Reflections on the 22nd Sunday of Ordinary time (August 31st 2014)

Hello all,

I didn't have a public mass call this morning so I celebrated mass in the friary chapel.  This doesn't happen all that often but it is very prayerful for me and a wonderful time to reflect, pray, and savor the mass.

While I didn't prepare a homily for today I did pray with the readings and I wanted to share my thoughts.

I love these reading!  I especially love the connection between the Gospel reading from last Sunday to today.

Last Sunday we heard about the question that Jesus asked, "who do you say that I am?" It was Simon Peter who spoke up and professed that Jesus "is the Christ the Son of the Living God."

In response to this Jesus called him "Peter" the Rock upon which His Church will be built.  This Church will even withstand the onslaught of the powers of hell, time, and last into eternity.

Then today we hear Jesus warn the Apostles that He is going to go to Jerusalem and suffer and die, but rise from the dead.  In response to this Simon Peter confronts Jesus and tries to prevent Him from going.  Jesus then says to Peter, "Get behind me satan! You are an obstacle to me.  You are not thinking as God does but as humans do."

Notice the contrast!

One moment Peter is professing faith in Jesus that was revealed to him from the Father and then very next moment he is no longer thinking and acting based on the inspiration of God.  One moment Peter is being praised by Jesus and the next he is being called "satan".  One moment Peter is made to be the building block for the Universal Church and then next moment Jesus is calling him an "obstacle" to His work.

I love this moment in the Gospels because at times I feel like I can identify with what St. Peter is going through.  There are moments when I feel like I am part of God's plan and the very next moment my sin, pride, and weakness is an obstacle to Our Lord.

So often we get this silly idea in our mind that saints are perfect.  We fail to realize that it is stories like this that illustrate what the life of a saint is really like.

We all, sinners and saints, are part of God's plan and then obstacles to that plan.  

It is so difficult to accept God's mercy, at times, because we often fail to forgive ourselves.  I think the secret to forgiving ourselves as freely as God does is by accepting this reality.  We are all sinners and saints at times.  One moment we are part of God's plan and then the next we are His obstacle.

If we look at St. Peter we should be able to see something profound to hope in.  God can still do great things in us even if we are very good at being His obstacle.  St. Peter was a formidable obstacle to Jesus and yet he is still a saint.  St. Peter even was running away from persecution the day that he died.  Jesus appeared to him, Peter realized his weakness, and he turned around  to return to Rome to be crucified upside down.

I love St. Peter and I think that his example of humanity, mistakes, and humility is good example to meditate on today and for life.

My homily from August 24th 2014

Hello all,

Well I've finally figured it out how to make a movie from the audio recording of my homily.
Then I put that movie on YouTube.

This is a first and a very exciting step for me, personally.  This is my first movie to be put on YouTube.

Here's my homily from yesterday.

Enjoy and God bless.

Homily: 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time Cycle A (August 24th, 2014)

Hello all,

I was able to record my homily today... please stay tuned as I try to figure out how to upload it to this blog.

I'm not tech savvy so this might take a bit but once I figure it out it will be easy in the future to upload my homilies quickly and often.

Sorry for the delay.

But while you are reading this I just wanted to let you know that Monday August 25th is my 2 year anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood!

Thanks for all your prayers and support.

God bless and stay tuned!

I've moved!

I know that it has been a long time since I've blogged anything.

I do hope to get better at that now.

I have recently moved down to Baltimore and I will be teaching at Archbishop Curley High School.

I will be teaching Morality to the Juniors and one section of Philosophy to the Seniors.

Along with that I will be going to help out with masses at some local parishes on the weekends.
It is my hope that I can figure out a way to audio record my homilies and post them here on my blog.

I know that a good number of people (especially my mother) want to hear my homilies so I'm going to try to share them with you as often as I find myself preaching on a Sunday.

I never really got the hang of "blogging" so if you want to see certain things here please don't hesitate to email me at frpetercft@gmail.com and let me know what you'd like me to blog about.

Someone suggested that I share what I'm reading and studying.  I'm not sure if that is something that you'd enjoy hearing about since I have continued studying in some specific and technical areas of theology.

But incase you are interested I am in the middle of a few books (audio and otherwise) and here is some of what I'm doing/reading/studying right now.

The Great Courses: Exploring Metaphysics

The Great Courses: The Great Ideas of Philosophy

The Great Courses: The Story of Human Language

Postmodernism: A Very Short Introduction

The Outer Limits of Reason

I'm rereading The Nature of Doctrine

And this is the article that I was reading yesterday.

Reconstructing The Nature of Doctrine

If any of this is interesting let me know.  I'm not sure if my curiosities are at all something that you'd enjoy hearing about.

God bless!