A message from Father Pete

For Sunday, January 28, 2024 Deuteronomy 18:15-20, 1 Corinthians 7:32-35, Mark 1:21-28 Who has control over me? Who am I willing to give control over me? If I let God have control over me, am I giving up too much? What does God want of me? Am I willing to accept the demands of discipleship and change my way of living? Does God really need me? A question: Can you guess who wrote the following about the authority and power of Christ? I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man. Superficial minds may see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires. … That resemblance does not exist. Between Christ and anyone else in the world, there is no possible term of comparison. With what authority does He teach men to pray! You speak of Caesar, of Alexander, of their conquests and the enthusiasm they enkindled in the hearts of their soldiers. But can you conceive of a dead man making conquests with an army faithful and entirely devoted to his memory? How different is the p...

For Sunday, January 21, 2024 Jonah 3:1-5, 10; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20 So what is Jesus telling me today? Am I sitting down and relaxing? Is it the usual: to be conscious of His blessings … to know that He loves me all the time … to be aware of the people He places in my life … that I am called to love everyone? Well yes, it is … and so it’s just His regular encouragement to be good and be loving and forgiving? No! This is an urgent message! Why is it urgent? What is so important about today’s message? What do I have to do? We are still in the first chapter of Mark’s gospel ... the shortest gospel and likely the first to be written. Why was it written? For one thing, many of the original eyewitnesses and followers of Jesus had died ... mostly by martyrdom. The apostles and disciples were busy preaching all around the known world, especially in the Roman Empire. The leadership among Jesus’ followers felt it was very important to put in writing the life, teaching, healings an...

For Sunday, January 14, 2024   1 Samuel 3:3-10, 19; 1 Corinthians 3:13-15, 17-20; John 1:35-42 We’ve finished the Christmas Season, and in five weeks we begin the holy season of Lent. Our decorations are stored in boxes, closets and attics. We’ve made some sort of resolutions, plans, hopeful dreams and directions for the year 2024 and we start into a peaceful liturgical time … we think. The readings today lead us on a different plan of action — about being called. I think: Can’t I just sit back and relax? The baby is born; what does that mean to me? It's God’s plan that has been promised for eons — first realized in the call of Abram, the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions which include Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In Judaism, Abram is the founding father of the special relationship between God and the Jews. In Christianity, he is the spiritual developer of all religions, whether Jewish or non-Jewish. In Islam, he is a link in the chain of Islamic prophets that ...

For Sunday, January 7, 2024 Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:2-3, 5-6; Matthew 2:1-12 Let’s look at Biblical hermeneutics — the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially concerning the interpretation of Biblical and philisophical texts and wisdom literature. It really includes the art of understanding and communication. We look at the word ephipany which has multiple descriptions: (1) a church festival in commemoration of the coming of the Magi to Jesus at Bethlehem; (2) a sudden, striking understanding of something; and (3) a revelation, from within or without, of God’s presence seen by the repetitions of light, shine or glory … one that does not remain private but has global appeal. We can see examples in our readings: “Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you.” [Isaiah 60:1] “Then you shall be radiant at what you see, your heart shall throb and overflow.” [Isaiah 60:5] “You have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me … that the Gentiles ...