2019 Ordinary Time Homilies - Year C

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CHRIST OUR KING
Father Edward Mazuski O.S.B.

In one week, we will celebrate the First Sunday of Advent, the beginning of the liturgical year when we prepare for the coming of Christ into humanity, into our hearts, and at the end of time. As a last preparation before that, today, we celebrate the feast of Christ, the King. Like with the three comings of Christ that we prepare for during Advent, there are a number of different models for how we can view this kingship. Interestingly, the reading from the second book of Samuel, the reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Colossians, and the Gospel of Luke that were read today each present a unique model of kingship that can help us to understand how Christ is truly our king and what we have to do about it. continue reading...

LAST THINGS AND CREATIVE CONDUCT
Father Gregory Havil O.S.B.
Wow!
That is one hair-raising Gospel.
But wait – embedded in all that mayhem there is an incredibly positive and upbeat message.
Let’s take it very seriously.
We are quickly coming to the final days of the Church year which will end in two weeks. We are also nearing the end of the calendar year in six and a half weeks. For us at Portsmouth Abbey School, we are intensely aware that the last days of this academic year’s first semester is rapidly approaching. That means exams to take, papers due and reports to finish – a time of great concentration and intensity. continue reading...

EXAMS
Father Francis Hein O.S.B.
With just a week before exams, some of us have probably been feeling the anxiety of prepping for them, most of us are a bit worried. We all know how cruel teachers can be, I once had a history teacher who gave a 250-question true and false exam with all the answers being false. There is even a teacher here who, on a quiz about Exodus, asked them if God saved the Israelites in the dessert to see if the students were paying attention. Only one student got it. Boy did those guys get mad at me. continue reading...

FOUR LAST THINGS
Father Edward Mazuski O.S.B.

Today’s readings invite us to meditate on the four last things: a simplified presentation of Eschatology, but nevertheless crucial for understanding the fullness of the Church’s teachings. The 4 last things are death, judgment, heaven, and hell. In particular, today’s Gospel focuses on the resurrection of the dead for the souls in heaven, and the first reading focuses on the impact that has on our deaths.
continue reading...

GOD'S LOVE
Father Paschal Scotti O.S.B.
Love makes the world go around. You might think this is from some cheesy love songs from the 1950s or 60s. Actually, it is much more ancient, much more venerable. In fact, it begins with a pagan philosophy, with the great philosopher Aristotle, who tells of how love does move the stars. He tells of how, by the unmoved mover, by the very existence of this reality, the stars are, by the love of the unmoved mover, set into motion, and so they move. continue reading...

PERSISTENT PRAYER AND CONTEMPLATION
Father Edward Mazuski O.S.B.
Some of the most dangerous moments for our faith can be when we seem to ourselves to be at our strongest. We become confident that we are on the right track. We pray more. We pray for a sick friend or family member, we pray for the conversion of those close to us. We pray for the grace to overcome our temptations, to overcome our habitual, sinful practices that lead us away from God. And then nothing seems to happen. Our sick friend or family member dies. continue reading...

RECOGNIZING GOD
Father Edward Mazuski O.S.B.
It is incredibly easy to take things for granted, to assume that the goods we are given are all basic necessities that we are owed. This is especially true of the things we receive from God: the natural gifts of our being itself, and the world and all other things he has created for us out of his love. This can even be true of the clearly supernatural gifts that he gives us: the grace that allows us to live holy and upright lives in spite of the tendency towards sin lodged into our nature by the sin of Adam. It can even be true of the clearly miraculous works that he does, as is shown in the Gospel. continue reading...

NEW CREATION
Father Paschal Scotti O.S.B.
It was Thursday, May 27, 1943, a B-24 bomber, Green Hornet, was out looking for another B-24 bomber that had disappeared south of Hawaii. A year and a half earlier the Japanese had decimated the American fleet in a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and since then the Japanese had seized a vast swath of Asia including the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Burma and many Pacific Islands. While the Americans had won at Guadalcanal after horrendous loses, the war was far from over. During the war many planes would disappear in the Pacific theater, downed by various malfunctions, continue reading...

AMOS AND THE CALL TO JUSTICE
Father Michael Brunner O.S.B.
Before I begin I should apologize because this is probably going to be long. And secondly, when it’s over, you might want to kill me. And if the acoustics in here are not good and you could not hear the readings, you should look at them in the missalette in the pews.

Today’s readings make their point very powerfully. That is to be expected for a reading from the prophet Amos. We don’t hear from him too often in the Liturgy, perhaps because his message is so direct and makes people feel uncomfortable. continue...

STEWARDING HAPPINESS
Father Michael Brunner O.S.B.
The readings today are about money, property, stuff, and how they can get in the way of our ultimate purpose in life, and how they can be put to use. The first reading is a warning by the prophet Amos to the people of the kingdom of Israel. Back then the Holy Land was divided into two kingdoms. The poor little kingdom of Judah in the south, centered on Jerusalem and the temple; and the large, rich and powerful kingdom of the northern ten tribes of Israel. But it was too rich, and its leading citizens were focused only on getting richer, often by cheating in business and by taking advantage of the poor. continue...

100 YEARS OF STEWARDSHIP
Father Michael Brunner O.S.B.
On Wednesday, June 25, 1919 a communist revolt broke out in Hamburg, Germany, and elsewhere in there the 1st monoplane airliner took flight. But here in Portsmouth Rhode Island, on Corys Lane this monastery, founded by Leonard Sargent, was officially inaugurated and dedicated to St Gregory the Great. A lot has happened in the world since then. So reaching 100 years is a significant milestone for us, but 100 years in the life of a Benedictine Monastery, in a federation over 1500 years old, a member of a congregation almost 1400 years old, is just a running start. But every great enterprise has to have a start, and of the 3 EBC monasteries in the US, Portsmouth Abbey is the oldest. continue reading...

WELCOME HOLY SPIRIT
Father Michael Brunner O.S.B.
Welcome to the 2019-20 school year, the 94th school year here at PAS. It is good to have you back, and to have with us for the first time the class of 2023. Today we are celebrating the Mass of the Holy Spirit, to ask especially for the Spirit’s blessing, guidance, inspiration and protection for us and for the work we are just beginning. As we know God through his revelation to us as a Trinity of three divine persons, we can fairly easily comprehend the Father and the Son. But the Holy Spirit is a great mystery. St. Paul speaks of the Spirit’s many gifts to us as individuals. They too are hard to comprehend. Just you try to understand someone speaking in tongues. And if you deliberately tried to prophesy continue reading...