Monday, October 2, 2017

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26th Sunday OT '17 - Heart of a Steward - Humble Service

Posted: 30 Sep 2017 05:00 PM PDT

Continuing with the virtues and gifts of a steward, we ask to follow the mind of Jesus, who humble serves us.

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Monday, September 25, 2017

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25th Sunday '17 - Heart of a Steward - Gratitude

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 05:00 PM PDT

We are invited to live lives of gratitude, which means we cannot be greedy or envious. What are we truly grateful for?

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Friday, September 22, 2017

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St. Matthew '17 - Our Story

Posted: 20 Sep 2017 05:00 PM PDT

The John Ireland School Mass. St. Matthew recorded his story of how Jesus called him. Jesus calls us - what's our story going to be?

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Monday, September 18, 2017

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Ecumenical Prayer Service - Reformation as Pruning

Posted: 16 Sep 2017 05:00 PM PDT

At an Ecumenical prayer service commemorating the the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther, we read of the vine and branches, and in the prayer, invited ourselves to continual pruning to be better witnesses and servant in the world.

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24th Sunday OT '17 - Let It Go

Posted: 16 Sep 2017 05:00 PM PDT

Jesus tells us to forgive 77 times, from our heart. But forgiveness is hard, and we make it harder but not understanding what it really is. When we forgive others, we are more able to receive God's forgiveness. To receive God's love, we must let it go...

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Friday, September 15, 2017

Exultation of the Cross

This week, most Orthodox and all Catholic Rite churches will celebrate the Exultation of the Cross. It marks the finding of the True Cross in 327 and the dedication in 335 of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, built over the site of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. This feast marks something more than simple history. This feast gives us a chance to reflect on the meaning of the Cross, and ask the question of whether we are willing to take it up in our lives. Before His death, Jesus spoke of the Cross explicitly and implicitly. He spoke to Nicodemus of the Son of Man being lifted up, and referenced the episode of the bronze snake mounted on a pole. He invited the disciples to take up their cross and follow Him. He prophesied His death on a cross. They would have understood exactly the reference. While not necessarily an everyday occurrence, crucifixion was common enough in Roman-occupied Israel. It meant death, humiliating and literally excruciating. Jesus was to transform it. He embraced the cross, submitted himself in humility. Dying on the Cross, He put death to death, and robbed hell of its false claim on those who obediently submit themselves to God. In rising, He gives life to all who believe. Jesus Christ models for us that we who are sinners need to die to ourselves. More importantly, by the Cross, He gives us the only means of salvation and eternal life. We are invited to take up our cross. Too often, we ‘reduce’ the cross to something that frustrates or troubles us. Jesus does not want us to reduce the cross to only something like sickness or cancers, or a difficult family situations, or whatever else, as difficult as those things are. He wants us to carry our cross in the whole of our life - to submit our entire lives, not just those difficulties. He wants to be Lord of our entirety. Certainly, the Cross of Jesus transforms those difficulties, but He wants His Cross to transform us. He wants us to follow Him so closely that when others see us, they see Christians who embrace our own dying to self and seeking to exult Him. As Christians, we cry out everyday of our lives, as we carry our own cross, "We exult you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world."

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Exultation of the Cross '17 - What's it Matter

Posted: 14 Sep 2017 04:52 PM PDT

At the weekly John Ireland School Mass (done in dialog form), we asked ourselves what does Jesus' death and Resurrection, which we celebrate on the Exultation of the Cross, matter to us. What are we going to do?

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Monday, September 11, 2017

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23rd Sunday OT '17 - The Watchman's Correction

Posted: 09 Sep 2017 05:00 PM PDT

Jesus gives the model of fraternal correction, and we are so hesitant to use it. Perhaps, we ought to ask some questions: Are we given authority to guide (like the watchmen of old)? Are we loving the other person? Is it a sin (Illegal, immoral, or unjust)? Are we loving the person we need to correct? Are we seeking conversion and reconciliation? Are we doing it in a manner that most protects everyone's dignity?

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