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Transcript:

In Matthew’s Gospel it is very important to know to whom Jesus is speaking. Today’s gospel is addressed to the apostles. The word apostle was used very loosely in the New Testament and indeed early Christian writings in general. This was before HR departments and “realistic job previews”. For Matthew, an apostle is “one who is sent” a rather literal translation of the word in Greek. He is vague however as to whom the word applies but I think it is a personal invitation to you.

Today we read the last verses of Chapter 10 of Matthew’s gospel. Chapter 10 is often called the “Missionary discourse”. In it Jesus tells those whom he will send, what gifts he will give to them and what is expected of them. Continue reading “13th Sunday Ordinary Time – Homily (Fr. Smith)” →

Transcript:

It struck me at the beginning that we are observing the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Yet reality is that there’s nothing ordinary about the time. I’m not sure there ever is anything ordinary about the time – in the sense of if not all time has a character of being extraordinary – in the sense that we’re always dealing with the unexpected, with the surprises that God places in our way.

And certainly the idea of God surprising us is very much a part of the scripture for this 12th Sunday. The first reading – Jeremiah. Jeremiah – who has been anointed by God to deliver God’s word to the people – is constantly surprised by the reaction he gets: a reaction that basically puts him ever at risk. He’s imprisoned. There are those who would try to kill him. He must tell the people about in a sense trusting in God by placing themselves in God’s hands as they are led off into captivity. And so, in a sense, he is a person who must deal with fear – the fear for his own personal life, but he’s only able to deal with that because he has encountered the Lord. And because he has encountered the Lord, he trusts.  And he trusts that even though he doesn’t understand – he can’t comprehend, for the most part, God’s plan. He’s able to trust – he’s able to trust, because in his own way, he has come to know God. Continue reading “12th Sunday Ordinary Time – Homily (Msgr. LoPinto)” →

Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730437.

Transcript:

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the rectory of St. Charles Borromeo, especially to our brothers and sisters at St. Augustine and St. Francis Xavier. As many you may know by now, I was appointed the administrator to these two great parishes in Park Slope, and so until we actually are able to meet in person, perhaps it’s a great opportunity for all of us to get to know each other virtually by logging on to the Zoom here that we have at St. Charles Borromeo where I live. It’s interesting too, for those who may be unfamiliar with Zoom, you’ll quickly find out that your favorite button on there being Mute, so when there’s things going on where you are – they’re making a lot of noise, make sure you Mute yourself. And if you’re the type of person who maybe just rolled out of bed,  then the Video button also is another great button to turn that off. So the Mute and the Video buttons are important buttons to get comfortable with as we go through this age of having Zoom masses. Continue reading “Corpus Christi – Homily (Fr. Gribowich)” →

How strong is love? Let us make it personal “How much do any one of us make decisions because of love”. Do we think that love is nice but real-world decisions are based on how much we will make or how we can appease or use the prevailing social and political powers? Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Trinity. This is God’s answer to this question, and it comes none too soon. Continue reading “Most Holy Trinity – Homily (Fr. Smith)” →