Author: St. Ann's Webmaster

Today we celebrate an old feast in the Church where Christ was revealed. We are reminded of three great things: the Wise Men coming from the East; the wedding feast in Cana where the first documented miracle was done; and the Baptism where the Trinity was introduced. Usually in the Latin tradition, we focus on the Magi coming from the East and bringing their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. ...
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In today’s First Reading, most of us assume a few things when Abraham is asked by God to look up to the skies and count the stars. We usually assume he can count. We assume that it is a clear sky and we assume it is night. But apparently though, it goes on to say that it is actually day time when Abraham is told to look up in the sky and count the stars if he can. Abraham believed and his faith i...
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Have you ever noticed that Christmas Mass is usually uncomfortable? As a priest, I have celebrated perhaps over fifty Christmas Masses and I have celebrated in big and small places but I have noticed it is uncomfortable. In some places, it was uncomfortably cold because they forgot to put the heat on. Most times it is uncomfortably packed. There are many people who are uncomfortable with the litur...
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In both the First Reading and the Gospel, we have a theme of preparing a house for God. David is anxious to do something for the Lord. He feels something truly beautiful, “I am living in a fancy place and the Lord dwells in a tent. “ He feels that this is wrong but is told that he will not be the one to build a temple, he has shed too much blood, it will be his son, the peaceful one, who does that...
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I once read a story about a village where one of the ways the village would get food was to pull a large net across the bay. Each day men would gather on each side of the bay to pull this net across. This story isn’t too remarkable except for one thing: the only ones in the village who would do this job were the Christians. The reason why the Christians were the only ones was because they were the...
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I was thinking as I read the Gospel about the difference between the baptisms of John and Jesus. John’s was a symbolic one. One would confess their sins, hoping for forgiveness, to prepare the way for Jesus. Jesus’ baptism is one of the Spirit that changes our lives in a radical way. When we are baptized, we are totally remade and yet do we see it or experience that change in our lives? When we ar...
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I was thinking how often we don’t want to get ready for Christmas, we really just want it to happen and get it over with. We have our Christmas tree up, our stocking out since Halloween. We are ready so bring on the goods and feasting. Some cultures now have Christmas in July. They don’t mean Jesus Christ is coming so get ready in July, but rather, let’s have presents in July. I was living with a ...
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Christ the King - how does that sit in your life and what does that look like? Why would the Church honour such a feast? I am sure we all agree it isn’t because Christ needs to be reminded of the fact that He is King, but we do and the Gospel tells us how we are to serve Him. We will serve Him in the next person we meet, because the next person we meet is Christ our King. In every exciting and rep...
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This Sunday’s Gospel really fascinated me. I get the whole thing about using your talents to build up the kingdom, but it is the response the third guy got that caught my attention when the Lord said, “You should have put my money in the bank and I would have been able to collect it with interest. “ That got me thinking, is there a way to simply deposit your gifts in a bank and that will please Go...
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