Corpus Christi

You can be holy - the great lie of our time is that you can not be holy! Holiness does not come from hours spent in prayer, doing good for others, or even attending Mass. Holiness comes from a relationship with Jesus and prayer, good works and the Eucharist are necessary because they sustain that relationship. (Zach, who I mention at the beginning of the message is a seminarian who has just completed his first year in theology and is staying with us for two months this summer as part of his formation to be a priest).

Trinity Sunday

What does Jesus do? As the Son he loves the Father - Jesus loves because God is Love.the love of the Father and Son is personified in the Holy Spirit. The Father, through the Son sends the Holy Spirit into our lives so that we can have joy, so that we can be holy. The great lie is that we cannot be holy, we cannot have joy, we cannot become saints. YES, we can! This week and next week we look at how that can happen.

What's Next? 6

This is the end of the What's Next? message series: results! What is next is exactly what we celebrate on this feast of Pentecost: the joy given to us by the Holy Spirit. That joy only comes in obedience to the commands of Jesus. His command is to Love God, Love Neighbor, and Make Disciples these are the results that we seek, nothing can distract us from doing just this.

I want to extend a word of thanks to Patrick Lencioni for the inspiration for this series. His book "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" speaks of five gospel values that when missing from a "team" (a parish community) will be the cause of its demise.  We must be wiling to trust, enter into conflict, make a commitment, accept accountability and attend to the results that Jesus wants for us all: JOY in the Holy Spirit.

What's Next? 5

Accountability is one of the most difficult traits to find in our culture, but it is absolutely necessary for disciples to hold one another accountable if we are to accept what's next.

What's Next? 3 & 4

Here are my messages from the past two Sundays: What's Next? 3 & 4. These weeks have been kind of busy and I have not had the time necessary to get these messages uploaded.

Regarding this series, I have been using Patrick Lencioni's book "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" where he writes about those foundational issues that prevent a team from properly function. The first is trust, the second, conflict, the third is commitment.  In the coming two weeks, I'll talk about the last two (you'll have to wait - or read his book - find out what they are!).  Lencioni is a devout Catholic and although you would never know that fact from reading his books, these issues, which help to make "business teams" great, are really biblical in nature.  These are Gospel Values at there best using the Easter Gospels I am hoping to point our parish towards continued growth in discipleship.

Week 3, the 5th Sunday of Easter:

Week 4, the 6th Sunday of Easter:

What's Next? 1 & 2

While there are many ways to approach life - two come to mind: we can approach life with a hospital mentality or an amusement park mentality. What’s the difference? The hospital mentality focuses on the next bit of bad news that we expect to receive when we are faced with a medical issue. What’s next? is answered with more trials and challenges that we’d rather avoid - so it’s better not to ask “what’s next?” The amusement park mentality is filled with excitement. When you finish one ride you can’t wait to get to the next ride because of the thrill that you experience of anticipating, What’s next? How you approach life determines how and if you’ll answer, “what’s next?”

Over the course of the remainder of the Easter Season we are going to take a look at this question and some of the issues that can help us to accept the answer. From the miracles we experienced at Christmas, then finding what’s your story, to the Barefoot Journey and even the Most Important Things of Easter, it’s good to ask “What’s Next?”

What's Most Important 2

When we ask what is most important and then reflect on making the Gospel most important we soon discover that there is a gap between the life we lead and the life of the Gospel.