesus reveals that he saw Nathanael long before Philip called him. With this revelation, Nathanael blurts out, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God. . .” What persuades Nathanael that Jesus is the Son of God? Jesus' greeting? Philip's faith? Some combination? Or is being the presence of the Christ persuasion enough? Come and see. 

With just three words, Philip answers—in a way only a believer can—every objection to the faith, every doubt, every question. While argument, evidence, and personal testimony will likely fail to persuade a truly reluctant soul, a direct experience of the Christ cannot fail. If the proliferation of the faith depended on intellectual gymnastics, or rhetorical eloquence, then we would all need to be philosophers and orators. But the gifts required to excel at these professions are uncommon, even specialized. Among the apostles, only Paul was specially trained in argument and rhetoric. Philip used just three words to convince Nathanael to visit Jesus. Three words that we practically minded Americans can appreciate: come and see. Don't believe me? Follow me and see for yourself. What's Philip's special training? What are his degrees? Who authorized him to convince Nathanael to visit Jesus? The challenge Philip issues is an apostolic challenge, a challenge issued by one who was sent out to bring others in. Sent by Christ, Philip goes out and bring Nathanael in. He sees for himself and believes. Jesus tells Nathanael that he will see more, much more. All b/c Philip said, “Come and see.” 

When did you last say to a reluctant soul, “Come and see the Christ”? Maybe you say it all the time. If you do, keep it up! If you don't, why not? I know, I know. . .Catholics don't care for all this evangelization stuff. Too Protestant. Too have-you-accepted-jesus-into-your-heart-as-your-personal-lord-and-savior. Or maybe you think you have to be one of those well-trained, professional apologists like Mark Shea or Patrick Madrid. A Catholic answer to every objection. A verse of scripture ready to slap on the table like an ace in poker. When these sorts of doubts arise, remember Nathanael's dismissive question and Philip's patient answer, “Come and see.” That's all you need to say. Invite. And let Christ do his work. Come and see the Lord's sacrifice. Come and see the sinners who gather together to receive his mercy. Come and see what praise and thanksgiving look like coming from the hearts and minds of ordinary men and women. Come and see that he is with us always, among us always. Come and see the goodness of the Lord, the One who died for us and lives with us still. Come and see, and you will see the repair of creation in love.

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From the archives: a few useful links

Preparing for a radio interview this morning, I browsed around the archives and found a few posts that might be of interest to recent readers of HancAquam. . .

Error, Heresy, & You

Praedicare! To Preach!

Making a Good Lenten Confession (even in Ordinary Time)

Guidelines for Faithful Catholic Reading

Answers to supporters of women's ordination

12 Reasons Why Faithful Citizenship Failed to Persuade
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Advice to preachers & their people

These are a few notes I jotted down for a radio interview this morning. . .

Some advice/notes for the preacher:

The preacher preaches to himself first. Preach “we” and “us” not “you people.” You struggle, fail, succeed, fall, get up, soar, wallow, succeed again. Use your struggles/successes.

Preach the gospel in front of you. What's the Good News in these readings? And what does it mean for us right now in these circumstances?

Avoid the temptation to scratch itchy ears. Preaching what you think we want to hear can be safe, popular, and ultimately damning. 

Challenge, provoke, encourage by preaching the truth. We are stronger than you think. We are also confused, worried, and tempted to despair.  Hold up the ideal.

Point out and celebrate in unambiguous terms our relationship with God. In every homily, tell us how being in love with God changes us. How failing to love hurts us.

Preach struggle and victory. Note the details of struggling to follow Christ but keep our eyes focused on Christ's victory (and ours in him).

Preach with passion. Let us know that you believe what you're preaching.

Stay fresh. Read good novels, good homilies; keep up with pop culture and the Church Fathers.

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Feedback to your pastor:

You don't have to Occupy the Pulpit to get good preaching!

Silence = Approval. If no one speaks up, then Father will think all is well.

Encourage your pastor by pointing out what you found helpful/useful in his homily. Let him know that you were listening. Send him a note.

Encourage him to publish his homilies in the bulletin.

Tell him what sorts of things you need to hear. Can you address personal prayer and how to do it better? How do I love more and better? I'm confused about this teaching, can you explain it?

If his homilies seem ill-prepared, challenge him—charitably—to be better prepared.

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"Invite whomever you find. . ."

20th Week OT (Th)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

All of Jesus' parables lead us deeper into the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven. He uses parables precisely b/c the truth of the Kingdom has yet to be fully revealed much less understood, so the only fruitful way to talk about the features of the coming reign of God is parabolically, i.e. indirectly, using short allegorical stories to give us a peek at the bigger truth. The power of a parable lies in the use of the ordinary elements of daily life, the familiar people, places, and things that regular folks see and hear everyday. We're called upon to understand a parable by comparing the elements of the story to our own lives and draw out the truth. So, who are we in the parable of the wedding feast? We aren't the king, his son, or the soldiers. We could be the guests, though we've been at the party for a while now. We can't be the poor guy who gets bounced b/c he's improperly dressed. We're still at the party. That leaves the servants. We're the servants. The ones sent out by the king to summon his guests. The ones sent out to rouse the rabble and bring them as guests to the feast. That's what we do. As servants, we obey the king. 

What are His orders? “The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.” Note what's missing from these orders. We are not ordered to evaluate any potential guest's wardrobe. We are not ordered to assess their moral worthiness; their social standing, wealth, health, looks, or family ties. We are not ordered to invite only those who look like us, sound like us, think like us, or believe like us. The king's order are crystal clear, “Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.” Whomever we find might be poorly dressed or morally rotten; or high-born and ugly as sin; or low-born and beautiful; or just plain folks with nothing much to do that evening. “Whomever you find” is an all-encompassing category that makes it very difficult not to invite whomever we might find. That's our job. It's what we do. After those we have invited to the feast get here, then it's the king's job to sort them all out. Not ours. The guy who's bounced out into the darkness is bounced out into the darkness b/c he's not properly dressed. In parabolic terms, he's not properly disposed, not internally prepared to receive food and drink from the Lord's generous table. He's not wearing the heart and mind of one who's accepted an invitation to party eternally with the Father's Son. 

In case we're missing the point of the parable, Jesus sums it up for us, “Many are invited, but few are chosen.” In fact, everyone is invited but not everyone will show up. And even some of us who show up will choose to turn away from the more difficult requirements of staying at the table. In our modernist rush to be politically correct and all-inclusive, we've mistakenly come to believe that b/c we were invited into the Church just as we are, there's no need for us to put on the mind of Christ, repent, and seek after righteousness. We're fine as is, thank you very much. This parable points out our error. Coming to Christ in his Church entails a willingness, an eagerness to receive the Father's freely offered mercy and to turn away from sin and death. Yes, absolutely, come as you are! But stay so that you might be remade into a more perfect you in him. Our job as servants is to invite whomever find. It is Christ's job to turn the filthy rags of sin into the proper wedding garment. 

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No comment

And from the "A Picture is Worth a 1000 Words" file we have. . .

Source:  Reuters

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The Divine Lagniappe

Queenship of Mary
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Dominic Church, NOLA

Show of hands: how many of us love to get free stuff? OK. Now, how many of us believe that nothing is ever really free? There's always a catch, right? “Free gift with purchase.” “Free newsletter. Just give us your email address.” Here in New Orleans we have the famous custom of the lagniappe (lan-yap) –a freebie, something extra in the bag just for being you. But you only get the lagniappe—that 13th doughnut—b/c you bought a dozen in the first place. Walk into the Cafe du Monde and ask for a beignet lagniappe w/o buying an espresso, and they'll bounce you out on your bon temps! It's this sort of deceptive advertising that's led us to want free stuff and at the same time believe that free stuff is never really free. Unfortunately, this all-too-American attitude infects our faith as well. How many times have you heard that we do not earn, borrow, beg, or steal our salvation? We are freely saved and do nothing whatsoever to earn our freedom. However, we still harbor the dark suspicion that we're being lied to, that God is just waiting for us to trip up so He can jump out from behind the door and shout, “GOTCHA! Now, go to Hell!” That suspicion is at the root of Jesus' parable of the disgruntled laborers. These hard working men begrudge the owner's generosity to the latecomers. And that's exactly what we do when we mistrust the gift of our freedom. 

The disgruntled workers begrudge the landowner’s generosity in paying full wages to the latecomer laborers. Why? For some reason they feel that their own labor and their own wages are diminished by the largess of the vineyard owner. Somehow their day’s labor is dirtied. Their dollar is devalued. They worked harder and longer under the fiery sun, so they deserve more than those who sauntered in at the last hour and barely broke a sweat! These guys are upset b/c they are working out of a very human notion of justice, a temptation, I think, to believe that compensation is earned; to get what is owed you, what you deserve. And that makes perfect sense if we are talking about just labor practices in the marketplace. But remember, this is a parable about salvation and holiness not a lesson on capitalist economics. Jesus isn't giving us a model of setting up a union or a business plan for earning a profit. 

Think about this: Is it a human notion of justice you want applied to your eternal life? An economic balance? Do you truly want what you deserve? What you’ve earned in this life? Do you want the Father to give you a just compensation for your life’s work in His name? The whole point of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ is that we won’t be given what we deserve (thank God!); we won’t receive from the Father what is owed to us (thank God!). He owes us nothing. All the work we do we do for His greater glory, and He still owes us nothing. Do we want justice from God? Or do we want mercy? We want mercy. And Christ has bought that mercy for us and given it to us freely. There's an eager little devil out there waiting to pounce on our witness to the Lord. He will offer us an opportunity to sin and delight the Liar. What is this temptation? It is the temptation to believe that we work for the Lord out of our own generosity, out of our own time, out of our own resources, and we are therefore entitled to a greater reward when we outwork our neighbors. My time, my resources, my talents belong to God. And so do yours. Our freedom is a gift. All that we do in God's name we do with His gifts for His glory. Because without Him we are nothing. 

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12 yrs ago today. . .

Today marks the 12th anniversary of my novitiate class' profession of simple vows. . .

Happy Anniversary to fras. Gerald, David, Roberto, Mauricio, and Minlib!

Remember the Alamo!!!  (Our novitiate year took place in San Antonio, TX).
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Another OP homily site

Fr. Lawrence Lew, OP of the English Province posts his homilies at Releasing the Arrow.

Fr. Lew is also an excellent photographer and posts his pics at R.A. as well.

Be sure to check out the impressive new altar at one of his ministry sites, The University of Edinburgh.

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