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01 Jan 2012 - Octave Day of the Nativity of the Lord; Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, Cycle B

The great blessing scripture speaks of this week is Jesus Christ, born of Mary, the one through whom God became human. As a human being, Jesus lets all of us become adopted children of God. But spiritual childhood is not simply a matter of spiritual childishness. In a homily at the conclave that elected him pope, Benedict XVI emphasized the importance of being "true adults in the faith." While we are children of God, we are also called to mature faith. What can you say to the people to help them be both mature and childlike—to make the life of faith neither too simple nor too complicated?

pope benedict xvi spiritual mature Faith

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The inner word

26 Jun 2011 - Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), Cycle A

The readings and the solemnity itself speak of the living bread, the Body of Christ; the bread of eternal life and the church in which the many baptized come together as one to share that bread. This day should also awaken a hunger for God. How would you describe your deepest spiritual hunger? Spiritually, what do you need the most? What spiritual food would be most satisfying? How is this nourishment available to you?

Bread spiritual hunger body of christ

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Exploring the word

22 May 2011 - Fifth Sunday of Easter, Cycle A

MOVING INTO A new situation can seem like heaven—at first. Whether it’s the first day of school, a new job, new digs, or a new haircut, each facet of change feels fresh and clear of all the old obstacles. This time we’ll get it right. We’ll stay on top of the assignments, make the right friends, get organized, and stay that way. It will all be grand. Starting from the beginning again, there’s a chance to do better. Worn foundations may have a few warped boards, if not fundamental cracks. Some old things evoke nostalgia but others are simply decrepit. Wisdom dictates, at times, a fresh start as the only course of action. The biblical God likes to make things new, according to prophecy. The divine plan is full of fresh starts, things torn down so that new things can rise up, fields cleared to be replanted. What gets cleared may be an individual leader, a plot of ground, or an entire nation. Sometimes it’s the slate upon which the past is scrawled that needs to be wiped clean. When God plans a new spiritual household, as in the writings of Saint Peter, the new will be built on the best of the old. A host of earlier scripture passages are thoughtfully transplanted to prepare the foundation: the cornerstone from Isaiah 28; the rejected stone from Psalm 118; a stumbling block (Isaiah 8); the chosen race (Isaiah 43); a royal priesthood (Exodus 19); and a holy nation (Deuteronomy 7) which is God’s own (Malachi 3)—all brought together to substantiate that this new house is not a repudiation of the old but a vital restoration and extension. When Jesus offers his friends a place in the new household of God, it not only seems like heaven, it is. He will go on ahead to make sure that all is in order for their arrival! What could be better? Well, their reception of the idea, for one thing. Thomas complains he doesn’t know how to get there—even though Jesus just said he’d come back to lead the way personally. Philip is suspicious, not merely of the route but of their host. That seems downright rude. Jesus must be used to that by now. He casts out demons, and they call him a devil. He shares joyous table fellowship, and he’s labeled a glutton and drunkard. He tells the truth, and they call him a liar and blasphemer. He offers them a place in the reign of God, and they want to see God’s credentials. It might be nice for a change, when Jesus says he’s the way, the truth, and the life, that we fall in behind him, accepting that it could all be that grand. Related scripture links Let go and let God: Matt. 6:25-34 Advice for Christian leadership: Matt. 9:35-38, 10:5-10, 24-31, 20:20-28, 23:1-12 Deacons doing the work of apostles: Acts 6:8-7:60, 8:4-40 Church unity vital: John 17:20-21; 1 Cor. 12:4-26; Eph. 1-6; Rom. 12:3-8 Jesus can be seen "in a little while": John 16:16 Catechism links Chosen, royal, priestly, holy: CCC 709; 782; 901-903; 908-913; 931-933; 1141; 1268; 1546 Living stones: CCC 552; 756; 1179; 1268 Jesus is the way: CCC 459; 516; 661; 1025; 1698; 2466; 2614; 2795

Authors Alice Camille

Heaven reign of god divine plan living stones spiritual household

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Homily stories

22 May 2011 - Fifth Sunday of Easter, Cycle A

Is Hannah dead? A 4-year-old asked his mom about a little friend he hadn't seen in a while. The mother could see the bewilderment and worry in her son's face. Death had become a big issue for him even though he didn't quite understand what it was all about. "Oh, honey, of course, not," the mom assured him. "We'll get together with her soon." In a similar vein, Christians of every age worry about where Jesus is and what's to become of us. We ask questions about things we don't really understand. And when Jesus provides answers, we're even more confused. Like a child's innocent queries, our questioning is all part of our spiritual development and growth, but for the sake of a good night's sleep, we should remember Jesus' words of consolation when our concerns run too deep: "Do not let your hearts be troubled."

death consolation jesus spiritual development

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Homily stories

08 May 2011 - Third Sunday of Easter, Cycle A

Dorothy followed the Yellow Brick Road through the Land of Oz and came upon all sorts of signs pointing to different ways back home. In the end, she had the secret to getting back to Kansas right at her heels. But, as the Good Witch of the North tells her, she couldn't have been told the secret to achieving her heart's desire. She had to discover it for herself. Jesus' disciples on the road to Emmaus and all Christian disciples down through the ages have a similar challenge before them as they skip along on their spiritual journeys. The secret to finding their way home to God lies within their burning hearts, but they don't discover that until they've taken a few wrong turns and been set straight by the collection of characters they encounter along the way.

Road to Emmaus spiritual journey

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More (spiritual) is less (religious)

01 Nov 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In the reading from Revelation this Sunday heavenly beings gather around the divine throne and worship God. While the number of Americans who are praying is increasing, more of them say they have no formal religious affiliation, a survey of religious trends has found. The twin trends suggest a growing number of people are "spiritual but not religious," said study author Tom W. Smith, director of the General Social Survey at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. "Americans' attitudes toward religion are growing more complex," Smith said. While fewer people identify with a particular religion, belief in God remains high. "When asked simply about belief in God, most people include a range of God images, from a personal God to believing in a 'higher power' or a 'spirit or life force,' " he said. Although belief in God remains strong, the survey found that 22 percent of people said they had never attended a religious service, compared with 9 percent in 1972. In the most recent survey, 16 percent of people reported "none" when asked about their religious preference, a figure that stood at 5 to 8 percent in surveys taken between 1972 and 1991. "The number of people identifying as 'spiritual but not religious' has been growing perhaps for three decades. This of course has implications for traditional religious institutions, which may feel pressure to revitalize or altogether repackage their spiritual offerings," said Omar M. McRoberts, associate professor of sociology at the University of Chicago and cochair of the Working Group on Spirituality, Political Engagement, and Public Life at the Social Science Research Council. Source: University of Chicago News Office, via Newswise.com

god religious affiliation spiritual religious tom w smith general social survey omar m mcroberts university of chicago surveys belief Prayer religion americans

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9/11 turns 10: Remembering and reflecting

11 Sep 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Exploring themes such as the harm caused by vengeance and the healing possible through forgiveness, the Sunday readings are tailor-made for the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. PrepareTheWord and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops provide a number of useful resources and reflections to help commemorate the events of 9/11 and their aftermath. A slew of articles and media specials this week also are focused on the anniversary of the attacks. Among the many noteworthy stories: Religion helped in 9/11 recovery. According to a summary of a study which will be published in an upcoming edition of the Journal of Behavioral Medicine, religious and spiritual Americans reported better physical and emotional health in the three years after the September 11 attacks. “The more likely people were to participate in religious activities, the more likely they were to experience positive emotion, and the less likely they were to ruminate about the events of 9/11 and the less likely they were to develop physical health problems,” said Roxane Cohen Silver, one of the psychologists who wrote the study. “The same basic message comes from what we call spirituality.” The researchers showed that attendance at religious services was associated with positive emotions such as happiness, affection, and joy; lower odds of developing new ailments; and a smaller number of intrusive, unwanted flashbacks to 9/11. Complicated attitudes toward Muslims. A new poll from the Brookings Institution reports that more than 8 in 10 Americans said that self-proclaimed Christians who commit violence in the name of Christianity are not really Christians. By contrast, less than half (48 percent) said that self-proclaimed Muslims who commit acts of violence in the name of Islam are not really Muslims. "Interestingly, we find that Americans basically have a double standard when it comes to evaluating religious violence," said Robert P. Jones of the Public Religion Research Institute, which produced the survey along with Brookings. The survey of 2,450 adults paints Americans' attitudes toward Muslims as a complex picture of acceptance and wariness. Nearly nine in 10 Americans agreed that "America was founded on the idea of religious freedom for everyone, including religious groups that are unpopular." And by a 2-to-1 margin Americans rejected the idea that Muslims want to establish Islamic law, or Shariah, in the United States. But they were divided as to whether Islam is at odds with American values, with 47 percent agreeing and 48 percent disagreeing. The poll's authors likened this ambivalence about American Muslims to the evolution of attitudes toward Catholics, who were once widely suspected for their loyalty to the pope, and Mormons, once widely reviled for their beliefs. Chaplains reflect on their 9/11 experience. Immediately following the 9/11 attacks spiritual leaders from all traditions gathered to offer comfort to the families, friends, and workers. A few of their reflections 10 years later: Father James Martin, S.J.: “That night, I put on my clerical collar and walked through the empty streets to a nearby hospital to help with victims who never came. The next day, I spent several hours in a counseling center helping bereaved families examine hospital records for their loved ones. “Finally, on Sept. 13, with the city still in chaos, a police officer offered me a ride to Ground Zero, where I would spend the next few days and weeks, along with my brother Jesuits, ministering to the firefighters and rescue workers. “There, at this most terrible place, I encountered grace as powerfully as I ever have--in the outpouring of compassion and charity among the rescue workers.” Rev. Dr. Martha R. Jacobs: “Shortly after 9/11 I was working at Respite Center 1 [near Ground Zero] as an American Red Cross chaplain. I would make my way to the respite center and spend the day with police, fire, and recovery/construction workers, helping them to be able to continue to do their work, listening to their stories of pain and anger, confusion and grief. It was a time of deep listening because I could not take away their pain or their anger or their grief. “I am so thankful for the opportunity to serve those who were there to protect us and recover the remains of those who died. It was not something I ever envisioned when I answered a call to serve God.” Sources: Articles by Naomi Zeveloff for Forward, HuffingtonPost.com, and Lauren Markoe for Religion News Service

religion Islam Muslims americans 911 chaplains spirituality

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High time to abide by company drug policy

14 Sep 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“Hearken, my people, to my teaching,” announces the psalmist this Sunday. Companies want employees to pay attention to their policies with regard to marijuana use on or off the job. Few organizations with zero-tolerance policies are changing them, regardless of whether or not marijuana has been legalized or permitted for medical purposes in their state.Even as 23 states allow medical or recreational marijuana, employment experts say that most businesses are keeping their drug-free policies. The result is a clash between a culture that increasingly accepts marijuana and companies that will fire employees who use it.Even in Colorado and Washington, the country’s most marijuana-friendly states, online classified ads lay out an unwelcome landscape for marijuana smokers. “Please do not apply if you are NOT drug free or carry a medical marijuana card,” warns one job listing for a mechanic in Denver. A Chevrolet dealership in the suburb of Aurora tells applicants, “We do screen for medical or recreational marijuana.” In Seattle, a recycling company looking for a welder cautions that they are a “zero-tolerance company including marijuana!!”Employers and business groups say the screenings identify drug-abusing workers, create a safer workplace, lower their insurance costs, and, in some cases, are required by law. But marijuana advocates say the prohibitions amount to discrimination, either against people using marijuana to treat a medical condition or against people who smoke it because they simply have the legal right to do so, off the clock and away from the office.After Colorado voted in 2012 to allow adults to buy, sell, and grow their own recreational marijuana, scarcely any businesses relaxed their own rules, according to a survey by the Mountain States Employers Council, which represents 3,500 companies. Seventy-one percent left their drug-testing policies in place, and 21 percent actually imposed stricter rules.“People were scared they were going to have a stoned work force,” said Curtis Graves, a staff lawyer for the group. A survey by Quest Diagnostics, which conducts millions of drug tests across the country, found that positive results for marijuana rose in both Colorado and Washington in the year after legalization measures passed.Homily hint: Why do people seek escape through drug and alcohol abuse? Many answers are given but ultimately habitual drug use is an indication of a spiritual crisis, a loss of meaning and purpose in life. If someone in your own life is struggling with habitual use of marijuana or other intoxicants, reach out to them with an offer to help them find their way. Source: An article by Jack Healy for The New York Times

marijuana drugs spiritual crisis

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Religious but not spiritual

Short essays about observed trends in Roman Catholic life - Pastoral trends

How often do we hear people make the claim that they are “spiritual but not religious”? That, of course, is obviously false. To be spiritual, to care about things of the spirit, might not lead toward engagement with organized religion but it will certainly steer one toward following some sort of discipline, however open-ended, and address some set of fundamental questions, however truncated. To be spiritual one has to be religious. Studies, by the way, confirm that: People who are surveyed tend to be “religious” at some level if they are self-described as “spiritual.” That is not the problem. We should rejoice, after all, if people identity “spirituality” as important to them. Rather than suggesting religious indifference it may be the surest way to avoid religious indifference. But what about those who are “religious but not spiritual”? That is a much more significant issue. How many churches have people who are faithful to their religious obligations but fail to cultivate spirituality? This is the heart of the problem today. When religious people are not spiritual, it is not much of a step—in their generation or the next—toward becoming neither religious nor spiritual. Perhaps the challenge facing preachers in a postmodern society is not so much to reach those who might happen to be claiming the unusual identity of someone “spiritual but not religious” but to help those who are religious become spiritual, or more deeply so. Here the problem is the flip side of those who claim to be “spiritual but not religious.” Such people emphasize their spiritual side so much that they overlook the religious dimension in themselves. Those who are religious, on the other hand, assume they are spiritual: They do not deny it in their self-description—yet in their actual practice they might be hardly spiritual at all. The critical question is practice: the actual practices in which a person engages and the ways to engage a person in practices. Perhaps the greatest opportunity for the preacher, then, is to connect scripture with the everyday and extraordinary spiritual practices open to the ordinary person. © 2010, Bryan Froehle.

Authors Bryan Froehle

spiritual

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Homily stories

03 Apr 2016 - Solemnity of the Second Sunday of Easter; Divine Mercy Sunday, Cycle C

When I was a boy playing the back yards of the old neighborhood, my friend Hillel, who lived across the alley, would just stop in the middle of whatever we were playing—kick the can, red rover, whatever—and shout out, “WHO IS HAVING MORE FUN THAN WE ARE?” It’s not surprising. His dad was a rabbi. Imbedded in Judaism is a deep and profound love for and commitment to celebrating the Jubilee. Incredibly, the 50th-year jubilee meant emancipating slaves and giving land sold to pay debts back to the owner. They found it fun. The ram’s horn would be blown. They understood that justice and mercy brought joy. We are currently in the middle of the Jubilee of Mercy, a year set aside by Pope Francis to live out the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. (Don’t remember them from Confirmation? Google them). We are called to open the doors to all who need us. This is Divine Mission Sunday. Easter has just been celebrated. The risen Jesus is in our midst. It is a time to act, a time for miracles. Pick one of the works of mercy. Practice it and have fun doing it.

Authors Father Dominic Grassi

corporal works of mercy spiritual works of mercy fun

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