Homily for the Holy Family (Year C)
Homily for Christmas Jn 1:1-14 ‘And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us’
Christ’s coming into the world was not like that of a sightseer to a strange city, but rather like that of an artist visiting his own studio or an author paging the books he himself has written, for in becoming incarnate, the divine Word was tabernacling himself in his own creation.
Fulton J. Sheen In the Fullness of Time
Homily for Advent IV Year C : ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
Homily for Advent III Year C: And the crowds asked him ‘What then shall we do?’
Perfect love casts out fear
Let Christ be formed in you
The Ven. Abp Fulton J. Sheen How to find Christmas Peace, taken from Advent Meditations with Fulton J. Sheen, Liuori Publications: Liguori MO, 2007
Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent (Year C)
Homily for the Immaculate Conception
Consecration to Jesus through Mary
O Jesu vivens in Maria
Veni et vive in famulis tuis, In spiritu sanctitatis tuae, In plenitudine virtutis tuae, In perfectione viarum tuarum, In veritate virtutum tuarum, In communione mysteriorum tuorum; Dominare omni adversae potestati, In Spiritu tuo ad gloriam Patris. |
O Jesus, living in Mary,
come and live in thy servants, in the spirit of thy holiness, in the fullness of thy might, in the truth of thy virtues, in the perfection of thy ways, in the communion of thy mysteries. Subdue every hostile power in thy spirit, for the glory of the Father.
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Slapping Heretics
The world and the church have a picture of St Nicholas, it is a safe picture, he is a kindly man, a Bishop with a big white beard, who gives presents to children and does lots of lovely things. That’s all well and good, and there is much that can be said about the gentleness and generosity of the man, and how that points us to Christ. But recently I have found myself pondering another aspect of this great Saint. At the first ecumenical Council of Nicaea in ad325, Nicholas, Bishop of Myra slaps Arius for denying the coeternal and consubstantial nature of the second person of the Trinity, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Nicholas got angry and his fellow bishops and the Emperor Constantine didn’t exactly approve of the pugilist prelate.
If it were to happen today I could imagine the media outcry, Twitter would be flooded with #bishopgate and #TeamArius posts. No doubt some eminent theologian would state that it’s perfectly alright to say that ‘there was a time when he was not’ and that Adoptionist or Subordinationist positions are all equally valid points of view and that one Christology is as good as another, that this was Arius’ truth and it needs to be affirmed, that we need to feel his pain and resist the patriarchal oppression of an authority figure like Nicholas and so on.
A thought for the day
from Richard Rohr, Preparing for Christmas – Daily Meditations for Advent, Cincinatti, 2008, p. 31
If only bishops and others could realize this is what they try to do to the church