1st Sunday of Advent

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So often we hear about the Gospel reading, but it may be worth starting Advent with a reflection on the reading from Isaiah. This text is roughly 2700 years old and the message is that the time is coming when there will be peace on earth, and that God is working to bring it about. Our invitation from Jesus is we should be ready for this to happen imminently, and working with God to bring it about at all times and in all places. Now, at the beginning of Advent, we can root our hope again in God’s ancient and ever-new promise that the Prince of Peace is coming. We carry so many challenges in life; the solutions are complex and sometimes take years or decades. God is not afraid of our big problems. His promises are true through generations and centuries. Let us wrap up our troubles and entrust them to the manger, where God is coming to hold them and us again.

Let us pray for joyful anticipation of God who is coming again to breathe life and hope into our broken world.

God of Isaiah, speak your promises into our broken world. Give us hope, anticipation and child-like faith that you can make all things new. Renew our longing for you to come among us again. Amen.

Reflection: CCCB
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Taken from the Facebook page of Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary

Solemnity of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

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Our King is a king of surrender; his great act of salvation was giving Himself away for our sake. When it talks about kingship, the world is obsessed with power. Christ, our King, lives and breathes vulnerability. The man on the cross beside Him is the first to understand what Jesus is doing, and instead of mocking His vulnerability, asks to be carried into the Kingdom. This is what salvation means: to recognize we cannot save ourselves, we cannot manipulate reality into getting what we want, but that we can be held in love if we will give ourselves over to it.
Prayer: For surrender to Jesus, our King, now and at the hour of death, we pray to the Lord.
Jesus, King of surrender, you offered yourself to the Father in trust at the darkest hour of your life. In so doing, you worked eternal life through Resurrection for us all. While the world offers us false hope in power, wealth and acquisition, you have shown us the way of surrender through suffering and vulnerability. Teach us to follow you, King of love. Amen.
#CatholicYYC #SundayMass
Reflection: CCCB

Taken from the Facebook page of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary

33 Sunday in Ordinary Time

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In the chaos of thinking about the end of times, both in the prophecy from Malachi and the teaching from Jesus, the instruction is clear. Know whose you are and go about living justly. The second reading echoes this sentiment, giving us really practical advice: Do your work, imitate Jesus and His followers, and mind your own business. The readings indicate that for all of us, in every age, it is tempting to worry about how others are behaving, to jump ship on our responsibilities, to blame, or to stir up conflict. Our call is clear: persevere in doing the right thing, one moment at a time. At the beginning of our lives and right through to the end, we must walk simply in doing justice, living kindness, and working for peace.

Prayer: For commitment in living our own lives of discipleship to the end, we pray to the Lord.

Loving Father, from the beginning to the end you love us and call us to follow you. Help us to walk in your way, with small steps toward you, day after day. When things are hard, keep us focused on the next loving thing, and do not let us be deterred. Amen

Reflection: CCCB
#CatholicYYC#SundayMass

Taken from the Facebook page of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary

32 Sunday in Ordinary Time

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The first reading and the Gospel are challenging texts about martyrdom and the absence of marriage in heaven. They point us to the world to come, which we reflect on at the end of each liturgical year. Our temptation when we think about heaven is to downplay the significance of this life. But it is a mistake to skip over our present moments in a sort of repression of earthly life in favour of heaven. God has given us this life to learn to love in preparation for the world to come. The way of salvation is through our lives here, not around them. So, as we remember we were made for heaven, we can show up for the moments and days we are living right now with the prayer from Thessalonians: “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the endurance of Christ.” If God is asking us to grow in our faithfulness, we need to do that now. If He is asking us for more patience with a spouse, better boundaries with a loved one, growth in humility, now is the time. It is uncomfortable to grow in virtue in this world; and we are invited to a life that is larger than comfort and will far outlast this life. To the extent we listen to God’s call, we can start living heaven now.

Prayer: For lives that participate in heaven now and into eternity, we pray to the Lord.

Taken from the Facebook page of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Today’s readings remind us how God works: gently and “little by little”. In the first reading from Wisdom, God is described as a great lover, one who revels in all He has created. So when we are drawn into sin, God cannot hate us, but reminds us constantly there is another way. Like a parent reminding a child to use nice words and gentle hands, God keeps giving us lesson after lesson, chance after… chance to choose again. When Zacchaeus climbs the sycamore tree, this is not his first encounter with God. Though he is wealthy and a chief Roman tax collector (a very public sort of sinner for the Jews of the time), Jesus reaches out, not with a rebuke but with an invitation to stay with Him. When God makes small and repeated whispers to a conscience over time, then a simple moment can become a turning point. Zacchaeus is ready to give half his possessions away and repay his extortions. We are likewise invited to make a home for Christ in our hearts and lives. How are we responding to the little invitations Jesus is making for change in our lives?

Prayer: For little by little conversion to make more space for Jesus in our lives, we pray to the Lord.

Jesus, lover of souls and guest of Zacchaeus, call to us little by little, that our lives may gradually be consumed by you. May we hear you reminding us to turn from sin and to choose you, day by day, so we can respond with open hearts to your desire to live in us. Amen.

Text: CCCB #CatholicYYC #SundayMass

Taken from the Facebook page from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary.