Pentecost Sunday. Year B - Sunday, May 23, 2021 (EPISODE: 299)

Pentecost Sunday. Year B - Sunday, May 23, 2021
(EPISODE: 299)

Readings for Pentecost Sunday. Year B
FIRST READING: Acts 2: 1-11
Ps 104: 1+24, 29-30, 31+34. "Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth."
SECOND READING: Gal 5: 16-25
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (no bibl. ref). Alleluia, alleluia! Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful. And kindle in them the fire of your love.
GOSPEL: John 15: 26-27; 16: 12-15

Image Credit: Shutterstock Licensed - stock photo ID783792871 -Bayeux, France - February 12, 2013: Stained Glass window depicting Pentecost, in Bayeux Cathedral, Calvados, France. - By jorisvo
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Please listen to the audio recordings of the Mass – (Readings, prayers and homily), for Pentecost Sunday. Year B - Sunday, May 23, 2021, by clicking this link here: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/pentecost-sunday-year-b-2021-episode-299  
(EPISODE: 299)
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* (Prologue:  Fr Paul Kelly)

Today's feast day of Pentecost is, in many ways, a birthday celebration.  With the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, on that first Pentecost Sunday, Christ's church was born.  And, as the readings this weekend tell us, we become beloved sons and daughters of God, and heirs to God's kingdom. We have been given the freedom of the children of God.  But the second reading supplies an essential 'qualifier' (lest we get too proud and indulgent), that this freedom is given to us in order that we too can live as Christ did. So we are reminded that Pentecost and our membership of God's family is never meant to be self-serving or indulgent, but all about service, sacrifice and self-forgetting love.
 
"If you are guided by the Spirit you will be in no danger of yielding to self-indulgence since self-indulgence is the opposite of the Spirit, the Spirit is totally against such a thing, and it is precisely because the two are so opposed that you do not always carry out your good intentions. If you are led by the Spirit, no law can touch you. When self-indulgence is at work the results are obvious… What the Spirit brings is very different: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control. There can be no law against things like that, of course. You cannot belong to Christ Jesus unless you crucify all self-indulgent passions and desires. Since the Spirit is our life, let us be directed by the Spirit." (Galatians 5:16-26)
 
The Gospel this weekend also reminds us that the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the lives of the church, will always work to remind us of all that Christ did and said, and keep us close to Christ and his values. The Holy Spirit is the "Spirit of Truth." All who live by the Spirit, strive to live authentic, honest, integrated lives built on truth. 
 
The Gospel today, from Saint John, tells us that Jesus gives his followers the peace they need, because that is the first greeting of the Lord to them:  Peace be with you!  May we (too) know the peace of Jesus in our own lives!  With peace comes the capacity to forgive the sins of others.  This forgiveness is clearly a gift of the Lord who loves us.  This gift is given to each of us individually and also to the Church, through its ministry.
 
At the heart of our Christian life, fear is taken away, peace and forgiveness are given.  May we dispel the fears of others and proclaim the peace and forgiveness given to us in Jesus.
 
In the first reading too, the disciples were not yet able to go out and speak publicly and to proclaim Jesus to others, even though they now knew he was Risen and Ascended to the Heavenly Father.  They had to wait for the Holy Spirit to take hold of them and give them courage in the face of doubt, persecution, ridicule and rejection.  Perhaps at times we too may be shy about proclaiming our faith in the Lord Jesus.  Perhaps today we can pray for this Spirit to come on us and to give us courage so that our faith becomes so much a part of ourselves that it is so natural and easy to speak of our faith, in an unforced manner.
 
Our gifts are different, each person having different gifts.  We need all the gifts that each person has so that we can continue the work of Christ in our world.  How different our world looks when we begin to recognize that each person brings his or her own gifts and that we need everyone's gifts to live in the fullness of Jesus Christ.
 
In the 'everyday' and unexceptional, that is also where we encounter and KNOW the Spirit is at work in our lives; especially when the love and sacrifice we show is clearly coming from a loving hand bigger than our own lives and our own limited motives and actions
 
When we do actions that are loving and unselfish, we are deeply aware that there is a power and a loving presence at work in us that is outside of just ourselves. Transcending our limitations … and not explainable by our own actions… but bigger, ……. And "of which we are just a cooperating part…."
 
It is God, …. It is God's Spirit at work in and through us.  At work in the world.   A power of unselfish, sacrificing love and service. Unconditional love. That is at the heart of creation.
 
Finally, after the Spirit descended, people of different languages and cultures could all hear and understand. But what is interesting is that  the people were still not speaking the same language. They were still speaking in the language of those different nationalities and cultures. The miracle is that even though they were speaking different languages, they could miraculously understand each other. They were all proclaiming the same message-  and the same truth. This is a reminder that the Spirit brings not uniformity, but diversity and variety, where we are all "one" in that diversity, because the common language we speak is the language of God… and that language is true and overflowing LOVE…..
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(Homily:  Fr Peter Dillon).
Pentecost Sunday Year B 2021

We sometimes hear that the feast of Pentecost to referred to as the birthday of the Church, which might be true except when the first Pentecost happened there was no church, as least as we know it today.

In fact there was very little that we would recognise as connecting with our modern day understanding of church. There were no cathedrals or chapels, no popes, priests, monks or religious sisters. These did not come into being for many centuries later. In these early days there was no real estate, no bureaucracy, laws or titles.

Of course, once the physical churches were established they became magnificent works of art and architecture, established to let God and his followers how he was to be praised. Throughout the world and across the ages many churches were built and fortunately many of them still stand as a great testimony to the deep faith of those who gathered in them. Yet as magnificent as many of these buildings are they are simply the shell in which the actual church gathers, that is, the people of God, and the faith community.

On this day of Pentecost, which is actually the fiftieth day after Easter, the gathering of the disciples, was probably to celebrate the Jewish feast which celebrated the ancient covenant which God gave to his people through Moses.  In the Acts of the Apostles Luke turns this gathering into a powerful and dramatic event when the Holy Spirit descended on to people, not commissioning structures to be built, but inspiring the disciples to spread the message, and in that sense the church was born.

There was a leader, a blundering fisherman named Peter, who was joined by a small group of very ordinary people, marginal people who were connected by three important things: baptism into Jesus, breaking of bread and a readiness to tell others of what they heard, seen and learned? We know very little about how and where they met, possibly in houses or in secret to avoid the attention of the Roman authorities, but we can assume there was plenty of robust discussion about what was going to be the most effective way of delivering their new message to a sometimes hostile audience.

There was the assumption that each person upon whom the Spirit fell, had gifts to use to spread the message, and that was all they had to start with. Simple people with a variety of gifts, as St. Paul so confidently states: "Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it". Not necessarily great orators or wealthy merchants, not politicians or law makers, just people who had met and became convinced that Jesus was who he said he was, and that they would be accompanied by the Spirit of God in all their future work.

That was and still is the essence of "church", not that anyone completely understood what each other was trying to say, but that was the real miracle of that first Pentecost. That ordinary people who had spent time hiding and in fear, were now making bold proclamations as the Spirit prompted them.

As Luke tells us, in the quite outstanding reading from Acts, that the Spirit filled these first disciples with words to speak to all these people from unpronounceable places. The various languages are symbols of the many varied ways that we too can use our unique gifts to bring the Gospel alive. The great variety of gifts emerge from the one Spirit in which we were all baptised. Part of our task is to discover how the Spirit has gifted us.

It is not rare to find people not wanting to find out their giftedness or even wanting to display it, since having accepted the gift, it only comes to its fulfilment when shared with the community. It is when we witness to our faith through action that we become the church – at least the community that Christ established. Everything else – the buildings, the Vatican, the encyclicals, while helpful are basically peripheral and incidental to the primary identity of discipleship.

As we gather this Sunday, in a building constructed in modern times, it is good for us to remember we have all that we need to experience what the apostles experienced. We have the simplicity of the Gospels. We are a group of disciples listening to the Word of God, and receiving the broken bread in memory of Jesus, as well as the constant presence of the Holy Spirit who binds us together and helps us to witness Christ in the world.

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References:

Homily – fr peter Dillon

Prologue - Fr Paul W. Kelly

MISSION 2000  – PRAYING SCRIPTURE IN A CONTEMPORARY WAY. YEAR B. BY MARK LINK S.J,

SHARING THE WORD THROUGH THE LITURGICAL YEAR. GUSTAVO GUTIERREZ.,

KARL RAHNER SJ, (1904-1984), IN BELIEF TODAY, 40-41,

MONASTERY OF CHRIST IN THE DESERT. ABBOT'S HOMILY}
 
Image Credit: Shutterstock Licensed - stock photo ID783792871 -Bayeux, France - February 12, 2013: Stained Glass window depicting Pentecost, in Bayeux Cathedral, Calvados, France. - By jorisvo


Pentecost Sunday. Year B  (Sunday, May 23, 2021)  (EPISODE: 299 )
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
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{{May Our Lord's justice sustain you}} welcome everyone, we gather -  To Pray, listen and reflect upon God and God's Kingdom.

As we prepare to celebrate the paschal mystery, let us admit our failings and ask the Lord for pardon and strength. 
Lord Jesus, you have revealed yourself as the way to the Father: Lord, have mercy

You have poured out on your people the Spirit of truth: Christ, have mercy

You are the Good Shepherd, leading us to eternal life: Lord have mercy
May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life.  Amen.
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Memorial Acclamation
1. We proclaim your Death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection until you come again.
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Ps 104: 1+24, 29-30, 31+34. "Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth."

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION ((no bibl. ref.)). Alleluia, alleluia! Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful. And kindle in them the fire of your love.
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PREFACE: Preface of Pentecost
EP III
(theme "Come Holy Spirit Hymn - PWK )

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{heartfelt thanks to you all , for uniting in prayer and for reflection, upon God's overflowing goodness and care.}

Go in peace.(glorifying the Lord by your life)

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Archive of homilies and reflections:  http://homilycatholic.blogspot.com.au
To contact Fr. Paul, please email:  paulwkelly68@gmail.com

To listen to our weekly homily audio podcast, please click this link here:  https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/tracks

You are welcome to subscribe to Fr Paul's homily mail-out by sending an email to this address: paulkellyreflections+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Further information relating to the audio productions linked to this Blog:
"Faith, Hope and Love - Christian worship and reflection"  - Led by Rev Paul Kelly

Prayers and chants  — Roman Missal, 3rd edition, © 2010, The International Commission on English in the liturgy. (ICEL)

Scriptures - New Revised Standard Version: © 1989,  and 2009 by the NCC-USA. (National Council of Churches of Christ - USA)

"The Psalms" ©1963, 2009,  The Grail - Collins publishers.

Prayers of the Faithful -   " Together we pray" by Robert Borg'.   E.J. Dwyer, Publishers, (1993) . (Sydney Australia).

Sung "Mass In Honour of St. Ralph Sherwin" -  By Jeffrey M. Ostrowski. The Gloria, Copyright © 2011 ccwatershed.org.

"Come Holy Spirit" Hymn: inspired by the Hymn by the 9th Century Hymn by Rabanus Maurus. Music and lyrics by Paul Kelly. Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk, 2020. Sound effects by Mark DiAngelo, (soundbible.com, 05.11). https://www.airgigs.com/user/stefankelk

"Quiet Time."  Instrumental Reflection music. Written by Paul W Kelly. 1988, 2007. & This arrangement: Stefan Kelk, 2020.

[ Production -  KER -  2021]

May God bless and keep you.
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The Ascension of the Lord. Year B - Sunday, May 16, 2021 (EPISODE: 298)

The Ascension of the Lord. Year B - Sunday, May 16, 2021
(EPISODE: 298)

Readings for The Ascension of the Lord. Year B

FIRST READING: Acts 1: 1-11
Ps 47: 2-3, 6-7, 8-9. "God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord."
SECOND READING: opt: Eph 4: 1-13
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (Matt 28: 19a+20b). Alleluia, alleluia! Go and teach all people my gospel. I am with you always, until the end of the World.
GOSPEL: Mark 16: 15-20

Image Credit: Shutterstock Licesned - stock photo ID: 1210022299. PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC - OCTOBER 13, 2018: The fresco of Ascension of Jesus in side apse of church kostel Svatého Václava by S. G. Rudl (1900).By Renata Sedmakova.
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Please listen to the audio recordings of the Mass – (Readings, prayers and homily), for The Ascension of the Lord. Year B - Sunday, May 16, 2021, by clicking this link here: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/easter-ascension-2021-episode-298
(EPISODE: 298)
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* (Prologue:  Fr Paul Kelly)
The Ascension marks the completion of Jesus' earthly and bodily presence on earth…..   Jesus had to return to the Heavenly Father, because his rightful place was with the Father in Heaven, ruling heaven and earth from his place in Heaven…..  He needed to return to his Father so that he could send the Holy Spirit to make his work continue in and through his disciples…..

 

Our Catholic faith is big upon seeing beyond appearances….. to see deeper into things than just the surface….. it is a recurring theme throughout our faith and worship….

 

Jesus tells us, that God judges not by appearances but sees straight into the heart, into the inner dispositions and attitudes of the human person, and knows the truth of each one of us…..  Jesus encouraged us to ensure that our lives, our attitudes, our values and our actions all flowed from our deep inner life, built upon love.   mere outward appearances don't mean a lot in the gospel's scheme of things.  This is a valuable lesson for us, and for the world….in a time and culture where appearances seem to be taken on more of a value than they should…..    sometimes at the cost of inner value…

 

Jesus returned to the Father, and disappeared from our sight, so that we would look for and find the continuing real presence of Jesus, in different forms… that are not so obvious……  If Jesus still walked the earth the same way he did while he was with his disciples, there would be no need for us to look for him elsewhere. But Jesus' mission is to be "ALL IN ALL"…. to be draw all things to himself and to  bring to life God's Kingdom in and through all of creation……  this requires Christ to transform and fill up with his presence … all people and all the world…….. He achieves this with the Holy Spirit, and with the cooperation of his followers who continue his mission.

 

Jesus Christ is not visible in the same way as he was when he walked the earth with his disciples…..  but we believe Jesus is still present and active amongst us in new ways…. and through the power of the Holy Spirit….(which reminds us of all Jesus did and said and makes effective all that we do in Jesus' name). So, we all would become the hands and feet and heart of Jesus in our daily lives……

 

St. Teresa of Avila composed a prayer poem and it is a fitting for today…. 

 

As St Teresa writes….

 

"Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

 

Yours are the eyes with which he looks

Compassion on this world,

 

Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,

 

Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.

 

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,

Yours are the eyes, you are his body.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours."

 

And we become the body of Christ, by taking in the body of Christ in communion. We receive Our Lord as food and drink, and take in his presence, his grace and his values…. becoming, (with God's grace) more and more like Jesus with every day)…….  

 

The outward appearance of the bread and wine does not change….but its inner reality does….into Christ's presence….  we look and seem the same, but inside, we believe Jesus has made a home in our hearts… and hopefully our actions and attitudes show that living presence within us…

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(Homily:  Fr Peter Dillon).
Ascension Sunday Year B 2021

 

When parents finally get the chance to have their first outing without their children, they have a list of do's and dont's, usually addressed to the oldest child. 'I'm leaving you in charge' and with the expectation that the child will act responsibly, with the strictest rule being, "Don't leave the house". Responsible parents prepare their children for a time when they won't be there at every moment to tell them what to do. They get them ready to stand alone and confidently able to not only deal with life, but get the very best from it.

 

In an odd way this is a similar instruction Jesus gave to those whom were closest to him at the time of his departure from them. The disciples were to "be left in charge" and to take care of each other and then, using the teaching and skills that he had bestowed on them, he gave them a further more demanding instruction, one that we have come to know as the Great Commission. They were to leave the house and go into the whole world and proclaim the good news to all creation: to use their hands to touch and heal, their voices to tell the story of Jesus, to influence and love to bring about Reconciliation in His name.

 

This feast of the Ascension is the pivotal point between the Resurrection and the arrival of the Spirit at Pentecost. It cannot be explained outside this sequence of events, which transformed the apostles, and in turn we are thus empowered to 'go out' to the ends of the earth. A celebration of the change in attitude and experience of the Apostles to their risen lord.

 

Just a brief recap of events over the last few weeks: apostles and Mary had undergone massive shifts in attitudes, and understanding of the 'presence' of the risen Lord, and the meaning of their own mission, without the physical Jesus to guide them. From being drawn together out of fear, they were now 'open' to see and hear the Advocate in their midst. It seems that this very realisation is the one that is being celebrated today. The 'letting go' of the Jesus they knew, and the 'opening out' to the Spirit who would eventually transform them from fear, into boldness, joy and love.

 

The human elements of sadness at the departure of Jesus, and the eager waiting for the next surprise from the Father is well known to all of us. In Paul's letter to the Ephesians today, we hear that beautiful prayer from the Church that they will have a 'spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed... May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you... and so on

 

The final part of today's understanding, is the practical fact that there is no point looking up into the air for the Risen Jesus, when he is to be found in and among His people. The temptation that was there for the Apostles, is the same for us... namely, trying to cling on to the illusive Jesus. But he moves on, and this is what came into focus for the Apostles prior to the time of Pentecost. The Promise of Jesus to his closest friends and to the church at large, is that we too, have been invited to abide with the Risen Lord for all time. This is a cause of great joy for the Apostles, who were understandably anxious that they would have to take all the responsibility on their shoulders. Had they listened and learned enough from their leader, to take on what seemed an impossible task? Nevertheless, they took their duties seriously and didn't let adversity and criticism stand in their way. They actually felt the spirit of their risen friend working through them. They were not left to do this all by themselves.

 

This is also a great cause of joy for us, that what we experience here in those moments of 'closeness' to God however we may experience it; hoping in this earthly life that the experience would last forever... we can be sure that the taste we have of eternal life here, is just whetting the appetite for the things to come. However, this is no invitation to rest on our laurels. We have the mission to go out... to be Gospel writers that is, etching into our very identity the things that Jesus has said and done in our own lives, and in the lives of other people. This experience of salvation, makes up the basic element for 'change' in our world, and for the issuing in of the Kingdom of God.

 

But it would seem that for most of us the "great commission' is for everyone else. A simple question remains: does anyone know more about God because they know me? What was God thinking when He chose me to go out and proclaim the Good News?

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References:

Homily – fr peter Dillon

Prologue - Fr Paul W. Kelly

 

Image Credit: SHutterstock Licesned - stock photo ID: 1210022299. PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC - OCTOBER 13, 2018: The fresco of Ascension of Jesus in side apse of church kostel Svatého Václava by S. G. Rudl (1900).By Renata Sedmakova}

The Ascension of the Lord. Year B  (Sunday, May 16, 2021)  (EPISODE: 298 )
The Lord be with you.
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{{May God's Spirit of Fortitude and self control abide with you. }} welcome everyone, we gather -  To take time to reflect upon the meaning of God's word for our everyday lives

Coming together as brothers and sisters in Christ, let us prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries by recalling our sins and remembering Christ's greater mercy. 
You were sent to heal the contrite of heart. Lord, have mercy.// You came to call sinners: Christ, have mercy. //You are seated at the right hand of the Father to intercede for us: Lord, have mercy.//
May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life.  Amen.
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Memorial Acclamation
1. We proclaim your Death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection until you come again.
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Ps 47: 2-3, 6-7, 8-9. "God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord."

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (Matt 28: 19a+20b). Alleluia, alleluia! Go and teach all people my gospel. I am with you always, until the end of the World.
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PREFACE: Ascension I
EP IV
(theme variation: 1 )

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{Bless you all and May God's grace guide you each and every day of this week.}

Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.

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Archive of homilies and reflections:  http://homilycatholic.blogspot.com.au
To contact Fr. Paul, please email:  paulwkelly68@gmail.com

To listen to our weekly homily audio podcast, please click this link here:  https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/tracks

You are welcome to subscribe to Fr Paul's homily mail-out by sending an email to this address: paulkellyreflections+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Further information relating to the audio productions linked to this Blog:
"Faith, Hope and Love - Christian worship and reflection"  - Led by Rev Paul Kelly

Prayers and chants  — Roman Missal, 3rd edition, © 2010, The International Commission on English in the liturgy. (ICEL)

Scriptures - New Revised Standard Version: © 1989,  and 2009 by the NCC-USA. (National Council of Churches of Christ - USA)

"The Psalms" ©1963, 2009,  The Grail - Collins publishers.

Prayers of the Faithful -   " Together we pray" by Robert Borg'.   E.J. Dwyer, Publishers, (1993) . (Sydney Australia).

Sung "Mass In Honour of St. Ralph Sherwin" -  By Jeffrey M. Ostrowski. The Gloria, Copyright © 2011 ccwatershed.org.

- "Today I Arise" - For Trisha J Kelly.  Original words and music by Paul W. Kelly. Inspired by St Patrick's Prayer.  Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.

"Quiet Time."  Instrumental Reflection music. Written by Paul W Kelly. 1988, 2007. & This arrangement: Stefan Kelk, 2020.

[ Production -  KER -  2021]

May God bless and keep you.
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Sixth Sunday of Easter. Year B -MOTHERS DAY -- Sunday, May 9, 2021 (EPISODE: 297)

Sixth Sunday of Easter. Year B -MOTHERS DAY -- Sunday, May 9, 2021
(EPISODE: 297)

Readings for Sixth Sunday of Easter. Year B
FIRST READING: Acts 10: 25-26, 34-35, 44-48 (diff)
Ps 98: 1, 2-3a, 3b-4. "The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power. "
SECOND READING: 1 John 4: 7-10
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (John 14: 23). Alleluia, alleluia! All who love me will keep my words, and my Father will love them and we will come to them.
GOSPEL: John 15: 9-17

Image Credit: Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash
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Please listen to the audio-recordings of the Mass – (Readings, prayers and homily), for Sixth Sunday of Easter. Year B - Sunday, May 9, 2021 by clicking this link here: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/easter-6b-2021-episode-297  
(EPISODE: 297)
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* (Prologue:  Fr Paul Kelly)

All of the scripture readings this weekend say a lot about the core of Christ's message.  There are quite a few lines that jump out at me as we listen to the readings this weekend.
 
Lines such as these:
 
Saint Peter said to Cornelius: "Get up. I myself am also a human being."….. 
 
"the believers who had accompanied Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit should have been poured out on the Gentiles …."
 
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
 
Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.
 
God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. ,…..he loved us first and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.
 
Jesus said to his disciples: "As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love.
 
"I have told you  this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete.
 
"No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends
 
It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another."
 
These lines from the readings this weekend are profound and important, and worth deeper thought and reflection.
 
 In summary, what these lines say to me is, we must keep in mind that our Christian faith is not ultimately about us, but it is about God. That might, at first glance, seem to be an obvious truism, however, we do acknowledge that in a world where ME, ME, ME  is often front and centre,  we as a whole, can sometimes forget that we are merely men and women and not 'little gods' in charge of our destiny, and we are ultimately not the centre of our own world or the world around us. 
 
How wonderful that the Holy Spirit of God took initiative and fell upon Gentiles even before they were baptised. God's Spirit blows where it wills and inspires and acts upon people in and outside the visible confines of religion and church and does what God wants.  That is also an important and humble corrective. We will never be able to limit God's generous and proactive activity in and among the peoples and cultures of the world. Nor should we ever want to stop this divine right of God to do as God wishes and act in and through whom God wants. (nor could we ever stop God anyway).
 
Also, the readings today remind us that God's very nature is LOVE. One cannot know God if we do not know love and do not show love. This love is to show itself in the way Jesus showed love. And the kind of love Jesus shows us is self-sacrificing love which gives and does not count the cost, and reaches out to give rather than grasping to possess. 
 
And in connection to this, God's desire and plan for us is to have joy to the full and to be not servants or slaves but friends who are willing co-workers and colleagues with God, in God's plans. We are indeed friends and colleagues with Jesus, but also friends who know our place; in the sense that we never get a 'big head' and think that since we are "co-workers" and "friends" of Christ, we could ever "play God for our own benefit" over others.
 
So, today's readings say to me: Be joyful, be loving, be free, be friends, be not slaves and nor ever be begrudging labourers, but rather,  be as Christ showed us, because God is all about self-giving, self-forgetting  love which reaches out to everyone without fear and favour, and which is about practical and joyful service and compassion which reduces ego and self-interest and acts and thinks more as a brotherhood and sisterhood of humanity rather than "them and us"    These are sound foundations upon which to build our true discipleship of Christ.   
 
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(Homily:  Fr Peter Dillon).
Wendy Mary Beckett (25 February 1930 – 26 December 2018), better known as Sister Wendy, was a British religious sister and art historian who became well known internationally during the 1990s when she presented a series of BBC television documentaries on the history of art. Her programmes, such as Sister Wendy's Odyssey and Sister Wendy's Grand Tour, often drew a 25 percent share of the British viewing audience. Her quaint and simple appearance had The New York Times described her as "a sometime hermit who is fast on her way to becoming the most unlikely and famous art critic in the history of television."

I became a great fan of Sister Wendy avidly following her instruction to "look deeper than what you first see, there are many layers of meaning to be discovered". Her particular passion was for religious paintings urging the viewer to try to get into the mind of the painter. To see and feel what they felt. The very same instructions certainly apply to the gospels and their authors.


Gospel always like those pictures with different levels of meaning. The underlying truth or picture is mean to be God. But that clarity is not always clear on first hearing the words. We sometimes need to let their intention sink in. We need to sometimes sit before the text and allow it to wash over us, again following the Sister Wendy method. How can we see or understand God, and how much of that meaning is influenced by our own circumstances at the time. Are we allowing God to speak to us through the descriptions of the ancient author?

 The gospel gives us certain pictures that we can initially relate to. God is a rock, a king, a shepherd, a parent, a vine with branches. But God transcends all these images, visual and verbal, and in the end the mystery that is God cannot be limited.  Just like love, we are told today. True love has no limits and that is what God is. This must always be the starting point in trying to understand God. Because of love, God sent Jesus to save us. To do this by giving us an example of limitless loving, to the end, to death.

Mahatma Gandhi, the Hindu pacifist and admirer of Jesus, was asked once, 'Why don't you become a Christian?' He answered 'Because I have never met one'.

We often rack our brains in our struggle to encompass God and the ways of God, but the mystery of life consistently evades our grasp. John's message is that truth is both simpler and deeper than we imagine. It lies at the heart of the search.

The paintings of one of the great masters. But the secret to the mystery, to understanding the heart of the message, is to understand what love feels like. If we know what it is like to love one another, if we love our world in the way the Son revealed to us, then we unlock the mystery. The words give up their true picture, and the world takes on a sense we otherwise cannot see. If we don't know what love feels like, if we have never felt love, then it is impossible to grasp the depth of what Jesus is trying to convey through the Gospel writer. The parables become simply abstract stories with no place to settle in our own experience.

Imagining the audience 'in front of the text'. Why is the community of John being told so repeatedly about the centrality of love, over and over again? Have they not got the message? Are they slow to love others, especially strangers? It's the same issue in the first reading. Peter's dreams while asleep on the roof of the house of Simon the tanner (earlier in chapter 10) opened him to the possibility of admitting outsiders to the community of faith. Peter would have caused enough trouble by lodging with someone in an 'unclean' occupation, a tanner, without now saying that Gentiles were to be admitted to the Jewish Christian community. Peter comes to an understanding that God does not have favourites, but that anybody of any nationality who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God. The Holy Spirit offers proof of this when he comes down on all the listeners, including the Gentiles, just as at Pentecost.

Our parish can suffer similar divisions and exclusiveness, and lay us open to the charge of Mahatma Ghandi. Do we really see Christ in one another? Do we even want to see Christ in each other? Do we see Christ in our pastor, does our pastor see Christ in us? If faith is deficient, failure to love will surely follow.

People often complain about sermons on love - unrelieved saccharine nonsense, with little or no practical application. Today's readings have a direct bearing on the survival and growth of our Christian communities. I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last.... what I command you is to love one another. If faith and love are not the basis of our pastoral endeavours, we shall achieve nothing, and as Sister Wendy might say "all we see is paint on a canvas".

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References:

Homily – fr peter Dillon

Prologue - Fr Paul W. Kelly

Image Credit: Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash


Sixth Sunday of Easter. Year B  (Sunday, May 9, 2021)  (EPISODE: 297 )

The Lord be with You

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!
Happy Mother's Day to all mums as we here in Australia celebrate Mother's Day. Different parts of the world celebrate mother's Day on different dates in the year, but whatever date it is celebrated; it is no coincidence that Christ used the image of an unconditionally loving parent to describe an essential characteristic of God's nature. What better example of unconditional love can be witnessed than the love of a Mother or a Father for their cherished child? Christ wants us to know and experience the deep and abiding love that God has for us, in calling us God's daughters and sons.  This weekend we pray for all Mothers, that they may be blessed for their goodness, kindness and self-forgetting love.


As one family in Christ, let us prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries by calling to mind our sins.  

Lord Jesus, you have revealed yourself as the way to the Father: Lord, have mercy

You have poured out on your people the Spirit of truth: Christ, have mercy

You are the Good Shepherd, leading us to eternal life: Lord, have mercy.

May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life.  Amen.
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Memorial Acclamation
3. Save us, Saviour of the world, for by your Cross and Resurrection you have set us free.
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Ps 98: 1, 2-3a, 3b-4. "The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power. "

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (John 14: 23). Alleluia, alleluia! All who love me will keep my words, and my Father will love them and we will come to them.
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PREFACE: Easter V
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Let us pray in heartfelt thanksgiving to God, for all Mums on this Mother's Day weekend. That God bless them .  for their unconditional love and care. ………..(PAUSE)……. Lord hear us

For those who have passed into eternal life.....especially all dear-departed mothers, who have gone to their eternal rest and remain in cherished memory. That they now are enjoying the heavenly and eternal banquet feast of the Kingdom...... ………..(PAUSE)……. Lord hear us
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A Prayer in Gratitude and Blessing for Our Mothers.
 
Good and Gentle God, Lord of creation, we pray in gratitude for our mothers and for all the women who have joined with you in the wonder of bringing forth new life and nurturing with love, young lives. Jesus, you became human through the Blessed Virgin Mary. Grant to all mothers the grace and strength they need to face the uncertain moments that life often brings us all.  Give them the ongoing strength to love and to be loved in return. Give them the faithful support of family and friends and the wider community.  May they receive peace and joy through their family and friends.   Give them joy and delight in their families and friends, to sustain them through joys and sorrows. Most of all, give them the wisdom to turn to you for help when they need it most.  Bless all our mothers and grant them reward for their unconditional love and kindness. Through Christ our Lord.   Amen.

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{thank you so much for taking this time to listen to, and reflect upon  God's word and praising God's goodness and care. }

Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.

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Archive of homilies and reflections:  http://homilycatholic.blogspot.com.au
To contact Fr. Paul, please email:  paulwkelly68@gmail.com

To listen to our weekly homily audio podcast, please click this link here:  https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/tracks

You are welcome to subscribe to Fr Paul's homily mail-out by sending an email to this address: paulkellyreflections+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Further information relating to the audio productions linked to this Blog:
"Faith, Hope and Love - Christian worship and reflection"  - Led by Rev Paul Kelly

Prayers and chants  — Roman Missal, 3rd edition, © 2010, The International Commission on English in the liturgy. (ICEL)

Scriptures - New Revised Standard Version: © 1989,  and 2009 by the NCC-USA. (National Council of Churches of Christ - USA)

"The Psalms" ©1963, 2009,  The Grail - Collins publishers.

Prayers of the Faithful -   " Together we pray" by Robert Borg'.   E.J. Dwyer, Publishers, (1993) . (Sydney Australia).

Sung "Mass In Honour of St. Ralph Sherwin" -  By Jeffrey M. Ostrowski. The Gloria, Copyright © 2011 ccwatershed.org.

"Quiet Time."  Instrumental Reflection music. Written by Paul W Kelly. 1988, 2007. & This arrangement: Stefan Kelk, 2020.

- "Today I Arise" - For Trisha J Kelly.  Original words and music by Paul W. Kelly. Inspired by St Patrick's Prayer.  Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.

[ Production -  KER -  2021]

May God bless and keep you.
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