In this episode:
- A brief history of music's importance in faith practice and how do we pray with music? (hint: lyrics & intentionality)
- A spoiler-free review of "Impractical Jokers: The Movie"
TBBS116
The Rosary, Western Legends, Forgotten News;
Daily Mass Streams
With Covid-19 still in effect, watch Mass Daily
The Burning Strength Show - Episode 112
A Markan Sandwich, The Witcher, An Artistic Surprise
Archive Spotlight: Ghosts and Purgatory
What does the Church teach about the topic of ghosts and
Archive Spotlight: Adult Education
The Supernatural and The Church's Teaching Tradition
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts
TBBS115 - Praying With Music And Impractical Jokers The Movie
In this episode:
- A brief history of music's importance in faith practice and how do we pray with music? (hint: lyrics & intentionality)
- A spoiler-free review of "Impractical Jokers: The Movie"
TBBS114- A Guided Meditation And Review Of Sonic
In this episode:
- Fr. Chris leads listeners through a guided audio meditation
- A spoiler-free review of Sonic the Hedgehog movie
TBBS080 - Balance Sp. Edition
In this special edition episode, Fr. Chris discusses the topic of balance and uses the writings of Pope St. John Paul II to help.
TBBS078 - Paschal Triduum Special Edition
In this episode:
- Fr. Chris reflects on Holy Week and its events. This episode is a bit longer than normal as it was recorded from inside of his car.
Offerings - 5th Sunday of Easter
Mothers tend to be one of the greatest examples of accepting even the simplest or strangest of gifts with a smile... especially if these gifts are from their children. This quality of mothers certainly helps us understand our relationship with God even better.
Shortcuts - 4th Sunday of Easter
Shortcuts have become somewhat a way of life. Sometimes they work out and sometimes they don't. But there's one shortcut, in this Sunday's Gospel, that Jesus advises us not to take.
The Ways of Heaven - Divine Mercy Sunday
What does haven look like? Its a question many of us ponder from time to time. 2000 years ago, the disciples of Jesus not only saw a piece of heaven by witnessing the resurrected Jesus, but they received the 1st message of the resurrection: "Peace" and "mercy".
Fire of His Love - Pentecost Sunday (C)
The Gospel takes place shortly after Jesus’s resurrection. The Apostles were scared that they also would be put to death. So they lock themselves in a room and hide from the Jews and Romans. Jesus appears to give them their mission. He promises to send the Holy Spirit to them to help them with this mission, and in the 1st reading, it doesn’t look like too much has changed. They saw the risen Jesus. They saw Him ascend into heaven; yet, they still haven’t started Jesus’s mission to “go make disciples of all nations” by “teaching them” His “commands.” The Holy Spirit realizes this and enters into them in a new way. The Spirit stirs in them the gifts that were in them all along. Most of them became courageous to the point of martyrdom, dying for Christ.
My friends, on that Pentecost day, the fire of the Spirit did not just descend on the disciples and not move. When you read the Acts of the Apostles, you hear that it spread. It wasn’t a destructive force like a wild fire, but it was something new, it was a consoling/healing flame. That same fire of the Holy Spirit is still with us today We just need to be willing to recognize it.
Homily for Pentecost Sunday (C)
READINGS FOR PENTECOST SUNDAY (C)
The Torch is Passed - Ascension Sunday (C)
The Ascension gives us the story of the Disciples looking up at Christ passing through the crowds awestruck. They look up into the sky and sort of wonder, "now what?" Don’t just look up… “no what?” Is this our spirituality? Do we come to Church and inside ask ourselves, "now what?" The Angels have spoken. Our work has been passed onto us like a torch from the first disciples of Christ. We are their descendants.
Homily for Ascension Sunday (C)
READINGS FOR ASCENSION SUNDAY (C)
Out Of This World - 5th Sunday of Easter (C)
Our readings today describe a unique experience for us as disciples of Christ. If we allow Him, He wants to pull us from the world-view that we’re used to in order to see the world from a different perspective. He desires for us to see ourselves from a different perspective. As you probably noticed, our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles almost reads like a travel manual. Paul and Barnabas are on fire with the Holy Spirit and have no greater desire than to spread the message of Christ all over the place. So they’re really going from city-center to city-center and sharing the message of Christ.
The people in these cities, if you read through the Acts of the Apostles, were looking for hope in the world. And what is more hopeful than the message of Christ? But this being called out of themselves goes back to what we get in our Gospel today. In this short Gospel Jesus explains the heart of what it means to be a disciple:
“they will know you are my disciples through your love”
And what is the translation of this word Jesus would have used? “Caritas” through your “charity”. “Through the way you will the good of the other”.
Homily for 5th Sunday of Easter (C)
READINGS FOR 5th SUNDAY OF EASTER (C)
Trusting the Words of Christ - 4th Sunday of Easter (C)
Our readings today continue to reflect the wonderful mystery of the resurrection. How wonderful it must have been to be in Antioch to hear the message of resurrection? And for those listening to Paul and Barnabas, as we hear in our first reading, it wasn’t just a story for them, it was something of which they were invited to be part.
They were often shunned by the ancient Jewish people because they didn’t have cultural Jewish lineage. But this new “way” taught by these two disciples of the Risen One, made them equal sharers in eternal life. That was a big deal. This meant that they could worship God in heaven as we hear about in our reading from Revelation But it also meant that the consoling words of Christ we hear in today’s Gospel were not just meant for His fellow Jews, they were meant for all who believe.
Homily for 4th Sunday of Easter (C)
READINGS FOR 4th SUNDAY OF EASTER (C)
To Be A Hero - 3rd Sunday of Easter (C)
Homily for 3rd Week of Easter
There’s a good chance
that if you’ve watched TV or went to the movies sometime within the last few
months, you will have seen quite a number of movie trailers
The two that stuck
out to me quite a bit, possibly because of the amount that they were played
were Batman vs Superman and Captain America: Civil War
There’s a theme that
is implied within the titles of these two big-budget superhero movies:
Those who would
normally do just about anything to protect the world, turn on each other.
One can sort of
assume that there is a difference of world-views that come up.
It is something that
we all go through – we debate differing worldviews.
But of course with
superhero movies, they do so with lots of explosions and flexing of superpowers
and gadgets.
There’s also another
theme that’s implied, but much less focused upon –
That is the theme of
forgiveness.
In order for them to
be the heroes we all admire, they must be willing to forgive each other for
wrongdoings
They have to be able
to walk down a common road in order to bring healing into their own lives, and
in the life of the world.
That’s what’s implied
in the “hero” part of superhero
My friends, this
theme of forgiveness is put on display in this episode from John’s Gospel.
"Peace be with you" - Divine Mercy Sunday - 040316
Divine Mercy Sunday 2016
You ever get one of those feelings where you get so anxious
about something that it feels like your heart is going to leap out of your
chest from beating so hard?
I remember being in the seminary and telling my spiritual
director about one of those experiences.
I told him that it would really happen on days when I had so
much on my schedule, that it felt like I could never truly rest.
I’d be so worried that I’d be late to my next scheduled item
Or that I’d forget something
He sort of just say there and patiently listened to me.
When I finally quieted down, he leans in a bit and asks me
if I ever invited God along on my day journey
“Father, I barely have time to think on those days…”
To where he’d reply
“But you have time to think nervously about the next
activity”
Oh, the humility in those moments of truth.
“What should I do?”
“Pray”, he would tell me.
Now, this priest, is a very interesting man.
My best comparison would be to tell you to think of someone like yoda being your spiritual director.
He knew that this wasn’t going to be adequate for me.
“Use your imagination to take yourself on a journey to a
place where you find the most peace”
I knew almost immediately what that place was… in the quiet
seminary chapel in front of the Blessed Sacrament.
I told him about that place, to which he replied
“Good, see how relaxed you are.”
“God gave you your imagination as a tool, use it when you
need it”
My friends, on this Divine Mercy Sunday, we get a very rare
occurrence
Our lectionary works in three year cycles, and we normally
get a different Gospel reading every three years
But we hear this Gospel reading every Divine Mercy Sunday
Why?
The Church thinks that the message of this Gospel is that
important.
So what’s going on here:
The Disciples locking themselves in the upper room
They’re scared
They’ve just witnessed their best friend and teacher die on
the cross
And they think that they’re next
Any noise that they hear, you have to imagine that their
hearts leap out of their chests
But the Lord comes to them in that locked room
He could have said anything.
But the first words out of His mouth were the greatest
desire of His heart
We hear it every Mass
He says, “peace be with you.”
It was a great sign of mercy
In these two encounters of the risen Christ, the disciples
are reminded that the Lord is with them at all times
He becomes their strength to leave that room
And they go on to do extraordinary things
But we have to remember that many of these Apostles went
onto distant lands they did not know
Thomas, according to Tradition, would possibly go the
furthest as he made his way to India.
What gave him the strength and perseverance to do what he
did?
The peace of the risen Christ
The peace of Christ, my brothers and sisters, is beyond what
the world considers peace
As he would go on to say “The peace I leave you, the world
cannot give”
It isn’t a lack of conflict
Or quiet moment
Rather the peace of Christ is the invitation to retreat in
prayer with Him for a moment
To be transported to another world
So that he can enliven the fire of His love within your
heart
To inspire you to go out of yourself and become more of who
He made you to be
But you’ve got to leave that upper room, whatever it might
be in your life
We all have our fears and anxieties
But we’re never too busy to invite the Lord into our hearts
To bring his peace into our hearts.
He wants to dampen those anxieties so that He may lead you
where you know you need to be.
Easter 2016 - The Eternal Remedy
Easter Sunday 2016
Each one of us has memories that help shape our thoughts and
who we are
We have memories of family growing up
Memories of school
Perhaps memories of weddings
Memories of trips and vacations
For me, going a number of years back, one of those mind
shaping memories has been looking at one of the most beautiful of sunrises
I had spent the night at the house of a cousin of mine
We had just pulled an all nighter
When I look down at my watch and realize I should probably
just drive home at this moment
I was a bit exhausted, but the urge to get in my car and hop
on the roadways was strong
As I bid my farewell to my cousin, I did just that, hopped
in my car and began the 30 minute commute back to my family’s house
When I got to the end of my cousin’s country street, just as
I was about to get on the highway, a sliver of light peaked over the horizon
I pulled off to the side of the road, and for the next 15
minutes, I allowed myself to be encapsulated by this beauty that God had
created.
It almost seemed impossible that something this beautiful
could exist.
And the only thing on my mind, my brothers and sisters, was
just how much more encapsulating must the resurrection have been to the
earliest disciples
This cross that was for hundreds of years the ultimate sign
of torture and death
Became a lasting sign of victory
But not just victory over anything
Victory over something that had been undefeated for billions
of years à
death
Pentecost - Invitation to Warm the World
*Homily Notes*
Have you ever had the experience of being next to a fire in the midst of a cold night?
Perhaps it was in the fireplace of your home in the winter
Or outside somewhere on a chilly summer night
The closer you get to that fire, the warmer you get
And as you watch the crackling flames, sometimes you can just get lost in time
As though you’re watching a sunset
The full combination of the sounds, the sight, and the warmth almost seems to penetrate straight to the soul and warm us up.
My brothers and sisters, today is the feast of Pentecost
It is the birthday of the Church
When Jesus fulfilled His promise to send the Holy Spirit upon His disciples
To fill them with His very life
To help them understand the gifts that God give them as part of His Divine plan
Scripture tells us that the room filled with a tunneling wind
And tongues of fire appeared over each of their heads
They were to use this fire not just for themselves
But to warm the world
To be a light for the world
And tradition tells us that each one accomplished this task in His or Her own way
One mission
But different ways of spreading the Word on Fire – The Good News of Jesus Christ
Today my friends Pentecost is still happening
The Holy Spirit is very much still active in the world today
We’ve received His light,
We continue to receive His gifts every time we celebrate the sacraments
We receive the fire of His love every time we get lost in prayer
When minutes feel like seconds…when hours feel like minutes
But we cannot hold the Flame of Hope to ourselves
The Lord invites us to carry out His mission to warm the world.
He calls us to spread the Fire of His Love.
How do we do this?
Think about the last time someone did something nice for you or said something kind to you.
How did that make you feel?
It warmed you up on the inside.
It warmed the other person up as well.
How much better of a world would we live in if people sought to do this constantly?
To go out of our way to help each other... to build each other up?
The next time you find yourself in front of a fire or before you go to bed each night ---
Ask yourself: "what did I do today to warm the world around me...what did I do to spread the fire of the Holy Spirit?"
*Click Here to Download the Homily*
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