All Saints' Day

 

Two little neighbor girls about the same age, one Christian and one Jewish, were constant companions. After one Easter holiday, the grandfather of the Christian girl asked her what her friend had received for Easter. The girl looked at her grandfather in surprise, and said, "But Grandpa, you should know that Becky is Jewish and she wouldn't get anything for Easter." Then she went on to explain patiently, "You see, I'm Easter and she's Passover. I'm Christmas and she's Hanukkah." Then with a big smile, she added, "but I'm really glad that both of us are Halloween." [Buddy Westbrook in Loyal Jones: The Preacher’s Joke Book (Little Rock, Arkansas: August House, 1989), p. 26.]

Websites of the week

1)    Oscar Romero film in YouTube: Story of a modern martyr

https://youtu.be/ZPH3R0aqcuk?list=PLG6axl3bJCzyHFvq1KstnRiMaNb6RW1eX

 

Mission Sunday

When Hudson Taylor was director of the China Inland Mission, he often interviewed candidates for the mission field. On one occasion, he met with a group of applicants to determine their motivations for service. "And why do you wish to go as a foreign missionary?" he asked one. "I want to go because Christ has commanded us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," was the reply. Another said, "I want to go because millions are perishing without Christ." Others gave different answers. Then Hudson Taylor said, "All of these motives, however good, will fail you in times of testings, trials, tribulations, and possible death. There is but one motive that will sustain you in trial and testing; namely, the love of Christ".
Source Unknown.

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29 Sunday A

1.     Fr. Jude Botelho 

a.     Secular Messiahs

Dag Hammarskjold was Secretary-General of the UN. When he died in a plane crash in central Africa in 1961 at the age of 66, the world lost a great servant of peace. He was a rare person for whom public service was not simply a career or means of achieving power, but a religious vocation, a way of being faithful to God. He said: “Indifference to evil is worse than evil itself and in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.” –Gandhi is another example of a deeply religious man who involved himself in politics. He said: “I am in politics because I cannot separate life from belief. Because I believe in God I have to enter politics. Politics is my service to God.” Nelson Mandela is yet another example of how God uses all kinds of people, not necessarily religious, to lead people to God. Mandela tells us how, when he began to get interested in politics, a friend tried to warn him off saying, “Politics brings out the worst in people. It is the source of trouble and corruption, and should be avoided at all costs.” Fortunately, for South Africa and the world, Mandela ignored his advice.

Flor McCarthy in ‘New Sunday and Holy Day Liturgies’ 

28 Sunday A

Fr. Jude Botelho:

In the first reading, Isaiah proclaims the goodness of God, who is preparing a banquet for all his people on the holy mountain. The banquet symbolizes God's closeness to us and the celebration of the final victory over sin, suffering and death. This feast is not exclusively for the Israelites but for all people. God desires to invite all to his kingdom with no one excluded. The Lord comes to bring consolation to those who are sorrowing and to give new sight to those blinded by the disasters that afflict them. The call of the Christian is the call to hope in the Lord, who is concerned about everything that affects us, and will lead us to new joy that comes from being with the Lord.

27 Sunday A

From Fr. Jude Botelho:

 The stone the builders rejected became the corner stone

 South Africa is a country blessed by God in a great many ways. But the country which should have been a haven for all the peoples of Southern Africa became instead a heaven for a privileged white minority. Many people tried in vain to change South Africa’s apartheid system. Finally Nelson Mandela appeared on the scene. He too tried to bring about reforms. But like reformers before him, he was rejected. Worse, he was hounded by the government, and ended up spending twenty-seven years in prison. However, he not only survived prison, but came out of it with the respect of his enemies and of the entire world. Furthermore, he came out without bitterness. In fact, he came out smiling, and immediately sought reconciliation with the leaders of the regime that kept him, in prison. But even greater things were to follow. The man once rejected was to become the President of a new multi-racial South Africa. The stone which the builders rejected became the cornerstone of a new and better building.

 Flor McCarthy in ‘New Sunday and Holy Day Liturgies’