Sunday Homily, May 1, 2016, 6th Easter

Readings:

Jeremiah 38, 4-6, 8-10,   They threw Jeremiah into the cistern.

Psalm 40,  Lord, come to my aid.

Hebrews 21, 1-4,  We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.

Luke 12, 49-53, Do you think I have come to establish peace on the earth?

 

 

Jeremiah Observations:

Author:  really Jeremiah or at least his scribe.

Date:  after the Babylonian Captivity again, say 555 years before Chrsit. Jeremiah sees the Babylonian catastrophe coming and says it is going to be how Yahweh punishes the people for their evil and unjust ways.

Subject:  Jeremiah is the classic prophet.  He does the 3 things characteristic of a prophet.  He criticizes the behavior of the people.  He promises punishment from Yahweh.  He indicates that a better day will come.    Jeremiah lives to see the punishment, that is the Captivity.  Probably not the return from captivity.

Our selection:  Jeremiah pays the price of most real prophets.  The people are enraged, turn against him, and watch what happens.  

 

 

Do you think
I have come to establish peace on earth? 
No!

This morning I would like to talk about this line supposedly attributed
to Jesus that he has not come to establish peace on earth.  “No,” he says.  As you can probably guess, I don’t like this
statement.   I can see him aiming it at
the big people who are abusing the poor.

 

However, I live on the passage from John 15 where he says, “As the
Father has loved me, so I have loved you, live in my love.  I have told you this so that my joy may be in
you and your joy may be complete.”  There
are numerous other lines where Jesus says, “Peace.”

 

So, I confess I not only don’t like this line, but have my doubts about
who said it or wrote it.  Instead I focus
on the positive, on peace.  I see this
everywhere.  Let me give you a bunch of
examples. 

I had and saw peace and joy Friday when I was honored to do Ryan McClurg’s
wedding in Ogden, Utah.  I was
overwhelmed by it when I saw the tears in Diane’s eyes as I stood with Ryan in
front of everyone at the very beginning of the wedding.

 

Then when his fiance, Grace came up the aisle with tears pouring down
her face, the peace and joy was even stronger. 
I had a hard time getting started. 
The whole wedding and reception was peace and joy.

I experienced peace and joy when I saw the peace and joy in Ryan’s face
and remembered the difficult days he went through after breaking his ankle in
his freshman year at OK State on his football scholarship.  His football days were over and it really hit
him hard.  He had been tight end on one
of Plano Senior High 5-A state championship teams.  We talked about that time and he is so happy
to have gotten through it.

 

I experienced peace and joy when our Cole, who was there, of course,
with Chuck and Erin, Ryan’s big sister, did a great one.  There was a little blond girl his age named
Peyton whom Cole frequently informs everyone he will marry.   At one point
Thursday or Friday he put her head into the ice chest where the beer and drinks
were chilling.  What a hoot.

 

This was followed by, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”  And they are back being best buddies. 

Peace and joy was found on the big back porch of a big old mansion the
McClurgs rented.  At least 20 people
stayed there along with 4 or more little kids around Cole and Peyton’s
ages.  2 hours sitting on that porch
early in the morning drinking coffee and watching the kids play in the house
and yard was total heaven.

 

Closer to home, how about the peace and joy of Leo getting his head
stuck in the chair up here last week? 
And Beth coming to Shonda’s rescue to pull Leo straight out?

And the week before that, how about Emma, who has been shy once upon a
time, slowly coming up here as we celebrate, finally climbing right up beside
me and laying her little toy car on the altar?  
Talk about peace and joy.

 

I do not even talk here about the peace and joy that comes from working
Habitat on a Saturday. 

It is there, folks, despite what the writer of this line says.  Every day. 
You just got to look or, rather sometimes, look back. 

Your peace and joy, today?

 

 

 

Readings: 2 Samuel 7, 1-5, 8-16, The Lord said to King David, 'Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever;' Psalm 89, Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord; Romans 16, 25-27, To him who can strengthen you be glory; Luke 1, 26-38, The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a virgin.   

 4th Sunday of Advent

Mary is told in our gospel reading that she is to give birth to the Messiah, the Christ. She asks the messenger from God how this could possibly happen. ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.’ With astonishing faith she replies, ‘May it be done to me according to your word.’

As John the Baptist (the messenger of the past two Sunday liturgies) baptized the people in water, they acknowledged their sins. Then he tells them, ‘Christ will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’ So that the Holy Spirit will come upon us.

How will this happen?  When we welcome and put into practice Christ’s words we are bathing in the Holy Spirit.  The inspired writers of the John gospel tell us that Christ’s words are living waters that satisfy our spiritual thirst by filling our hearts with the Holy Spirit. 

It is through the power of the Spirit, Christ is alive in the hearts of those who live his words!  Then, all Christians together, Jew or gentile, man or woman, free man or slave, in union with Christ become what the Apostle Paul calls the body of Christ.  As one body we all share in the mission of Christ in the world.

In the Mark gospel we are told that together with Christ we are the one loaf that is blessed and broken, for we have become the word and bread we have consumed.  The acceptance of being broken is the tough part; but there is no other way to feed the other unless we give of ourselves in and with Christ.

A few weeks ago Judy and I watched a DVD she had ordered from Netflix. It was a French film in black and white with captions in English.  The film came out in 1987 and was directed by Louis Malle [Louie Mall].  The title of the movie in English was ‘Goodbye Children,’ however after watching the film I realized the title really was to be understood as ‘Goodbye Childhood.’  

The basis of the film was what Louis Malle experienced when he was eleven years old while he was attending a Provincial Catholic Boarding school on the grounds of a Carmelite monastery during the German occupation of France. It was 1944.  When France was liberated in December of that year the children had been pushed out of their childhood into adulthood.

The film begins with the children returning from their wealthy French families after Christmas vacation to the boarding school.  Soon after, Fr. Jacob the Carmelite priest at the school introduces three new pupils to the boys.  The boys are unaware that the three new students are Jews, that Fr. Jacob is the leader within the faculty who are joined to an underground network of Christians across France to save the Jews.

Fr. Jacob has given the three boys gentile names hoping that he can keep them hidden and alive until the Germans are pushed out of France.  A few months now pass with the three new boys fitting in rather well.  A classmate from the school, Julien, befriends one of the Jewish boys.  A few things unexpectedly happen, including Julien hearing his friend praying in Hebrew one evening.  (The Jewish boys do everything the Catholic boys are doing, including going to Mass.)  

The school has a parent day in the fall at which Fr. Jacob gives a homily on social justice directed toward the rich parents attending Mass with their boys.  The three Jewish boys are in attendance by themselves.  The friend of Julien is moved by the Priest’s words (from the spoken Word) and enters the line with the Catholics to receive communion.  Julien is next to him as the Jewish boy sticks out his tongue waiting for the priest to place a host on it.

I am as intent on seeing what happens as is Fr. Jacob, Julien and the young Jewish boy.  (The Jewish boy has a different understanding now of why Fr. Jacob and other Christians are risking their lives for the Jews…at any time Fr. Jacob could literally become ‘bread broken’ for him…taken and killed by the Germans by hiding him.  

Fr. Jacob does not place the host on his tongue, but his mere presence to the Jewish boy is bread blessed and broken. The boy seems a bit surprised not have received the host but peaceful in his presence among these Christians. There is a moment of quiet as the priest moves on to Julien who will only later become aware of what has really happened.  Julian, however, is now aware that not only is the boy is a Jew, but that Fr. Jacob is well aware of it.

Another icon of the Church in the world that you are probably not aware of might now become apparent to you as the season of Advent is about to end: the Christ child in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.  For the strips of linen are burial attire—As Church we are the Suffering Servant and Lamb of God to which we show our gratitude believing through the sacraments of Christ’s words and actions that our sins have been forgiven…and our responsibility to also forgive the contrite of heart. The manger is a feeding trough.  Blessed, we gather together in thanksgiving each week to consume the essence in the Liturgy of the word and Eucharist with conviction to become the bread we eat.

A kitchen worker is fired by Fr. Jacob, after the priest becomes aware that the worker was selling some of their food in the black-market. (Those watching the film can sense a coming betrayal.) The Germans have somehow become aware of the three additional students in the school.  Julien had seen his friend’s name partially erased from the inside cover of one of the books that he had brought with him. When one of the German’s asked for that person to stand, Julien glanced at his friend.  The German had noticed what he had done.

Later, the courtyard was filled with the boys standing in lines facing the Germans, who take with them their Science teacher and his family, Fr. Jacob and the three boys who are Jews.  The boarding school boys tearfully called after Fr. Jacob, ‘Goodbye Fr. Jacob.’  Fr. Jacob calls back to them, ‘Goodbye Children.’ 

The children had been pulled from childhood into adulthood in the tragic awakening of man’s inhumanity toward one of their teachers and his family, their priest and three of their classmates.  Later they would come to know what it means to become the Bread we eat…It is in dying to self by showing goodness and justice to others that one is born to eternal life.

The Science teacher and his family and the three boys were gassed to death upon arriving at Auschwitz.   Fr. Jacob was sent to a concentration camp in Austria where a few months later he died after the Americans forces had taken control of the camp.

When we see some of the children of this community wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger on Christmas Eve, recall the significance of what that represents: We have been baptized in the Holy Spirit to be Word and Bread, blessed and broken.

Picture 1:    The Team, John, Mike, & Kevin

Picture 2:    Ryan lights the candles with Jim & Michelle, his dad & mom 

Picture 3:    Penitential Rite, people, "Please forgive me."  Jan & Charlie

Picture 4:    Penitential Rite, minister, "I forgive you.  I accept you. Peace." Mabel & Mike

Picture 5:    Cole with his mom & dad, Erin & Chuck

Picture 6:    Sean 

Picture 7:    Emma

Picture 8:    The Gang, Judy, Marilyn, Chuck, Sandra, & Geri

 

 

 

 

 

Readings: Isaiah 43, 18-25; Psalm 41; 2 Corinthians 1, 18-22; Mark 2, 1-12

Isaiah: Some reminders–

The Book of Isaiah is one of the Big 3, along with Jeremiah & Ezekiel, because they have a lot of chapters and therefore say a lot..  Isaiah has 66 chapters.

Author & Time: The book has at least 3 contributors.  Chapter 43, today's selection is from Isaiah 2, who seems to be writing  during the Babylonian Captivity of the Jews who lived in and  around Jerusalem.  The time was ca. 575 BCE.  Isaiah 1 wrote before the Captivity.  Isaiah 3's material might come from after the Jews returned to Jerusalem, the time after the Assyrians under Cyrus conquered the Babylonians.  Cyrus let the Hebrews return to Jerusalem.

Our Selection, Chapter 43: the writer has Yahweh speaking to his defeated and depressed people.  This is the Book of Comfort, and informs the Jews that times will get better, which they do, at least for these Jews' children & grandchildren. 

How Make Lent a Winner

There is a story floating around about this guy in Washington, D.C.  One cold morning in January he took his violin down into a subway station.  He set up his spot, pulled out his violin, and began to play for the throngs of commuters rushing to and fro.  He played for about an hour.

During the hour a few people paused and listened for a few moments, then hurried off to their train.  Another lady dropped in a dollar while she rushed by.   Others paused quickly and some tossed in a bill.  The people who most focused their attention on him & his music were kids.  They would stop dead in their tracks mesmerized.  Their parents would have to drag them on to their destination while the kids looked back over their shoulders.

After the hour the man had accumulated about $30.  Nobody cheered, nobody applauded at the end of his performance.  Nobody even noticed.  Not that the guy needed the money or the applause.  He was Joshual Bell, one of the best violin players in the world.  Two days before this, in fact, his concert in Boston had sold out with tickets averaging $100.  The violin he plays costs over 3 million.

The Washington Post had set up this event where Joshua Bell would perform in the subway station.  The goal was to see how people would respond to beauty in an ordinary place at a busy time.  Perhaps 1,000 people passed by Joshua Bell in that one hour during which he played 6 pieces of classical music.  No one actually stayed for the whole of even one piece.  Only a handful paused for no more than a couple of minutes.  Only the kids wanted to stay and listen. 

The wonder is, is this typical of us.  If I do not have enough time to pause 5 minutes and appreciate one of the best musicians in the world play some of the best music in the world, what other beauties am I missing?  And missing every day.

I tell this story because we are beginning Lent Wednesday.  I confess this is not one of my favorite times of the year, mostly because of the history I have with it being focused on sin and penance.  Give up this, give up that.  If you would like to take this as an occasion to become a better, more fully alive human, I would like to suggest two positives.

First, sensitivity.  Sensitivity to the beauty around me, like that music, to the beauty of people as a community and individually, and to the beauty of myself, my health, my gifts, my education.  It was not Lent, but last Wednesday I went to visit the new Trinity River Audubon Center in south Dallas.   Just the building I found  to be architectural poetry.  Maybe once a week something of this type is planned during the next five weeks.

The second positive has to do with the story in Mark about the four guys who brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus for healing.   I find this story so right on.  I love it.  The man could not get there on his own, but his friends could get him there.  Oops, when they get to the house where Jesus is, they find they cannot get through the crowd.  No problem.  They climb the roof, break a hole, and lower him down.

We had houses like this in Tanzania.  The roof is made out of tree poles laid across the house with about  1 to 2 feet of space between each one.  Other branches are placed on top.  Then a mud like clay is put on the branches.  Over the mud usually is a smoother clay.  We had a Jesuit house near the base of Kilimanjaro whose flat roof was cement and we would sit up there to watch the sunset against the mountain, every night 6:00 to 6:30.  Being on the equator sunset & sunrise takes place the same time every day and lasts 30 minutes.

So these guys cut a hole through the roof and lowered down their friend.  This is friendship and community at its best, me helping you when you need it and you helping me when I need it.  Hillary says it takes a village.  I would suggest it takes a community.

So the second positive to make myself a richer person in this Lent: service, help my neighbor with his roof.  Somebody needed to help Peter with the roof of his house.  I hope the four guys helped him.  Bill Hammond, Bob McGrath, & I are all going to work on housing in Galveston next week.  One small step, one small contribution.

So, if you want to make yourself a richer person in the next 5-6 weeks, if you don't want to pass by the Joshua Bells on your commute, and you like to help out, how about sensitivity and service?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2009-02-22.mp3

Picture 1:  Mass with T.J. Helping

Picture 2:  Birthdays, Maggie & Chloe, Ron, T.J. Dana (17), Rosemary, & Diane

Picture 3:  Clare (mom) & Chloe dancing & Ron Kovatis

Picture 4:  Communion helpers, Patricia, Geri, Don, Ron, & Beth

 

 

Welcome in, Everybody.  Abrasos for todos.

 

 

Readings:

Genesis 9, 8-15,  Never again shall all creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood.

Psalm 147,  Your way, Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.

 1 Peter 3, 18-22,  God patiently waited in the days of Noah.

Mark 1, 12-15, The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert.

 

 

 

Hi, Harper.  How many Girl Scout cookies you going to sell us today?  (Lots!)

 

 

Genesis:  observations–

What:  First book of the Bible, starts with creation & ends with the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob (Israel).  Any reading from this book should start with Once upon a time.   Why?  Because we have here a literary genre that is like myth or a fairy tale in our language.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for bringing up the bread & grape juice, Joe & Brent & Cheryl.
 

 

 

Author: Not Moses as was thought for centuries before people began to study the work.  At least 3 sources: 

• a Y (or J) source for the group that addressed God as Yahweh;
• an E for the group who addressed God as Elohim (Like two historians calling NYC The Big Apple or New York City, or Denver by its name or Mile High City);
• and a P group that focused on the priestly class, activities, & customs, the Levite tribe.

Time: compiled and put together from 950 to 500 BCE.

Today's Selection: the flood has just receded and Noah is receiving a promise (called covenant) from Yahweh that never again will people be wiped out by a flood.  Guess what the sign of the promise is.

 

 

 

Hey, You People, did not your mommas tell you not to go out on a cold and rainy morning?!

 

 

A Happy Lent

I want to talk this morning about having a happy Lent.  Why?  Because God created us to be happy. 

I admit again that this is my least favorite season of the year.  I always look for something positive to do and am never really satisfied with what I come up with.

 

 

 

 

Getting bored?  Join the kids in the playroom.

 

 

Some years ago Diane McMahon recommended to me a facebook article by a lady named Karen Ehrman.  She says, “For this Lent don’t give something up, take something up.”  She has 4 positive suggestions for taking something up.  I add a 5^th.   I like her suggestions.

 

 

Get your Wednesday ashes at Marlene's comfy house.

 

 

1.       Take up note writing to people with whom you don’t communicate that often, but who are friends.  She says she buys 40 cards, envelopes, and stamps.  Each morning she sends one out to a friend, just saying that she likes the person.

2.       Take up the phone and call someone every day or once a week and tell them you are calling just to tell them thanks for being a good friend.  

 

 

 

People come from the north.

 

3.       Take up a simple gift for a friend or family member.  Like bring flowers to someone, bring a Starbucks, offer to wash the dishes, or clean or dust the house, mow the grass (welcome to Tulip Lane).  Invite someone to lunch.  This is a once a week or occasional take up.

 

 

 

People come from the South. 

 

4.       Take up a simple gift for a stranger.  Like the recycle men, the garbage men, the checkers at the grocery.  Compliment the checker on her finger nails, give $10 to each of the garbage men (watch out for their over the top gratitude). 

5.       Take up visiting someone in retirement or in a hospital.  (This is my addition, not Karen’s)  We got lots of people you may choose from.

 

 

 

Ashes for Debbie & Bobby.

 

 

As you can see, some of these suggestions are occasional or once a week ideas.  Plus, what we have here are only seeds.  Even while you were listening to the five I put forward, you may be been thinking about other possibilities.

How can you have a happy Lent?

Source: Karen Ehman, on line.

 

 

 

 

Ashes for Cindy.  A good Ash Wednesday gathering.

Readings: Isaiah 58, 7-10; Psalm 112, The Just Man is a Light in Darkness to the Upright; 1 Corinthians 2, 1-5; Matthew 5, 13-16.

Intro to Readings

 Our gospel readings, beginning last Sunday and continuing for the next several Sundays are part of the great Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel.  This section of Matthew’s Gospel is the first and most well known of five major discourses, which are in this gospel.  Matthew had situated Jesus on a mountain; recall one of the themes of this gospel is to show how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament. 

 

 
Moses was on a mountain when he received the Ten Commandments from God, Moses was acting as intermediary.  Jesus is portrayed very differently – phrases from next Sunday’s gospel – “you have heard it said…. but I say to you” Jesus is no intermediary! 

 Just before this Sermon, we are told that Jesus went about the whole of Galilee preaching the Good News of the Kingdom.  Now this sermon spells out what that means.  For instance Jesus tells the disciples about their new relationship with God in that he refers to God some 17 times as “your Father”. 

The whole sermon, which covers three chapters in Matthew, can be divided into three sections, the first dealing with the Law, then a section on religious practice and the final section on material possessions and human relationships, ending with the famous golden rule.  In the middle section we find the instructions on prayer, with the teaching of the Our Father. 

 There is much to ponder on in these readings, and interestingly the contents give us a rare insight into what was probably very early Christian preaching as the Letter from James has much the same content and this is considered one of the earliest writings we have from the new community, written somewhere around the year 50!

 

The Homily

 I want to continue our discussion of the sacraments.  Today we will discuss very briefly the third of the three sacraments commonly referred to as the ‘Sacraments of Initiation’, the Eucharist.  This sacrament has many names, First Communion, Communion, the Eucharist and the Mass.  I think that the revised Rite of Christian Initiation has gone a long way towards helping clarify the confusion. 

 If you are familiar with the RCIA program, you will recall that in the period leading up to the Easter Vigil, when the candidates are admitted into the community fully, they are invited to attend just the first half of the Mass, the Liturgy of the Word, and then they process out of the church.  I think the reason the words “First Communion” came about was because just as with our discussion of Confirmation, when originally a new candidate joined, they received all three sacraments at the same time.  It was again due to circumstances and time that each event became separated and became individual sacraments.

 

So much could be said about the mass that it could be a topic each Sunday at least for a year.  Today I want to cover just a few highpoints.  My intent is to help us remember why we are here each Sunday.

 The Mass as we know it began its life at the Last Supper.  But even before that Passover Meal, there was a whole history connected with the Jewish history and THE most important event, their salvation from slavery in Egypt.  So that last meal the Jews ate before their escape to freedom and the Promised Land is the backdrop for our Mass.  The earliest mention we have of that last meal Jesus took with his apostles comes to us from Paul in his letter to the Corinthian community. 1Cor 11, 23ff.  And this letter dates to around the year 56 or 57 CE.  Meals were important in the gospel stories about Jesus.  And one of his first appearances was to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, when they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread.  As the years passed and the early community gathered to remember Jesus, that Last Supper began to be called the Lord’s Supper.  And it was quickly seen in conjunction with His death and resurrection.  Pretty soon its parallel to the Exodus Event with its resultant freedom for those who were baptized and received into this community was vivid.  The sacrificial aspect became uppermost. 

 

That Jesus’ death and resurrection won for us a whole new freedom in our relationship with the Father.  In typical human fashion, attempts have been made to explain the words, “this is my body, this is my blood” and like everything else connected with God, it is a mystery, so I prefer to leave it to the realm of faith and accept it rather than try to understand it.  Suffice it to say that the Jesus we receive in communion is there, not as a result just of those words by the priest, but as a result of the whole community, with the priest at its head, because of the entire action of the mass. 

 There has been much debate about whether the mass is a sacrifice or a meal, with one side or the other coming to the fore at different times.  The reality is: sacrifice includes meal, the two are not separate. 

 Our coming here each Sunday is to participate as a community in that sacrifice.  We listen to God’s Word, we offer our gifts of bread and wine and then we pray the Eucharistic Prayer, the word Eucharist means thanksgiving.  We then believe that by eating the bread and drinking the wine we are receiving the risen Jesus into our lives.  This communion, this meeting brings us closer in our relationship with God and hopefully the effect spills over into our lives where we live and work and pray.

Picture 1:   Mass Begins

Picture 2:   Mass Beginning

Picture 3:   The Music Machine, Wendy & Shonda, Ray & Jon

Picture 4:   The Keszler Klan, Jan & Sir Charlie, their son, Chuck, & Chuck's wife, Ellen, & their older son, Andrew. 

 

 

 

 

"Welcome in, Everybody," sez Khalessi

 

Readings:

Malachi, 1-4,  I am sending my messenger to prepare the way.

Psalm 24.  Who is this king of glory?  It is the Lord.

Hebrews 2, 14-18,  He was able to help.

Luke 2, 22-40, The Presentation

 

 

Candlemas with lots of candles which Mike will use to help us sing, "This little light of mine."

 

Mike's Homily

Candles symbolically guide us and bless us as we journey through the Liturgical seasons. 

Since, as Church, we are ‘The Light of the World,” it is natural for us to do good works; but I have an even better suggestion.  Instead of doing a good work, why don’t we choose to become the good work.  This would mean that instead of receiving a reward for something we have done, we become something bigger, and we shine brighter, and we make our light a little stronger, so that others can come to understand and give glory to God.

 

 

Hi, Betsy, How are you today?  Is your grandmother being nice to you today?

 

 

Let’s say that a grandson of yours has been visiting with you during a spring break, and he is leaving in the morning to return to college. Early in the morning when no one is up in the house except you, you pull on your jacket and pay a visit to a gas station to fill his tank. It is becoming bigger than just a good work. It has been done in secret. Not even your wife knows, nor will she.  When your grandson leaves you both with hugs and a kisses, and you have received his last wave, you have done so with a heart felt smile, while giving praise and glory to your heavenly Father.  

 

And hi to you, Harper.  Want to hold a candle?

 

Say that your wife and children, who have baked and decorated cookies all week, now have them boxed and ready to deliver early the next morning; one box for every house on your block.  In the morning the alarm went off and she and the children got dressed and began to pull the wagon quietly down the street delivering one box to each door step.  When they were all delivered but one, the children looked up to their mother as if to ask ‘we missed someone?’  

 

 

As Mike says, "Grab a candle from the altar and let's sing."

 

It was then that their mother smiled back to them saying, “Quietly, get back in bed. When the neighbors look out their windows and down the street none of them will be able to know who it was who secretly gave them love on Christmas morning.”  And two little lights blinked on.

 

 

 

Is that your candle there, Aggie?

 

Today happens to be the feast of Candlemas, and there’s no reason we can’t end this homily with a song!

So, I would like to invite you to stand.  Those of you who are close to the altar can carefully come forward to hold one of the many lit candles from the altar as we join together in song, “This little light of mine.”

 

Sings Cody, "This little cookie of mine…"