Sermon Central
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Lumen Fidei
Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Aug 8, 2013 (message contributor)
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1. Faith, Incarnation And Dominic
Contributed on Aug 8, 2013
As Dominic fought Catharism in the twelfth century, so we can witness to the Light of Faith in ours, to the Word made flesh.
Feast of St. Dominic 2013 (II) The Church was in disarray. Clergy often led dissolute lives; many quietly took wives or mistresses and had children. Preaching was mediocre; Mass attendance was spotty and only rarely was there true beauty, especially in the music. Sound familiar? It happens ...read more
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2. Mission And Suffering
Contributed on Jun 29, 2014
We must not marvel that we suffer pain and persecution when we carry the message of Christ to our culture.
Thursday of the 14th Week in Course Lumen Fidei Pop singers and bands engage in a ritual–they all do. There’s a warmup act, usually a second or third rate band. It’s their Introit and Gloria, except the praise is of the human act to follow. There’s audience ...read more
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3. The Request God Never Turns Down
Contributed on Oct 4, 2013
We don't have to look at Jesus's promise "Seek and you shall find" like a disappointed kid at Christmas, but with the light of faith. There's at least one prayer we always get a "yes" to.
Thursday of 27th Week in Course Lumen Fidei Today’s Gospel is written for adults, but the problem is that even in old age we tend to read it like an eight-year-old waiting for Christmas. We read “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened ...read more
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4. The Clearest Proof Of The Reliability Of Christ's Love
Contributed on Oct 12, 2013
The grace of God is His gift to all who have fallen short, and it comes through the passion of Christ.
Did the scribes and Pharisees, the purveyors of the Law of Moses, actually realize what they were doing? It seems like the early Church believed that these super-Jews had all the proof they needed that Jesus is the Christ, but rejected Him anyway. Teaching with authority, miracles of healing, ...read more
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5. Truth Has Perished
Contributed on Mar 22, 2014
Truth and faith are only possible when we share in a memory greater than the one we accumulate in our lifetime.
Thursday of 3rd Week in Lent 2014 Truth Has Perished “Truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.” Thus the words of Jeremiah about the people of Israel. He could be saying it about modern life in the United States of America. Oh, there’s plenty of information. ...read more
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6. Your Mission To Your Family
Contributed on Jun 7, 2014
We are sent to be a gift, a blessing, to every human being we encounter, especially in our family.
Thursday of the 10th Week in Course 2014 Lumen Fidei One of the beautiful things we lost with the new liturgical calendar is the Octave of Pentecost. Pentecost is the birthday of the Church, the day when evangelization of the nations began in earnest and in the Holy Spirit, so it deserves to ...read more
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7. Jesus Prays That Our Faith May Not Fail
Contributed on Aug 30, 2013
We understand that we are sinful and weak, but like the martyrs, we pray that our faith may not fail so we may witness to Christ in His Church.
Thursday of the 22nd Week in Course Light of Faith There are little coves along the Sea of Galilee that are fronted by natural amphitheaters. At one of these, Jesus, pressed by the crowds, got into Peter’s boat and put out a couple of meters so more could hear him. He spoke the Word of ...read more
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8. Woman, Your Faith Has Saved You
Contributed on Sep 13, 2013
We can learn much about faith by contrasting the behavior of the woman with the ointment and the Pharisee who invited Jesus to dinner.
What did faith do to save this woman? Why did she go in peace? We can learn much by contrasting her behavior, as Jesus did, with that of the Pharisee. First, she recognized her sin, whatever it was. And, second she did not discount the sin; she took responsibility for it. The Pharisee did not ...read more
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9. An Unbroken Chain Of Witnesses
Contributed on Mar 15, 2014
The rich man was isolated, even from his brothers. True faith comes usually from someone sharing it with us.
Thursday of the Second Week of Lent 2014 Lumen Fidei Recently we discovered an infestation of what are called “acrobat” ants, Crematogaster hespera, in our house. We had the pest control folks treat the house with good success. The treatment was a chemical friendly to the good ...read more
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10. Pray To The Lord Of The Harvest Of Faith
Contributed on Sep 28, 2013
In faith we must weep, like the people of Israel, when we hear the Law of God; there are three reasons to do so.
Thursday of the 26th week in Course 2013 Pray the Lord of the Harvest of Faith And he said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of ...read more
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11. Conceiving Iniquity And Bringing Forth Wind
Contributed on Jul 12, 2014
We learn from bitter experience how wrong it is to ignore God's will and do things our own way. If this leads to pain, even the pain can be a way to focus us on the right way.
Thursday of 15th Week in Course Lumen Fidei Let’s be frank about today’s reading from Isaiah, because he is speaking about a Hebrew people who did not do God’s will. They chased after what he calls “other lords”–the Baals and Astartes. They engaged in all ...read more
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12. Faith Is One And Catholic
Contributed on May 17, 2014
The word "catholic" means universal. It means we are open to all humans and open to all Truth.
Thursday of 5th Week of Easter 2014 Lumen Fidei Today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles gives us a glimpse of the first ecumenical council, and an important look at the hierarchical structure of the early Catholic Church. Remember that the debate was over circumcision. Some of the ...read more
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13. Christian Faith Is Faith In The Incarnation And Resurrection.
Contributed on Oct 26, 2013
Christian faith is faith in the incarnation of the Word and his bodily resurrection.
Thursday of 30th Week in Course Lumen Fidei As we consider the gift of faith, this gift of seeing far through new eyes, we are challenged to see beyond the sufferings of the present. St. Paul, in this astonishing chapter 8 of the Letter to the Romans, pictures us in a courtroom, before God, ...read more
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14. Faith, The Opposite Of Idolatry
Contributed on Sep 20, 2013
Herod Antipas is a good example of one who is faithless, who worshiped an idol tied up with himself; true faith is a "break with all idols to turn to a living God in a personal encounter."
Thursday of 25th Week in Course Lumen Fidei Luke 9: 7 - 9 7 Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done, and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, 8 by some that Eli'jah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets had risen. 9 ...read more
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15. Faith, The Lord's Prayer, And The Decalogue
Contributed on May 3, 2014
Just as Jesus fulfilled the plan of God to restore communion between humans and God, so the Church continues that mission in the world today.
Thursday of 3rd Week of Easter 2014 Lumen Fidei “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, `And they shall all be taught by God.' Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to ...read more
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16. Jesus, Not Much Of A Businessman
Contributed on Nov 2, 2013
The most important thing is to save the sheep.
Thursday of the 31st Week in Course Lumen Fidei Jesus would have made a very poor businessman. Business owners must think in terms of profit and loss. It is true that they have to treat their employees and customers humanely, or they’ll lose both. That’s a matter of good ...read more
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17. God Does Want Humans To Be One In Mind And Heart
Contributed on Jun 13, 2014
Faith gives us a heightened respect for nature so that we "discern in it a grammar written by the hand of God." God's Fatherhood makes it possible for us to live together with one heart and one will.
Thursday of the 11th Week in Course 2014 Lumen Fidei Where did we get the idea that God is our Father? Surely the definitive statement of God’s fatherhood is in this prayer we learned from Jesus, the Son. Still, we didn’t fully know what a father is until Jesus came and ...read more
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18. Apostolic Succession, Persecution, And Joy
Contributed on May 24, 2014
Thanks to the Church's magisterium, we know what Jesus taught, and we can rejoice, even amid persecution.
Thursday of the 6th Week of Easter EF: Ascension Day; OF: Easter Weekday Today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles gives us one of those rare and precious bits of information that helps us to date the journeys of Paul and his letters. And it does so in one of the most important of ...read more
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19. Like Lightning Lighting Up The Sky
Contributed on Nov 9, 2013
In the Christian life, with suffering, God gives us wordless and imageless insights that strengthen and confirm faith.
Thursday of 32nd Week in Course Lumen Fidei To get a clearer understanding of today’s Gospel, we have to take it in context. First, Jesus is addressing the Pharisees, who wanted to know when the kingdom of God would come. Remember that this sect–really a kind of political party as ...read more
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20. Mary's Fulfillment In Faith
Contributed on Jul 18, 2014
Jesus broke the long cycle of apostasy, trouble, repentance and deliverance by creating a Church that would be the light to the nations until He returns.
Commemoration of Ignatius Loyola 2014 Lumen Fidei If you have ever watched a potter throw a pitcher or bowl on a wheel, you can relate to the image that Jeremiah is using in the prophecy. For weeks now we have been reading the history of Israel and Judah as they frequently ignored the Law of ...read more
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21. The Eucharist And Faith
Contributed on Apr 25, 2014
The sacrament of Holy Eucharist nourishes our faith and gives us a context in which to express that faith.
Thursday of 2nd Week of Easter 2014 Lumen Fidei Where did He get all this? Isn’t He just a carpenter’s son? There’s a reality in human life that is not animated by the Holy Spirit. Any tree that is taller than the trees around it attracts attention and is likely to get cut ...read more
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22. The Price Of Faith
Contributed on Apr 20, 2014
There is a price to be paid for the gift of faith, at least inconvenience.
Thursday of Easter Week 2014 Lumen Fidei Today from the Acts of the Apostles we hear a snippet of the earliest kerygma of the apostles. It’s pretty stout. Peter is preaching to people who have just seen him heal–by the power of Jesus the Messiah–a man who could not walk. ...read more
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23. The Building That Is Faith
Contributed on May 31, 2014
The God who is himself reliable gives us a city which is reliable.
Thursday of 7th Week of Easter 2014 Lumen Fidei (St. Boniface) The uproar between Pharisee and Sadducee that Paul engineered here almost ended in his premature death. Sadducees, the priestly class in Jerusalem, believed in the divine inspiration of only the Torah, the first five books of the ...read more
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24. Faith Needs A Setting
Contributed on Mar 29, 2014
what is communicated in the Church, what is handed down in her living Tradition, is the new light born of an encounter with the true God, a light which touches us at the core of our being and engages our minds, wills and emotions.
Thursday of 4th week of Lent 2014 Lumen Fidei The name “Israel” was given to Jacob, son of Isaac and Rebecca, after an incident in which this patriarch wrestled all night with a divine being. That name means “God-fighter,” and it applied well to his descendants. Our OT ...read more
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25. Seeing Things As Jesus Sees Them
Contributed on Oct 19, 2013
Jesus came to free us from the slavery to sin through faith, through faith in what He taught, and through faith in Him as a person.
Thursday of 29th Week in Course Lumen Fidei Jesus was a very serious Savior. If you were a government official and happened upon a prison where several thousands of persons were enslaved under abysmal conditions, you’d want to free them. Now before Christ, we were slaves of sin. I know ...read more
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26. Faith And Unity
Contributed on May 10, 2014
To fulfill Christ's intention for the Church, the Church treasures the unbreakable link between one faith and one community.
Thursday of 4th Week of Easter 2014 Lumen Fidei In these first weeks of the Easter season each year the Church gives us much of St. John’s Gospel writings on the Eucharist, the sacrament of nourishment and unity. The Eucharist brings us together: those who profess the same Catholic faith ...read more
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27. When Faith Is Weakened
Contributed on Jun 21, 2014
Our faith enables us to triumph even when the evil culture seems to be overwhelming the goodness we seek.
Thursday of 12th week in Course 2014 Lumen Fidei St. Josemaria taught: “You hear people saying sometimes that there are fewer miracles nowadays. Might it not rather be that there are fewer people living a life of faith? God cannot go back on his promise, 'Ask of me, and I will give you ...read more
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28. New Covenant Of Faith In Christ
Contributed on Aug 1, 2014
The final homily in the series: how God solves the REAL problem of society.
Thursday of the 18th Week in Course Lumen Fidei A few years ago, the bishops of the U.S. issued a statement on relations with Jews that, without much thought, referred to the Mosaic covenant with the Jews as enduring forever, or some such language. My friend, E. Michael Jones, responded by ...read more
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29. Faith, Anchored In The Promise To Abraham
Contributed on Sep 7, 2013
Mary anchored her faith in the promise God made to Abraham; faith is a response to a "Thou" who calls us by name.
Holy Name of Mary 2012 Lumen Fidei In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, "Hail, full of grace, ...read more
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30. On The Festival Of Purim
Contributed on Mar 8, 2014
Theology is faith seeking understanding. It can help us see the relevance of God's Word to our lives, especially when we don't get what we pray for.
Thursday of the First Week of Lent 2014 Lumen Fidei In the Jewish calendar, which is a lunar, or thirteen-month calendar, spring is the time of Purim, the minor feast of deliverance. The story is well-known in all the world, to Jews and Christians. A Persian king had, in God’s design, ...read more