Midnight Mass 2008

These are pretty dark days, both literally and figuratively.
Hunger, poverty, war, and violence
seem to pervade our world—
and the reality of the struggling economy
daily seems to cast a darker shadow over our lives.

Into this darkness, tonight, God shines Light.

You see, things are not much different today
than they were two thousand years ago
on that first cold dark Christmas night, in Palestine,
in the year that Christ was born.

Back then people fought over grain and salt rather than oil,
But generally speaking few modern issues are really new problems.

And the more things change the more they stay the same—
in every age man has responded
to the uncertainty of his existence
and the evil that exists in the world with violence.

Attempting control his world and to solve his problems
with brute force.

Violence, in the form of war, selfishness and greed
But also in subtler forms, like the ideologies of the 20th century,
which promised peace and prosperity
but in reality simply disguised the age old idea idea
that might makes right;
treating people like problems, pieces of a puzzle to be rearranged by force of will on the playing board of life.


Indeed even today, as weary as we are of this type of violence, new ideologies are quickly gaining popularity,
even as the old ideologies loose power.

Today in a world weary of ideologies;
strangely ideas like the ideology of tolerance have become
the fashionable human solution to the darkness of this world.

In the end though, these new ideologies
like all the rest are just another type of violence,
which can not give the world light
because they come from a world in darkenss.

Tonight, into this dark world of ours,
which yearns for peace and fulfillment,

our loving Father reaches out his hand—
giving those who walk in darkness a great light.

On Christmas we celebrate the alternative to the violence
that throughout history has promised to solve our problems,
but delivered only death, destruction, misery, and shame.

The alternative to violence is true love.
Unto us a Child is born, unto us a child is given
and they shall call him…the prince of peace.

On Christmas we don’t celebrate the birthday
of a leader, guru or moral teacher
who will teach us how to live in peace.

We celebrate the Nativity of Jesus Christ, who,
though fully a man, was also fully God!
We celebrate a cosmic event,
which for us Christians is the defining event of history.

God, who created all things and is almighty,
all-knowing, eternal, and unknowable,
who cannot be measured, circumscribed, or contained
tonight is born of the Virgin Mary.

God is Love, St. John tells us and tonight
Love is born into the World, takes flesh and becomes man
to offer us an alternative to all the systems
that promise peace by changing the world.

The solution to all of the world’s problems isn’t violence,
it’s a person, named Jesus.

We have been told that change is coming.
Tonight God offers us the possibility to change the world,
not by changing laws or governments,
not by changing others, but changing ourselves.

God became man, so that man could become God.
God promises peace by giving us the power to be truly human.

In Jesus, the Father demonstrates the fact
that perfection and divinity are not incompatible with humanity.
We can become like God. We can become love.

Violence and ideologies miss the point
because they try to change external realities
without first changing human hearts.
Even when well intentioned they treat people like things,
like problems to be organized or moved.
We see this in the idea of Tolerance,
which claims that all violence and strife will end
if there is no truth—
failing to realize that you can’t make war on truth,
only on the people who believe in it.
And that without truth, there is no reason not to make war!

In the end tolerance is like separating two fighting children.
In the short term this solution is sure to work,
but it doesn’t solve the problem it just defers it
because unless love, and with it a mutual search for truth,
fills the void of hate, distrust, and misunderstanding
the next time they come together nothing will have changed.

Tolerance is not a Christian idea,
because tolerance is the opposite of love: it’s enforced apathy.

Christians are not called to ignore or tolerate evil;
we are called to hate it, because we love God.

Moreover, we are not called to tolerate our brothers who do evil, but to love them.

As GK Chesterton once said, the Catholic:
uniquely hates the world enough to see that it needs changing,
and loves the world enough to see that it’s worth fixing.

Fixing, not by changing laws or governments,
but by changing hearts.

We can do this and live this way because on Christmas
Love is born into the world and into our hearts.

Love changes the world not by treating our brothers and sisters like chess pieces to be played,
but by treating them like God’s children to be loved.

Tomorrow during the Christmas day Mass
the Church will proclaim the prologue of the Gospel of John.
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God…
and the Word became man and dwelt among us!

God does not tolerate the evil and darknes of the World
Rather He loves even those who do evil.

He does not let man freely walk down
the paths to distruction, we have chosen for ourselves.
Rather, he sends His Son, the Word of God.

This is God’s response to all those people who cry out to God
Asking Him to do something about the evil in the world.

God doesn’t use violence to solve the worlds problems as we may wish
Rather, He sends His Son, His Word, to heal the world’s heart.

In the Christian tradition this concept
of the Word was of unimaginable importance.

The Word is just not a word,
but the first and the last Word,
the totality of God explanation of himself.
And the reason for the existence of the existence itself.


Tonight God sends the Plan, the master plan for existence.
Not to teach us right from wrong,
but to recreate and restore us, and with us all of creation
to God’s orginal plan—to restore man to Paradise.
A paradise that begins with us in our hearts!

For man this means Jesus restored us
to the image and likeness of God, in which we were created!
The image and likeness of God, who is LOVE.

Jesus was born, to restore man to man.
To bring us who were in darkness
Not just a light, but the source of all light.

Tonight:The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;

And being born He doesn’t just give us a candel
But he offered us a nuclear reaction,
brighter than the lights of this Church,
a perpetual source of light within us,
so that we can help ourselves.

This is the mystery at the center of our Catholic Christian faith
We have come here on this cold winter night
to remember and celebrate it!

God, became Man, taking on
our body, our soul, our nature, our mind, our will
taking on everything that is truly human.

So that we could see that man could become God,
So that the unthinkable could become a possibility.
which at Easter and here on this altar, could become a reality.
The Divinity that God unites with humanity today
Is the Divinity united with humanity in the person of Jesus
that He offers up for us on the Cross—
which we receive from this altar today
and which we know will lead to the resurrection tomorrow.

Today we are challenged by God to become who we truly are
To become what we eat and receive.

It is in this transformation of ourselves, into Love
Into God’s image and likeness
that God proposes the solution to the worlds problems.
Sadly it has never been tried on a large scale!
And yet tonight God offers it again.

God will not use violence to solve the worlds problems
Not because he can’t but because
Violence breeds slaves
While love makes us sons and daughters by adoption.

Into the darkness of the World, Tonight God becomes one of us
Not strong and terrible, but meek and mild.
And yet the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, the Prince of Peace

Don’t look for hope or comfort elsewhere
because there is none to be found!

Therefore, on this dark Christmas night,
let us thank God with the angels and saints
for the true gift of Christmas: Jesus, the source of all Light.

Gloria, in excelsis Deo!



My Brothers and sisters, tonight Light is born into the world,
the Light that shines in the darkness
and which cannot be overcome by it.
And so we gather in this Church,
whose beautiful lights are a poor symbol
of the True Light born today, Jesus Christ.

We welcome all those who are visiting with us from afar
And those who have been away from the Church.
Tonight the Lord offers each of us
The opportunity to give the Holy Family shelter
from the Cold and Dark of the night
and by doing so to allow Christ to be born into our hearts

If we let Him, God will transformed us tonight
into the people that God made us to be,
and that deep down we want to be.

And so in order that we might worthily celebrate
these sacred mysteries, let us call to mind our sins
confident that God so loved the world
that He sent His only begotten son,
so that we might not perish,
but have eternal life.

Vocation Homily Series

Hi all:

I am back in Rome after a brief detour to Emmitsburg, MD; Washington, DC; and Medjugorje, Bosnia. Here is a listing of my vocation homilies given this summer. I will try to get them all up soon.

Fr. Ron


Vocation Homilies


25th Sunday:

Malden Catholic Votive of the Holy Spirit: You may be Surprised

Feast of the Triumph of the Cross

St. Joseph's/Holy Name: Superhero

23rd Sunday: Am I my brother's keeper

22nd Sunday:

21st Sunday: Who do people say that I am

20th Sunday: Have Pity on Me

19th Sunday: Why are you here?

18th Sunday: Offering the Lord Your Gifts

Feast of St. James: Can you drink from this cup?

17th Sunday: Finding the Treasure God has prepared for you!

Solemnity of Ss. Peter and Paul: Who do people say that I am?

My Pilgirmage to Medjugorje

A Pilgrim’s Journey
By: Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd

I have had it in my heart for the past few months to make a pilgrimage to the former Yugoslavia, Croatia and Bosnia, to the Shrine of Our Lady of Medjugorje. Returning to Rome just a few weeks ago, sent by Bishop Coleman to complete my theological studies, I found myself with a free week and in a position to do just this and so last week, much like St. Phillip in the Acts of the Apostles who was caught up by the Spirit, I and another priest embarked on an impromptu pilgrimage. From Rome we traveled by train to the Italian port city of Ancona, then by ferry to Split in Croatia, and then finally we hitchhiked with a group of Italian pilgrims, who had a bus, to the Bosnian town of Medjugorje. After a full days travel, including an overnight sleeping on the ferry’s deck, we arrived with tired bodies but up-lifted hearts. The Italians had truly been a God-send, providing us not only with transportation, but allowing us to join in their pilgrimage: at the Holy Mass, for lunch, conversation, and song. We stayed in Medjugorje four days before making our way back to Rome. What we experienced there was amazing!

I am still not sure what I think about the apparitions of Medjugorje, which have been going on now for over 20 years since 1981, but it was quite clear that something truly Godly was happening in that city. People from all over the world were crowding to what is truly a fairly poor insignificant Eastern European town—some believers, some struggling, and some merely open minded skeptics—and they were truly discovering God there. I know this because for four days in a row I heard confessions for three or four hours at a time. Confessions that we not just the pious confessions of regular church goers, but the life changing conversions of people who had been away from the Church and the Sacraments for months, years, and decades. In my conversations with people time and again I found myself amazed by how their hearts had been opened to listen to the Lord. In truth I too, found myself listening that week, in a way the possibly I had forgotten to over the years.

What was the cause of all this? I think clearly the Holy Spirit and the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin. But more than this, I think people entered into their voyage to Medjugorje truly seeking, truly open to the voice of God, honestly believing that they would hear Him speaking to them—they entered into their trip truly with the hearts of pilgrims. However, what I realized while there was that the same phenomenon occurring in that far away land is possible in our own homes. You see Christians are a pilgrim people, and the act of physically making a pilgrimage is simply an outward sign of the hidden reality of our Christian lives. Whether at home or abroad when we take time to listen and truly expect Him to speak to us; when we put aside the monotony of our every day lives with all its distractions; when we allow the Lord to lead and provide for us, we enter into the reality that we are on a journey through life to heaven. Whether or not the Blessed Virgin Mary appears to us, her message is always the Gospel message—repent and believe that God loves us and is leading us home to Himself, if only we will follow. Sometimes it takes a change of scenery, the fellowship of other travelers, or even a miracle or apparition to remember this truth, but most of all it takes an open heart. As we Catholic’s enter into the month of the Rosary, lets remember that with Mary we are a pilgrim people following in the path Jesus laid out to the Cross and what lays beyond.

Our Lady of Victory, Pray for us.

You may be Surprised

Homily given at Malden Catholic High School
On Friday 20th of September
By: Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd

This is a great priveledge for me to be able to celebrate with you this holy Mass at the beginning of your new school year and at the beginning of my priesthood.

My name is Fr. Ron Floyd, and just 10 years ago I was sitting where you are. I was a senior, here at MC I had just come off MCLI and was looking forward to a new year, my senior year—and all that this entailed SATs; Prom; Graduation; a semester off of Christian service; college applications—you senio\rs know the story.

My class, the class of 1999, was on top of the world! And it was a great year! We partied like it was 1999, because in fact it was.

I left MC in the spring of 1999 pretty sure about where life was taking me—and let me tell you,
it wasn’t here. Back then I was into politics, as some of my old teachers may remember— by that time I had already started to get involved with a few campaigns,

I left MC and moved to Washington, DC where I went to Catholic University.as a political theory major, with a pre-law concentration At Catholic I got myself ready for Law school and was very involved with a dozen or so campaigns. By my junior year in college I had landed a job working for the US Senate—as one of the youngest paid staffers I was being consulted by senators, and given a voice in the legislative process. This was my dream come true and it seem like the sky was the limit.

I even got a job offer from a friend at the White House. It was amazing—all my plans for my life, were suceeding. I was getting everything I ever thought I wanted—I had good friends, a nice apartment, a car, a good job, career opportunities, and I hadn’t even finished college yet!

And yet something was wrong—something was out of whack—in my heart I wasn’t happy, despite all of my sucesses. Thank God I had some good friends at the time, who gave me some good advice—they encouraged me to pray to God, and ask Him about His plan for my life.

You see—God made the world, he made everything and everyone and he made it because he loves us. He wants us to be happy and holy, He wants our lives to be filled with joy, happiness, and love, and He knows what will make us happy, because He knows us better than we know ourselves!

In my Junior year of college—I realized that I had been so busy following my own plans, that I forgot to ask God about His plan for me. I forgot to listen to His plan—and so I gave God a chance
Let me tell you it was as much a surprise to me as to anyone when I heard Him, calling me to be a priest.

Its not that I had never thought about it before, its just that I had never really given that thought a chance. Not here at MC and not in college to that point. It was a tough decision to let go and let God, to take a chance on God, putting my life and my career on hold. To be quite honest I was afraid to let go.

But I did it, entering Seminary five years ago and I stand before you now, five years latter, a new priest to tell you that if you, like everyone I know, want to be happy. You’ve got to listen to God’s plan for you.

I was suprized by God’s plan, but even moreso by the intense happiness and satisfaction following God’s plan has brought me. God has a plan for each of us and a plan for the World and when we follow his plan the world becomes truly good the way God made it to be.
In the Gospel today we hear about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the disciples, on the first Christian Church. Do you remember what does Jesus say, when he comes among them? He says: Peace be with you.

Just as elsewhere he says: Be not afraid. He says this because following God’s plan for us, growing in love for God and our neighbor, always involves a risk—the risk of our reputation, the risk of our livelihood and even the risk of our lives. Christians in places like China, India, Belerus and Saudi Arbia are taking that risk today, just like Christians have always taken that risk

Because Christ tells us not to be afraid, because Christ gives us His peace—the peace that comes from being a beloved son of God. And with this peace he gives us the Holy Spirit that fills us with the gifts of courage, wisdom, counsel, and fear of the Lord.

The gifts we will need to bear witness to our faith to listen to and to follow his plan for us, and to become the saints we are meant to be. Men today, at the beginning of this school year
you are presented a choice, whether you are a freshman or a senior.

Today—God, who has graced you with so many gifts, is calling you and asking you, to listen to his voice speaking to you in your heart. Today Jesus is giving you His peace, telling you not to be afraid, and strenghtening you with His Body and Blood and Holy Spirit.

Today you can choose to accept and cooperate with God’s plan to go plus ultra more beyond your fears and limitations and embrace the heroic destiny that God made you for or you can choose to remain the same, to participate in this Mass, but not to be transformed by it.

God is calling you today, as he does at every Mass, to go into the world like his disciples and spread the good news that God loves us and died for us. He is calling you today, to do this by following a unique plan that he designed for you from the first moments of your conception. He is calling you to holiness, to sainthood, and to true happiness.\Take a chance on God--listen to God and follow Him.

—Accept the peace of Christ offered in this Mass—
And be not afraid.

God gives us our life as a gift, a surprise to the world and to ourselves. Accept the gift God gives you today the gift of life and of His plan for you. You may be suprized by what it holds in store for you like I was—but I guarantee you, following God’s plan is worth it!

Feast of The Exaltation of the Cross

Embracing your Cross
By Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd

As Christians we start all things with the sign of the Cross. We are baptized into this sign, blessed by it, and when we die it marks our final resting place. It is the Cross of Jesus Christ that we see prefigured in Genesis In the Tree of Life, in the midst of the Garden of eden; and when little Issac carries the bundle of wood up Mount Moria, the same wood on which Abraham is willing to offer his only son’s life to God.

It is the Cross that we see prefigured in the gold scorpion, the symbol of sin and death, that gives life in today’s first reading. It is the Cross that Isaiah prophezies about when he fortells the coming of the Suffering servant, the Messiah—who will die for his people.

The Cross is everywhere in Scriptures because it is the fulfillment of God’s plan to save Man. However, even though all of scripture testifies to it the Cross is still a surprise and a great source of scandal to many people who can not imagine that God loves us so much. But this is the mystery of our faith: God became man, so that we could btecome like God. He became man so that He could die for us on the Cross and so that in His Body and His Blood, washed clean by the blood and water that flowed from his pierced side we could regain the image and likeness of God.

As we say during Lent: Lord by your Cross and Resurrection you have set us free, you are the savior of the world!

Take a second to think about this mystery, think for a second how bizare and revolutionary a thought it is, that our God, that the almighty creator of the world would humble himself and die for his creation. And yet this is what we believe, this is what sets Christianity apart from all other religions. At the center of our Catholic faith is the life giving Cross whose sacrifice we offer on this and on every altar a real event, a current event, happening not just two thousand years ago
but happening now, and every day, in each of our lives. And so we Christians MUST embrace the cross each day! If we truly believe that our God died for us then we must be willing to die for each other. This is the most perfect fulfillment of the law of love: there is no greater love, than to lay down your life for a friend.

That is why the Mass is so important to the Church, because at the Mass we remember and thank God for Christ’s cross and in thanksgiving to God we offer up everything in our life joining all our joys and all our sufferings together with Jesus’ sacrifice on Calvary the Sacrifice of Christ’s Cross.

This is also why the priesthood is so important to the Church, Christ called twelve men, twelve Apostles, to preach the message of the Cross and to help those who believe and accept it to make it a reality in their lives. This is what priests, from the time of the Apostles o our very day have done for us, on our behalf. They stand, with Christ, as an intermediary between God and His bride the Church making present in word and sacrament the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is nothing less than the Love of God for us. How poor a representation is our worship of the reality of what is going at the Mass.

Like all Christians, Priests are called on to make real sacrifices for our bride, the Church and when we say the Church, we don’t mean the buildings ut all of you who are part of Christ through baptism. Priests make these sacrifices willing, out of love modling their lives on the life of Jesus, who made similar sacrifices and in spite of all that Priests give up, what I have found is that by giving up, good things, that would distract me from my work I have been filled with so many other joys and blessings.

I am not sure people like the idea of sacrifices, anymore of embracing the cross and suffering. But in case you get the wrong idea, you should know that its not just priests who are called on to make sacrifices. Those of you who are parents, or who know anything about raising children know that true parenthood is just a series of sacrifices. And in truth even before you have kids, true love, as married people, requires compromises and sacrifices for the good of your husband or wife. Similarly, while the sacrifices of the priesthood are different from the sacrifices that a religious, sister or brother, monk or nun, make they too make sacrifices.

All Christians are baptized into the cross, and if we love God we can’t escape the reality of sacrificial suffering. But just as in death Christ found life, when we die to ourselves when we sacrifice, all of us find life, and joy, and peace

God has a plan for each of us, He who made us, knows us better than we know ourselves and he has written into our heart an identity and a plan, a plan for how we are to grow in holiness, happiness, and love.

Following God’s plan, always entails the Cross, and yet it is the only way for our lives to be truly satisfying.

When I was young, a boy of just five, I felt a longing in my heart to embrace the Cross to serve God and His people as a priest. But in time I allowed myself to forget this thought afraid of the sacrifices and crosses it entailed. And while every now and them, my mind drifted back to thoughts of being a priest, each time I rejected this thought.

For a long time I was sucessful in ignoring the call. For a long time I followed my own plans and designs ignoring the fact that God has a plan for all of us and that he had a plan for me.

Before I had even turned 21 I had been blessed with so many great sucesses, I had great friends, I was finacially viable, my career was on track, and it seemed like the sky was the limit.

God’s tricky though: I think God blessed me with so many sucesses to show me that none of them would make me happy. True happiness, He taught me comes from listening to God’s plan and doing it. True happiness comes from taking up your cross and following Jesus.

In 2003 I was working for the US Senate, I had been just offered a job in the White House,
I had an apartment and car, a entire life in place and in the blink of an eye, I took a chance on God. I gave it all away—and listened to that calling that God had made me for.

I embraced the Cross, and I found that as Jesus promised it was light and pleasant. You see, the Cross, doesn’t sound like fun. Sacrifice and death don’t’ sound like a good time, but in truth—it is only in loosing yourself that you can find yourself.

It is only in dying on the Cross—that you can truly live.

The Cross is the center of Our Faith, and at the Mass we are reminded that it should be the center of our life. God has a plan for each of us, a plan for who we are meant to be a plan that will make us happy and holy and to bring us at the end of our life to eternal joy. But for all of us Christians, baptized into Christ’s death God’s plan involves the Cross.

Whether he calls us to be parents, or religious brothers or sisters, or whether he calls a young man to be a priest all of us are challenged to embrace the Cross. To offer our very life on the Cross, in love for our neighbor.

Today as we celebrate this Feast of the Triumph of the Cross I invite you to pray for the young people of this parish and of our diocese.

Pray that they hear and listen to the good news of the Cross
Pray that they listen to God’s plan for them
And pray that they take up their Cross and follow christ.

Pray especially for our young men, that they may consider a calling a vocation to the priesthood.

That in embracing their vocation, they might make the reality of the Cross present for us all here on the Altar.

Superheros

Vocation Homily to St. Joseph's School Fairhaven

In the beginning of the book of the prophet Jeremiah the word of the Lord came to a young man named Jeremiah saying: Before I formed thee in the womb I knew you; and before you came forth from your mother’s womb I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet to the nations.

This is one of my favorite passages in scriptures, Because it demonstrates a key truth of our Faith: God called Jeremiah to be a messenger to the world to bring the truth to people who were living a lie. But this wasn’t just a job, it was who Jeremiah was born to be.

Just like Jeremiah, God has a unique plan for each of us As today’s Psalm says we are wonderfully
Made each of us is an unrepeatable gift to the world. Like Jeremiah, each of us has a vocation, a
calling and if we take it seriously our vocation is always an adventure! Because God calls each of us
to live heroic lives—in a sense to be super-heroes. God wants us to take huge risks to love one
another and in turn to spread the message of God’s love, this is the example of the Saints—who are real life superheroes!

You know when we think of superheroes we think of people with awesome power and super-human strength but God’s plan—asks us to be more courageous than the comic book heroes we all know, braver because he asks us to do the same type of heroic acts without the super powers—using just our brains and our muscles, and our trust in God.

When you really think about it it’s not really bravery to fight evil, when you can stop bullets in your teeth

God wants us to be superheroes, in our ordinary lives. He wants us to take a real risk:
To risk our comfort and our pleasure
To risk our reputations and our friends
And sometimes to even risk our lives.

It’s easy to be a super hero when you have superman’s strength, or Spiddy senses, or Batman’s cool gadgets and ninja training. It’s easy to fight for good when you can control the weather like Storm, or have psychic power like Gene Gray. But God wants you and me to stand up to evil, chaos, and despair,without any special powers. He wants you and I, in spite of our weakness, to stand up to be a prophet to the nations, letting people know that good always triumphs over evil.

He wants us to fight our enemy who is a Liar and the Father of Lies not with fists, bullets, and laser beams, but with a stronger weapon—with the truth of our life, with our witness to the beauty and goodness of God’s plan, and with our willingness to sacrifice ourselves and to die to do good, to speak the truth the Truth, and to love God!

God made each of us to save lives! There is an old Jewish saying: he who saves one life saves the world. If you think about this saying, you see how true it is, and you begin to realize just how important you are in God’s plan how important you are to the world. This is the beauty of God’s plan: each of us are so important. Each Christian, in fact each person open to God’s plan, is a part of a chain reaction more powerful than a nuclear bomb, the chain reaction of the Cross of Jesus Christ. You see while, to some, one life may not seem important, we know that in God’s plan we are all tied together like links of a chain. If you save me, and I save another person, and that person another, eventually in Christ we all save each other—and the world!

And sometimes saving someone doesn’t just mean protecting them from death! Sometimes the most important thing you can do for someone is to give them life, to give them hope, to save them from sorrow and despair, some times you can save them simply by pointing that God loves and has a plan for them

In this way like a drip of water, our small seemingly insignificant lives multiplied by the lives of millions upon millions of saints, of other Christians, will change the world.

So as God says to Jeremiah I say to you today: Do not say you are too young.

God has a plan for each of us a plan that will make us happy, a plan that will fill us with love, a plan that will require us to be heroes, and a plan which will transform us into His Saints in Heaven!

Therefore each and every day take some time to listen for God’s voice, in prayer, to listen for him calling. Listen to him say: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you before you came forth from your mother’s womb I sanctified you

Do not be afraid to listen to Him, and to follow His plan for you:
if you hear him calling you to be a parent
If you hear him calling you to give your life in service as a religious.
Do not be afraid to listen to him—men—if he calls you to the priesthood

God has a plan for us and he knows us better than we know ourselves: listen to Him and do not be afraid! Become the heroes that God made you to be! Become Saints!

Am I my brother’s keeper?

Vocation Homily for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Given at St. Peter's Church in Provincetown
By: Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd


Am I my brother’s keeper? The simple answer is yes—and as our Lord tells us in the Gospel

Our brother or our neighbor—is really everyman, every person whose path we cross and whose life is affected by our own. This is a fundamental principle of Catholicism called solidarity—which means that as Catholics we understand that no man is an island, that our actions affect each other and that we must be conscious of this interdependence in the exercise of our freedom.

Each of us has a responsibility to care for and promote the good for each other.This is at the root of the greatest commandment: the command to Love God, and because of our Love for God, to Love our neighbor.

This is true Christian charity, and you know what, in many ways, we Americans, we American Catholics, are very good at loving our neighbor.

A clear example of this is the instant and generous response whenever we hear of a natural or man made disaster threatening peoples lives anywhere across the globe.

However today’s Gospel and scriptures, reminds us of the more difficult aspect of Charity
the harder aspect of Love.

To love one another does not mean to live and let live. To love one another does not mean simply to provide our neighbors with what they need to survive. Love means to be intimately interested in the well-being of another. It means to want what’s good for them not just nutritionally, physically, financially, emotionally but also intellectually, morally, and spiritually.

When the Gospel speaks about feeding the poor, of course it means giving the hungry bread.

But let us not forget that our Lord himself declares that Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that falls from the mouth of God. And what is the Word of God, except God’s plan for humanity? Thus if we want to succeed in fulfilling that law of love, we can’t provide for our neighbors body and be silent about their soul!

Each of us, by virtue of our baptism—must speak out helping and teaching each other to listen
for God’s plan and to obey His Law.

God loves us, he loves us all, inspite of the fact that we are all sinners, and so to help us speak, to teach us and help us recognize God’s plan God gives us some help

God sends us shepherds, he sends us pastors and watchmen elders in faith, who we call priests to help us help others, but priests do not have a monopoly on this teaching vocation! All of us by virtue of our baptism share in Christ’s prophetic mission. All of us are called to watch over each other, to take responsibility for our neighbors to teach them the truth, walk with them on the path, and to correct them when necessary.

Rather, God gives us shepherds, who are sealed with the grace of the Holy Spirit and dedicated to proclaiming the Word and being a steward of the mysteries of God, so that we who are called to love, might be strengthened daily by the source of all Love through the proclamation of the Word of God and by the sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ—the source of all the sacraments.

It is to Priests—the helpers of the Bishops and in their own right successors of the Apostles—
that Christ entrusts the duty to safeguard the faith, to keep it pure and whole, so that in each generation the faithful have direct access to Christ.

In this special way, priests become their brother’s keeper. Priests live out the universal call to love by feeding their brothers and sisters—not just with bread and water but with the Word of God the Father and the food from heaven.

In this way our priests become icons and images of the Father and so we rightly call these our brothers, Father.

And while, as we all know, individual priests and even bishops may occasionally stray from the path and need to be called back to faithfulness themselves, Christ promises that united with the Holy Father and all the Bishops the Priesthood itself will never fail—because it is ultimately united to Christ’s own perfect priesthood.

Thus the priesthood is truly an exalted calling and so important to the Church, we need priests.

However just as much as we need priests, the priesthood is in its own right a path to happiness and holiness for the men who are called to it. The priesthood is not a job, but an identity. It is a vocation, a calling, from God Himself. From the same God who made and knew us from the first moment of our conception. Thus when God calls a man to the priesthood, just like when he calls a man or woman to another vocation, e.g. marriage, parenthood, or religious life, this calling, this vocation, is not an option, It’s not a choice, but rather it’s a reality! It’s the reality of who we are and are meant to be and since God made us and wants us to be happy we can never be happy or at peace, unless we follow the plan He has for our life.

This was my experience.

Happiness comes from listening to the word of God and doing it—following God’s plan in freedom!

And so we come back to the question: Am I my brother’s keeper?

If in charity the answer to this question is yes and if we truly desire what is best for our neighbor we must help them to seek our and discern God’s vocation for them.

Do not be afraid to correct each other, and to lead each other to follow God’s will—because in this journey of life, we are all fellow pilgrims, and so we must help each other follow the Way.

Just as we must be willing in charity to correct our brother when he sins. In Charity, help young people know that God has a plan for them, to listen for it in their hearts, and to do it! Their happiness depends on it!

And while all vocations are of God and thus needed in a special way encourage young men to consider the priesthood. I believe that every young man, who is serious about his faith, owes it to himself and his God to at least consider this vocation.

Who do people say that I am?

Homily for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sunday, August 24 2008
By: Fr. Ron Floyd

Who do people say that I am? As humans where do we find our identity and meaning?

In today’s first reading a man lost his job. I think all of us can relate to this experience or at least to the anxiety over the possibility of loosing a job.

When we are young a job is often just a means to an end, it is the way you get spending money, however as time goes on it becomes: the way you feed your family, a source of your identity, an affirmation of your human dignity, and it can often seem like it becomes a part of your essence, of the very fabric of who you are. And while younger people may not define themselves by a job—they too often do find an identity in what they do hobbies, sports, and social clicks. How often when we first meet someone do we define ourself by our occupation or interests?

The problem with this, as we see in the first reading and as we know from life is that things change. All you have to do is drive by the numerous abandoned mills here in NB to learn the truth that things fall apart and almost nothing lasts forever. Whether it’s a job, a hobby, or a sport, all these things can and most likely will someday be taken away from us and given to another.

Even if you seem to have job security TODAY, if your identity and meaning comes from what you do what happens when you get sick one day? What happens when the economic situation change? Or best case scenario, what happens when one day you will retire?

Then what? What happens to your identity when your job or hobby is over, or taken away from you and when you are force just to be, who you are?

Where do we get our dignity when we seem not to be needed any more?

This is a HUGE problem in our culture today, which so often gauges people’s worth materially by their quality of life or by their potential productivity and not based on the intrinsic value of each and every life.

In contrast to this materialistic value system Jesus reveals today the Gospel value system the good news, which we repeated in the psalm: that our God’s love is eternal and that he does not forsake the work of his hands.

We are the work of His hands and as St. Paul writes: from Him and through Him and for Him are all things. Our God reveals today that our value comes not from what we can do, from how smart we are, from how pretty, agile, strong or brave we are, but from the fact that we come from God that through God’s powerful love for us we exist and that we exist for God: that God has a plan for each of us.

Our dignity, value, and in truth happiness does not come from anything passing, from anything that can be taken away from us but from our identity and role in the plan of God, which can never be taken away from us?

So what is this plan?

In the book of Genesis we read that: God created Man and Woman, in the image and likeness of God He created them, and He declared that they were very good. Fundamental to God’s plan for all of us is being in his image and likeness, becoming like unto God. This means being holy as our heavenly Father is Holy. This means loving with our whole heart, the way God loves, loving not just in word but in deed by being in loving relationships with one another and with our God. These lifelong relationships—are fundamental to our identity—they are our true calling in life—our vocation.

Today I am here to tell you that our God has a plan for each of us! Young and old, strong and weak, it doesn’t matter. God is calling! This calling or vocation, comes from God and unlike jobs, vocations last forever.

They give us dignity, meaning, and happiness because they come from the same God who made us and knows us better than we know ourselves.

As we see in the question Jesus raises to the Apostles, Who do people say that I am? None of us are defined by what other people say about us by what we do, or who we associate with. Rather we are defined by, and our identity comes from who God made us to be.

In the case of Jesus, as St. Peter states, You are the Christ, the son of the living God. In life and in death from the first moments of his conception in the womb of Mary, this was who Jesus was made to be, and who he always will be. And as Jesus himself notes, this vocation, this calling did not come from Peter but rather from God Himself!

As Peter reveals Jesus’ identity, Jesus in turn reveals Peter’s vocation: you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church. Jesus calls Peter a rock—not because of what he would do but because this is the relationship Peter would have with the church God would build up the Church, using Peter as a foundation. Likewise, God has a plan for each of us, that is based not on what we can or might do, but on who we are!

So who are we? For all of us our vocations start with being sons and daughters not only to earthly parents but also of our heavenly Father. This vocation starts at our conception in our mother’s womb however while we all are sons in the Son, in Jesus we are all also called to be images of the Father—of divine parenthood.

Thus some are called to by holy by being natural parents, by being open to life and raising children for the Lord. In this way they become a symbol and icon of the love that God the Father has for us, his children. But parenthood is not just limited to those who are biologically parents rather many others demonstrate the love of God in single lives.

Some are called to spiritual fatherhood and motherhood Living as virgins and yet truly becoming parents to others by their loving concern for them—today we see this in the lives of so many religious.

Finally, a few men might be called like Peter to be rocks for the Church, to be the tools by which Christ builds up, teaches, and sanctifies His Church.

One thing that must be clearly seen is that vocations are not jobs, while they can be cast aside, because they are integral to who we are they can never be lost!

A mother, father, nun, monk, or priests remains what they are even if they abandon their children and forsake the title. And their children owe them respect and obedience even when they become old and needy of care themselves.

This is true because parenthood is a gift of self—a donation of your life to another that never ends—and thus can never be negated.

How God’s plan for each vocation will play out remains a mystery to us always. Truly God gives us the gift of our life and vocation, wrapped in the fabric of time as a mystery and a surprise both to our self and to the world. God’s plan for us does not determine what we do with our life As if we were some sort of pre-programmed machine but rather giving us direction, in freedom, He sets us free. His plan shows us in general terms—how he wants us to live. So that the genius of our free will has direction.

In my own life, I thought for so long that I would follow God’s plan as a married man; I wanted to find a wife, and to raise a family. So when I began to listen to His plan I was shocked to discover this vocation to the priesthood and to the celibate life it entails. I soon found out that when you follow God’s will your confirmation that you are doing what He wants comes quickly—in the form of a peace and joy that is unimaginable, that can only come from doing God’s will.

While I am not a parent in the natural sense as a priest I have been invited to be a part of so many families and to be a father to them—representing the Father and the Son.

Today I am here, a newly ordained priest, just two months ordained to tell you the Good News: God has a plan for your life and to invite each of you to consider it carefully.

Because following His plan is the only way to become who we were made to be the only way to find meaning in our life, and the only path to true happiness.

What we risk if we don’t listen to the voice of God is not the loss of a job, but the loss of the gift of ourselves to the world.

So as we God to the Altar today, ask God for the strength needed to listen for his call and act upon it and ask him for the grace needed to help others to listen.

Have pity on me Lord, son of David.

Homily for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sunday, August 17th 2008
By: Fr. Ron Floyd

Have pity on me Lord, son of David.

There is a reason why for almost the entire life of the Church the ancient Greek refrain—Kyrie Eleison Christe Eleison Kyrie Eleison Or Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy—has held a prominent place in the life of the Church. This two millennia old litany has always been close to the heart of the Church, because of our fundamental conviction of the weakness of our human condition.

As St. Paul notes: we are weak, but He (our God) is strong.

Central to the path to holiness, that each of us is called to is this admission, which we ritually make at the beginning of almost every Mass. The admission that we are in need, that in fact we can not succeed in our vocation, calling, and mission in life, without the help of God

Thus the plea of the woman in today’s Gospel have pity on me son of David, is in reality our plea!

Today’s gospel points out that it is natural to feel that we are not worthy of the call that we have been given to feel as if we are not worthy to be saints, to be holy that we are not worthy to follow God’s plan for us and you know in truth we are not worthy, none of us! But as I tell people all the time—inspite of and even because of our weakness our God has a plan for us a plan to make us his Saints, his Holy Ones.

Of course, at times because of our human weakness and fallen nature, we are all weak and we all sin. Our reluctance, however caused by shame, also is the result of sin, and of our pride, which doesn’t want to admit our sinfulness. Thus we, like the woman in the Gospel, must be humble before the Lord coming to him and crying out: Lord have Mercy, have pity on me Lord, son of David, because we know that when we do this He will always lift us up!

For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable, as Paul tells us in today’s second reading. St. Paul brings us to the reason for my visit here today. You see St. Paul teaches us that inspite of our weakness each of us has an awesome vocation—a calling from God

In God’s plan for the restoration of the whole world each of us has a huge part to play, a part that we may never fully know or understand. This part, this calling, this vocation, is irrevocable—God never takes it away from us, even when in our weakness we reject or overlook it.

I am a newly ordained priest—I’ve been a priest for just under two months now and for the past five years I have been studying with 160 men for the priesthood of Jesus Christ. Men who realized their own unworthiness and yet overcame it, by crying out, Lord have Mercy and by trusting in God to provide them strength.

It is amazing how many of them, deferred God’s call. How many of them shied away from their vocation either they were too unworthy, too sinful, or because they though they were too weak to follow the amazing path to the priesthood.

One is a 50 year old accountant, a multi-millionaire who was the former CFO of an insurance company. Another was a division one college football quarterback who for years thought he would play football professionally. Another worked for years for the CIA. I myself for years deferred and ignored the call I had heard and felt in my heart even from childhood. Rather I follow the path of Law and politics in high school and college I spent so much time and effort on my plan for my life, and I was quite successful at whatever I did!

At 16, I was already working on campaigns, and already playing some dirty politics. By 19 I had my foot in the door, finding myself one of the youngest paid staffers working on Capitol Hill. By twenty I had been interview by ABC, CNN, and the BBC and I had already had the dubious privilege of being an anonymous source in a news paper article cited by Bill O’Reilly on Fox News.

But even though I was achieving my plans and my goals though I was financially comfortable, and fairly content by my Junior year of College I realized that something was wrong, I wasn’t truly happy—and my heart was not at ease. And so, after much prayer, and after making so many excuses I entered seminary—initially planning to give it a year and then leave, having realized that I was too weak and too sinful for the priesthood.

What I discovered though, rocked my world. I discovered for the first time in my life true happiness which came from trusting in God and doing His will, despite the difficulties and sacrifices of this vocation and my own weakness in the face of them.

Being a Priest is hard—impossibly hard without God because as a priest you are called to lead and build up God’s people. You are called to be another Christ: to wash people with the blood of the Lamb in Baptism; to purify and strengthen them with the fire of the Spirit in confirmation; to feed them with the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ at the Mass; and to heal and forgive them their sins in confession.

How can any sinful man do these things? How can sinful man dare to try to do these things?
For me they are impossible, but with God all things are possible. To be a priest is impossible for Man because in fact there can be only one priest the Man-God Jesus Christ. But, when we cry out in our need, as God’s people—God sends workers into the vineyard He calls and sends us Pastors, priests, just like his Apostles, who were weak fallible men, who act as proxies and representatives of Christ the High Priest.

In my experience, for those who are called to this vocation who are called by God to the priesthood not to dare, not to try, not to listen to the voice of God leads to a life that is sure to be full of regrets and emptiness.

You see, at the heart of all human suffering is the rejection of God’s plan for man and for the world. At the heart of all suffering is spiritual blindness and deafness. At times we have all been blind and deaf to the hidden voice of God speaking to us in our Heart. So at some point we all must cry out: Have pity on me son of David. And turning back to God, begin anew to listen to him.

Our God hears us when we cry out: Lord have mercy, Kyrie Eleison. When we cry to Him, He does heal us, because the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. He heals us through the example and encouragement of others, He heals us through the ministry of good and holy priests, He heals us in the sacrament of penance and He heals and strengthens us at the Altar of God with His Body and His Blood.

As we approach that Altar – let’s lift our hearts and voices to God, asking him to have mercy on us to strengthen us, so that we may hear and listen to His plan for us, and act upon it.

And let’s pray, that more young men trust in God and despite their own weakness, consider a vocation to the Priesthood.

In our weakness God wants us to be Saints calling on him for mercy and strength. Let’s always remember to pray that God reveals His plan to us because it is in doing the will of the Father that we will find joy and peace here in this world and forever!

Why are you here?

Homily for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By: Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd

In today’s first reading we hear the question asked: Why are you here Elijah?

A question which echoes in each of our hearts and I don’t mean why are you sitting here in this Church but why are you here in this world. What is your purpose? What is the meaning of this life?

I think all of us ask this question of ourselves at some point because all of us want to know who we are, all of us want to know what our place is in this life. We all want to know that our life has value—that we are not just a cosmic mistake.

Sadly, too often, too many people give up hope of ever finding meaning in their life. Either, because of comfort and pleasure they become content with their everyday life and forget to seek out a greater meaning and purpose, content just to be content or, because of suffering and sorrow, they reject the possibility of finding any meaning, purpose, or real happiness in life. And despairing of finding meaning, they like Elijah collapse, spiritually, under the tree of depression praying for death: either physical death or worse spiritual death, death to the possibility of anything more than our material existence.

In the midst of Elijah’s despair a voice reminds Elijah that, in fact, we all have a purpose and calls him back to the source of that purpose. All of us want to know the answer to the question: Why are you here? But none of us can answer this question ourselves and so we look to those around us to help us.

And surely they do, by the gift of love, given and received we find purpose in our life. Our parents, wives and husbands, sons and daughters, friends and neighbors—all contribute to our sense of identity and meaning. However, as Elijah discovered all of these can be taken away and sadly, all of these can abandon and forsake us in time. But our God never abandon’s us our God, who is love, loves us and never take away that gift of love.

For Elijah, just as for us, in the midst of our despair in the midst of life’s trials and sorrows it is in the presence of our God that meaning is rediscovered and that the weary heart is reinvigorated.

True happiness comes from this purpose, this meaning. It comes from seeking out the will of God and doing it. But where do we look for our God, how can we listen to Him? As we read, like Elijah, we find the Lord not in the noise of the world or in grand events of seismic proportion but in the quiet of the desert, and on the lonely mountain.

Its often said that people only turn to God when they are in need when they are suffering or afraid. In fact, the famous novelist CS Lewis noted this, saying, “Pain is God’s megaphone.” I think maybe people hear God so clearly when they are suffering or afraid, because at these times the feel so alone. At these times they for a moment escape from the rut of everyday life and find themselves for a moment free and ready to listen. They feel so alone that they open their mind to anyone looking for consolation and love.

My friends I am here to speak to you about vocations to the priesthood.

But the fact of the matter is that if we want to have more priests, if we want to have more religious brothers and sisters, if we want to have more holy catholic parents and families—if we want to have more saints then the key is to teach people to listen to each other, and to God, who often speaks through others.

It might not seem like our lives are important but we never know how many lives and hearts we touch by our actions and omissions. Each one of us needs to help the other to listen to God encouraging each other to take time out of our busy schedules, to get away from the world and ask the simple question: why am I here?

Our God speaks, he tells us of his love and his plan but he speaks in a hushed voice, in a whisper in our heart. I say this from experience in my life I so vividly remember the many times when on retreat or pilgrimage on vacations and even on my day off, when I heard the voice of God.

My friends, I am here to testify to you today that listening to the voice of God and following His plan is the only way to true happiness here in this life and forever!

Of course, hand and hand with listening goes action! Like Elijah who heard the voice calling to him and walked out into the desert or like St. Peter, who heard Jesus call to him and walked out on the water.

When we hear the Lord’s voice calling to us we must take a risk, we must take that first step. We must know and believe that when we do the will of God he will give us all we need to succeed.

In my own life, after years of not listening he opened my ears and I took a chance, I trusted the whispering voice of God, I followed him to the priesthood. And you know, I knew I would be able to tell if this was really what God wanted for me because I know that following God always make us happy, but in all honesty I never imagined the sheer joy it would bring into my life.

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time TV Mass

My friends, where do we look for the Lord? In the famous account from the first book of Kings, Elijah is called to make a pilgrimage to the Mountain of God, Horeb, there to meet the living God.

It all sounds quite biblical doesn’t it! Like Moses climbing Mt. Sinai to receive the commandments or Abraham going up Mt. Moria to sacrifice Issac. I think often the historical setting of the scriptures can make them sound as if it happen a long time ago in a far away land, that has no bearing on our lives today. In truth the heart of Man is the same today as back then and so the basic experience is anything but foreign to us. If we take a closer look, we begin to see this and we find that Elijah’s experience is not unlike our own.

Elijah’s jorney begins with dejection and depression. Despite the fact that he had worked great miracles his message had been rejected, his life threatened, and so he escaped into the wilderness. Falling down beneath a tree to wait and pray for death.

While Elijah was a great prophet we too are called to preach the word of God, daily by the way we live our lives and so many of us, strenghtened by the sacraments, make a heroic effort to live a good life avoiding sin and every temptation and teaching the faith to our children and friends by the testimony of our lives. Despite all our efforts, however, so often our lives fall apart. Despite our best efforts to do good, we are plagued by so many evils, so many disappointments.

Elijah’s experience of despair at the result of his life’s work can often be our own—and like Elijah when it seems that our life is a failure we can grow depressed and even begin to pray for death. In such situations it can often seem like the Lord has abandoned us, and we can despair of ever finding him. However it is in situations of despair and seeming failure like these that the Lord is most near us.

Out of despair, the Lord calls Elijah to take up and eat, to prepare himself for a great journey.

The Lord calls Elijah to Horeb, so that Elijah can be renewed. Wo that his life, which seemed a failure and at an end could be reinvigorated and given new direction.

In the Gospel’s we see this same message repeated. The disciples, out in a boat, get stuck in a storm. To them it seemed as if God had forgotten them, as if their lives were about to be wasted. Again, into this moment of despair, the Lord enters walking on water he calms the sea and gives a new direction to the lives of the apostles, which seemed to be at an end.

Our God is an awesome God whose wisdom is beyond anything we can imagine. As St. Paul says, even the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of the wise. Out of what to us seems like the biggest failures and the greatest of evils our God can make all things work for good. And so while many look for God in success and honors, in mighty acts of power, the witness of the scriptures, and especially of the Cross is clear. We Catholic Christians know that in reality, our God who is always present is most at work when things seem a failure, when we suffer under the weight of the Cross. It is in situations such as these that we should look for the Lord, and it is situations such as these that we are most likely to find him—not in earthquakes or bolts of lighting but in the defending silence that comes from his peace.

As we approach God’s throne today, pray that people might be attentive to God especially in the trials and tribulations of life and that they might experience the silent whisper that bears witness to the presence of God in our Lives.

Baptism Sermon for Hannah Faith

Homily for the Baptism of Hannah Faith
Sunday, August 10th
By : Fr. Ron Floyd

My friends, we come together on this joyous day to celebrate the Baptism of Hannah Faith into the faith of the Church and into the Body of Christ. Of the seven sacraments of the Church, Baptism is the first one spoken of, and in fact, commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospels. As we read in the last line of the last chapter of the Gospel of Matthew; summing up the mission of the Church, Jesus commands His disciples: Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."

Of course Baptism predated Jesus, who himself was baptized by John in the Jordan. In the first century Baptism was popular among many of the new religions popping up. The first century was a time of religious awakening people were rejecting the old pagan superstitions and myths and looking for the true God. Part of this search was the realization that something was not right in the world.

That for one reason or another, our relationships with our God, our neighbors, and our world were disordered. You see man was meant for communion, and community, with God and neighbor; and he was meant to be a steward, a caretaker, of nature. Failing in these tasks, not following God’s plan, sin put man at odds with nature and all creation and caused so much suffering in the world then, as it still does today. For this reason people began to use one of the most basic symbols: water to show our desire to restore what was lost, to become clean again—to return to God’s plan.

Water—think about its significance: ee drink it, it feeds crops and plants, it washes away dirt and disease. Truly water gives life; but at the same time it is unpredictable and chaotic. Too much water washes away not just dirt and disease but homes, peoples livelihood, an it can even take their life. Too little and both man, beast, and plant alike die of thirst. Eater, like the water of a sea or the rain waters can never be completely controlled. Thus to the people living in that first century religious revival snd also to us today—water symbolized purification and nourishment from a source that was uncontrollable and mysterious.

Our God sees the big picture, knowing how all time will unfold and so it is not surprising that upon entering the world he took those basic things ehich naturally and innately have so much meaning to us to become symbols of his loving work among us, symbols of his plan to save us: water, fire, bread and wine, oil, and the family itself.

Today we Christian Catholics utilize all these signs to acknowledge and make visible the unseen and invisible work of spirit and grace that our God is working in the life of little Hannah, and in the lives of her family and friends.

Today Hannah will be cleansed of that original stain of sin yhat we all bear because we are part of the human family. When speaking with Jen and Francis, they asked me about Original sin. It’s a good question—how is it that we can say that this or any cute, innocent, adorable child can have this sin.
Original sin is not like lying or stealing—its not something we are guilty of—but rather its like a spiritual disease that we are born with. As we hear in the Book of Genesis our first parents sinned, their sin was a sin of pride, their sin was to choose something good over and above something great—over Love for and of God. As Christians we believe that our first parents ate from the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil—and eating of this tree they rejected God’s plan.

They closed their eyes and ears to God snd decided for themselves what was good, and what was evil. They decided to depend on themselves for happiness. As a result they discovered, the hard way, that true happiness, true peace and justice and order, can only come from following God’s plan.

Like the first Christians, today by this Sacrament of Baptism ee are asking our God to open Hannah’s eyes and ears and heart to God’s plan. By water we ask God to wash her from original sin snd to give her to drink the water of eternal life. With the holy oils we anoint her, like any parent would anoint their own child soothing balms to declare that today she is part of God’s royal family. With fire we will symbolize the fire of the Holy Spirit, which in her heart will help her to follow God’s plan. And finally returning her to her family—but also accepting her into the larger family of the Church we will show her a symbol of God’s love for the world, which is familial love.

Today, little Hannah will go down into the waters of Baptism snd there in the symbol of life and death dhe will share in Christ’s saving death. She will see that true love means to sacrifice yourself and to die for others. And rising from the waters she will share in the hope and promise of the resurrection.

I urge you all to meditate on these mysteries, and pray for little Hannah Faith, as she dies with Christ and rises today a new creation.

Never let her forget that by this Baptism God has chosen her to save the world, He has chosen her for a special mission, He has a plan and purpose for her that is so special.

Help her parents from this day forward to raise Hannah so that she may grow in grace, beauty and wisdom before the Lord.

Baptism of Hannah Faith: Instructions at the Door

My friends we gather here at this door to the Church to welcome this child into the faith of the Church into our faith. She enters today the house of God as a visitor but like all the Baptized she will leave here our little sister in Christ

A Daughter not just of Jennifer and Francis, from whom she take her humanity but a Daughter of God, adopted into God’s family by the blood and water that flowed from the side of Christ on the Cross.

All are welcomed here in God’s house for indeed God desires that all be saved and outside of Christ, outside God’ family none are saved. But entering into this house as a member of the Body of Christ, a member of God’s family has duties and responsibilities.

Our God gives us the gift of freedom he wants us to be free—but true freedom and true happiness means seeking the will of God the Father and doing it daily.

As you enter into God’s house—I encourage those of you who are Baptized, who are members of the family of God to remember your duty to seek God’s will

God calls you along with all the Baptized to be holy in this way you will save your soul and teach so many others the Love that is Jesus Christ.

Coming here today we gather with Jen and Francis to welcome our new sister in Christ.

Help them to witness by your lives and words to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Help them to teach Hannah Faith, the faith of the Church and the Law of God and Help her to live it. Do not create obstacles for her faith do not distract her from her vocation, her calling to be holy do not be an occasion to scandalized this little one, for as the Gospel says, it is better to be cast into the sea with a millstone around your neck than to scandalize even one of these little ones.

As I told her parents—as a baptized Christian she will become our sister in Christ not just a child but our equal in the eyes of God. Be humble therefore, open your heart so that you can learn also from her about the Love that God has for the whole world.

Offering the Lord your gifts.

Vocation Series: Sacred Heart in Fall River
18th Sunday
By: Rev. Fr. Ron Floyd

In today’s Gospel, Saddened at the news of the death of John the Baptist, Jesus went off to a deserted place, to pray, and to be alone with his God and Father. But the crowds followed him, and Jesus had pity on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. John had been their shepherd, calling them to good pastures and to the clean waters of Baptism but John is taken away from them and so Jesus takes up his rightful place, as their TRUE shepherd.

He stays with them, as evening draws near and when they get hungry he says to his Apostles: Feed them. Echoing His future command to Peter after the Resurrection, the command he gives to His Church and his priests: Feed my lambs. This is after all what a shepherd does, He brings his flock to green pastures and to running streams so that they can eat and drink, and be renewed.

In today’s Gospel according to Matthew when Jesus tells them to feed the Crowds the Apostles simply state the fact that they have only five loaves and two fish. However, the story is a little different in John’s Gospel. In John’s Gospel, it a boy who offers his own food, bread and fish, for the crowd. The key element here is the boy’s generosity.

Lets think about it—a boy, not a man, that is someone who theoretically could not take care of himself, offers to Jesus all that he has, his own food and his own livelihood. Its not a very big offering, but it is all he has to give. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, takes the simple offering, He Blesses and breaks it and shares it with the crowds, saying, take and eat.

Jesus feeds the multitudes with what seems to be nothing. But it was something—Jesus didn’t conjure food out of thin air, rather he waited for our cooperation, our generosity. And a child leads us and shows us the way, so that Jesus can take our weak gift, and make it a great banquet.

Obviously our Lord is drawing an anology with and forshadowing the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. At the Mass we, God’s children, like the boy in the Gospel of John, offer to God simple gifts of bread and wine which he blesses through the ministry of the Priest. And taking that simple gift of bread and wine He multiplies it a thousand fold. Multipling not its quantity but its power to satisfy us changing it from bread and wine into the sacred Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. He does this, so that we who receive His Body and Blood, with a clean heart, might be sanctified and strenghtened by it, and be one with him.

However, the boy in John’s Gospel doesn’t just give Jesus his lunch; along with the explicit gift of fish and bread the boy also implicitly offers his life—in the middle of nowhere, the boy risks everything giving away all his food.

Like the boy, we too are called to offer not just our simple gifts of bread and wine, but to offer our whole life to the Lord at the Mass. He gave Jesus all he had to sustain his own life confident that Jesus would repay him twenty or a hundered fold. We who approach this Altar, are also called on to make a similar gamble.

You see, today our Lord is teaching us the basic structure of reality. Our God created us to be his co-workers, to cooperate with His plan of salvation. He wants to save the world, to renew and recreate it into the paradise that He planned before we sinned, but he will not do it by force.  He will not save us with out our cooperation; and so He invites us each day to feed each other. As Christians he wants us to minister to and love our neighbor, so that from our simple offering of ourself, He can transform the world.

When we look at the state of the world, it seems as if the problems are too big as if man can do nothing to save himself. In truth, alone or even in groups of people and nations we can do nothing, unless we seek and obtain the help of God.

God, wants to take our gift of ourself and mutiply its potency, its power! At the Mass he calls us to be Holy, He gives us the food we need to be Holy, and when we are Holy, our Holiness changes the world. That’s the vocation, calling, and plan that Jesus reveals for his holy Church.

All of us in different ways are called to build up God’s Kingdom—as we pray, on earth as it is in heaven. Some he calls to be holy as parents, others as single, celebate people, and a few he calls to be Holy as priests.

If today’s Gospel passage is about the Eucharist, the Mass, then of course it is also about the priesthood. Priests are sucessors of the Apostles, who like Jesus are called to alway available to God’s people snd to feed God’s flock. In the Gospel Jesus’ wanted some alone time, He wanted to pray for and mourn the death of his friend John, but the people needed Him, they need to be healed and fed, and so he took pity on them He put his own needs aside so that he could teach, heal, and feed the flock entrusted to him.

Jesus calls priests from among men, to be shepherds and spiritual fathers to his people to govern, teach, and sanctify them. Like the Apostles in today’s Gospels, priests are called to accept the gifts of the people, to bless and multiply them in the power of the Holy Spirit
so that they can feed the people of God and strenghten them in their own vocations.

In this way priests help the people be holy,

So that the Lord our God can multiply the simple gift of our life so that even in our weakness, we can become strong, strong enough to change the World. Priests build up God’s people each and every day. Feeding them with the Word of God and the bread of life and healing their mind, bodies, and souls, so that the Christian people can help the world be holy.

This is the vocation to which I said yes, five years ago, when I entered seminary, and this is the vocation which the Lord gave me for the rest of my life, a month ago at my Ordination. Like all true callings, this is the vocation has filled my heart with so much grace, joy, and peace, because true happiness comes from doing the will of the Father.

Like all callings, to become a priest requires strenght, discipline, and self sacrifice—things that can seem foreign to the modern world. It requires you, like Jesus, to forget yourself in order to serve God’s people, day and night, when you feel like it and when you don’t.

But it is also so rewarding, to help them to live a life of holiness and to see people trying to follow God’s plan—seeing how great is God’s plan when it is lived! In this way Priests become in a real sense a Father to them: taking pride in them when they succeed in loving God and neighbor and being there for them in their times of suffering and sorrow, helping and healing them when they fall, offering them God’s forgiveness, and sanctifying and strenghtening them with the Holy Eucharist. Today I am here to invite you to think about the way the Lord God wants you to offer yourself to the Church and the World in service of your neighbor.

Like the boy who offered all he had to the Lord, I invite you to ask the Lord how He wants you to do the same. And if think you or some one you know might have a vocation to the priesthood, I invite you to take a chance, trust in the Lord, take that first step, and talk to a priest about that vocation. We’re not looking for you to make a binding commitment, but simply to consider the Lord’s plan for you. To consider how the Lord plans to multiple your gifts!

One Month Anniversary of Fr. Floyd's first Mass

Fr. Floyd's first Mass, originally uploaded by fr.ron_floyd.

Who do people say that I am?
By: Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Two Princes of the Apostles Saints Peter and Paul, two very different people from very different backgrounds who were thrown together in the adventure we call Catholicism. Indeed, it’s quite amusing how different they were.

In Naples, Italy, where I have been assisting as a Deacon at the US Navy base for the past year I know a sailor who reminds me a lot of Peter. He is humble and kind, a hard worker, but also a little rough around the edges A simple man, but wise in the school of life.

I think Peter had a similar personality. He was loyal and good hearted and yet at the same time he was often rash putting his foot in his mouth more than once.

My name sake and patron, Saint Paul on the other hand, reminds me more of myself—he was a little bit more stuffy. A zealot and occasionally an ideologue. A man who lived an academic life.

Both Peter and Paul, however, were ordinary men, comfortable with their lives as they were before they met Jesus. They were comfortable with their identity and place in life. Today, we celebrate Jesus shaking things up a bit.

Like Peter and Paul, most of us become very comfortable with the way the world is, we become engrossed in our work, our families, and our hobbies and we become distracted by so many comforts, responsibilities, and concerns. WE GET CAUGHT UP IN THE WORK-A-DAY WORLD and forget that we were made for something better, that as Paul tells us, we are strangers and sojourners in this world, Pilgrims on the way to our true home, to true happiness and peace! WE forget the bigger picture and we forget to ask the bigger questions.

We are told: You must have the heart of a Child to enter Heaven, precisely because children ask theses questions—unceasingly—that is, until they become discouraged by the lack of enthusiasm shown by adults, for, at least,  the pursuit of, answers. But these are the same great questions that the great thinkers of every culture and age have asked in the masterpieces of theology, philosophy, and mysticism. As Pope John Paul II, observed in his Encyclical Fides et Ratio:

a cursory glance at ancient history shows clearly how in different parts of the world, with their different cultures, there arise at the same time the [same] fundamental questions which pervade human life: Who am I? Where have I come from and where am I going? Why is there evil? What is there after this life? These are the questions which we find in the sacred writings of [all cultures]. They are questions which have their common source in the quest for meaning which has always compelled the human heart.

These are the questions which ordinary often forget to ask! Today Jesus suggest these questions to Peter and the twelve when he asks: Who do people say that I am,

Today Jesus asks an important question, because by asking “who do people say I am,” Jesus is really asking the Apostles  DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? And DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE?

Who am I? This question of identity is a question that we all ask ourselves, from the beginning of our lives until the day that we die, and since the circular answer: “I am me” is unsatisfing we are all forced to turn outwards—to other people—for answers. Know theyself—the famous inscription at the Oracle at Delphi, reminds people that the question of identity is a life long human task of self-discovering, essential to our self-fulfillment and happiness. Today Jesus, in asking who others say he is, is really reminding Peter and the twelve of this task.

We ask, who do people say that I am, because from the first days of life, we realize that the answer does not lie in our self, but rather in our relationships to the other. Just as a sailor plots his position based on known landmarks and stars so also we chart our identity based on our relationships with others. First with our mothers, then our fathers, then our siblings, and friends and eventually even based on our relationships with strangers… We ask: who do people say that I am? Because just like the sailor, to affirm, “I am here,” means nothing if you don’t know where here is.

For Jesus, however, hearsay did not suffice, while it is true that we need all of those other reference points to plot a relative location or identity. When we really think about it, tn reality, these reference points fail to tell us anything absolute about ourselves. Einstein sums it up well in his theory of relativity—you can’t judge things based on points themselves in motionvand expect an answer that is not relative itself to those reference points.

In Italy we joke that when you ask for directions the Italians, always say: Sempre Dritto, straight ahead, refusing to admit that in reality they don’t know where they are or where you are going. You can ask, who do people say that I am? To as many people as you want, but if, as I have suggested, in truth, none of them truly know who they are, then none of them can tell you who you are.

People in Jesus’ time, said Jesus was—from Nazareth, the son of Mary, the Carpenter’s son—and others, seeing his signs and miracles began to say he was—a prophet, the reincarnation of John the Baptist or Elijah. Today some people say similar things: They say he was a great teacher, a guru, a political & social activist. In response to these misconceptions, Jesus asks his closest disciples—those He had chosen to lead and build His Church: And who do you say that I am?

And again Jesus is not asking who they think he is, relative to them but who he is in reality. Because if in reality Jesus is just another man, no different from Buddha, Mohammed, or Gandhi then Jesus can be only a relative reference point for the world.

To Jesus’ question: who do you say that I am? Peter gives two answers: You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. As Pope Benedict notes, Peter’s answer, which was not revealed to him by ‘flesh and blood’ but was given to him by the Father… contains as in a seed the future … faith of the Church. (The Apostles, 48)

He is the Son of the Living God—and this identity comes from the unmovable source of all creation—God Himself. It is only because of His identity as the Son of God that Jesus says: I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light because of the reality of his identity as Son of God he is the Savior of the World.

Each of us is a mystery to ourselves and to others. Although we live in ourselves, we really don’t know who we are talking about when we say “I.” Who is this I? How do we define ourselves?

Simon was a fisherman, a father, a husband, an ethnic Jew, but none of these things defined him. One day while cleaning his nets he encountered Jesus and leaving all these things behind, he followed him. He followed Jesus because by His preaching Jesus had awakened in Simon’s heart the desire for meaning, for a meaning that his life as a fisherman couldn’t provide.

Today Simon receives his answer from God. Replying to Jesus’ question, Simon finally finds a point of reference that is unmovable and certain, and confessing—you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God Simon finds his own meaning, his own identity—You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.

For Saul it was the same— when Jesus appeared in a blinding light, prompting Saul to ask: who are you Lord? …And accepting the identity of Christ, Saul, the greatest persecutor of Christianity becomes one of its greatest missionaries,

SO HERE IS THE POINT…

What we must realize is that Jesus is God, when we see Jesus we see God. This is what Peter and Paul came to accept, and accepting it Jesus became for them a mirror of truth

Jesus became man, so that we could regained access to God and because God is Truth, when we open our eyes and see Jesus, we see God and we see the truth, the truth about ourselves!

This was my own personal experience! Born and raised a Catholic: I was always taught to believe in God, The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but like most Catholics today, I did not let this faith transform my life, and so I spent years looking for who I was. Trying to define myself by my intelligence and grades at school, by my occupation and hobbies, by my ideology and political activism. But all of this was un-satisfying to me. Because we humans are not what we do, what we believe, or what we are capable of.

Rather, we are what God made us to be! This is the realization I reached in College. That faith in God the Father, Son, and Spirit requires change and reformation  of who I think I am into who I really am, the person God created me to be. I wasted so much time, avoiding the question that we all must ask. Not who do people say that I am, but rather, who does God want me to be? But God, who is so patient, allowed me to try so many other things, in order to show me through them that He had a different plan for me.

The fact of the matter is that when we see and come to know Jesus we see God, and seeing God we begin to understand the nature of creation: that God made us, that we continue to exist Only because He loves us, and that He who knit us together in our mothers womb, has a plan for us!

God’s plan and His plan alone, is our one path to happiness, fulfillment, and knowledge of who we truly are. In seminary, I knew I was on the right path, because I was more content and happy than I had ever been. Today, my first day as a priest, I can say the same, and while I remain still a mystery to myself I know today that an intergral part of who I am is a Priest of Jesus Christ. Like for Simon and Saul, it is only in seeing the reality of who Jesus is, that we can find a constant point of reference for our own identity and start to become who we were made to be.

As St. Catherine of Siena says beautifully in her mystical writings: If you would be happy remember, you are she who is not and He is He who is. To know that God is God and you are not, to know that He is in Charge and that all things are in reference to Him; this is the beginning of Wisdom and of Self-knowledge.

My friends, today we gather here as a community of Faith. To confess our belief in God and in Jesus Christ who he sent

In doing so we acknowledge our own identity as His people and together with Christ offer him the perfect Sacrifice of praise—the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

This is the source of our communal and personal identity, this act in which acknowledging our poverty we receive God’s goodness, and in Jesus make recompense to God for all the goodness God has shown us.

Thus as we enter into the sacred mysteries Jesus asks each and every one of us today: Who do you say that I am?

When I, with you, pray using Christ’s words—this is my body, this is my blood, do this in memory of me—Jesus gives us the chance to say with Peter: You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and in doing so to learn who you are and who God wants you to be.

Ss. Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Given the 29th day of June in the Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ 2008
On the Solemn Feast of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul
In the first year of priesthood

Vocation Series

The Bishop of Fall River, the Most Reverend George Coleman, has assign me to travel around my diocese preach the good news about vocations. This weekend I began that assignment at St. Mary's in New Bedford. Next week I head to Fall River to Sacred Heart Parish. Below you will find the text of my vocation homilies.

Please pray for me in this apostolate and pray that the young men and women who hear the word of God through my preaching might be open to it and act on it--and ask the Master of the Vineyard to send more laborers!

Finding the Treasure God has prepared for you!

Vocation Series: St. Mary's in New Bedford
17th Sunday
By: Rev Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd

When I was a young boy, not all that long ago, I used to be convinced that buried treasure lay around every corner and under every rock. The result of this thought was that I always kept my eyes open looking for the treasure that I was sure I was destined to find one day. I even dug a few wholes in our back yard much to my mothers dislike—looking for that treasure. Though my attentiveness did reward me, over the years, with the discovery of a few dollars of lost change on the street, I never did find the treasure that I had imagined.

Today the Lord too speaks of treasure, of pearls and gold found in a field. Of course he is not speaking a physical treasure, which elsewhere in the Gospel he warns will corrode, tarnish, and be left behind when we die, rather he is speaking of the Kingdom of God. And while the Kingdom of God—often refers to Heaven that is ultimate reality beyond our wildest dreams; the Kingdom of God is not just the resurrection, the eternal reward we pray for after death. The Kingdom of Heaven is also a reality here and now. In the Gospel of Mark our Lord declares: The time is accomplished, and the kingdom of God is at hand.

You see the kingdom of God is nothing less than true happiness, the true happiness that can only come from our eternal relationship with the Father .

The kingdom of God is the realization that we are sons and daughters of God by virtue of our Baptism; that our Father has his hand on us; that our life matters because our God has a unique plan for me; and most importantly, that we are loved by our creator. To love and be loved by our God and to become co-workers, cooperators in the work of God this is the Kingdom of God, available to us even in this life. On Heaven or on Earth—this relationship with God promises and truly is the only way to Happiness!

That’s why our Lord tells us today that the Kingdom is like a treasure found in a field. If you found a great treasure buried in a field, he tells us, you would trade all that you have to possess it. However, the problem with a buried treasure is not obtaining it once we have found it, the problem is finding it! People hide and bury treasures in the hope that distracted by other things no one will notice the great wealth hidden beneath your feet in the simple earth of a field.

This is true in life too! The great treasure of the Kingdom of God—that is given to us at baptism is too often buried and forgotten under the sands of time lost in our every day mundane life. And when we realize that our happiness is missing, and we start to look for it, we are too often distracted by lesser treasures

It’s like the math brain teaser that many of your kids bring home: Offered a million dollars or a penny doubled for a month which would you choose?

Many of us choose the lesser treasure of a million dollars over the seemingly insignificant treasure of that first penny. But like the treasure of Heaven—the penny bears with it a promise of things to come. For those of you taking notes for Math class a penny doubled for a month is worth almost $11 million dollars in an average month and $2.6 million in the month of February!
Which sounds better to you 1 or 11 million?

Sadly, offered the choice between the immediate gratification of a Megabucks win and true happiness with God now and forever most people today would choose the Megabucks. That’s where the disappointments begin! First you will find that whatever your winnings might be Uncle Sam always gets his cut. And even with the seemingly endless money that remains; the odds show that most end up less, not more happy.

And its not just money that people choose over a right relationship with God: Sex, Drugs, Power, Fame, Popularity—all fading, all short-lived, are all frequently chosen before that Treasure in the field.

This was my own experience in life. Born a Catholic, and raised in a devout family I grew up taking my Catholic faith for granted. I allowed my childhood thoughts of becoming a priest to be eclipsed by thoughts of lesser treasures.

At 12 I wanted to become a doctor—because doctors where rich. When I learned that I didn’t care for the sight of blood my mind turned to law and government. At the age of 16 I had worked on my first campaign and by the time I was 20 I had begun to be paid for my efforts. Volunteer work quickly landed me a position working for the US Senate, as one of the youngest paid staff members. I was living in Washington, DC, working closely with members of Congress on Legislation and by the time I graduated college I had already been offered a mid-level job in the executive branch of Government. This was my dream, my goal in life thus far, I had my foot in the door, and was ready to begin the life of public service that I had mapped out for myself.

None of these goals were bad, immoral, or sinful in themselves and yet having attained so many of my goals and being on track for fulfilling my dreams I found my heart heavy I wasn’t satisfied by the treasures that I had chosen. It was at this time in my life that the Lord brought a saintly priest into my life. A priest who helped me to see that we can never be happy if we are not doing the work that God made us for. Examining my life more closely, I began to rediscover
The treasure of my vocation, that had been hiding all along beneath the surface of my heart.

Today I have found that treasure and sold all of my possession, all of my old plans and goals, to obtain it. Since I enter seminary five years ago I have found that peace, contentment, and happiness that can only come from doing God’s will. And I am hear to tell you that despite the sacrifices and difficulties, it is great to be a priest.

And so today I have been sent here today by the Bishop of Fall River to preach to you the good news about vocations. So here it is!

God has a plan for you, [and you, and you]! He has a unique vocation for all of us! It doesn’t matter if you get married, or become a priest, or dedicate your life to God as a single person. What matters is that you listen to the voice of God speaking to you in your heart, showing you the way he has planned for you. Your happiness depends on it because your vocation is the gateway to holiness, it is the entrance into the Kingdom of God, and the map to that Treasure God has buried just for you.

Please God, some of you young men will be called to the priesthood of Jesus Christ, God knows how much the world needs good men to teach, sanctify, and govern His people; andto heal the wounds of the world, with the blood of Christ that comes to us through this Altar! But, what’s most important is that you seek and do God’s will. This is the sure path to the treasure of eternal happiness.