Saint + Elizabeth + Ann + Seton + Parish

One of the difficulties with our mission as Christians in the world is understanding how I, as a frail, broken, repetitive sinner, can ever be a witness to the goodness of God. And how can I instruct another to turn away from sins which I myself have committed, perhaps recently? How can I do that? 

One fundamental question that people who study love and relationships try to answer is why relationships break down. Regardless of what explanation somebody has as to why relationships break down, there is something at least we can all agree about: Relationships can be nourished and broken relationships can be healed. 

We’d like to believe God will never ask of us anything that is unpleasant. The witness of the Scriptures and the Faith proclaimed by the Church tell us that is not true. Paul gives the contrast in his letter to the Romans: offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God…. Do not conform yourselves to this age, but be transformed…. Jesus tells us that true life comes through dying to the old life. It’s the message of the cross.Download Transcript

 A few years ago when I was teaching at Catholic University in Washington, DC, I overhead two college students walking across campus. One asked the other to pray for him because he was going through a rough time. Astonishingly, the second student stopped, turned toward his friend, made the sign of the cross and began to pray for him right then and there. Why not? Did you do that this week? Hearing the troubles of the world, did you stop and pray right then and there? ‘Lord, help our troubled world; heal our divided hearts. Turn hatred and mistrust to compassion. Amen’ — That’s all it takes. In the middle of the office, the neighborhood, the family room. Pray. Here and now.Download Transcript

Morning by morning, week by week, minute by minute, second by second, January to December, day in, day out, God is faithful to you and God is faithful to me. 

For us as Christians and Catholics, the culture of welcoming is not a public relations strategy. It is not a marketing strategy. It is something that comes right from the heart of our vocation as Christians. 

Nature is alive and growing, and God’s grace sustains it. And so the Church chooses green as the color for Ordinary Time. Color reaches into our senses every bit as much as music or art or architecture, or the poetry of liturgical language–because prayer involves every part of the human person.Download Transcript

The disobedience of Adam marks all people; the obedience of Christ marks those who embrace the Second Adam. When we follow Jesus Christ we are lifted up from the bondage of sin so we can wing our way to heaven.Download Transcript

It became clear to me—through worshiping and praying in other congregations—that they may be very, very good at talking about Jesus and singing about Jesus, but it was only in a Catholic Mass that I had the clear impression that we were not talking about the Lord, we were talking with the Lord, who was truly present in our midst. 

A mystery is not something we cannot ever understand. That’s not what a mystery is. A mystery is a truth that we need revelation to help us understand. 

Between the three Persons of the Divine Trinity, which we call Father, Son, and Spirit, there exists love so real that it took on the form of another Person. The Father so filled with love that the Son was generated by pure love. The Son looking back on the Father and so filled with love for the Father and the Father for the Son that their love became real and became the third Person of the Blessed Trinity.

What does the Holy Spirit teach us about ourselves? What do I learn about myself, what do you learn about yourself from the Holy Spirit—but that you are spiritual? This is very important. 

Pentecost shows us the meaning and power of what Jesus has made possible. In the body, Jesus could only be with a few people at one time; in the Spirit, the presence of Jesus is available to everyone all the time. The Spirit is like the air around us, present and ready to be breathed. Through his death for us, Jesus makes it possible for us to breathe―spiritually. His death removes our sins; his life gives us life.Download Transcript

A young monk sought out a wizened old Abbot in the monastery. “Why,” the young man asked, “has my prayer become dry and distant?” Download Transcript

The Lord rose as a full person, body and soul. That tells us that we are full persons, body and soul. We don’t despise our bodies, as if our bodies were something obnoxious, and something to be despised, disposed of, degraded. Our bodies are us. We judge in our culture, we judge people, we judge ourselves, our own value, based on our image, our bodies. And very often, the world is telling us, ‘You don’t have the perfect body.’ 

Think about this: As we follow Jesus, we are heading to the same place where he has gone. That is the meaning of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. Jesus suffered and was then glorified. Because Jesus has gone ahead of us into glory.... because even now the Spirit of Christ is changing those who belong to him into his likeness from one degree of glory to another(2Cor 3:18).... because of the hope we have as Christians––Christ in you, the hope of glory(Col 1:27), we can wait with patience and we can even suffer in hope.Download Transcript

Jesus wasn’t playing a game, and He really meant it when He said, “If you love me, you’ll keep my commandments and I’ll send you the Holy Spirit.” It’s what He meant by love that makes all the difference. Download Transcript

We open ourselves to be remade . . . to be a living stone . . . to be a dwelling place for God himself. This week, while you are getting dressed, look at yourself in the mirror. Look yourself in the eyes and into your soul. Then affirm your faith in Jesus and tell yourself: ‘The risen Son of God lives in me . . .  I am a living stone in God’s house!’ As you do that, God will show something of himself through your life. And some day, you will be with Jesus in the Father’s house.Download Transcript

So it is in every challenge of life. We know that things may look one way, but because of the promises and grace and gifts of God Almighty, they are in actuality different and better and holier. And that’s what this wonderful celebration is all about. 

If we come to Mass with a closed heart, a closed mind, a closed soul, it’s often hard for the Lord to get through that closed barrier.