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21 Jun 2015 - Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Late that day he said to them, “Let’s go across to the other side.” They took him in the boat as he was. Other boats came along. A huge storm came up. Waves poured into the boat, threatening to sink it. And Jesus was in the stern, head on a pillow, sleeping! They roused him, saying, “Teacher, is it nothing to you that we’re going down?” Awake now, he told the wind to pipe down and said to the sea, “Quiet! Settle down!” The wind ran out of breath; the sea became smooth as glass. Jesus reprimanded the disciples: “Why are you such cowards? Don’t you have any faith at all?” They were in absolute awe, staggered. “Who is this, anyway?” they asked. “Wind and sea at his beck and call!” (from Mark 4). Taken from The Message: Catholic/Ecumenical Edition by Eugene Peterson (ACTA Publications, 2014 ); actapublications.com; 800-397-2282.

Sea Storm

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Homily stories

21 Jun 2015 - Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

My sister, who lives in the apartment below me, called to say she was hearing a weird noise with her washer. “It seems like water is flowing out somewhere, but I don’t see any leaks. Can you come take a look?” It was 10 p.m. Reluctantly I crawled out of bed. My husband and daughter were fast asleep. On entering her appartment, I immediately heard a loud swooshing sound like a waterfall. I started to investigate and eventually entered the bedroom adjacent to the laundry room. I pulled the bed away from the wall, and—Holy Moses!—there, gushing straight from the wall, was a massive jetstream. I had never seen anything like it. Without saying a word, I walked out of the room and up the stairs. My sister didn’t even question my actions. We both knew it was time for extreme measures. I walked into my bedroom and nudged my husband, “Honey, there is water shooting out of the wall downstairs. Can you please come take a look?” “Oh, for crying out loud,” he said, or, ahem, stronger words to that effect (I had just broken a cardinal family rule not to wake Daddy). He put on his slippers, walked downstairs, looked at the wall, went to the basement, turned off the water, went to the laundry room, pulled out the washer, saw that a hose had cracked from wear (which had forced water to shoot through the drywall into the room beyond), replaced the hose with a new one (that we just happened to have), pushed the machine back, walked upstairs, and went back to bed. All this was achieved in under 30 minutes. Sometimes, when the storm rises and the boat is rocking, you have to wake up the master.

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

Storm

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El Salvador overwhelmed in Ida’s aftermath

15 Nov 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

"A time unsurpassed in distress" is described in this Sunday's first reading. Days of torrential rains caused by Tropical Storm Ida are being blamed for at least 140 deaths in El Salvador. President Mauricio Funes declared a national emergency, describing the devastation as "incalculable." Thousands are living in shelters as a result of the disaster, and large parts of the country are without electricity and clean water, according to reports. The areas around the capital, San Salvador, and the central province of San Vicente were hit hardest. The rains washed away crops across the region, leaving thousands without a stable food supply, a representative of the U.N. World Food Program said. Access remains a major challenge as civil defense authorities said 18 bridges and many more roads had been destroyed. Funes, who has been in office only five months, blamed previous Salvadorian governments for failing to put in place the prevention measures that could have mitigated the worst effects of the floods. At least 49 of the dead were believed to be children. Source: An article by Will Grant for BBC News

rain flooding san vicente san salvador tropical storm ida mauricio funes el salvador

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Winter is getting old, man

14 Feb 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The one who does not trust the Lord is like a barren bush “that enjoys no change of season,” states the prophet Jeremiah in this Sunday’s first reading. Much of the country is more than ready for a change of season this week, but Old Man Winter continues to pile it on. Still digging out from up to 3 feet of weekend snow, the mid-Atlantic region was hit hard again at midweek. Other regions are struggling with wintry weather as well. As a blizzard howled up the East Coast on Wednesday, roads from Baltimore to New York City became treacherous to the point that even plow drivers were ordered off the streets in some areas. In Pennsylvania the governor closed large stretches of three major highways because the second major storm in less than a week was making travel too risky. Snow fell so hard in Washington that people on the National Mall could not see the Capitol. Many people in the region were still without power from the historic storm over the weekend, and more were expected to lose it during this one. “The snow has just been relentless,” said Washington Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin, a D.C. native who said the back-to-back storms are like nothing he has ever experienced. Airlines canceled hundreds of flights, disrupting air travel and cargo services across the country. All three major airports in the Washington area were closed until crews could clear the snow-clogged runways and visibility improved. “The problem is everything,” said Tara Hamilton, spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. “The problem is this is day six.” The Midwest did not escape the misery either. The 12.6 inches of snow that fell on Chicago Tuesday is the highest amount of snow on a February 9 since records have been kept in the area--a record not only for that date but one for any day in February, according to the National Weather Service. The previous record was 11.5 inches set on February 18, 1908. Baltimore has already broken the previous record for the snowiest winter--62.5 inches in 1995-96--and Washington was poised to break the record of 54.4 inches set in the winter of 1898-99. “It’s hard to find anything in the history books of these types of storms back-to-back,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Stephen Konarik. Forecasters warn that another storm with heavy snow could hit the Northeast by Monday. Source: Articles by James Barron for the New York Times, Nafeesa Syeed for the Associated Press, and Bob Drogin and Richard Simon for the Los Angeles Times

snow washington dc chicago tara hamilton baltimore stephen konarik dennis l rubin snowstorm winter

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Central America in center of storm

06 Jun 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday's reading from the Book of Genesis, Melchizedek says that Abram is blessed by "the creator of heaven and earth." Both the heavens and the earth opened up in Central America this week as tropical storm Agatha's torrential downpours led to mud slides, collapsing bridges, buried homes, giant sinkholes, and the death of at least 178 people. Guatemala was especially hard hit by the storm earlier this week. Dozens of people were still missing and rescue teams struggled to reach remote rural communities after the storm cut off roads and destroyed major vehicle bridges and dozens of smaller footbridges. "We're trying to get to the communities but we're finding that bridges are down and we have to walk, so it is taking so much longer," said firefighter Rony Veliz. Giant sinkholes in Guatemala City created death traps on streets, swallowing entire buildings and blocking off major roads. At least 152 people were killed in Guatemala and 100 others are missing, according to the government. Twelve people were killed in El Salvador and 14 in Honduras. Some 35,000 people remained in emergency shelters days after Agatha, the first named storm of the 2010 Pacific hurricane season, dumped more than three feet of rain in places and raised concerns over the coffee crop in Guatemala and El Salvador. Central America is vulnerable to heavy rains because of its mountainous terrain, and poor communications in rural areas hamper rescue efforts. Hurricane Ida killed at least 150 people as it pounded through the region in November. Source: Articles by BBC News and Herbert Hernandez Reuters

rain central america guatemala tropical storm agatha

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Nation’s midsection snowed under

06 Feb 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The just person is steadfast and has no fear, the psalmist tells us this Sunday. A winter storm larger than many states have seen in decades churned through the central U.S. this week with a potentially deadly mix of snow, sleet, wind, and ice. Folks were “freaking out” with fear as they scurried for snow removal equipment, according to one hardware store owner. The massive storm billed as the worst in decades barreled toward the Northeast Wednesday evening, paralyzing big cities and small towns alike with deep snow and thick ice, stranding hundreds of motorists, and shuttering airports and schools in its aftermath. The 20.2 inches of snow that fell by midday Wednesday in Chicago made the storm the city’s third-largest on record. A foot or more was dumped on parts of Missouri, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, and upstate New York. Making matters worse, bitter cold air was moving into the region after the storm. The storm is, if not unprecedented, extraordinarily rare, National Weather Service meteorologist Thomas Spriggs said. "A storm that produces a swath of 20-inch snow is really something we'd see once every 50 years--maybe," Spriggs said. Source: Articles by Jim Salter for the Associated Press and by Reuters

northeast midwest winter thomas spriggs storms

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Deadly tornados spring to life

24 Apr 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

"The right hand of the Lord has struck with power,” the psalmist proclaims during the Mass of Easter Day. Tornados struck with devastating power last weekend as severe storms cut a deadly swath across 15 states. At least 47 lives were lost in one of the worst spring weather systems in U.S. history. Hardest hit was North Carolina, where at least 25 tornados touched down Saturday. The toll in North Carolina included 24 fatalities, 133 injuries, 439 homes destroyed, and nearly 6,200 other homes with significant damage, according to state emergency officials. Ten of the hardest-hit counties in the state have been designated federal disaster areas. The suffering is not over either. Severe thunderstorms and dozens of tornados ripped across the Midwest and South midweek, bringing wind gusts and hail, snapping trees, and damaging houses. AccuWeather senior meteorologist Henry Margusity said that due to prevailing weather patterns he expects up to 300 tornadoes could affect a region from eastern Oklahoma to northern Mississippi, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois over the next two weeks. Source: Colleen Jenkins and Tim Ghianni for Reuters and the Associated Press

storms north carolina tornados

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Huffing and puffing and blowing downed homes

11 Nov 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Jesus offers a stern warning in this Sunday's gospel about the damage done by hypocritical religious leaders who abuse their positions of power, those who “devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext, recite lengthy prayers." Tens of thousands of East Coast residents saw their houses devoured last week by Hurricane Sandy, thousands more are still without power, and this Wednesday a blustery nor’easter blew through the region, adding to their misery.Under ordinary circumstances a nor’easter wouldn’t be a big deal, observers say, but large swaths of the landscape are still an open wound, with the electrical system highly fragile and many of Sandy’s victims still digging mud out their homes and cars and shivering in the deepening cold.Exactly as authorities feared, the new storm brought down tree limbs and electrical wires, and utilities in New York and New Jersey reported that nearly 60,000 customers who lost power because of Sandy lost it all over again as a result of the nor’easter.As the new storm closed in, thousands of people in low-lying neighborhoods staggered by the super-storm just over a week ago were urged to clear out. Authorities warned that rain and 60 m.p.h. gusts overnight Wednesday could topple trees wrenched loose by Sandy and erase some of the hard-won progress made in restoring power to millions of customers.“I am waiting for the locusts and pestilence next,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said. “We may take a setback in the next 24 hours.” Source: An article by the Associated Press

new york chris christie new jersey east coast superstorm sandy noreaster

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Homily themes

15 May 2016 - Solemnity of Pentecost, Cycle C

They gathered in a large crowd. The story in the Acts of the Apostles sounds at first like an Israelite religious assembly. First, Pentecost is an important feast when many Jews would have been in Jerusalem; in fact “there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem,” an echo of the final gathering of all the Chosen People. In addition, the presence of both “Jews and converts to Judaism” reminds the reader of how Jesus’ mission was first to the original People of God. But something else is going on here. The “fire” and the “stormwind” evoke the gathering of all the nations, in Isaiah 66. The power of the Spirit has made a group local Galileans into witnesses of the gospel to the known world, including the Gentile world, represented by “travelers from Rome.”

fire stormwind Holy Spirit

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The inner word

21 Jun 2009 - Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

God in Jesus calms even what seems like the most unconquerable disturbances, like storms at sea. What “storms” assail my faith? How do I look to Jesus to quiet my fears? Christ, Saint Paul says, died and was raised for us. What self-centeredness—what “flesh”—do I have to die to so that I can be free to live for Christ and others? How am I converted? How has God done a “new thing” in me? The disciples wonder, “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?” How can I go beyond the “signs” of faith and grasp who Jesus is in my daily life?

Jesus in my life storm and fear Jesus died for us

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