TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (C): JESUS CALLS US TO BE HUMBLE TO SERVE THOSE IN NEED! by Deacon Jim Merle

Like Jesus’ parables on honor, respect and humility in St. Luke’s Gospel today, it is interesting to note that regular church goers often have favorite seats in which they sit. Others like to sit at the ends of a pew rather than move toward the center when other people enter so they must step over them to be in “their” pew. I have been to some churches that have a plaque with someone’s name where they sit and in others where initials are carved in certain pews to mark a place where someone sits.

Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time: Jesus Invites Us To Enter The Narrow Gate To Save All Souls By Introducing Them To Joy, Peace And Everlasting Life by Deacon Jim Merle

Last week’s readings and St. Luke’s Gospel reminded us that we are called to bring God’s love and peace to all we meet.  Our Baptism brings the fire of the Holy Spirit into our being so that we can spread God’s word toward purification of sinfulness and acceptance of God’s Kingdom.  Today, we add another dimension in which we reach out to the whole world even in times of great difficulty because no one is to be excluded from the Kingdom of God.  Salvation is offered to everyone.

TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (C): Baptized With The Fire Of The Holy Spirit, We Are Called To Bring Of God’s Love And Peace To All We Meet by Deacon Jim Merle

 In the realm of relationships each one is unique even though there are identifying traits that psychologist, psychiatrists and scientists have data that often proves the outcomes are consistent no matter the person involved.  The uniqueness comes when we interact with one another and the outcome produces or provides an avenue of action to change something for better or worse.

Ecumenism Part I: Christ’s Prayer and the Call to Unity by Father Glenn Baaten

Dear Friends in Christ,

I would like to present a three-part article concerning Ecumenism—the promotion of the visible unity of the Church.

In this first part, we will reflect on Christ’s call for unity in His high priestly prayer recorded in the Gospel of John. In the second part, we will examine the history of division within the Church, focusing on the Great Schism and the Protestant Reformation. Lastly, we will explore the development of the modern Ecumenical movement throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.

NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (C): TRUST IN GOD ALLOWS FAITH TO GROW SO, WE CAN SPREAD JESUS’ GOSPEL TEACHINGS by Deacon Jim Merle

 On the last Saturday of July I received a card from the wife of a man I have known for 61 years.  After four and half years of suffering from stage four colon cancer he passed. Joe, not his real name, was one of my oldest friends and we considered each other as brothers because neither of us had siblings.

Bishop Kevin Vann Letter on visit to Pope Leo

 

This is a picture of those attending the Dominican University in Rome (The Angelicum) in the Fall of

1982 where Father Kevin Vann (Bishop of the Diocese of Orange California) and Father Robert

Prevost (Pope Leo XIV) took Canon Law classes. Bishop Vann is 6th from the right, with Holy Father

standing to the right.

Bishop Kevin Vann shares in a letter to those of faith his thoughts, hopes and beliefs as he prepares for a visit to Rome to visit with our new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, his friend and classmate from years past. As he writes: it is truly like going home!

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (C): SEEK THE THINGS THAT ARE ETERNAL! GROW RICH IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD! by Deacon Jim Merle

Being a resolute Catholic Christian challenges us to make difficult choices that cause pain in so many areas of our life.   Our Gospel and readings today definitely pits our faith in God against a world that denies His very existence.  And yet, without that world, we often are unable to survive in some of the very basic areas of providing a livelihood.