Father Gilles' English Homilies: purifying fire of God's love

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Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! He has delivered the needy from the hands of evildoers! - June 25th, 2023 - 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time "A" - MQP Church in JLW Parish & LSM - Late Sunday Mass in St. Willibrord

In the "New Covenant" made by our Creator God with humanity, as reported in Jeremiah 31:31-34, every human being can know God from within - because the Holy Spirit is revealing our Creator to all who are willing to know the Lord and trust in Him. We can still help each other along the way; so please feel free to share with others these homilies and your own personal faith in God through Jesus Christ. G.S.

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12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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

Word of God - Readings & Gospel - PDF version

Noon Mass - Homily MP3 version - PDF version

The LSM at St. Willibrord in Verdun

8:00 p.m. Mass - 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

“Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! He has delivered the needy from the hands of evildoers!”

Here is Jesus always near to us to encourage us to put aside all fear in the face of evil men and their terrible actions in the world. What is the condition of our spirits in the face of all the threats multiplying all over the world today? Whether it be the Russian aggression in Ukraine, or acts of war or violence in the Middle East, in Africa or Asia, or else the virulent persecution of Christians in general and of Catholics in particular all over the world; what is our attitude, what is our prayer, and what is our response?

“Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! He has delivered the needy from the hands of evildoers!”

Just as dramatic are the constantly changing conditions of our world economies, of the Covid pandemic and other health threats, as well as the great climatic challenges. What will our living conditions be in the future? Even more pertinently or essentially, what is our attitude towards God in the face of all these disasters in our world? Are we ashamed of our God, or are we able to recognize his Presence and action in our world and in our lives? When others are defiant towards us and our faith, do we feel pressured to deny the Lord Jesus “before humans”, or are we ready to declare ourselves for Jesus and to acknowledge Him “before humans”?

“Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! He has delivered the needy from the hands of evildoers!”

In the face the daily challenges of life and the unending and unavoidable changes which life brings us every day, are we inclined to let ourselves be crushed and discouraged? And yet, we are neither alone nor abandoned. We have only to open the Bible to the Book of Psalms to find a complaint perfectly suited to express the anguish of our heart, the confusion of our mind, and the distress of our soul. As we pray the complaint, God hears and permeates us with his grace.

“Lord, in your steadfast love, answer me. It is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that shame has covered my face. I have become a stranger to my kindred, an alien to my mother’s children. It is zeal for your house that has consumed me; the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”

“Lord, in your steadfast love, answer me!”

Jesus declares it clearly: God our Father sees us and watches closely over us. He sees all that happens to us, and He permits all that happens in the world, far away, as well as close by. We are not ready for Heaven; that is why God permits that all these trials purify the intentions of our heart; in order to make room in us for all the love of God and of our neighbour.

As well, we are weak, and we need these trials which provoke us to resist the evil and the temptations, and to fight against all that is evil. God knows very well that it is only by our resistance and our struggle against all that is evil, that we can be strengthened to endure.

“The Lord hears the needy, and does not despise his own that are in bonds!”

Finally, at the end of each day, as we prepare for sleep, and when we review our day, we can ask God our Father to forgive us for our faults, and give Him thanks for his Presence, his help, and his love. It is as we pray that we can become conscious of the Presence of the Most Holy Trinity within us, and that we can realize that all is grace; all is gift. He shows us that we have control over nothing; so, why keep trying to carry the weight of the whole world on our shoulders, when Jesus is already taking care of that? Since all that we are, and all that comes to us, and all that we have is gift from God; we can relax, we can rest, and we can breathe.

“The Lord hears the needy, and does not despise his own that are in bonds!”

Our life on this Earth is brief. We can choose to live as if God doesn’t exist or as if He is doing nothing, and we can deny Him before humans, or we can choose to believe in Him, to trust Him, to open our eyes, our minds, and our hearts, and to welcome into our lives his Presence and his saving action. Ask to meet with a priest and allow the Lord to strengthen you in your faith. Jesus declares that it is the truth which will set us free. In the presence of the priest one can obtain God’s forgiveness but also some spiritual direction.

“The Spirit of truth will testify on my behalf, says the Lord, and you also are to testify!”

That is why it is so important for us to participate well in the Sunday Liturgy, at Holy Mass. We can prepare the day before and Sunday morning by remembering all that we have lived since our last presence at the Sacred Liturgy. We can dispose ourselves to place on the altar the offering of ourselves: our efforts during the week to live as daughters, sons of God; all that we accept to endure out of love; our trials, our sorrows, our losses, our worries, our prayers, our temptations, our disappointments, and even our sins; putting all our trust in God.

“The Spirit of truth will testify on my behalf, says the Lord, and you also are to testify!”

“Mary Mother of God, St. Joseph, walk with us in the steps of Jesus. 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 helps us to lay down our offering together with that of Jesus….

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

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© 2006-2023 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
© 2006-2023 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC

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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

The fire burning within us is the Holy Spirit purifying our hearts. - October 16th, 2022 - 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time - MQP Church in JLW Parish

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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

“To You I call; for You will surely heed me, O God; turn your ear to me; hear my words. Guard me as the apple of your eye; in the shadow of your wings protect me!”

My sisters! My brothers! What a shock to hear the Word of God tell of this battle between the Amalekites and the people of Israel. In fact, it was a little like the invasion in our own day of Ukraine by Russia. A peaceful people and their innocent families are invaded by an aggressor nation. Israel had barely gotten out of Egypt when the Amalekites ambushed them from behind.

How horrible! Generally, God does not participate in our quarrels or battles, but God acts when people or nations oppose his plan to save humanity. God chose his people Israel so that one day his only-begotten Son might come and take flesh and dwell among us. Amalek was fighting against God. Our Saviour needed to find a home among all of humanity. God chose Israel because of the young maiden Myriam – Mary of Nazareth – whom God chose to bear his Son. Every Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus who could find no room in the houses of men, but who had to be content with a manger in a stable in the hollow of a poor cave.

“To You I call; for You will surely heed me, O God; turn your ear to me; hear my words. Guard me as the apple of your eye; in the shadow of your wings protect me!”

This story of Moses who had trouble keeping his arms raised so that Israel might overcome their attackers shows God teaching his people a lesson. All too often we try to handle our own affairs without having recourse to God. We forget that to have life in its fullness we need to live our life in partnership with God. God created us to live in communion with the Most Holy Trinity. So, when we try to walk alone, we deprive ourselves of God’s love and his power.

“To You I call; for You will surely heed me, O God; turn your ear to me; hear my words. Guard me as the apple of your eye; in the shadow of your wings protect me!”

God invites us today to consider our relationship with the Most Holy Trinity. From one Sunday to the next, at home or outside, what is my attitude towards God? Do the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit find a warm welcome in me or rather a contemptuous or disrespectful attitude? Worse still, do I spend all my time ignoring God as if I were telling Him to mind his own business? Do I love my neighbour, or am I at times contemptuous of others?

At the moment of our last breath on this Earth, our soul will leave our body behind, and we will find ourselves face-to-face with God, with Jesus Christ. If at that final moment we realize we are full of regrets, it will be too late to change. Today is “the day of salvation”. Now is the time to get closer to God.

“To You I call; for You will surely heed me, O God; turn your ear to me; hear my words. Guard me as the apple of your eye; in the shadow of your wings protect me!”

As soon as we raise our eyes to Heaven, as soon as we open our hands to God, we are already at prayer. If there is an empty space inside us, and it hurts, it is simply because this empty space was made by God so He could come dwell within us; but He does not come when He is not welcome. God does not want to make us slaves but friends. God already loves us; so, it’s up to us every moment of every day to accept his friendship.

Jesus tells a parable about a nasty judge to teach us to persevere in prayer. Unlike the unjust judge, God is just and good. However, his ways are higher than our ways, and his will is bigger than our will. He always answers our prayers, but He answers in his time and in his way for our greater good. God always acts for our best, but not necessarily as we want Him to do.

“To You I call; for You will surely heed me, O God; turn your ear to me; hear my words. Guard me as the apple of your eye; in the shadow of your wings protect me!”

If there is a fire burning within us, it is a sign of the Presence and action of God within us. The Holy Spirit burns our bad intentions to purify our heart and make room for the love of the Father and the Presence of Jesus. There is another fire, more pleasant, which is a fire of divine desire – a holy desire – which attracts us to God and also towards our neighbour. It is the fire of divine love which seeks to fill us with love and then bring us to love our neighbour and even our enemies; exactly as Jesus loves us.

“To You I call; for You will surely heed me, O God; turn your ear to me; hear my words. Guard me as the apple of your eye; in the shadow of your wings protect me!”

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

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

To live as Jesus' missionary disciples, we need to filled ever anew by the Holy Spirit. - May 29th, 2022 - Ascension of the Lord - LSM in OLF Parish Church

Ascension of Our Lord

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

Homily MP3 version

HOMILY

So, brothers and sisters, the past few weeks we have been reflecting on the state of the Late Sunday Mass... over the last two years our churches have been closed, reopened, closed again, reopened again, and we have not returned to the way things were; far from it. Of course, it's not only our Evening Sunday Mass that is affected. Just before Mass I was chatting with Boris and he was telling me the latest news about attendance at St. Kevin.

This morning I was at Sainte Suzanne Parish in the eastern part of Pierrefonds, and everywhere we go probably less than half of the people who used to come to church are currently attending in person the Sunday worship. Now, this question is only one of the many issues that come our way in the course of our daily lives whether we're living alone or with a spouse or with children - little children, grown up children - whoever we may be living with, or we may be living alone; whatever our situation is at this particular season in our lives, every day things happen, or things don't happen yet that we would like to happen. So, we have hopes, and fears, concerns, worries, projects, successes, failures....

In all of our living, what is our perspective with which we live our lives? We have no control over other people; we have no control over things that happen around us in the world; so, in many ways we are more or less helpless. Of course we can make a difference, we can make a contribution by being there; whether it's in politics or in our neighbourhood, in the Catholic community of Montreal, by our presence, by our involvement, by speaking up, of course we can make a difference. We contribute something, but as we do that, how are we living ourselves on the inside? What is "la météo", what is the meteorology, what is the weather or our life? Is it sunny, is it stormy, is it dark, is it bright? It comes down to this question which the Lord is raising today in the Word addressed to us.

Are we living our life as though we are on our own, as though God has no interest in taking action in our life, or as if God is absent, or as some people think, as though God does not exist? Or do we enter into our days fully expecting the presence of God, looking for God's presence, looking for the ways the Lord will be guiding us into our day? I think that's a very important question. We see in the Gospels how the Apostles and disciples were often filled with fears, with concerns, with worries, ambitions; as though Jesus was not making any difference at all, and He often had to scold them a little bit or give them instructions, and they really didn't change a whole lot. Until after He died and rose again from the dead; then He had their attention. Then they were really listening during the forty days after Easter, and then, for once, after He ascended into Heaven, for once they actually did what He told them to do.

They gathered together, they prayed together, and they waited. That is very difficult for us to do; we pray, but we have a hard time waiting. You know, a lot of people tell me they're worred about their grown up children, they're worried about their elderly parents, they're worried about all kinds of things; they pray and pray and pray, and after they walk away from their prayer, they continue to worry. So, that's like putting something into God's hands, like this: "Lord I'm worried about this, please take care of it." And then, we take it back. When we insist on worrying about something, when we insist on, you know, stirring the pot, and making plans and making plans and making plans... there comes a time when we need to let go of a thing, you know. We don't stop loving the people we're worried about, but we can decide to stop worrying about it. You know, I pray about my sister, and then I put it in God's hands.

And when she comes to mind again, I decide not to worry about her and I repeat my prayer to the Lord: "Lord, I put her into your hands." Then, day by day, I wait for the manifestation of God's will, that something will unfold, that God will act in the way He wants to act, that He will bring about his will, not mine. It's very difficult for us to do that, not just for you as lay people, but for priests, bishops, and even for the Pope. It's very difficult to do that, to wait on the Lord, to live in joyful expectation that the Lord will speak, the Lord will act, the Lord will manifest his will in some way through other people, through events, somehow... and we are given the gift of faith to interpret the signs and to know with conviction what God is doing.

That seems humanly impossible, and it is humanly impossible, and that's why Jesus needed to go away; so that He could send the Holy Spirit, and like the Apostles and disciples, all 120 of them gathered around Mary in the upper room praying for 10 days after Jesus' ascension, waiting for God to fulfill Jesus' promise to send the Holy Spirit; we too need the Holy Spirit. We need to be filled anew with the Holy Spirit. We were touched by the Spirit at our Baptism. Even as babies, the Holy Spirit opened our mind, our heart, to the presence of God, to the love of God, through our parents and through others. At our Confirmation, the Holy Spirit came to strengthen us to enter into our life at that age, whatever age we were, and to face the obstacles and the contradictions and the challenges to our faith.

We're never finished being filled by the Holy Spirit, because the human condition in which we are in this life, it's incomplete, it's always "not yet", "not yet complete". We're waiting for the fulfillment, but while we wait, we still have one foot in Heaven, you know. We have one foot on Earth and one foot in Heaven, and that's about learning to pay attention to the Holy Spirit. How do we do that? Archbishop Christian Lépine gave a homily at the time they were receiving the relic of Carlo Acutis - and his display of Eucharistic miracles was partially put on posters at the Cathedral - in his homily the Archbishop spoke about the importance of silence.

He called on parents to introduce their children to the experience of silence. You cannot read the Bible without noticing the importance of silence. The prophets, the holy women and men who looked for God, who encountered God, did so in the silence. Jesus Himself said that when we pray, we should enter into our inner room in the silence of our heart, where the Father sees and hears us.

So, today the Lord is inviting us, during these days that we have between now and Pentecost, we have another week, to enter into this waiting and praying, so that we too will be available and attentive and waiting with Pope Francis and Archbishop Christian Lépine and all the other people in the Church today - amid all the troubles that humanity is going through - that we deliberately choose and decide to enter into the silence to listen, to be attentive to the Father and to Jesus who continue to want to pour out the Holy Spirit into us, to renew the joy of our youth, and to renew in us our capacity and our willingness to pay attention, to use the gift of faith to notice and to interpret the signs of God's presence and action in our world.

After all, Jesus has commissioned all of us to be his missionary disciples. It doesn't matter how weak we think we are, it doesn't matter how troubled we think we are, or it doesn't matter how incapable we think we are. That's good to be aware of our limitations; that's what we bring, that's what we offer on the altar to God. That's our part, is to offer to the Lord our insufficiency, and our Father is very pleased with that attitude and that offering, and He pours out his Holy Spirit, and the perfection of God completes our imperfection; the love of God dispells our fear; the wisdom of God enlightens our lack of understanding. It is a joy to walk with the Spirit and to be willing to make fools of ourselves and to be Jesus' missionary disciples for today. So, let us pause in a moment of silence to practice entering into the silence, to be attentive to the presence and action and the Word of the Most Holy Trinity.

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.