Month: July 2024

HELP PEOPLE… HELP THEMSELVES2 Kings 4:42-44; Ephesians 4:1-6; John 6:1-15 We have many and conflicting requests for help. For instance, you are working on a critical task and someone needs help. You return after a hard day at work and your child has a project/ needs a drop/ is unwell. Jesus experienced something similar.Today’s gospel opens with him going to the other side of the Sea of Galilee after John’s beheading to avoid danger or to grieve over his loss. He cannot be by himself: the crowds follow him; he is faced with an unexpected demand, an intrusion on his

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HE HAD COMPASSION ON THEMJeremiah 23:1-6; Ephesians 2:13-18; Mark 6:30-34 The oncologist walked through the parking lot with just one thought: the dire diagnosis he had handed Jim. Advanced pancreatic cancer. He noticed an elderly gentleman handing tools to someone under a stalled car. That someone was Jim! Doc yelled: “Jim, what are you doing?” Jim crawled out, dusted off his pants, and said: Doc, my cancer didn’t tell me to stop helping others.” He waved at the man to start the car. The engine roared to life. The man thanked Jim and drove off. Jim got into his car

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CALLED AND SENTAmos 7:12-15; Ephesians 1:3-14; Mark 6:7-13 She begins her program with a Bach symphony. She next plays an Irish air, then a Bob Dylan folk song, and finally a jazz improvisation. The venue: a hospice. The audience: one, a 70-year-old woman with terminal cancer. Through her music she provides a measure of peace for those walking their last steps in this world.She was a “little” Carmelite nun! She was not qualified (in her words: “I am only tenth pass.”). But people from every walk of life – bishops, priests, religious, laity – and every religion came to seek

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REJECTEDEzekiel 2:2-5; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Mark 6:1-6 In 1960, religious persecution broke out in Sudan. Paride Taban fled to Uganda. There he studied for the priesthood and was ordained. When the Sudan situation stabilized, Fr Taban returned and was assigned a parish in Palotaka. His parishioners always had white priests before who gave them clothing and medicine. Fr Taban was like them—black, poor… with nothing material to give them. His people would not accept this poor black man as a priest. The story of Fr Taban is an example of the rejection every prophet encounters. Prophets in Hebrew and Christian

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