The Lord calls us to surrender our will to his... his will is better. - December 18th, 2022 - 4th Sunday of Advent - The L.S.M. of C.A.M. at St. Willibrord Church, Verdun

   4th Sunday of Advent 

VOCATION: Jesus calls us - He calls us to follow Him, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and to become a missionary disciple.... 

 Homily MP3 version - PDF version 

What are the offerings that we bring to God? What is the meaning of "HOSANNAH!" We acclaim God for his greatness and praise Him, while at the same time calling upon Him to rescue us in our distress.... "HOSANNAH!" MP3 version 

“May the Lord come in; He is the King of glory. Alleluia!”

Sisters! Brothers! Again, good evening. St. Joseph is our Father’s gift to us today, this 4^th Sunday of Advent. The testimony we receive in the Gospel is that St. Joseph was a righteous man. He was a good man, a holy man; who loved God and always wanted to do God’s will. It is not always easy to know what is God’s will or to do it, as we observe happened to St. Joseph; when he found out that Mary had become pregnant before they had begun to live together.

The Law required adulterers to be stoned to death. Any woman who became pregnant by a man not her husband or before marriage was an adulterer. As Joseph searched his religious tradition in order to know what God’s will was for him in this situation, the best he could see or understand was that he should withdraw from his engagement to marry Mary. However, Joseph did not think that Mary deserved to die; so, he decided to withdraw secretly from marrying her.

“May the Lord come in; He is the King of glory. Alleluia!”

Everyone knows that after a few months, it usually becomes obvious that a woman is pregnant. This automatically made a pregnant woman an adulteress if the man who joined with her was not her husband. What can often be unfair in these situations is that there is no external sign on the man who commits adultery. Jesus draws our attention to this disparity, even today, between the treatment of men’s sins and the treatment of women’s sins.

There is another disparity which causes us even more trouble: the disparity between our human will and the will of God. Even when we try to discern or interpret the will of God, what we want to do remains, basically, our will. The will of God remains, in itself, hidden within the Most Holy Trinity. We know that the will of God is manifest in nature, in the order, beauty, and purpose of Creation, but even then, in order to know with certainty what is the will of God; we need to ask God to confirm our discernment. St. Joseph thought the will of God was obvious in Mary’s pregnancy, but as it turned out, her pregnancy was the work of the Holy Spirit in Mary, and the will of God was for Joseph to go ahead and marry her anyway in spite of the Law.

“May the Lord come in; He is the King of glory. Alleluia!”

This need for discernment and for confirmation from God continues to be the way it is for us. We need to learn how to ask God to show us his will and to confirm our understanding of what is his will. If we don’t take this additional step; then, we are likely to misinterpret what is the will of God like Joseph did. We cannot expect God to give us signs in every circumstance like the dream He gave to Joseph. The normal way to ask God to show us his will and to confirm our interpretation of his will is through prayer and praying with Scripture.  

“May the Lord come in; He is the King of glory. Alleluia!”

God is greater than the Law. If we make no effort to know the will of God, when we pray the Lord’s Prayer; we are likely to distort the words and their meaning. Without even realizing it, we can end up praying like this: “MY kingdom come, MY will be done, in Heaven as I want it to be on Earth.” It is good to pray carefully and intentionally the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.” However, just saying the words over and over again isn’t enough. We need to take the extra step each day of looking for confirmation of our understanding of what the will of God is for us in the real circumstances of our lives.

“May the Lord come in; He is the King of glory. Alleluia!”

Christians have come to understand that the “highway” to always doing the will of God is to make it a common practice every day to surrender our will, to set aside what we want in order to make room for what others want – our spouse, our parents, our siblings; yes, and even our children and our enemies. The more we set aside what we want, the more likely we are to make room for the will of God. This Christian discipline is called mortification, or dying to oneself, or putting to death our own weak, narrow, limited, and selfish human will.

This sounds gruesome, but the Most Holy Trinity actually fill us with peace and joy when we walk in the ways of the Lord; when we deliberately seek to know and to do the will of God.

In a few moments, it will be time to place at the altar our offering to God. It is ourselves that we offer: all that we carry within us, our hopes and our fears, our desires and our regrets, our sins and our repentance, and even our own will. Let us open wide our spirit to God; so that the Lord may do in us all that He desires to do: to lead, to forgive, to heal, and to give life.

“May the Lord come in; He is the King of glory. Alleluia!”

“Our Lady of Ville Marie, pray for us. St. Joseph, pray for us. St. Brother André, pray for us. St. Kateri, pray for us. All you holy women and men, pray for us. O my Jesus, I trust in You! Thank You; You who are God, the Father, + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

In silence now, the Holy Spirit continues to fill us with the Radiance of the Most Holy Trinity.

 

https://frgilleshomilies.blogspot.com         https://homeliesabbegilles.blogspot.com

 

© 2006-2022 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC           © 2006-2022 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC

Rejoice! Jesus comes to manifest his power as God in our poverty and weakness. - December 11th, 2022 - 3rd Sunday in Advent - The L.S.M. of C.A.M. at St. Willibrord Church, Verdun

  3rd Sunday in Advent 

VOCATION: Jesus calls us - He calls us to follow Him, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and to become a missionary disciple.... 

 Homily MP3 version - PDF version 

What are the offerings that we bring to God? What is the meaning of "HOSANNAH!" We acclaim God for his greatness and praise Him, while at the same time calling upon Him to rescue us in our distress.... "HOSANNAH!" MP3 version 

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near. Say to the faint of heart: Be strong and do not fear. Behold, our God will come, and he will save us. Alleluia!”

Sisters! Brothers! Again, good evening. Have you ever thrown one spaghetti strand to the ceiling or wall in your kitchen to see whether it was done? They say that if it sticks; then, it’s ready. I may have tried that in my youth, but I didn’t like it; rather, I learned to bite into it and in this way, I developed a conviction about the precise moment when the pasta is “al dente”, which means, literally, “to the tooth”; that is, cooked but still firm, not soggy. There is no better conviction than that which comes through our own personal experience. This is the great lesson of life that we all come to learn as we journey through our youth towards adulthood.

For many centuries now, Christians – especially in the Western and Eastern traditions – rejoice on this day, the 3^rd Sunday in Advent, realizing that “the Lord is near”. Are we able to rejoice, simply on hearing someone say to us: “Rejoice!”? Anyone can, with effort, put on a happy face, but that is not the same as joy. In a similar way, nothing and no one can make us happy. Happiness is a wild thing that unpredictably drops in, unannounced, perhaps when certain conditions are right. Joy, on the other hand, is a gift from God, a heavenly attitude.

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near. Say to the faint of heart: Be strong and do not fear. Behold, our God will come, and he will save us. Alleluia!”

Have you noticed recently any of God’s wondrous miracles? Don’t be too quick to say no. “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.” These things happened too often to count during the 3 short years Jesus walked this Earth. Then, before his Ascension into Heaven, Jesus commissioned his disciples to “go out and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and to observe all that I have taught you.” Jesus assured them, and us, that He would manifest his power and glory through us and confirm the truth of our words with his deeds of power.

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near. Say to the faint of heart: Be strong and do not fear. Behold, our God will come, and he will save us. Alleluia!”

If we haven’t seen manifestations of Jesus’ power to transform hard hearts, to reconcile enemies, to heal the sick, to give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and speech to the mute, or to make the lame walk; it is perhaps because we have not dared to ask, we have not risked making fools of ourselves by offering to pray with others, to gently lay hands on them in prayer.

Another possibility is that we have prayed in faith for others, but our eyes have been blind and our ears closed to notice the Lord acting with power in the lives of those for whom we have prayed. We pray, then walk away; we stop paying attention. Well, maybe it’s time to wake up!

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near. Say to the faint of heart: Be strong and do not fear. Behold, our God will come, and he will save us. Alleluia!”

“But Father, you’re a priest; we’re only lay people. We don’t have Holy Orders!” Ah, yes, but Jesus ordained only the 12 Apostles. All the other disciples were lay people. Jesus sent all of them, as he sends all of us, all of you, to go out and make disciples by telling people about Jesus, offering to pray with them, and calling on the Lord to show them that He is real.

People say: “I don’t need Confession. I confess my sins to God directly.” Wonderful! Do this often, but you also need to be reconciled. We are all connected in Christ. Every sin I do affects everyone. Every act of love, courage, service, or generosity that I fail to do darkens the sky over us all. Jesus is our Head. Jesus alone can restore our unity and peace, our solidarity in love, and our joy in the Father’s love. Jesus has chosen to offer this reconciliation through the ministry of his priests. When I offend the whole Body of Christ and God; only God’s chosen envoy can bring me back through reconciliation into the communion of the Most Holy Trinity.

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near. Say to the faint of heart: Be strong and do not fear. Behold, our God will come, and he will save us. Alleluia!”

Jesus came for sinners. He wants to shine the Light of his truth to dispel the darkness deep within us. His Light is gentle, a divine Fire which burns away all that is sinful, bitter, impure, untrue, false, to make room for the love, peace, goodness, truth, and beauty which are in the Most Holy Trinity. One of the fruits God gives in a good Confession is heavenly JOY!

In a few moments, it will be time to place at the altar our offering to God. It is ourselves that we offer: all that we carry within us, our hopes and our fears, our desires and our regrets, and even our sins and our repentance. Let us open wide our spirit to God; so that He may do in us all that He desires to do: to forgive, to heal, and to give life.

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near. Say to the faint of heart: Be strong and do not fear. Behold, our God will come, and he will save us. Alleluia!”

“Mary Queen of Peace, pray for us. St. Joseph, pray for us. St. Brother André, pray for us. St. Kateri, pray for us. All you holy women and men, pray for us. O my Jesus, I trust in You! Thank You; You who are God, the Father, + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

In silence now, the Holy Spirit continues to fill us with the blazing Light of God.

 

https://frgilleshomilies.blogspot.com         https://homeliesabbegilles.blogspot.com

 

© 2006-2022 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC           © 2006-2022 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC

Jesus wants us to confess our sins to Him through his priest so that we may be reconciled. - December 4th, 2022 - 2nd Sunday in Advent - MQP Church in JLW Parish

 2nd Sunday in Advent 

VOCATION: Jesus calls us - He calls us to follow Him, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and to become a missionary disciple.... 

 Homily MP3 version - PDF version 

What are the offerings that we bring to God? What is the meaning of "HOSANNAH!" We acclaim God for his greatness and praise Him, while at the same time calling upon Him to rescue us in our distress.... "HOSANNAH!" MP3 version 

“Alleluia. Alleluia. Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths:
all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Alleluia!”

 Hello, Sisters! Brothers! Have you ever kicked a soft drink dispensing machine? Maybe you haven’t, but you probably have felt frustration with something mechanical, or more likely, with another human being. It is so very human to experience frustration and even anger when things go badly or don’t work properly or when what we expect to happen just isn’t happening.

Fr. Francis is available right now to receive you if you would like to meet Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. When we make a good confession, Jesus sets us free from our sins, our regrets, and from anything holding us prisoner and preventing us from being fully alive.

“Alleluia. Alleluia. Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths:
all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Alleluia!” 

Well, it’s hard to admit the truth to myself, and it’s even harder to admit the truth to others, but it is not uncommon for us Christians to feel frustrated with God. We pray and we pray for some intention and we wait and we wait for the answer to come, and for various reasons, we feel as though God is not answering us. At least, the answer we want just isn’t happening.

Fr. Francis is available right now to receive you if you would like to meet Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. When we go before the priest to make a confession, it is Jesus Himself, in Person, who listens to us, suggests to the priest what to say to us, gives us his mercy and forgiveness, asks us to make a penance or gesture of thanks, and sends us on our way with his blessing. Jesus needs us to be his witnesses in our world as his missionary disciples. When we put our weakness in his hands, we allow Jesus to manifest his power through us.

“Alleluia. Alleluia. Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths:
all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Alleluia!” 

During Advent, the Word of God spoken to us is so beautiful and encouraging. Through the prophet Isaiah – almost 800 years before Jesus – the Lord spoke of the coming of the Messiah, the promised Anointed One who would bring perfect peace to humanity and to nature itself. We all know only too well that both humanity and nature are still in terrible trouble today. There are wars in many places on Earth and our natural environment is in deep trouble. We could well ask: “Lord, why aren’t You doing something about all of these troubles?”

This is how the Lord Jesus answers us, as He does every day: “My Father and I are doing everything we can with the Holy Spirit. The Father sent Me, and I came. There was no room for me in Bethlehem and I accepted to be born in a stable among the animals. My Mother Mary and Joseph accepted to endure these things with complete trust in the Father. Join with us.”

“Alleluia. Alleluia. Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths:
all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Alleluia!” 

We just heard the voice of John the Baptist denouncing the religious leaders of his day: “But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, John said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance.”” The others coming to John for baptism in the Jordan River were sincere in their intention to make a change in their lives, but the religious leaders considered themselves to be perfect and above reproach. They blamed everyone else for the troubles of their world.

We are preparing to enter into the joy of Christmas which explodes within us when we see God coming to live among us as a Baby. This Baby will grow up into the Son of Man who will accept to take on Himself the blame for all the sins and troubles of the world. Jesus doesn’t ask us to carry the weight of the whole world on our shoulders, because He is already doing that, but He does ask us to admit our own part, to stop blaming others, and to confess our own sins.

“Alleluia. Alleluia. Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths:
all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Alleluia!” 

We all carry a darkness deep in our soul… our refusal to admit the truth about ourselves, not wanting to humble ourselves before God, thinking we don’t need to go to confession. Jesus wants to shine the Light of his truth to dispel the darkness deep within us. His Light is gentle, but it is a divine Fire which burns away all that is sinful, bitter, impure, untrue, false, to make room for the love, peace, goodness, truth, and beauty which are in the Most Holy Trinity. Fr. Francis is still available to help you meet Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

In a few moments, it will be time to place at the altar our offering to God. It is ourselves that we offer: all that we carry within us, our hopes and our fears, our desires and our regrets, and even our sins and our repentance. Let us open wide our spirit to God; so that He may do in us all that He desires to do: to forgive, to heal, and to give life.

“Alleluia. Alleluia. Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths:
all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Alleluia!”

“Mary Queen of Peace, pray for us. St. Joseph, pray for us. St. Brother André, pray for us. St. Kateri, pray for us. All you holy women and men, pray for us. O my Jesus, I trust in You! Thank You; You who are God, the Father, + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

 

In silence now, the Holy Spirit continues to fill us with the blazing Light of God.

 

https://frgilleshomilies.blogspot.com         https://homeliesabbegilles.blogspot.com

 

© 2006-2022 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC           © 2006-2022 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC

God doesn't usually save us from having trouble, but He is with us in the trouble to enlighten and strengthen us. 2nd Sunday of Advent - MQP Church in JLW Parish - December 5th, 2021

  Homily MP3 version             Homily PDF version

“The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy!”

Brothers and sisters in Jesus, we heard an echo this morning of the suffering endured by the People of God centuries before Jesus; when many of their relatives, friends, and neighbours were taken into captivity in exile. After a few generations, the Lord addressed this good word of encouragement to them – which we just heard – through the prophet Baruch: the Lord had not forgotten his people in exile and He fully intended to bring them back home.

We notice the same pattern today and, in fact, in every generation. The Lord does not keep us from enduring trouble, but once we are in trouble, the Lord does not forget us. In fact, He is right there with us in the very midst of our trouble, and the help we need is what He offers us: He pours his own Spirit into us to give us light and understanding, courage and strength.

“The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy!”

We would much prefer that the Lord would save us from having to endure trouble in the first place, but that is not the way of the Lord. God knows that when the burning flames of our trouble cast us into the heart of the fiery furnace, those very flames burn away impurities in our mind and spirit, and they purify the intentions of our heart. The very efforts we make to face all our trouble, these efforts actually make us stronger and bring us closer to the person we deeply want to be, closer and closer to the best possible version of ourselves.

“The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy!”

When we find ourselves in the jaws of some trouble or other, it is a challenge for us to remember that we are always in the Presence of the Most Holy Trinity, and that God is most interested in our life and in our progress. We have been designed by our Creator to love all things and all people with a love that is pure and unselfish, a love that forgets itself in order to give all its attention to the other. However, because of our damaged human condition, we are forgetful of God and, living as if God were absent or as if God did not exist, we put all of our attention and energy into trying to meet all our challenges on our own.

To resolve this human condition of isolation from our Creator, our Father God first sent prophets to his Chosen People, and then in time He sent his only begotten Son into our midst. Now, in our own lifetime, the Father continues to send us his beloved Son, who is one and the same with Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ, Jesus the Lord of lords and the King of kings.

Every moment of every day the Holy Spirit, who came to dwell within us at Baptism, shines his divine light within our mind, heart, and soul; reminding us of Jesus and inviting us to open our mind, heart, and soul to Him, to Jesus, the One who came among us as a little Child.

“The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy!”

Before Jesus launched into the mission entrusted to Him by his Father, the Holy Spirit led Him into the desert, where He was tempted by the Enemy of Mankind, Satan the devil, to be rich, famous, and powerful. He tempted Jesus to be the opposite of what the Father sent Him to be among us: poor, unknown, and weak, like us.

“The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy!”

We are all of us tempted in similar ways by the Enemy of Mankind, Satan the devil, to be rich, famous, and powerful. Wealth, popularity, and power are of themselves good things and are very attractive to us human beings. The problem with ordinary good things is that they tend to distract us from the best and most important things, like integrity, family, and mutual love.

“The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy!”

God our Creator designed us; so, He knows that we will only be truly happy when we become the person we are meant to be, when we know where we belong, and when we forget ourselves in order to give our loving attention to others, especially those most in need of us.

John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, is God’s gift to us today, the 2^nd Sunday of Advent, in order to remind us that we don’t need to remain trapped forever in the attractive things of this life. If only we open our mind, heart, and soul to God our Father and ask Him to deliver us; then, He will most certainly set us free by bringing us into a more personal relationship with his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. The beauty of Advent is that it is a time for us to prepare to approach Jesus at his poorest, most vulnerable stage of life, when He was a helpless little newborn Baby.

“The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy!”

At Jesus’ Birth, even the shepherds brought little gifts to the newborn Infant. Every Mass is like Christmas. With bread and wine to honour Jesus, we offer to the eternal Father everything that is happening in our life, and all our efforts to live as children of God, since the last time we came to the Altar of the Lord. In our poverty, we pray: « O my Jesus, I trust in You! » Our Good God wants to forgive us our sins and remove from our minds, hearts, and souls every obstacle to his love, for He is God: the Father, and + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In silence with the Holy Spirit guiding us, let us ponder the gift we bring to the Lord.

 

https://frgilleshomilies.blogspot.com         https://homeliesabbegilles.blogspot.com

 

© 2006-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC           © 2006-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC

The LSM sponsored by CAM continues... God invites us to unburden our hearts to receive his JOY... Jesus' Nativity is near... "Rejoice!" - Sunday Dec. 13th, 2020 - LSM - OLF Parish

 HOMILY MP3 file          HOMILY PDF file   

Good evening dear brothers and sisters! Welcome to our 3^rd Sunday of Advent! For the first time in seven years and 2 months we are no longer gathered together around Bishop Thomas Dowd, who is now bishop elect of Sault-Ste-Marie Diocese. He served us and offered us his friendship since his ordination to the priesthood December 7^th, 2001 and his consecration as Auxiliary Bishop of Montreal September 1oth, 2011. This Thursday, December 17^th, he will be installed as 7^th Bishop of Sault-Ste-Marie Diocese, Ontario. This week he is moving into his residence and office in Sudbury and will also be working in North Bay and Sault-Ste-Marie. You will be able to take part by Internet in his installation in North Bay via Salt+Light or SSM.

The 1^st Candle in our Advent Wreath gave witness to the great reason for our hope: that in Jesus our heavenly Father is eager to grant us forgiveness for our sins and restore our dignity and abundance of life as his children. The 2^nd Candle in our Advent Wreath gave witness to the faith of all those who went before us on this journey towards God on Earth and that we too are called to deliberately choose to live our life with complete faith and trust in God through Jesus.

Today, the 3^rd Candle in our Advent Wreath gives witness to the nearness of Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. The other 3 candles are a beautiful, deep purple, signifying our need to repent of our sins, to accept God’s grace to change our attitudes and behaviours and convert our lives to become more like Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Today the 3^rd candle is pink, expressing beautifully the JOY which is ours as we come closer and closer to December 24^th and 25^th; when we will celebrate the Nativity, the Birth of Jesus, the Saviour of the world, Jesus, the Light of the world.

The joy which our God offers us today is not like the joy which people can experience every day in the course of our earthly life. Earthly joy naturally erupts within us when we receive and open a beautifully wrapped present, or have a birthday party, or receive a promotion at work, or get a raise in salary, or when we get married, or witness the birth of a baby. These moments all have their own value, and it is God’s intention that we have moments of joy in our lives.

No, the joy which God offers us today, and every day as his children living in this world, is a supernatural joy; it is a participation in the joy which is in the Most Holy Trinity, and it is a joy which has eternal value because God the Most Holy Trinity is eternal.

This divine JOY erupts within us when we freely choose to use the supernatural gift of faith infused within us by the Holy Spirit and recognize that all that we are and all that we have is coming to us from God, from within the Most Holy Trinity, and is an expression of God’s love.

Today this divine JOY erupts within us by the grace of the Holy Spirit as we approach our celebration of the Nativity of Jesus, the Saviour of the world, Jesus, the Light of the world. As we turn our eyes, minds, hearts, and souls to Jesus, like a bright ray of sunlight the love of God shines upon us and gives supernatural warmth to our spirits; no matter our situation in life.

It is the Holy Spirit who filled Mary with this divine JOY, prompting her to erupt in praise to God in what we now call her Magnificat: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.” When we permit God to shine his radiant divine light within us, we too erupt with divine JOY. This divine JOY is one of the wondrous characteristics of the eternal beatitude of the saints in Heaven, in the divine Presence of the Most Holy Trinity. We can be aware of this divine JOY when we encounter Jesus in the sacraments, and especially in Holy Communion, when Jesus gives us a transfusion of the divine life He has with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Our body needs to replenish its strength be eating one or more meals each day; so too our spirit needs to be constantly replenished by God.

As our local star the Sun constantly shines forth its light and heat; so too does God the Most Holy Trinity constantly shine forth divine light and the fire of divine love. However, just as our rotating Earth plunges us into darkness and cold every night; so too can we plunge ourselves into the cold and dark of distance from God by our choice of thoughts, attitudes, words, actions, and behaviours. It is true that some thoughts, emotions, and gestures erupt from within us as if without our consent; so God does not blame us for those human faults. However, God as our loving Father, does discipline us and lovingly expects us to make efforts to “clean up our act” in order to give more room to the expansion of love, to make efforts to spread attitudes of kindness and compassion, and to spread the works of mercy.

That is why this Late Sunday Mass is the foundational activity of Catholic Action Montreal; as intended by Bishop Tom Dowd, and as maintained and developed by the leadership of CAM and all those who bring their cooperation to this great communal work of love and mercy. John the Baptist baptized with water to give the people an opportunity to decide to turn away from all that is evil and become free to live their lives in the company and spirit of the living God.

Jesus continues to offer God’s mercy to all who desire his forgiveness, to unburden our heart to love God and others as we love ourselves, in purity of heart. In addition, Jesus refills us with the Holy Spirit, without whose power we are often powerless to change. If you haven’t been to confession in a long time, now would be a good time to do it while there is still time.

So let us continue to pray for one another that we might accept the encouragement and grace of the Holy Spirit to open wide our heart, our mind, our spirit and even our body to the presence and the love of God: the Father, + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Let us take a few moments in silence to reflect on this Good News spoken to us by the Lord. 

https://frgilleshomilies.blogspot.com 

© 2006-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2006-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC

God our Father gives us permission to complain while Jesus says to us... "Stay awake!" - Sunday Nov. 29th, 2020 - MQP - JLW Parish

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Good day dear brothers and sisters! You have noticed the change in liturgical color today. We are already beginning a new liturgical year with the first Sunday of Advent, a time God gives us to help us prepare to receive in a new and fresh way the Father’s gift of his Son to the world for the life of the world. The eternal Son of God was first given to humanity when Mary conceived the divine Son in her womb at the Annunciation by the Archangel Gabriel, which we celebrate on March 25^th. Nine months later, on December 25^th, we celebrate the Nativity, the Birth of Jesus, the Saviour of the world, Jesus, the Light of the world.

What’s not so unusual about the Word the Lord addresses to us today is that in the words of the prophet Isaiah, God gives us permission to complain. That’s right. God inspired Isaiah to complain to God on behalf of the people, because they were quite fed up of suffering and of waiting for God to manifest his power and act to save them.

Do you have any reason to complain these days? Some people say to me: “I don’t know, Father, our life is pretty good in spite of the troubles of these times. I have a good life, a wonderful spouse, good children, work isn’t so good but we get by. Our health is okay so far.”

On the other hand, other people say to me: “Father, I’m fed up with all this Covid trouble. We argue more at home sometimes, the children are climbing the walls, work is bad, there is some sickness in the family… when will it all end? We’re really quite fed up.”

You know, it occurred to me that in the past at times I would wonder what it must have been like for people when they had to go through WWI from 1914 to 1918. At the time, they called it the Great War because it was the most extensive war in the world in living memory and could very well have been the worst war in human history by involving the greatest number of people.

While they were in it, and as the casualties mounted, it must have felt as though it would never end. The days and weeks must have seemed so long and hard to endure. Then, if that wasn’t bad enough, just as the war ended, the Spanish Flu began to spread all over the world and it lasted for two years. During WWI 20 million died, but the Spanish Flu killed 50 million over two years when the world population was around 1.8 billion.

WWII killed between 70 and 85 million people when the world population was around 2.3 billion. As people lived through the Spanish Flu and suffered the sickness and death of people all around them and in their own families, the trouble and pain must have felt endless, as if it would never end. They must certainly have complained and cried out to God. It was the same during WWII with the exception that for those left behind here there was an incredible new prosperity with the development of war time industrial expansion for the production of arms and equipment and supplies for the war effort. Many women got jobs for the first time ever.

So, what is life like for you and your loved ones these days? Do you have any reason to complain or are you feeling fed up with the situation we are living in during our time? Well, if you are fed up and feeling like complaining, don’t be shy to complain to God. After all, He is our Father in heaven, our Creator who made us, and He knows how we’re made and what it is like for us to endure all these things.

One good reason to complain is why the Lord allowed our Church in Montreal to have so much trouble understanding that Brian Boucher was a troubled man and dangerous priest who did so much harm to people. Why did it take so long to stop him? Why was he ordained in the first place? You can read all about that in Judge Capriolo’s report on the Diocese’s website.

It is perfectly natural for us to have trouble understanding the ways of the Lord and to put our questions to Him. Lord, why are there a few bad priests? Lord, when will this Covid-19 pandemic come to an end? We have been praying for an effective remedy to cure the sick; as well as for an effective vaccine to prevent anyone else from being infected or developing symptoms and getting sick or dying. How long must we continue to wait and worry?

Brothers and sisters, as we prepare the bread and wine on the Altar, it is important for us to also put on the Altar our needs, our complaints, our fears, our troubles, our worries, all our concerns for ourselves and the people we love, and to bring to the Father – together with Jesus – all that we carry in our minds, hearts, souls, and bodies…. Jesus invites us to make a total offering of ourselves to the Father together with Him as He allows us to participate in the total gift He made of Himself to the Father at the Last Supper and on the Cross….

Please also remember that as we prepare to welcome the joy and gift of Jesus and celebrate Him at Christmas, a very effective way to make room for God in our lives is to examine our conscience and then make a good confession before the priest, because when we go to see the priest, it is Jesus who is there listening to us. Jesus sends his priests to us.

If you haven’t been to confession in a long time, maybe now would be a good time to do it while we are still alive on this Earth. Jesus waits in the person of the priest to give us his mercy.

So let us continue to pray for one another that we might accept the encouragement and grace of the Holy Spirit to open wide our heart, our mind, our spirit and even our body to the presence and the love of God: the Father, + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Let us take a few moments in silence to reflect on this Good News spoken to us by the Lord. 

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© 2006-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2006-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC