Saint + Elizabeth + Ann + Seton + Parish

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.

I’d like to suggest a prayer for this coming week (or maybe for the rest of your life):Lord Jesus, I open my life today to your mercy. Help me to adore and obey you. Give me the grace never to ignore you. Let me be a channel of your mercy to the people I meet today. Amen.Download Transcript

Our salvation is like a bouquet of flowers. Yes, you can look at each stem in its isolation; it will be beautiful. But if you want to look at the totality, what some people would say is ‘the big picture’, then you’ve got to have faith—to perceive, to look, and to believe.

The last chapter of humanity has been written. It doesn’t end on the cross. It ends in resurrection. It ends in glory. It ends in restoration. It ends in reconstituting the original innocence with which we were all created in the Garden.

What is the worth of a person? …Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew backGuilty of dust and sin.But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slackFrom my first entrance in,Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,If I lacked any thing.A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:Love said, You shall be he.(Love, by George Herbert)

Here was Jesus, leaving the meal and putting on a servant’s apron, washing the feet of his students…. Jesus already knew that Peter would turn his back on Him in His hour of need, yet here He is, on his knees, as a slave, before him.

In this act of raising Lazarus––and waiting to do it, even though it caused Mary and Martha more distress––Jesus showed his power over death even before he himself went to the cross.Download Transcript

Each painful wound that Jesus carried, each particle of the cross he hoisted to his shoulder, comes from your life and mine. So as we begin a week we know so well, as we begin a week of events we can narrate without any text, allow the Lord to make this Holy Week yours. Let him reach into your heart and take the crosses you carry onto his own shoulder. Let him reach into your memories and heal the crosses that cause you pain.

Even if you forget every other thing I said this morning, there are three things I don’t want you to forget:  Number one, spiritual obedience. Number two, witnessing. And number three, worship. These are the three things that bring the joy of Christ in our hearts.

We need to understand that God works in these spectacular and powerful ways. We need to be awestruck sometimes. We need to be humbled sometimes. Knowing that God works in these ways which are beyond our comprehension is right and good. But we also need to be able to see God at work in a way that is much more intimate and personally encouraging.

There are lots of people who sit in the seats with Jesus, Sunday after Sunday. They might be attracted to him. Like Veronica, they’re interested in the image of Jesus. Or like Pilate, they may have heard something about him and they want to hear a little bit more. Or like the women from Jerusalem, they like doing good deeds, and the Church does good things, and so they are a part of the Church. But they’ve never looked Jesus in the eye. They’ve never seen themselves reflected back in the pupil of his eye. They’ve never spent time with him …

 God does not overwhelm us. God wants us to trust him. So Jesus let three of his disciples see his glory once during those ministry days. It was enough to pave the way for a Faith that would change the world. We can believe today because there is a credible eyewitness record that has been established by the Apostles. Peter and John both wrote that they saw…. and they testified that these things are true…. and then they lived —in such a contrasting way to who they previously were—so that people looking at them took notice that they had been with Jesus. Download Transcript

The more God’s Spirit controls us, the more we will be able to respond according to his character. So you see, as in the whole Sermon on the Mount, the emphasis is not so much on what we do in any given situation as it is on who we are. There are not enough rules to guide us in godly living, even if we could keep them by ourselves (which we cannot). But what rules cannot accomplish, God’s life in us can as we ‘live in the Spirit.'Download Transcript

You—you—are the light of the world. Not someone else. You. Where do you go to get light in this world? What sheds light on the events of this world for you? Where do you go to have light brought into the misunderstandings of this world? For those who know you, you should be the one they look to to find meaning and purpose to the events of this world.

We see Isaiah drawing two lines for us: the vertical axis and the horizontal axis. And Isaiah now lays down a fundamental concept: that there is a correlation between our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationship with our brothers and sisters. And I can’t tell myself, ‘Oh, Father Tony, I love God and I am making progress vertically,’ but that vertical progress has no translation to a horizontal axis.

A right understanding of what God has said and done through his Son calls us to dare to believe that we do not need to live under the burden of what consumes our world, either frantically seeking the so-called good or living in fear of the bad. Christian Faith turns the world’s common values upside down. As Christians, you and I are asked to believe that there is another world far more important than this one….. and then let that belief—that faith—affect the way we think and speak and act.Download Transcript