Listen to Jesus' teachings on prayer to enter into communion with God
The Peace Pulpit (with audio): If we continue to listen to Jesus, we can have that blessed assurance that God will always be there. Listen to Bishop Gumbleton's homily.
The Peace Pulpit is made up of the Sunday homilies of Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, a retired Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit.
The Peace Pulpit (with audio): If we continue to listen to Jesus, we can have that blessed assurance that God will always be there. Listen to Bishop Gumbleton's homily.
The Peace Pulpit (with audio): Remember how important it is to be hospitable and to listen to God's word in the depths of our heart. Listen to Bishop Gumbleton's latest homily.
The first lesson today really gives us a very good context in which to reflect on our Gospel reading today and the letter from Paul to the Colossians. That first lesson from the Book of Deuteronomy -- the name of the book means "The Second Law" -- is really a kind of an updating; [it was] a revision of the law that had been given to Moses and the chosen people at Sinai. But now after many decades, they were in a sense overly familiar with it, took it for granted, and didn't let it really challenge them.
I think we can gather from our listening to the Scriptures this morning that the message today is about being a disciple of Jesus -- our call to follow him -- and maybe some of us are somewhat like Elisha. We say yes, but then we hesitate, and we're not so sure if we really want to be this disciple of Jesus. But if we listen carefully and turn to God for help, I think we can leave the church today with a firm commitment to be disciples of Jesus, which could mean radical change in our lives.
As I mentioned in introducing the Gospel, it's kind of a confrontation because Jesus is demanding of his disciples after he's been with them for maybe a year, year and a half, close to two years: "Who do you really think I am? What do people say about me?" You heard the answers, but then he confronts them directly: "Well, OK, who do you say I am?"
The Peace Pulpit (with audio): Before we loved God, God loved us. He loved us so much, he drew us into being. Listen to Bishop Gumbleton's latest homily.
I was reminded again of an incident that happened with Pope Francis on Pentecost Sunday -- and perhaps I've shared this with you already, but it's so extraordinary that it's worth reflecting on again.
Later this afternoon, as Father [Don] Walker announced last Sunday, this parish, together with Our Lady of Grace will have a procession with the Blessed Sacrament and celebrate Benediction at the end of that procession. Many of us, I'm sure, remember days long ago when this was very common: Corpus Christi, the Peace of the Body and Blood of Jesus, where we have outdoor procession and we walked around in the streets, publicly acclaiming our belief that that piece of bread was really and truly the body and blood of the Son of God.
I'm sure all of us have noticed over the past few weeks now how many times Pope Francis comes into the news because of the kind of unusual things that he's begun to do, the way he's carried out his understanding of the role of what it means to be the bishop of Rome. One of the things that he did quite recently that I find very instructive, especially as we reflect on the Trinity today: He was at St. Peter's Square and, of course, as is so often, there were tens of thousands of people there and at one point, they all began to cry out in unison, "Francesco! Francesco! Viva Francesco!"
Peace Pulpit: Each of us is blessed with gifts and then called to service, to minister within the community and, as part of the community, to minister to the world.