Search

Results

Who's listening?

24 Oct 2010 - Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

When it comes to religion, righteousness presents both a goal and pitfall. Who is truly righteous? According to this week's scripture, those who humble themselves, serve God, and keep the faith. They will be exalted, their prayers will be heard, and the crown will be theirs. Those who account themselves righteous to begin with will find themselves learning a lesson in humility. Humility is the awareness of one's limitations and the capacity to submit oneself to others. In service to God and others, especially the poor and lowly whom God hears, listeners to scripture this weekend can find the way of humility to which God so richly responds.

Humility awareness

Restricted
The inner word

22 Aug 2010 - Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

Trials can be rich opportunities on our spiritual path if we see them as "discipline," that is, training in new ways of seeing and living. Can I name a recent trial that helped me be a better disciple? Ego lowering is a big part of spiritual development. Do I take trials and disappointments as wounds to the ego that I defend against, or as ways to lessen my ego and rely more on God? How so? The narrow way that Jesus points us to demands awareness and choice. It also demands patience with myself and with God. What in my behavior right now indicates I'm choosing the narrow way?

ego trial awareness

Restricted
Homily stories

21 Oct 2012 - Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Toward the end of the last century management expert Robert Greenleaf initiated the modern servant leadership movement benefit on reforming the authoritarian business management model. The concept was simple and had actually been outlined by Jesus 2,000 years earlier: “Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant.“ Here are some of the hallmarks of servant leaders, outlined by servant leader advocate Larry C. Spears: • Empathetic listener: Servant leaders listen and strive to interpret what others are saying. • Healer: Servant leaders recognize that they may help make whole those whom they manage. • Awakener: Robert Greenleaf said awareness “is a disturber and an awakener.” Able leaders help awaken others to important truths and insights. • Persuader: Effective leaders rely on persuasion, rather than authority, in making decisions. • Visionary Servant leaders understand the past lessons, current realities, and future consequences. • Steward: Servant leaders meet the needs of others with openness and encourage worker involvement in idea generating and decision making. • Community builder: Servant leaders seek to develop a sense of community and care among workers in an institution.

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

Leadership awareness Servant

Restricted
It’s time to answer the baptismal call

09 Jan 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The gospel story of Jesus’ baptism shows how Jesus answered the call to be the instrument of God’s salvation in the world. With the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord, members of the church, made beloved of God by baptism, can rededicate themselves to follow Jesus and proclaim the Good News with their lives. National Vocation Awareness Week, which begins this Sunday, celebrates, in the words of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, “vocations to the priesthood, diaconate, or consecrated life in particular. During these days families and the parish community are urged to nurture the faith of their children to prepare them to respond to whatever God’s call is for them.” The VISION Vocation Network, vocation-network.org, offers resources to promote vocations among Catholics of all ages. Source: www.usccb.org and www.thinkpriest.org

baptism vocations baptism of the lord national vocation awareness week vision vocation network

Restricted
It all begins with a call

Funeral, Sacrament-based, Holy Day, Holiday, Special Occasion - Sample homilies to be adapted for your use

Occasion: Vocations THE NOTION OF “CALL” is not peripheral to scripture but fundamental to the Bible’s understanding of human existence before God. Who can forget in the opening chapters of Mark and Matthew’s gospels those encounters by the Sea of Galilee? Fishermen Simon and Andrew casting their nets in the sea; James, son of Zebedee, and John his brother, sitting in their boat mending their nets—they have no inkling of what is about to happen to them, something that will change their lives forever. Jesus, walking by the sea, calls to them, “Come, follow me and I will make you fish for people” (Mark 1:16-20). They drop their nets and leave their father and his workers behind in the boat where they’d been sitting. The Bible offers many other stories, like the story of Peter’s call renewed, which appears at the end of John’s gospel. It is perhaps the most exquisite story of all the New Testament. Deflated disciples fish listlessly. On the shore of the Sea of Galilee, a figure appears with a charcoal fire burning—it is someone unknown but hauntingly familiar. He issues directions on where to fish and the fishermen haul in an abundant catch, which prompts a heart-pounding recognition. Peter, knowing who awaits him, plunges into the sea and swims ashore. Sharing a breakfast of bread and fish by the sea, the strain of joy and shame is about to burst within Peter. And then comes the moment of reconciliation: “Simon Peter, do you love me more than these?” Peter undergoes the threefold question in order to heal the breach of his threefold betrayal. Then Jesus invites him, “Feed my lambs, feed my sheep.” Peter’s discipleship is restored; his call renewed. In these and many other biblical stories where Jesus calls disciples we find certain fundamental qualities: They make abundantly clear that the life of discipleship begins not with a choice but with a call. Jesus’ authority and his alone is the source of that call. It comes unexpectedly and without warning. Most of the stories also make clear that the call is first and foremost a call to follow after Jesus. The focal point is the person of Christ. The disciples follow after Jesus, surely not ahead of him and not even alongside him. Jesus is out in front of his community; the disciples follow behind, often in confusion and fear. But there is something more in the content of the call. Jesus says, “I will make you fish for people.” The disciples who are called to follow Jesus will be plunged into the work of transforming Israel, of renewing the covenant community, of establishing the kingdom, of healing and exorcism and teaching just as Jesus was. And their destiny would be to encounter the withering power of alienation and death in Jerusalem just as he would. Most of all, the stories make clear, the disciples’ lives would never be the same. They leave their boats and their families and new allegiances would be required. The notion of vocation in its most fundamental meaning is not defined by any specific role or function but is something far greater, something written on a vast canvas. It is pure gift, with God as its author and life as its subject. This call is not first and foremost to a particular role in life but more fundamentally is a call to seek the face of God, a call to holiness and the fullness of life itself. This is the endpoint of the biblical quest: to see the face of God and live. It is for this that we are called, all of us as part of the human family, and surely all of us as part of the church. The notion of vocation in its most fundamental meaning is not defined by any specific role or function but is something far greater, something written on a vast canvas. The biblical call stories remind us that responding to God’s vocation requires conversion and lifelong personal transformation. It is not by accident that the most pervasive biblical symbol for describing the life of faith is that of the journey. All of Israel’s history is cast as a long and often tortuous journey of faith: from the first stirrings of Abraham’s trek into the pastures of Canaan through the exodus from Egypt and the journey to the promised land and from the wrenching experience of exile to a muted and hope-filled return to the land of Judah. And so, too, is the life and mission of Jesus cast as a long journey, beginning in the bursting energy of his ministry in Galilee, and then the ominous and purposeful journey to Jerusalem where he would meet his destiny in death and resurrection. Response to God’s call is not an instantaneous or static reality but one that unfolds over time and one that must endure the rigors of the march to Jerusalem, a journey that often involves challenge, fatigue, and failure. Each one of us has received a call. Our biblical heritage gives us the means to understand that call and to respond in faith.

Authors Father Donald Senior C.P.

Special occasion vocations national vocation awareness week call World Day of Prayer for Vocations
Beholden to no one but God

Funeral, Sacrament-based, Holy Day, Holiday, Special Occasion - Sample homilies to be adapted for your use

Occasion: National Vocation Awareness Week; Year of Consecrated Life Last year, a Catholic journalist had an assignment to interview religious sisters about their work. As she made call after call, a theme emerged: The sisters saw the journalist, and publicity in general, as a nuisance to endure or, if possible, to avoid. “I just don’t want to be part of your story,” said one. Another sister, doing heroic ministry among Mexican immigrants working in the strawberry fields of California, told the journalist about learning she’d been nominated for an award from a Catholic organization. “I sat down and cried,” she said. And not for joy. The journalist interviewed Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe from Uganda during one of her periodic visits to the United States. Sister Rosemary runs a school for Ugandan girls who were abducted and forced to become child soldiers. She told the journalist that when some of her wealthy American supporters suggested making a movie about her work, she refused--for one whole year. Only when persuaded that it would help fund her important work with the girls did she reluctantly agree. The movie, Sewing Hope, tells the story of Sister Rosemary’s bravery and persistence in working with these girls, who have been abused and then cast out by everyone. Perhaps these sisters, and other men and women in consecrated life, need a crash course in how to grab their 15 minutes of fame. I bet we can dream up a long list of celebrities who could tutor them. James and John, the impetuous brothers whom Jesus nicknamed the “Sons of Thunder,” blunder into their own publicity-grabbing moment in Mark’s gospel. As they journey with Jesus toward Jerusalem, where the Passion awaits him, they are tone-deaf enough to ask Jesus for privileged seats at his right and left hand once he comes into his glory. The rest of the disciples promptly get teed off that they hadn’t asked Jesus the same question. With great patience, Jesus tells all of them that true greatness comes not from power, prestige, and lording it over others, but from giving away one’s life. “Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant,” he says. With great patience, Jesus tells all of them that true greatness comes not from power, prestige, and lording it over others, but from giving away one’s life. Men and women in consecrated life know that once you’ve given away your life, you are free. And that freedom allows you to follow the Spirit wherever it might lead. In his letter for the Year of Consecrated Life, Pope Francis asked religious to “wake up the world” by living up to their call to be prophets—people who know how to read the signs of the times and denounce injustice. He pointed to their freedom: “Because [prophets] are free,” the pope said, “they are beholden to no one but God. ... Prophets tend to be on the side of the poor and the powerless, for they know that God himself is on their side.” Pope Francis was right. In the bleakest corners of our country and our world, you are almost certain to find a sister, a brother, or a priest working among the poorest of the poor, giving their life away. Men and women in consecrated life work with the rural poor, with farmworkers, immigrants, the illiterate, refugees, the sick, those in prison, and with young people trying to escape violence in the toughest neighborhoods of our cities. Women religious have been singled out by the United Nations as one of the most vital groups in the fight against human trafficking. Men and women religious also advocate for legal remedies that would make ours a more just society in areas of health care, immigration, and growing economic inequality. Because they are usually too busy to tell their own stories, they mostly do all of this with no fanfare. We can also look with gratitude on the sisters, brothers, and priests who taught us in school, who took us on retreats and service trips, who cared for us in hospitals, who challenged us as young adults in college, and who continue to serve in our parishes, as well as those in monasteries who pray for the world every single day. The late film critic Roger Ebert wrote with great fondness of how the Dominican sisters at his grade school in Urbana, Illinois taught him his core moral principles, such as empathy and economic fairness. The sisters, he said, guided him to support “the rightness of labor unions, fair taxation, prudence in warfare, kindness in peacetime, help for the hungry and homeless, and equal opportunity for the races and genders.” As Ebert realized, those in consecrated life remind us of what we all believe deep down: that life isn’t about money, sex, power, prestige, fame. That it’s all about love and service, and what we give away. Reprinted with permission from VISION VocationNetwork.org

Authors Catherine O’Connell-Cahill

Special occasion vocations national vocation awareness week Year of Consecrated Life
Homily stories

08 Jan 2012 - Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, Cycle B

NATIONAL Vocation Awareness Week begins Monday, so we might want to ask ourselves: What does it mean that God "calls" us? Can you run but not hide when God drafts you for a particular service. Is free will a polite fiction when God has our destiny all worked out in advance? The short answers are: Our freedom is real, human history has no blueprint, and God is prepared to greet any choice we might make with a constellation of grace and possibility. Like any divine gift, our freedom comes complete with responsibility. It does, after all, make a difference which choices we make. Choose the way of destruction, and you're in for a world of hurt. Choose the way of planting and building, and the future blossoms into fuller and greater life. Yet we say God calls us. To what, if not to particular things? God wants you to be fully alive, to the height and breadth and depth of your being, which means loving, giving, expressing, and radiant--just as God is. We're made in the image and likeness of God, right? Answer that call, and you have stepped into your vocation for sure.

Authors Alice Camille

national vocation awareness week call Freedom responsibility

Restricted
Exploring the word

10 Jan 2010 - Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Cycle C

Who are the future leaders in your community? Invite those younger than 20 to stand in your assembly. These children and teenagers are the hope of the future. They may not seem like leaders at the moment, with roving eyes, poor posture, questionable taste in fashion, and a universal reluctance to be scrutinized by grown-ups. But from groups very much like these will come government leaders, business owners and professors, lawmakers and mentors—and lots and lots of parents. For the sake of the church we love we hope this group includes souls brave enough and generous enough to be our future religious leaders. Today begins Vocation Awareness Week. In this Year of the Priest, it's especially appropriate to consider the call to religious leadership. Isaiah foretold the coming of a "light for the nations" who would bring justice, clarity, freedom, and hope to the world. The church's mission is to continue raising up that light, to summon nations to justice, to open the eyes of those blinded by immediate benefit, to liberate those oppressed by poverty or prejudice, and to make hope real for those who live in despair. But the church isn't an organization a half a world away. The church is right here. It fulfills its mission if you and I fulfill ours. There's no one else to appeal to, nowhere else to pass the buck. Who will be the teachers, leaders, truth-tellers if we are not? Who will answer the call inherent in our baptism if not you and me? The anointed servant Isaiah describes is no fanatic, not a fellow shouting Bible verses on the street or causing revolutions in the name of God. Isaiah's servant is a gentle person who makes justice real by responding to the Spirit of God that lives in him, day by day. You and I are called, by our own anointing, to do the same. In the time of John the Baptist people fervently hoped that he was the one they'd been waiting for: the Christ of God, the liberator and light-bearer. John was a revolutionary—which is to say, the sort of savior you'd expect. Here's a man who can change things! Jesus by contrast was something of a disappointment. A meek and gentle Lord who would go to the cross was the wrong kind of leader for the change most people wanted to see. Yet Jesus "pleased" God. Jesus was precisely the Christ the world needed, though he seemed all wrong for the part. When we look at the next generation of leaders, do we automatically eliminate some by our own narrow standards? Those who will carry the light forward are already among us. Related scripture links God in the word: John 1:1, 14; John 15:7; Heb. 4:12 Prepare the way of the Lord: Mark 1:3; Matt. 3:3; Luke 3:4; John 1:23 Gift of the Spirit: John 14:15-18, 26; Acts 2:1-11 Are not our hearts burning?: Luke 24:32

Authors Alice Camille

leader national vocation awareness week year of the priest church mission

Restricted
Exploring the word

06 Nov 2016 - Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

How close to the Apocalypse are we this week? Considering that our national presidential election is mere days away, it may feel like we’re poised on the brink of a volcano. Whatever happens on Tuesday, two things remain the same. One is that every citizen of voting age has a moral obligation to vote thoughtfully and prayerfully. The other thing is that whoever our next president may be, we remain “one nation, under God, indivisible.” Our unity is our sacred trust as citizens of these United States. Another idea that helps us to back away from the apocalyptic edge is that National Vocation Awareness Week starts today. The American bishops initiated this week in 1976, but it was only shifted to the first week of November in 2014. It’s a fateful shift: As we consider who our future leaders should be in government, so too we encourage future leaders for our church. Pope Francis uses the term “special consecration” to describe the service of Christ that draws men and women to embrace the roles of priest, deacon, and religious. A consecrated life is the precise opposite of an inconsequential life. For those who feel their lives may be meandering without purpose or focus, a summons to deeply intentional living can be personally apocalyptic—but in a good way. The “rule of three” seems to apply when encouraging vocations: When someone hears from three sources that he or she seems right for such special consecration, this sounds the interior bell that invites further exploration. So don’t be shy about being one of those three voices for those who may be awaiting affirmation. Apocalyptic doings are on the menu as we creep closer to the end of the church year. We hear the brutal story of seven tortured sons and their equally valiant mother. Its symbolic meaning is more vital than its historical reliability: Seven sons represent the full complement of the future, all lost in a single day along with their mother. To sacrifice the whole family is to risk the earthly future. Only confidence in the God who transcends history is worth the risk. By contrast, the story posed to Jesus is nonsense. Seven dead husbands and a childless wife all die. The Sadducees focus on an absurdity: Whose wife is she in the afterlife? That Sadducees don’t believe in afterlife increases the superficiality of their inquiry. Jesus refocuses the matter to what’s consequential: When seven fruitless husbands and a childless woman die, hope remains because our God is a living God. Even when all hope seems lost, the future remains because the God of the living rescues us even beyond death. With God, we can weather anything, even the apocalyptic. Related scripture links Faith, hope, and love: 1 Cor. 13:13 Fruits of the Spirit: Gal. 5:22-23 Corporal and spiritual works: Isa. 58:6-7; Matt. 25:31-46; Luke 3:11; 11:41; Heb. 13:3; James 2:15-16; 1 John 3:17 Catechism links Marriage: CCC 1601-1658 Things that last: CCC 736; 1812-1832; 2447

Authors Alice Camille

apocalypse vote voting national vocation awareness week Consecrated life vocations

Restricted
Think pink this month

09 Oct 2016 - Preaching the News for the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

This Sunday’s readings contain hopeful messages of healing for those who are afflicted. In the case of the first reading and gospel, the affliction is leprosy, a widespread condition in the ancient world. Today, cancer is one of the leading conditions afflicting the population, and October brings particular focus on breast cancer awareness, with pink ribbons coming to the forefront. Yet despite numerous campaigns and articles about breast cancer, there are still gross misconceptions about risks, detection, and treatment that could put women—and some men—a risk. Since one in eight women who live to age 85 will develop invasive breast cancer—and 246,660 new cases are expected to be diagnosed this year—experts agree it’s imperative to sort fact from fiction. “I think the most prevalent misconception that I hear in my practice is that since there isn’t a history of breast cancer in my family, I’m not at risk,” says Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Yale University School of Medicine. “My own sister used to say that all the time until she was diagnosed with breast cancer herself. So I told her, OK, now we have a family member! The truth is that the vast majority of breast cancer patients do not have a family history of the disease.” Here are several more myths and facts: MYTH: There’s nothing you can do to prevent cancer. TRUTH: Perhaps the most common myth about cancer is the false belief that if you are at risk—because of a genetic predisposition or family history—there’s not much you can do to prevent it but watch for signs. But that’s simply not true, says Dr. Herman Kattlove, M.D., former spokesperson for the American Cancer Society and a professor of medicine at UCLA. “Every woman can lower her risk by sticking to a healthy diet, keeping her weight down, and exercising vigorously. I recommend jogging,” he says. “Also, I recommend frequent mammograms for those at risk and, of course, there is always the Angelina Jolie route. Some women, about 10 percent of the population, with a strong genetic risk for breast cancer such as having the BRCA gene mutation, may opt for mastectomies, which would drastically lower their risk.” MYTH: Most lumps are cancerous. TRUTH: Actually, most breast lumps are not malignant, says Kattlove. “One of the problems with screening is that most lumps that are found are benign,” he notes. “It doesn’t mean that you have the disease if your doctor orders a biopsy, either. The only way to be certain is to test the tissue.” MYTH: Lumps are the only sign of cancer. TRUTH: In reality, skin irritation or dimpling, nipple pain, swelling in the armpit, or any change in the size, contour, texture, or temperature of the breast can also be warning signs. “Many cancers found on mammograms are just shadows that can’t be felt,” adds Kattlove. MYTH: Needle biopsies can disturb cancer cells and spread them to other parts of the body. TRUTH: Biopsies are one of the few ways to confirm cancer’s presence and do not spread tumor cells. “This old myth was never proven to be true and indeed, a biopsy is a life-saving procedure if there is cancer because then it can be treated,” notes Kattlove. MYTH: Wearing deodorant increases your risk of breast cancer. TRUTH: The National Cancer Institute reports no conclusive evidence linking the use of either antiperspirants or deodorants to the development of breast cancer. But a 2004 study found that parabens used as preservatives in some antiperspirants were found in 18 out of 20 breast tumor tissue samples. Other research shows that aluminum-based compounds applied frequently near the breast may be absorbed by the skin and cause estrogen-like effects. And since breast cancer has been linked to increased levels of estrogen, it may be wise to choose products that are free of these chemicals. MYTH: Breast implants can raise cancer risk. TRUTH: According to the Susan G. Komen foundation, there is no scientific evidence to show that having either saline or silicone breast implants increases a woman’s cancer risk. But Minkin points out that breast examinations may be trickier for women who have implants, so mammograms need more views to be accurate. During this month many foundations and organizations will be doing their part to raise money and awareness for breast cancer research. The American Breast Cancer Foundation (ABCF) is doing just that by partnering with a new mobile app called VideoFizz to promote the social media campaign "Pinking of You." Similar to the world-renowned Ice Bucket Challenge, "Pinking of You" encourages people around the world to share supportive video messages to friends and family affected by breast cancer to raise awareness for the disease. Lessons drawn from the readings “Ten lepers, 10 healings, one thankful heart. There’s a gratitude shortage,” is how scripture commentator Alice Camille sums up the Sunday gospel message for PREPARE THE WORD. We can be grateful today for the amazing progress made in cancer research over the past generation. Find a way to put your gratitude into practice in this month of heightened awareness of cancer. Final thought in light of the news One thing that is definitely not a myth: The earlier cancer is diagnosed, the easier it is to treat. In fact, nearly all women diagnosed with breast cancer before it spreads to other parts of the body survive it; 85 percent survive even tumors that have spread to regional lymph nodes, statistics show. “Early detection is a woman’s best chance to find the cancer when it is most treatable and get the best care first,” says Dr. Marissa Weiss, chief medical officer, president, and founder of Breastcancer.org, an organization that has a wealth of information and resources for women. “Finding cancer at a curable stage can mean avoiding chemotherapy or a mastectomy. And while mammography isn’t perfect, I strongly advise women to have annual mammograms starting at age 40. It could save your life.” If you or a loved one has neglected this important action, set an appointment today.

family history american cancer society mammograms cancer research early detection breast cancer awareness cancer prevention

Restricted

← Previous 1 2 Next →