Homilies
Prayer - the Art of Choosing to Face God
Whatever way one is facing is typically the way one will walk.
It’s not that we can’t walk with our head turned sideways
but we typically do not so easily.
We walk whichever way our head is turned.
It’s kind of hard to walk with our head turned sideways
or to walk backwards with our face front.
It’s just the nature of the way;
our head is sort of positioned so we can move that way.
Life is very much like that.
Whatever way we are facing, we tend to go.
If for example we are facing always our work
then we can typically spend all our time and energy in that.
If we are facing our goal of having
more money, bigger homes, bigger cars,
then typically that is where we’ll go.
Where our energy and our time will go
is to whatever we are facing for good or for bad.
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Hospitality to Strangers
“Let’s do lunch sometime;
Let’s get together and catch up;
Drop by any time; I’d love to see you.”
We’ve heard all of those comments at some point in time
and we also know they don’t really mean very much!
Unfortunately they don’t mean much at all!
It is not that we intend anything insincere or disingenuous
or even that we are really not willing to get together for lunch
but we never really take the next step.
We never really reach out and actually call that person and say,
“Hey, I’d really like to get together for lunch.”
“I’d really like to have you over for dinner.”
I am not sure whether it is because we are all so busy
or whether it is the way we have become in society today.
Bu it is seems much harder than it used to be;
it seems so hard to just get together and chat.
Hospitality seems to be a lost art in our modern society.
We never seem to quite have the time to just sit and visit.
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Our Work is Mercy and Compassion
I recently had the opportunity to watch the movie “Invictus”.
Its stars Morgan Freeman, playing the role of Nelson Mandela,
the first black leader of South Africa
after years and years of apartheid
and oppressive white regimens as the minority of the country.
It is a brilliant movie and I highly suggest watching it.
It is a powerfully-told story about how Nelson Mandela
used the white people’s love of the game of rugby,
to have them rally behind his government
and to help to have a unified government.
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Celebrate the Beginning And the End
On this Fourth of July as we celebrate
the independence of our great nation so many years ago;
we recognize the beginning of our great nation as a separate nation
and we acknowledge the beginning of a very different reality.
It was the end of one thing and
the beginning of something very different.
This month and these last few weeks especially,
has been somewhat of an ending and beginning
for our community in lots of different ways.
Many of you have children
who have graduated from elementary school;
it’s the end of elementary school and the beginning of high school.
For some others, it’s the end of high school
and the beginning of college.
And for still others, it’s the end of college
and the beginning of postgraduate school
or working in the real world.
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Come Follow Me on The Road to Perfection
At the beginning of a New Year we might have heard it said,
“I’ll go on a diet tomorrow.
But just after this meal, then I’ll go on a diet.”
Or, “I’ll stop drinking after this last drink; I’ll stop then.”
Or, “I won’t eat any more chocolates after this last one.”
And of course, they have another chocolate;
they have another drink;
or they’ll have some more food.
It is something about us—we’ll say,
“Oh, just this last one; let me just have this last one.”
It is also evident when we deal with children.
Children say, “Oh, Mum, just one more; just one more.”
And they get it and then they’ll say, “Oh, just one more.”
And they keep going and of course,
there is no such thing as enough.
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Who Do People Say We Are?
The month of June marks the end of our fiscal year
as a parish and as a diocese
and it is the time of year
we do performance evaluations with our staff.
The process is the same both at the parish and the diocese.
We go through a fairly standard process
that most companies use
where we take a set of goals from the previous year
and we see how well we have accomplished those goals;
we reflect upon them ourselves,
write our accomplishments down taking the time
to acknowledge what we have accomplished over the last year.
Basically we see how well we have done
according to the goals we had set for ourselves.
Then we sit down with our supervisor
and find out what they think of how well we have done.
Then ensues a conversation that
helps the person grow in areas where they think they need to grow
and to be congratulated and affirmed in areas where they have grown.
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Personal Integrity
Stephen Covey and his book “Everyday Greatness”
speaks of personal integrity
—he gives a definition of integrity
“when our actions match our words and
when our behaviors match our values.”
As Christians, we call ourselves
to a high level of personal integrity.
We are called to do the right thing
for the right reasons at the right time.
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Body Broken for Others
I recently read the story of a couple called Ann and Howard
and their son Scotty who was celebrating his seventh birthday
Ann wanted to throw a birthday party for her son,
and so she went down to her neighborhood baker.
He was sort of a gruff, humorless man
who never had a kind word to say to anyone.
He did not greet her with a “Hello,” or "How can I help you?"
He just pushed the loose-leaf binder
containing all the photos of all the cake samples
and asked her to pick one out.
She excitedly chose one of the cakes.
It was a cake in the shape of a rocket with stars and planets on it,
with the words "Happy Birthday Scotty" in the icing.
She left the bakery without even as much as a
"Thank you for your order;" or anything from the baker.
All he said was "It will be ready on Monday morning,
in time for the Monday evening party."
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Spiritual Compass
When one is hiking in the wilderness,
one can know where one is trying to go
and can even know the way,
but without a compass, it is almost certain that
one will get lost somewhere along the way.
When the sun is shinning and the weather is good,
one can manage quite well for awhile
by watching for sort of landmarks along the way,
but eventually, when the weather changes,
without a compass, one is completely lost in the wilderness.
There can be a false sense of security
when one is out hiking in the wilderness:
one can manage without a compass at first;
one can look around and see it is a beautiful day;
then storms come in quite quickly
and without that compass, one is lost.
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Orchestra of God
If you have ever had the opportunity to attend a symphony concert,
it is a most spectacular celebration of sounds and movements.
It is truly awesome the way
so many different instruments can be played together,
and yet sound as one single piece of music.
We have the string instruments,
the percussion instruments
and the wind instruments.
It is amazing how these different groups can sound together,
though each is playing separately.
The conductor can get everything right
but he still needs great music to do it.
Yet each person has to follow their own parts of the music
while the conductor gathers them
and enables them to be in harmony with one another,
to sound quite magical.
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