BIG C CATHOLICS

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) The Kingdom of God, always somewhat mysterious for us, was always on the mind of Jesus. There are almost one-hundred and fifty references to God’s Kingdom in the New Testament, fifty-two of them in St. Matthew’s gospel alone. The more Jesus spoke about the Kingdom the more it seemed to His listeners to be another-worldly place. Perhaps that’s because in a world gone insane, sane things seem to be unreal. In today gospel account Jesus referred to the Kingdom as a hidden treasure, a box filled with golden coins buried somewhere in a field. Likewise, He spoke of the Kingdom as a precious pearl, a jewel found by a businessman who astutely sold everything he owned in order to buy it. He spoke, too, of the Kingdom as a fishing net filled with fish both good and bad. Later He referred to the Kingdom as leaven in dough, as light, salt and seed. Likewise, He called it a ripe harvest, a royal feast and as a we

Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) When we go to a football game, a baseball game, or any other sports event we go to watch it being played. We watch television shows; we watch and listen to concerts. We watch so many events in our lives. But when we come to Mass, we should participate. The Church wants us to fully, actively, and consciously offer the Mass with the priest, not simply watch the priest and ministers offer Mass for us while we remain passive observers. When we hear the term “Corpus Christi” we may tend to think of its meaning only in terms of Christ’s Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament. That is an unworthy notion. In reality, in the Eucharist we receive not only Christ in His Body and Blood but Christ in His entirety, an entirety that encompasses His activity, His project among us, His mission and purpose in engaging us and in engaging the world in which we live, move, and have our being. God our Fat

Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) In speaking with you about Pentecost I must speak of what cannot be fully explained. All we can do is reverently gaze into the mystery of God’s final movement toward us, the alienated and distant men and women who, with Adam and Eve, have broken off relations with God. Words cannot capture the enormity God’s merciful love for us; they buckle under the weight of it. So Scripture and the Church employ symbols to try to carry Pentecost’s meaning to us. Sometimes symbols are more effective than words in conveying the truth of stupendous events. Essentially Pentecost is the final movement of God’s journey toward us. The initial movement begins in Genesis with God in the Garden of Eden. Note that it is God who makes the move. It is God who initiates; God who offers; God who loves us first. He chooses us. We do not choose him. He chooses us first because He is the superior. If it were other

March 25, 2017 The Solemnity of the Annunciation is the celebration of the announcement by the angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary, that she would become the Theotokos . Despite being a virgin, Mary would miraculously conceive the Son of God. Gabriel told Mary to name her son Jesus, meaning “God delivers”. The Solemnity of the Annunciation comes nine months before Christmas. According to the Gospel of Luke, the Annunciation occurred in “the sixth month” of her cousin Elizabeth's pregnancy with John the Baptist. the precursor or forerunner of the Lord. Mary Mother of God, help us to be faithful to God's will in all things as you were. ____________________________________________________ Solemnity of the Annunciation Collect Prayer O God, who willed that your Word should take on human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, grant, we pray, that we, who confess our Redeemer to be God and man, may merit to become partakers even in his divine nature. Who lives and

Although often described as such, the Christian faith is not a “religion of the Book”, but of the Word of God, Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. We do not merely subscribe to a millennia old collection of objective moral commands. We bow to a Person, a historical and ever living “Someone”, who won our salvation by paying the ultimate ransom for man’s sins. In the words of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, our Faith is “not a written and mute word, but incarnate and living”. The fact that God would assume our humanity, even unto death, as the exemplar of love. marks Christianity apart. The Evangelist Saint John opens his unique Gospel by describing with majestic succinctness, Christ’s singular role in effecting the Divine Economy of Salvation. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be

In Matthew 2:11 it is written: "and on entering the house they [the wise men] saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh." Contrary to popular opinion, the wise men were not kings. They were, rather, according to several Church Fathers, men of intellectual renown and considerable means, most likely from the Orient. Whether such wealth was their own or it was bestowed by royalty, on whose behalf they acted, is the subject of debate. The wise men's gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, seem curious offerings to a child no more than two years of age [and perhaps far younger]. Both popular piety and Church Tradition suggest that the three gifts represent different dimensions or unique offices of Christ Incarnate. We Three Kings The verses of the carol "We Three Kings", while not altogether historically accurate, [ The wise men wer

Father Steve Grunow Archdiocese of Chicago Father Grunow's Sermon Blog ( Click here for today’s readings ) January 1st is celebrated as not only the first date of the calendar’s new year, but also by the Church as the Solemnity of the Mother of God. The Solemnity of the Mother of God refers to one of the great dogmas of the Church’s formal profession of Faith- the child of the Blessed Virgin Mary is God. Not only is January 1st considered to be New Year’s Day AND the Solemnity of the Mother of God, but it is also acclaimed by the Church to be the World Day of Peace, when prayers for peace are to be offered by the Christian faithful. As if this all wasn’t enough, January 1st was formally the day on which the Church commemorated the Circumcision of the Lord Jesus. In fact, the Gospel for today mentions that the Lord Jesus was circumcised eight days after his birth, thus the Church’s commemoration of this event on the eighth day after the celebration of Christ’

Angels Announcing the Birth of Christ to the Shepherds , Flinck, 1639. Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) Homily originally delivered in 2010 While Christmas is delightful for children and it is nice that we get caught up in their joy, Christmas is something that we adults vitally need. We celebrate Christmas this difficult year with dark clouds of terrorism looming over our heads. The gloom of the recession darkens our spirits. Our broken governmental establishment in Washington spends our future incomes on earmarks attached to spending bills that stagger our comprehension. Joblessness and hunger are not confined to Third World countries, they stalk our own populace. Amidst all of this darkness let there be light. I give you the message of the angels. There is also another darkness that afflicts many of us – an inner darkness of spirit, of heart, and of soul. Many folks have spoken to me about the pace of life i

With the Christmas liturgy the Church ushers us into the great Mystery of the Incarnation. Christmas, in fact, is not merely an anniversary of Jesus’ Birth; it is also this, but it is more, it is celebrating a mystery that has marked and continues to mark human history. God himself came to dwell among us (cf. Jn 1:14), he made himself one of us. It is a mystery that concerns our faith and our life; a mystery that we actually experience in the liturgical celebrations, and, in particular, in Holy Mass.  — Pope Benedict XVI

The Adoration of the Shepherds , Mattia Preti, c. 1660. George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, writes in his weekly column The Catholic Difference on December 21, 2016 about a long conversation he had with then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger weeks after 9/11. Ratzinger's observations about Christianity in Europe, moral relativism, and the dangers posed by radicalized Islamists have only grow more salient with time. In concluding, Weigel brilliantly summarizes the state of Western culture as one of loneliness, despair and alienation. Fortunately, for the Christian, the way, the truth and the life is not some abstract or sentimental aspiration. It is a person, Jesus Christ, whose birth is the reason we celebrate Christmas. Weigel writes: "Christmas reminds us what Christians have to say to this pervasive loneliness. We say 'God is with us,' as throughout the Christmas season we celebrate the divine answer to the Advent ple

Detail ,Virgin of the Angels , Adolphe-William Bouguereau, 1881. Blessedness is not a matter of external circumstances or emotion. It is possible to feel blessed even in the midst of great suffering, difficulty and uncertainty. Things also can be "blessed." Jesus once told his disciples, "Blessed are your eyes... Blessed are your ears." Elsewhere in Scripture, we see that patience is a blessed thing. So is trust. So is hope. The Beatitudes include more examples. Advent is a season of blessing. We reflect upon Christ’s Incarnation 2,000 years ago, and how our Savior defeated sin and death, opening up for us the gates of heaven. We are reminded of his Second Coming at the end of time, when He will return as King of the universe. Finally, we prepare during Advent to welcome Christ our "blessed hope" into our hearts. In the words of Fr. René J. Butler, M.S.: "The current translation of the Roman Missal has restored the phrase 'Blessed hope

First, there’s a sense of something wholly new. “See, I’m doing something new. Now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it?” So Isaiah 43:19 declares. Isaiah trembles with excitement at the sense of something wholly new and unexpected. The end of Isaiah 52, which was read for Christmas day mass last year, speaks of nations startled, and kings standing speechless. “They shall see what has not been told them, shall behold what they never heard. A whole new world will come into being – one far removed from the trials, strife, and suffering of ours. It will be a world where swords will be beaten into plows, and the lion will lay down with the lamb.” Second, there is a sense that the whole world has been longing for this thing that is coming, for the Messiah. So, while Isaiah foresaw the coming salvation as something wholly new, it was also something for which the world had been longing. This is especially suggested by recurring images of fresh water being poured out upon or bubbling

Angel Appearing to Zacharias , Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1490. St. Luke devotes the first two chapters of his Gospel to events in the infancy of Christ. Luke's infancy narratives consider six episodes structured in pairs about the early lives of John the Baptist and Jesus; two annunciations, two births and circumcisions and two scenes set in the Temple. The account also features many canticles (the Magnificat , the Benedictus , the Gloria , and the Nunc dimittis — all of which praise God for the redemption of man. The stories, like the canticles, reference Old Testament passages showing that God's salvation was imminent. The central event is the Annunciation of Mary wherein the Word (Jesus) becomes flesh. The Blessed Virgin gives her fiat , (her yes), to God's plan. From the very moment of Christ's conception in her womb Mary's life is inextricably bound up with God's redemptive ministry. She serves under her Son in perfect obedience. Luke portrays Zechari

Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) My dear brothers and sisters, all of our ideals, all of our dreams of what we want to be, and of what our world can be… all of our visions and understandings of God, and of God’s ways with us, are focused now on a child… God’s Anointed One, God’s Christ. For a child us born unto us, a son is given us, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying powerless in a manger, there being no room for him elsewhere in our world for his birth. It is a sacred moment into which we now enter, a precious moment, a holy hour observed all over the world in Midnight Masses. Midnight Mass gathers so many different people in a lovely moment of peace and happiness – Blacks and Whites, Asians, Africans, Latinos and Anglos…. Catholics, both active and devout as well as marginal and estranged, Protestants, members of others great faiths, and even doubtful believers with hesitant faith. It is a transcendent moment when

The following is reposted from December of last year. We present it here for your consideration: In Matthew’s Gospel, an angel appears to Joseph in a dream and tells him, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." [Matthew 1:21]. The verse immediately afterward states, "All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 'Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,' which means 'God is with us'" This begs the question, why isn’t Jesus named Emmanuel? Matthew 23 quotes the prophet Isaiah who some 300 years earlier predicted, "Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel." [Isaiah 7:14] In this context, "name

The text of this hymn recited in the Mass and Divine Office during Advent comes from the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 45:8) in the Vulgate. It is a plea of the Prophets, the Patriarchs and the entire Church, who together await the Messiah. Speaking to the mystery of Christ’s impending coming, the imagery unites the celestial and the terrestrial as the heavens prepare for the Savior to descend and the earth prepares to welcome him. As rain comes down from the sky and quenches the earth, only to evaporate back, so too will the Messiah save his people and ascend to heavenly glory. We recall our past offenses and sins and seek forgiveness as we await the birth of Christ for our redemption and that of everything in creation. Rorate Coeli Prayer Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One. Be not angry, O Lord, and remember no longer our iniquity : behold the city of thy sanctuary is become a desert, Sion is made a desert. Jerusalem is desolate, the house o

December 16, 2016 This novena is dedicated to praying for the abolition of abortion, and for greater respect for the dignity of every human being. When contemplating the birth of our Savior and preparing for Christmas, it is a good time to pray for abortion's end. Remember, Christ came to us as a humble and vulnerable pre-born child. The Christmas Novena - Day 1  – Joy O Lord, infant Jesus, fill us with Joy! The birth of any child is a cause for joy and so much more is the birth of You our Savior. We pray in union with Mary, Your mother, for a greater joy this Christmas. (There are two versions of the novena prayer) The Incarnation. O most sweet infant Jesus, who descended from the bosom of the eternal Father into the womb of the Virgin Mary, where, conceived by the Holy Ghost, you took upon yourself, O Incarnate Word, the form of a servant for our salvation. Have mercy on us. Have mercy on us, O Lord. Have mercy on us. We pray also for

The Christmas Novena begins on December 16th, and concludes on Christmas day. This devotion honors the Incarnation of Christ, and is prayed especially for an end to abortion. The birth of our Savior was, and is, an occasion of unrivaled joy for all of humanity. So to will His second coming be a glory that is completely beyond our comprehension. In fact, the birth of Christ heralds His passion, death, and resurrection through which the world is redeemed and we are saved. A God who became so small could only be mercy and love. — St. Thérèse of Lisieux There is no better time to reflect on the most vulnerable of this world than during Advent and Christmas when we prepare for the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ who came to us as a small baby. Advent also reminds us that Christ will come again at the conclusion of history, not as a helpless infant, but as a triumphant King and just Judge, at whose name every knee will bend. Join thousands of others worldwide in praying for more pr

Joseph and Mary arrive at the inn. 14th century illumination Fr. Charles Irvin Senior Priest Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for today’s readings ) Nazareth was one of the most insignificant villages in Judah. When Jesus was first assembling His apostles we find the following exchange between two of them as reported in St. John’s gospel: Philip found Nathaniel and told him, “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” But Nathaniel said to him, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” [John 1:45-45] Christianity goes beyond doctrines, moral norms, and teachings. It goes beyond how we behave. While all of those things are important, we need to recognize that Christianity essentially involves vision… seeing things as God sees them… seeing things in God’s Light… recognizing reality and truth. Pontius Pilate during the trial of Jesus asked the central question. Truth i

The Incarnation of Christ is the seminal event in history. The Catechism of the Catholic Church  states: 463 "Belief in the true Incarnation of the Son of God is the distinctive sign of Christian faith: 'By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.' Such is the joyous conviction of the Church from her beginning whenever she sings 'the mystery of our religion': 'He was manifested in the flesh.'" True God and True Man As we continue to celebrate the season of Advent in anticipation of Christmas, we proclaim what the Church has always professed: "that Jesus is inseparably true God and true man. He is truly the Son of God who, without ceasing to be God and Lord, became a man and our brother." (CCC 469) The following links discuss the Incarnation and Nativity of Christ. We submit them for your consideration. Why God Became a Baby , Fr. Michael Najim Why Isn’t Jesus N