BIG C CATHOLICS

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Homily for Trinity Sunday, June 15, 2025, Year C

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) The reality of the Holy Trinity is, of course a mystery. But mysteries can be talked about. They can be described. Mysteries have clues that our minds can grasp. But a mystery remains a mystery unless and until we grasp it in its totality. But when it comes to God we simply cannot comprehend the total reality of God. Mysteries make up a good portion of our lives. Science has its mysteries, as does philosophy, as does psychology, as do other intellectual disciplines. They all have much in them to challenge our minds and our intellectual capacities. All of them contain unknowns within them that move us to seek out their answers. As a matter of fact, human beings need mystery. We need to be aware of that which is mysterious in life. We need to see that many times mysteries are to be lived; they are not problems to be solved. Husbands and wives who are truly in love unite themselves in the mystery of each o...

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) From time to time it is good for us to stand back and look at The Big Picture, so I want to begin by doing that as I share some thoughts with you on this Solemnity of Pentecost. In ancient times God approached us through the Jewish prophets and through their major leaders such as Abraham and Moses. It was through Moses that God gave us His Ten Commandments, commandments that allowed us not only to live as God intended us to live but to live with each other in peace and communion. Then in the fullness of time God came to us in His Word made flesh, in His only begotten Son who became man and thus brought the nearness of God into our very own humanity. “ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us ,” reports St. John in the Prologue to his gospel. After He lived among us, suffered and died for us, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, God came to us, and still does even now, in His Holy Spirit. From...

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) The nights are warm now. Sometimes I step outside and looking up marvel at all of those stars sprinkled all over the night sky. In such moments I have asked myself if there is another parallel universe that we don’t see, one that has other dimensions not subject to human measurements of time, space, weight and volume. I think there is. Because of Jesus Christ I am certain there is. A long time ago there lived in England a holy man named St. Bede. He lived from 673-735A.D. Among the things he wrote are the following words he penned while meditating on the death of loved ones. “We seem to give them back to you, O God, who gave them first to us. Yet as you did not lose them in giving, so we do not lose them by their return. Not as the world gives do you give. What you give you do not take away. For what is yours is also ours. We are yours and life is eternal. And love is immortal, and death is only a horizon, a...

Our Lady of the Rosary Family Catechism Fr. Anthony Pillari JCL, MCL, STD Lesson 5: On Our First Parents and the Fall Welcome again to Our Lady of the Rosary Family Catechism for our fifth lesson – On Our First Parents and the Fall. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. O Jesus, I choose to live this day, for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Amen. We heard in our last lesson how the angels fell through disobedience. Unfortunately, our first parents fell in the same way. Have you ever felt within yourself something pushing you to do evil? For example, maybe there was a time when you promised your parents you were not going to fight with your brothers. You were going to be calm; you were not going to say bad words. And then, just a day or two later, you find yourself getting angry over nothing, maybe getting in a fight, or saying something you shouldn’t have sa...

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) God did not come to us in Jesus Christ and then go away leaving us orphans. No. God our Father loves us and will never abandon us. This teaching allows us to better understand what Jesus is telling us in today’s Gospel when He says “we” will come and dwell within the person who loves me. Jesus expands on that when He speaks of The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom He will send to His followers when He, Jesus, no longer walks among us as a human being. There is an intimate, personal relationship between Jesus, God our Father, and the Holy Spirit, so close that whatever one does the others with him do as well. Whenever God acts He acts triunely The Father sent Jesus into the world, so through Jesus and with Jesus God our Father will send the Advocate, the One who will be with us, not simply alongside us, but within us. God calls us to be temples of the Holy Spirit. Earlier in His discourse with His apos...

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) There are times when we tell ourselves that nothing’s new, that human nature doesn’t change, and that history simply repeats itself. The Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes tells us: What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun . [Ecclesiastes 1:9] Yet we also find ourselves seeking what is new. We greet each other with the question “What’s new?” We watch TV news, read newspapers, pay attention to advertisements, and look for new models of things we already have. Advertisements are loaded with words telling us of new products, or “new and improved” products that we can’t live without. The world of computers is filled with new gadgets, new programs, new downloads, and so forth. We seem to be obsessed with what’s new. Jesus used the word “new” many, many times in His discourses and teachings, all the time trying to get us to see the new creation, the new ...