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Homilies Advent Advent Week 1 Year A Week 1 Year B Week 1 Year C Week 2 Year A Week 2 Year B Week 2 Year C Week 3 Year A Week 3 Year B Week 3 Year C Week 4 Year A Week 4 Year B Week 4 Year C Christmas Baptism of the Lord Year A Baptism of the Lord Year B Baptism of the Lord Year C Epiphany Year A Epiphany Year B Epiphany Year C Holy Family Year A Holy Family Year B Holy Family Year C Mary Mother of God Year A Mary Mother of God Year B Mary Mother of God Year C Mass at Midnight Year A Mass at Midnight Year B Mass at Midnight Year C Back to the Boat Heaven to Earth, Sea to River Lent Lent Week 1 Year A Week 1 Year B Week 1 Year C Week 2 Year A Week 2 Year B Week 2 Year C Week 3 Year A Week 3 Year B Week 3 Year C Week 4 Year A Week 4 Year B Week 4 Year C Week 5 Year A Week 5 Year B Week 5 Year C Ash Wednesday "Do You Want to Be Healed?" Holy Week Passion Sunday Year A Passion Sunday Year B Passion Sunday Year C Holy Thursday Good Friday Easter Vigil "Where Peter Is" Easter Sunday Easter Sunday Year A Easter Sunday Year B Easter Sunday Year C Easter Season Week 2 Year A Week 2 Year B Week 2 Year C Week 3 Year A Week 3 Year B Week 3 Year C Week 4 Year A Week 4 Year B Week 4 Year C Week 5 Year A Week 5 Year B Week 5 Year C Week 6 Year A Week 6 Year B Week 6 Year C Week 7 Year A Week 7 Year B Week 7 Year C Ascension Ascension Year A Ascension Year B Ascension Year C Pentecost Pentecost Year A Pentecost Year B Pentecost Year C ORDINARY TIME Ordinary Time Wks 2-7 Ord. Time Week 2 Year A Week 2 Year B Week 2 Year C Week 3 Year A Week 3 Year B Week 3 Year C Week 4 Year A Week 4 Year B Week 4 Year C Week 5 Year A Week 5 Year B Week 5 Year C Week 6 Year A Week 6 Year B Week 6 Year C Week 7 Year A Week 7 Year B Week 7 Year C Ordinary Time Wks 8-13 Week 8 Year A Week 8 Year B Week 8 Year C Week 9 Year A Week 9 Year B Week 9 Year C Week 10 Year A Week 10 Year B Week 10 Year C Week 11 Year A Week 11 Year B Week 11 Year C Week 12 Year A Week 12 Year B Week 12 Year C Week 13 Year A Week 13 Year B Week 13 Year C Ordinary Time Wks 14-19 Week 14 Year A Week 14 Year B Week 14 Year C Week 15 Year A Week 15 Year B Week 15 Year C Week 16 Year A Week 16 Year B Week 16 Year C Week 17 Year A Week 17 Year B Week 17 Year C Week 18 Year A Week 18 Year B Week 18 Year C Week 19 Year A Week 19 Year B Week 19 Year C Ordinary Time Wks 20-25 Week 20 Year A Week 20 Year B Week 20 Year C Week 21 Year A Week 21 Year B Week 21 Year C Week 22 Year A Week 22 Year B Week 22 Year C Week 23 Year A Week 23 Year B Week 23 Year C Week 24 Year A Week 24 Year B Week 24 Year C Week 25 Year A Week 25 Year B Week 25 Year C Ordinary Time Wks 26-31 Week 26 Year A Week 26 Year B Week 26 Year C Week 27 Year A Week 27 Year B Week 27 Year C Week 28 Year A Week 28 Year B Week 28 Year C Week 29 Year A Week 29 Year B Week 29 Year C Week 30 Year A Week 30 Year B Week 30 Year C Week 31 Year A Week 31 Year B Week 31 Year C Ordinary Time Wks 32-34 Week 32 Year A Week 32 Year B Week 32 Year C Week 33 Year A Week 33 Year B Week 33 Year C Week 34 Year A Week 34 Year B Week 34 Year C First Move Letting Go of the Tree Major Feast Days All Souls 1 All Souls 2 Body and Blood of Christ Year A Body and Blood of Christ Year B Body and Blood of Christ Year C Christ the King Year A Christ the King Year B Christ the King Year C Peter and Paul Apostles Trinity Sunday Year A Trinity Sunday Year B Trinity Sunday Year C In Memoriam Memorial of Victory "Up to Jerusalem" Sacred Humanity Homiletic Bibliography Bibliography Pt I (A-G) Bibliography Pt II (H-N) Bibliography Pt III (O-Z) Commentary Catholic Life Faith & the Cult of Pleasantness Fatherhood and Family Holy Marriage, Holy Family Jesus Calls Me Friend Outdoor Plumbing Works of Mercy Defending the Catholic Church Confession Living Letter Bathing Often Eucharist Divine Authority Human Pride Mother of God Persecution Philosophy Priesthood and Papacy Respect for Life Gospel of Luke - Study Luke Chapters 1 - 2 Luke Chapters 3 - 4 Luke Chapters 5 - 6 Luke Chapters 7 - 8 Luke Chapters 9 - 10 Luke Chapters 11 - 12 Luke Chapters 13 - 14 Luke Chapters 15 - 16 Luke Chapters 17 - 18 Luke Chapters 19 - 20 Luke Chapters 21 - 22 Luke Chapters 23 - 24 Questions & Answers Catholic Belief Fortitude: Gift or Virtue? Great Commandment Hierarchy of Truth Same-sex Partnerships Catholic Practice Holding Hands at Mass Wearing Shorts at Mass Hierarchy Church Hierarchy Hierarchy of Truth Scandal and Trust Why a Pope and Bishops? Liturgy Holding Hands at Mass Hymn Resource for Mass Lay Ministry - Liturgy Substituting Song for Sign of Peace Wearing Shorts at Mass Relationship Devotion and Trust Marriage and Celibacy Tell Him the Truth Thorn in Your Side Respect Life Does Ignorance Justify Abortion? Human Personhood On the Subject of Cloning Sacraments Baptism - Child of Civil Union Does the Eucharist Reveal Jesus? Male Priesthood of Christ Sign and Symbol INRI - Crucifix World Affairs Immigration Worries Mercy, Justice and World Affairs Unite on United Nations? Walking with the Word - Lessons Walking with the Word - Lessons A-M Blessed Are You Deep Water "Father, Forgive Them" Garden, Stable & City of God - Part 1 Garden, Stable & City of God - Part 2 God Knows God Loves You Because God's Heart of Love Humanity of Man "Lamentation" "Let Us Go Down" - Part 1 "Let Us Go Down" - Part 2 "Let Us Go Down" - Part 3 "My Power in You" Walking with the Word - Lessons N-Z New Growth on an Old Vine New Wrinkle on an Old Story "One Degree of Glory to Another" Proof of Peace Reason & Acting Reasonably Solomon's Ring Standard of Dress for Mass Sword of Sorrow "Take Off Your Shoes" Take Up Your Cross - Part 1 Take Up Your Cross - Part 2 "Thou Little Tiny Child" True Food - Part 1 True Food - Part 2 Watch, Hat and Scissors Word of Justice, Word of Mercy Reflections Big or Small Christmas Present Clean White Corporal Christian Prayer Delivered from Fear Do You Love Me More? Elegant Recovery Entrust the Sick to God Faith and Choosing Faithful Follower Friendship with Christ Good Physician He Gave Me Wings Heaven's Ecology I Don't Need the Church Last Defense Living Biography of the Church Love Is Hungry Making Bread Thoughts on Merton Our Lady of Divine Grace Remnant Saying Yes to God Self-reflection Sentences Armor of God Counting Your Blessings Passage on Peter's Boat Virginity Sock Puppet Sun, Mast and Horizon We Lament Window of Receptivity Would He Die for One? Devotions Divine Mercy Chaplet Embracing Mercy Indulgence Novena Litany of the Sacred Heart Lord's Prayer Our Lady of Divine Grace Rosary Fatima Rosary Vigil Rosary Saint Therese Centenary Chaplet Seven Last Words of Christ Various Authors Augustine of Hippo Benjamin Franklin Clement of Alexandria Ignatius of Antioch John Henry Cardinal Newman J.R.R. Tolkien Michel Quoist Pope Benedict XVI Pope Pius XII Various Prayers Blessing for a Pregnancy Circle of Faith Choice Vines For Fathers For My Son For Spiritual Fatherhood Gathered Like Wheat Grateful Praise Healing Medicine Hidden Wisdom Hour Has Arrived My Little Girl No One Else but God O Lord Your Love O Shepherd Prayer for the Military Sake of Blessing Sweet Grapes Teachable Heart Thousand Years To All but You O Lord To Father Son and Spirit Wheat and Grape

NOW ON the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." [Jn 20:1-2]

Artist: Victor Luciano Rebuffo

(1903-1983)

Buenos Aires, Argentina

UNEXPECTED ALTAR ^_[1]

NEW EXPERIENCE OF GRACE

1. In each of our lives, there comes a time when we meet God unexpectedly. An encounter like this is unusual because of its intensity, its simplicity, its compression of human past, present and future into an exalted present moment.

2. Meeting God, in this way, invariably confers upon us a measure of divine knowledge quite outside the norm of human social interaction. We come away from an encounter with God with a new experience of grace, a new depth of conviction. We are blessed with a peace and serenity that only God can give.

EXTRAORDINARY SACRAMENTS

3. And very often, we, like Mary, reserve all these things and ponder them privately in our hearts. [cf. Lk 2:19] Meeting God, in the life of a Christian, may be ordinary. We approach God in prayer, worship, and in the company of one another.

4. Remarkably, God has willed to give us the extraordinary sacraments to be used in our ordinary lives: indeed the resplendent celebration of Easter is itself a singular intervention in the Church's liturgical year, a light shining in a darkened world. Humanity is delivered from slavery to sin and anxiety. By self-denial and immersion into the mystery of Our Lord's resurrection, man's hope is renewed, and trust springs forth from humanity's withered root. [cf. Isa 11:1]

BODY AND BLOOD

5. On the day of resurrection, God gives to man, for his possession, a fountain of life-giving water welling up to eternal life. [cf. Jn 4:14] Therefore we baptize our children and prepare the next generation to receive the Gospel. We bath ourselves in life-giving waters of the Sacrament of Reconciliation as often as we can, because Christ-the-Morning Star is ours for the asking. [cf. Rev 2:28]

6. Believe in the name of Christ! Hide yourself in the heart of God! Let his glory, his beatitude, his holiness embrace your wounded soul. God wills, too, that we be fed with the "living bread which comes down from heaven". [Jn 6:51] We know that we can go anywhere in the world for something to eat, but there is only one place we can go to be fed with the Body and Blood of the Lord.

NEW NATURE

7. When the presiding priest consecrates the eucharistic gifts of bread and wine by his invocation of the Holy Spirit and by the imposition of his hands--as upon a child at baptism--the natures of wheat and grape which correspond to human sight are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ. Both wheat and grape have died to their old nature; both have accepted as a new nature the supernatural life of Jesus Christ.

8. Thus the appearance of bread and wine correspond no longer to human sight but to the eyes of faith. Not all in the assembled Body of Christ will know what has taken place. Not all members of the assembly will understand that they partake of the living flesh and blood of Jesus Christ.

ORDINARY EVENTS

9. But the mysteries of faith do not kneel before human comprehension and assent for their efficacy as if they were Adam and Even begging to return to the garden. No, the mysteries of faith are substance and the truth and the will of the absolute, eternal and unchanging God. Hence, faith is satisfied by God's commandment "to go rejoicing to the House of the Lord" [Ps 122:1] on each Sabbath day.

10. As Roman Catholics, we know the value of establishing a firm habit of meeting God in the ordinary events of prayer, worship and Christian fellowship. We cultivate the virtue of perseverance to assist our good intentions. We encounter God in the simple but noble ways of religious practice.

LORD WHO CHOOSES

11. Though faith events are ordinary and repetitive in the sense of their inclusion in the orderly progression of salvation history, we would do well to remember that God's procession of divine activities is never ordinary. God will place an unexpected altar in the pathway of every human being. What might this be? A burning bush. [Ex 3:1-6] A ladder of angels. [cf. Gen 28:12] A table prepared in the presence of one's enemies. [Psa 23:5] The belly of a whale. [cf. Jon 1:17] A chance encounter with a stranger. [cf. Acts 9:1-9] The rush of a mighty wind and tongues of fire. [ cf. Acts 2:2-3]

12. It is recognizing the Lord Jesus as the high priest who, in the breaking of bread, is worthy to be entrusted with your broken heart, your wounded Spirit, your fragile dreams, your most exciting hopes. The unexpected altar may be anything, but it is the Lord who chooses. "God, You have shown us the paths of life; you fill us with joy in your presence." [Acts 2:28] "Are not our hearts burning inside us?" [Luke 24:32]

INEXPRESSIBLE JOY

13. Dear friends, there is no doubt that soon the Lord will place an unexpected altar on the path of each and every person present here today. Pray that your eyes and hearts be open so that you will not fail to see it. To you is given by Christ the inexpressible joy of Easter, of walking in the light of God's glory, and achieving faith,s goal, the salvation of your eternal soul.

^[1] Cycle C /Easter Sunday /Acts 10:34, 37-43 /Col 3:1-4 or 1Cor 5:6-8 /Jn 20:1-9.

Easter Sunday Year A

Easter Sunday Year B

Easter Sunday Year C

UNEXPECTED ALTAR [1]