MY HOMILY FOR THE FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI

If you are like me, you may be related to someone, know someone, or have heard of someone who was Catholic, but no longer attends a Catholic church. Perhaps they’ve moved on to mainstream Protestantism (Baptist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist) or even to some of the other more Fundamentalist, or Non-denominational Christian churches.

If we ask these persons why they left, we often get the usual answers, “I don’t get anything out of Mass” (did you put anything in?), or “I really enjoy the music and enthusiasm of my new church”, or “It doesn’t really matter where I go, they’re pretty much all the same.”

I can’t help but wonder, as we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, if perhaps the real underlying reason is that they just don’t get it. They don’t understand, or don’t believe, that Jesus Christ is TRULY PRESENT in the Eucharist. This is central to our Catholic faith. It is what separates us from our Christian brethren. It is what we, as Catholics know, through our eyes of faith, and in our hearts, know to be true.

And why is it so difficult to believe? Don’t we believe, all of us who call ourselves Christians, that Jesus Christ was crucified, died and was buried. And don’t we all believe that He rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven? If we believe that He was able to do that, then why is it so difficult to believe that He can’t change bread and wine into His Body and Blood?

In our Gospel reading today (John 6:51 – 58) Jesus speaks very clearly about Him being the “living bread that came down from heaven”, and that “whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

We are told that the Jews were not too happy with this and questioned what Jesus was saying. What a perfect time for Him to have said, “Now wait, just hold on! Calm down, calm down! I’m only speaking metaphorically here.” But you know what? He didn’t! Instead He reiterated what He had said. He said that His “flesh is TRUE FOOD” and His “blood is TRUE DRINK”. He also clearly states that it is necessary to eat His body and drink His blood in order to have eternal life.

It is in eating His precious Body and drinking His precious Blood that we, as Catholics, are TRULY UNITED with Christ. He is in us, and WE ARE IN HIM. We become the mystical body of Christ, which is the Church.

When we eat His Body and drink His Blood, Christ lives within us and, hopefully, through us. We, united with Him, should let His light shine through us, through our lives, and how we love and care for those around us.

Normally when I preach I suggest some acts of Christian charity for the following week. This week, however, I would like to suggest that we pray. I am suggesting that we pray especially for those fallen away Catholics who we know, and those that we don’t, that they will come to understand and believe in the Real Presence of Our Lord and Savior in the Holy Eucharist. I am suggesting, too, that we pray for those who still call themselves Catholic but who may be struggling with the Real Presence, that they, also, will come to know and believe in His presence with us, and within us. And finally, I suggest that we pray for ourselves, that united in our faith and belief in the Real Presence of Christ among us, our knowledge of and love for Jesus will grow, mature, and blossom so that His light within us will truly shine.

May God bless you! ( He does, I know!!)

MORE FOR THE MONTH OF MARY (MAY)

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

I have been remiss. I with to extend KUDOS to H1! When he and DIL1 were here over Mother's Day weekend he took a look at my home computer setup. I had a desktop (Linda's) set up in the front room, a laptop in the "green room" (formerly H2's bedroom and now my office) and a laptop in the "blue room" (currently H2's personal space). My cable modem is in the front room. I had the modem connected to a router, with outputs going to the blue room and to ChiaMom's desktop. I also had a wireless router in both the blue room and the front room, so anywhere in the house the laptops had wifi access.
From the wireless router in the blue room I also ran a connection to the green room so all 3 PCs in the house had broadband connections.

If you've been counting, that's one cable modem, one broadband router, and two wireless routers in the mix.

H2 had been experiencing some performance issues. (With his COMPUTER!! Get those minds out of the gutter!!!) H1 determined that I had incorrectly set up my home "network" so the wireless routers were conflicting with each other. He spent the better part of a day working on it, but when he finished the configuration was now one cable modem, and two wireless routers (one working as an access point) and NO broadband router. So we eliminated one possible POF (point of failure). Not only that, but now I am able to share printers and hard drives between the various PCs, so the home "network" really is a network!!

Thanks to H1. It's working great!!

WHO'DA GUESSED IT?

DLG posted Jane Austen Fun on her blog. Apparently she is "Elinor Dashwood" whereas "I" am "Anne Elliot"!>

Take the Quiz here!

I guess that's what happens when you're in touch with your feminine side!!

FOR GISSELLE, MOLLY AND BB

LIKE... YOU KNOW?!?

Hilariously accurate!!

CATHOLIC, NON, OR FORMER. AN INVITIATION.

Please accept this link as a humble expression of my love for you. It may provide answers to questions that you haven't yet thought to ask, or perhaps don't want to know at this stage of your life, but may in the future feel compelled, somehow drawn to ask without understanding where that desire comes from. God is always with us, watching us, calling us closer to Him. Go with it. Experience His love. Therein lies a happiness that transcends anything our society has to offer. Experience the truth, and be set free!

BLESS ME, FATHER...

I saw this again over at Deacon Greg's blog and thought it deserved airing here, as well. Food for thought, hope, and inspiration.



Catholicism. Live it. Love it. Share it. All in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

PRICELESS!!

It was really a great weekend. H1/DIL1 told everyone that they would not be able to make it back to NOLA for DLG’s birthday, since H1 was starting his new job that week. I, however, knew that they WERE coming in, so we planned to have them stop at Serrano’s restaurant in Clearview Mall when they got to NOLA on Friday and get a table for the entire family. Then I told everyone that since I was boiling crawfish for DLG’s birthday on Saturday, I wanted to do a family dinner at Serrano’s on Friday for Linda for Mother’s Day. And, just to really hammer it home, I even commented on the blog how we were going to miss having H1/DIL1 at dinner!

So-o-o-o. It came off without a hitch! H1/DIL1 were waiting when we arrived. The look on everyone’s face was priceless. Eat your heart out, MasterCard. Hah!

Saturday evening we had an excellent crawfish boil. They were a nice size, and slid right out of the shell. Lots of potatoes, mushrooms, sausage and corn to round it out. It was pretty darn good, if I do say so myself!!

Sunday Linda and I went to Mass at St. Louis Cathedral where I served as one of the deacons. It was a lovely Pentecost service. After Mass we all met at Eastern restaurant for a final Mother’s Day dinner before H1/DIL1 hit the road for H-town.

The weather, as you probably noticed, was beautiful all weekend. We just couldn’t have asked for a nicer family get together weekend.

Now we’re looking ahead to Father’s Day/H2’s birthday in June. Hmmmmm. What surprises can I cook up between now and then?

12 YEARS OLD?!?!?

Is it my imagination, or is a beautiful voice made even more beautiful when singing praises to our Blessed Mother? H/T to Big J!!!




I wish I could here her sing the whole song, uninterrupted!

AND THE WINNER IS...

The first American Idol winner (I think she was the first) Kelly Clarkson performs Schubert's Ave Maria for Pope Benedict XVI.



I thought I'd line up a few Marian treats for you during this month of Mary's. Enjoy!!

AND ALSO TODAY!!!

For DLG,




I hope your birthday was great!!

Love you lots!!

Pops

HAPPY MOM'S DAY TO MY DEAREST WIFE

Linda,



Words cannot adequately express how much I love you. I thank God every day for His gift of YOU!! Thank you for being the mother of our children.

IAN'S QUOTE OF THE DECADE!!

Linda and Ian were in the car driving him to school yesterday morning. Linda noticed that the car in front of them had a Brother Martin HS sticker and an Immaculate Heart of Mary window sticker, and a rainbow ribbon magnet.

Linda: "What's that ribbon for, Ian?"
Ian: "Cancer awareness."
Ian: "Their daughter is really ugly."
Linda: "What?!?"
Ian: "Their daughter is really ugly. Look at her picture!"
Linda: "Ian, that's a picture of the Blessed Mother!"
Ian: "Oh. I thought it was a cheerleader."

Well, he was partly right. She is the main cheerleader for her son, Jesus!

Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen.

Gee, but it's great to be back home... again...

Linda and I made it back from Huntsville yesterday evening around 6PM. The weather forecast had been for what looked to be a pretty lousy, stormy drive home, but we apparently timed it so that everything had passed by before we came through. The drive started out cloudy, but as the day wore on it became beautiful and sunny the whole way! It was pretty near perfect.

The trip was a success. I passed the course so I can now apply for certification at IT Acquisition Level 3, which will hopefully help me a great deal in my new job.

Today Linda is watching little Molly-kins while Ian is watching BB and Conner at Conner's house, and the grownups are all at Jazz Fest. It's sunny and HOT!! I hope they drink lots of water and stay reasonably cool.

Next Saturday we're gonna have a crawfish boil to celebrate both Mother's Day and DLG's birthday, both of which occur on Sunday. Just a little family get together. Wish H1/DIL1 could be there! Fr. John is coming!!

We saw Baby Mama on Friday. That's the movie with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, both of Saturday Night Live fame. It was cute, not uproariously funny, but it had its moments. I'd say it's a good movie to see, but maybe wait for the dvd.

That's about it. I gotta run to work for a bit to catch up for what I missed doing last week.

Take care! God bless! (He ALWAYS does :-))