In light of the current scandal within the Catholic Church, an issue which hurts most Catholics, it is encouraging to read homilies from Father's who live true to their vocations.
Forwarded by one of our Seeker members, Juan-Pablo, this homily written by Fr. Roger J. Landry, who kindly let us publish and share this with Seekers.
Have you ever wondered what life is like in a closed order? Where silence is maintained at all hours of the day apart from during prayer, mass and recreation time. A life remaining within cloistered walls, where you only leave to see a doctor or a dentist?
After ten years of correspondences, Michael Whyte the director of "No Greater Love," was given unprecedented access. He films the routine of the Order of Carmelite Nuns, who reside at the monastery of the Most Holy Trinity, in London’s Notting Hill.
With a title such as that, it made me think how potatoes have faith? Its quite an amusing title for a book, but it was highly recommended, so I took a chance.
It revealed the faith of a farmer, Angus Buchan, it is his personal testimony of his Christian faith and how by putting God first, he changed his entire life.
I walk daily through the Meadows at a leisurely pace on my way to work. In the morning, come rain or hail or wind or snow (or the unlikely sunny spell), you will see John standing at the crossroads in Middle Meadow Walk. Actually, even before seeing him, you can be sure you will hear him shouting loudly his pitch to sell the Big Issue.
John White
Emergency is an Italian NGO active since 1994 in several parts of the world. Their mission is to provide relief and medical assistance to victims of war, landmines and poverty, and also to promote a culture of peace. One of the places where they have been working is Afghanistan, where they have been since 1999.
Last Sunday we had the Jerusalem Community Prayer event. Lilian guided us through the way of meditation and reflection of this community. This style of prayer is centered around the reading of the Scripture: we used the gospel passage in which Thomas asks to touch Jesus' wounds before believing in his resurrection.
At the end we had a short discussion on this very point: why did Jesus have wounds when he resurrected? Why didn't he cure himself? Rather than trying to summarise what the each of the people present said (I'm sure I would turn their finely chiseled thoughts into a shapeless pulp), I will limit myself to my personal opinion, which is a hard enough task.
I don't know abut you, but I sometimes struggle with concentrating on homilies or sermons. I especially find homilies that take an exegesis stance more difficult to understand and relate to my personal life. Maybe, this is because I don't have a theological background and have never studied Scripture.
However, this doesn't mean every homily or sermon is difficult to understand. I mean its not everyday a priest opens up his homily with "Women are from Venus, Men are from Mars," which immediately caught my attention.
After watching Lourdes with some of the other seekers, a few questions seem to arise. The film centres around the character of Christine, a young woman crippled by multiple sclerosis as she and the rest of her tour group (an eclectic mix of pilgrims of all shapes and sizes) make the pilgrimage to the infamous site of St. Bernadette's visions of Mary in Lourdes.
What is your perception of God? Do you have a distinct picture of what He looks like? An old Zeus figure with a white beard? Do you imagine Jesus to be how He is always depicted? Tall, dark and handsome, with an immaculately groomed beard? What about the Holy Spirit, a white dove? Or a white flame? Interestingly, 'The Shack' gives a haunting account of a man, Mackenzie Philips's own encounter with the Trinity after a tragic loss in his life. It tells of his own perception of how he can relate to God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
I think I should recount the birth of our website before I forget it.
We started on the evening of Holy Monday, where we met in the university library. As documented in the previous post, initially there were only Lilian and I. She had a series of beautiful sketches of what she had in mind. For example, the home page looked like this on paper (as you can see, the final result is pretty much identical):
Sketch of the homepage
