Sunday 4th Week

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Farmworker Camp Immokalee, FL

Farmworker Camp Immokalee, FL

In 2 Chronicles (36:14-16, 19-23) we have an account of the destruction of the Temple, the captivity in Babylon, and Cyrus allowing the Jews to return and rebuild the Temple. The view that God directly punishes people for their sins comes from a less developed view of God.  This tribal God has compassion but it only goes so far. Then, the people will pay the consequences of their infidelity. This view will evolve with Jesus who shows us the infinite, unlimited compassion of God.

The nonviolent God of Jesus is with all people not just a chosen few. The God of Jesus is present to each of us in our daily lives, in season and out of season, in the good and the bad. In faith, we learn to trust in God. We learn to hope in God. We learn to love God and one another. Continue reading →

Why??????

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Hungry Children in Nicaragua

Hungry Children in Nicaragua

STS_119 Launch March 15

STS_119 Launch March 15

We have figured how to send people to the space station. Why can’t we figure out how to:

Feed the hungry?  Clothe the naked?  Shelter the homeless? Educate the children?  Provide health care for those who need it?

Whatsoever you do for the least of these, you do for me.

Jesus of Nazareth

Second Sunday

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Church of the Transfiguration

(Gen 22: 1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18) Abraham heard God’s call and was willing to sacrifice Isaac; however, God intervened once God saw Abraham’s obedience. This is a fireside story about Abraham’s great faith. It is also a story telling the Israelites not to engage in child sacrifice like some of their neighbors. We know in the fullness of God’s revelation that the sacrifice God wants is humble and contrite hearts. Hearts ready to love God and love other people. Continue reading →

Monday 1st Week

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In Lv. 19:1-2, 11-18, Yahweh gives his people their marching orders. Everything is based on the fact that God is God and that the people are to fear God—tremble before the glory and power of God. [I use Yahweh advisedly because that is the name God gave and the circumlocution—Lord—according to Fr. Roger Karban, a scripture scholar, was the word for Ba’al. I am afraid that Rome did not do its homework on the recent injunction regarding the use of this word.] Continue reading →

Casting out Demons

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Children in Somotillo, Nicaragua
Ched Myers really breaks this passage (Mk 9:14-29) open. Ultimately, it is a story of faith/doubt and unbelief. The disciples doubt their power. The father doubts their power. He is desperate for relief for his son. Jesus here is casting out the demon of unbelief which beset disciples then and now. Jesus connects prayer—one of the three Lenten practices we will use—to faith. Prayer is “the power of belief.” Myers says, “To pray is to learn to believe in a transformation of self and the world, which seems empirically impossible—as in ‘moving mountains.’’ (11:23). What is unbelief but despair, dictated by dominant powers, that nothing can really change, a despair that renders revolutionary vision and practice impotent. The disciples are instructed to battle this impotence, this temptation to resignation, through prayer.” Myers goes on to say that we must all struggle with the “demons that mute our prophetic voice. Continue reading →

Women in the Church

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Patriarchy is behind this story of creation of the animals and woman Gn 2:18-25. Man named the animals, that is, man had power over the animals. Woman comes from the rib of man. Man was preeminent and woman thus assigned a secondary origin and role. Anyhow, Adam finally had a companion and they roamed around the Garden naked. Continue reading →

Jesus and the False Self

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Gen. 2 is a mythical, fireside chat account of human origins. All that God created was good and God made a garden to grow and flourish—Paradise. How then explain evil in the world? Enter the tree of knowledge of good and evil. When we try to become like God, the false self takes over. In reality, the false self is incapable of knowing God. When we eat the fruit of this tree, we are doomed to death. We have to let go of the striving false self, recognize our utter poverty before God, and enter into the darkness where we abandon who we think we are. There God will bring light and love into the abyss of our poverty and hopelessness. Paradise has been restored though the power of Jesus. Contemplation is entering into union with God. It is gift. Contemplation is showing up and trusting that God will show up. Continue reading →

the Exclusive Church

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You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”
He went on to say,
“How well you have set aside the commandment of God
in order to uphold your tradition!
For Moses said,
Honor your father and your mother,
and Whoever curses father or mother shall die.
Yet you say,
‘If someone says to father or mother,
“Any support you might have had from me is qorban”‘
(meaning, dedicated to God),
you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.
You nullify the word of God
in favor of your tradition that you have handed on.
And you do many such things.” Mk 7:9-13 Continue reading →