A Normal family = A Holy Family

Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family
Given at St. Patrick's Church
By: Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd, STL

A father once told his son that he would buy him a new car if he cut his hair, got all A's on his report card, read the Bible, and got up and went to Mass on Sunday's

Some months later the son returned to his father with all A's on his a report card
And he told his father that he had read the bible all the way through and hadn't missed a Mass in months.

"What about the hair cut?" asked the father.

The son replied, that "Jesus and the Apostles wore their hair long."

The father replied, "Then you also know that they walked everywhere."

Now matter how holy the family, when you live together 24/7 there is going to be conflict, because conflict is not a sin but simply an opportunity to love more profoundly. We see that today in the gospel story of the finding in the temple.

It's interesting, today the Church celebrates the Holy Family of Nazareth, which has always been held up as the model of Christian family life and yet when you think about it, while I REALLY wouldn't call the Holy Family dysfunctional I think we could all agree it wasn't exactly what you call normal. I mean you have Joseph, a good man who accepts the role of Jesus' human father and yet biologically, he is not His father. Then there is Mary, Joseph's wife, who is an out of wedlock mother and what's more, as Christians we believe, she is a perpetual virgin, Finally there is little baby Jesus, who feeds, and coos, and smiles, but still probably needed a nappy changed every now and then, who we Christians insist is the Son. not of Joseph, but of God Himself, consubstantial, or of the same stuff of God" all-powerful, all-knowing, God from God, Light from Light, as we profess in the creed. When you think about it the Holy Family is pretty weird and you have got to ask, in what way are they the model of Christian family life?

It's important to remember that God is good and His wisdom is beyond human wisdom, and when you accept the revealed truth of our faith and ask God for the patients and wisdom to see what God is doing we usually will find that the hard parts of our faith, that some want to simply dismiss, are in reality the most profound realities. We see this in the case of the Holy Family.

In the life of the Holy family we see through simplistic definitions of the family and see what is at the core of authentic family life and THIS is why Popes and Saints and Doctors of the Church have held up the Holy Family of Nazareth as an example to us.

Let's start with Joseph, what do we learn from this Holy Man?

Well first of all, we are reminded that God is Father, and He created men in his image and likeness, and so all men are created to be fathers. Fatherhood, for rational, spiritual, human beings, is more than animal paternity--more than biology! All men can be fathers, even a celibate priests like myself , men who choose to forsake the good of married life for the sake of the Kingdom of God--as Jesus tells us in Matthew, because fatherhood is about providing for your family, and protecting it from the evils of the world, it's about being holy, and educating your child as God intends, it's about trusting God and His Divine Plan and helping your sons and daughters to do the same. Fatherhood is a spiritual reality that is about mercy and justice, and love--all things that biology can't provide for!

Then there is the ever virgin Mary who is the model of Motherhood. What can we learn from her?

Mary reminds us that woman, like man, is made in God's image and likeness and while the Fatherly dimension of God often overshadows the maternal Scriptures are clear that God, who is not biological, and thus has no gender is also maternal to us, his children. However, Mary also demonstrates another dimension of the Christian family, its relationship with God: the spousal dynamic. Mary is a virgin who conceived a child, and while she was the human spouse of Joseph she is also known as the spouse of the Holy Spirit, because we believe that it was through the Holy Spirit that Jesus was conceived in her womb.

Mary is par excellence the spouse of God and she shows us that all authentic marital love, authentic family love, must start and be based on this relationship, on this love, not with our human husband or wife, but on our love of God. Both husband and wife can only come to the fullness of love with each other through our relationship with our God who teaches us what it means to be faithful, teaches us mercy and forgiveness, shows how to trust and to hope, and ultimately reveals to us what true love is on the cross. We all know people who get married in Vegas, or on the beach, or even here in the Church, and are divorced within the year, the month, or even the week! Human love is not enough to keep a marriage alive because human love is always partial. Human love, alway holds back from giving everything, and so often ends by refusing everything. Human marriage, like biological animal mating, has been occuring in this way since the fall of Man in the Garden, because human marriage is fundamentally about our animal drive to procreate, about creating biological life.

In contrast, Christian Marriage, and the Christian family, is fundamentally about spiritual life, life which takes a lifetime to develop and be born. Christian Marriage takes the human good of marriage, and sees it in the light of Mary's spiritual union with God, a spousal relationship and covenant that in Baptism we all share in! In the Christian family, all the members of the family , the Church, are scene in their true light--as Children of God. And so all members of the family have the duty in love: to help each other, their neighbors, and even their enemies to be what God created them to be. To help them follow God's plan, to be Holy, to be Saints!

Finally, in Jesus we see a reality about our Children that maybe many parents would prefer to forget! Jesus is the Son of God, the Word made Flesh, Wisdom incarnate, and God's holy Spirit is his own. Sure there were probably many human experiential things that Joseph and Mary had to teach Jesus but intellectually Jesus shared the mind of God and was the teacher not the student as we see in the story of the finding in the temple.

In Baptism this reality manefests itself in our children just as it did in the Christ Child. Parent's often forget that their children in baptism become conduits of wisdom and grace, like the child Jesus sitting today in the midst of the teachers, asking questions and teaching them. While it is not true that your child is the incarnate son of God the same spirit that Jesus possessed is given to your children in Baptism, that is why it is so important to realize that the family is the school of truth, beauty, wisdom, faith, hope, and Love and that while we do all have distinct roles in the family, ultimately the teacher is not mom or dad or gramps but God himself who teaches all members of the family through each other and through our neighbors.

So this Christmas, as we celebrate the Holy family, I encourage youto take seriously the reality of the family. Don't worry about being a "normal family" rather concentrate on being a holy family, with God at the center of your everyday life. Focus on protecting, providing for, and teaching each other, in humility, like Joseph did! Focus on your spousal relationship with God, as did Mary, so that your divine spouse can teach and help you through life's most difficult times. Try to be the Christ child, Emmanuel, God with us, for one another, all the time remaining open to the ways the Spirit of God is working in and teaching you through the lives of your spouse and children and parents.

Being a Holy family is not easy, but it is good, does lead to happiness, and ultimate draws us into the family life of the Church which is a precursor of the family life of Heaven. Lets pray that one day we will be able to say St. Dad and St. Mom, St. Son, St. Daughter, or even St. Aunt or Uncle. Because this is the destiny of the Christian family that we see in the example of Ss. Mary and Joseph.

Jerusalem Gaudi Gaudio Magno

Homily for the Third Sunday in Advent
Gaudete Sunday
Given at St. Patrick's Church
By: Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd

Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!
Sing joyfully, O Israel!
Rejoice in the Lord always.

Today the Church Celebrates Gaudete Sunday, the Sunday of Rejoicing because Advent is more than half over and we are closer to the celebration of the culmination of Human History on Christmas Day.

Today's readings are full of joyful exaltation but what is the cause of this great joy!

St. Peter in his first letter instructs the Church to always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. It is this hope that Peter talks about that gives rise to joy and the reason for our hope, for our joy, for this period of anxious preparation ts the birth of Jesus Christ.

At the center of our faith before all other mysteries is the mystery of the reality we celebrate at Christmas, that God became Man. As Catholic's we believe a lot of things that the world calls crazy:
We believe that a poor Virgin gave birth, to a king,

We believe in a king and savior who was born in a stable, was murdered by his own people, and died but lives today

We believe that the words of a priest can forgive sins, and change bread and wine into blood and flesh.

We believe in an allpowerful God who allows His week creatures to blapheme His name and destroy His masterpiece of creation

And yet really if you think about it, all these things don't seem so crazy when we realize the awesome contradiction of Christmas "THE WORD became FLESH" we read in John's Prologue. That's like saying that the constitution of the United States
became a person, except the Constitution only governs a small portion of human culture. The Word is God's master plan for creation and we believe that all that is stuffed into a limited human body. What's more, the Word doesn't just pretend to be flesh, Jesus isn't the big bad Word in sheeps clothing. The Word truly becomes Flesh. The unknowable, uncontainable, all-powerful, all-knowing, Lord God of Hosts, who created all things by uttering His Word limits himself and humbles himself so that he can be with us, so that he can dwell in our midst, and speak to us not out of a cloud of fire or through messenger spirits but face to face - mano a mano.

The incarnation is like the president of the United States, deciding that rather than give a press conference he was going to visit the home of every citizen of the United States just so that he could tells us he really does feel our pain. Only the president never created a tree or animal, a human, a planet, or a universe out of nothing. The cause for our joy is this reality, which is almost unimaginable! I sometimes think that it's the fantastic nature of Christian Gospel that shows it must be true. Think about all the other attempts man makes to search for God all the other religions of the World. They are all about submission to the will of God: man follows God's will, or else we get struck by lightening. No other religion preaches a God who cares about us more than a dog trainer cares about his dogs obeying. In contrast Christianity proclaims a God who seeks us out, desire to be close to us, because he loves us. A God's who's laws are given "that we may have life and have it more abundantly." A God who humbles himself to become one of us and then dies to show the depths of His love for us.

Emmanuel, as the Church approaches the end of Advent, we begin to pray for the Light of Christ, the Light of God with us, Emmanuel, because this is the reason for Christian hope! This is what every heart longs for!!! although we often don't know our own heart well enough to realize it! This is the reality that we celebrate at Christmas, and that during advent we prepare our hearts for, because the reality is that God did come to be with His people when the baby Jesus was born 2 millenia ago, but He is still waiting for His people to let this reality sink in and change the way they look at the world.

Christ is the Prince of Peace the source of our joy and when we realize that He is all our hearts want and need there is no reason to be greedy, or steal, or kill, or lust. When we realize that we are made to enjoy God, gazing at the Light, Truth, and Love that is the face of God, the Face of Jesus Christ--the whole world changes for us. And we are at peace, because we have attained our hearts deepest longing- Emanuel

Tota Pulchra est Maria

Homily for the Solemn Feast of the Immaculate Conception
Given at St. Francis Xavier Church in Hyannis
By: Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd, STL

On Dec. the 8th, 1954 Pope Pius the IX define dogmatic truth that:

the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception,
by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God,
in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race,
was preserved free from all stain of original sin

Today we celebrate as a solemn Feast that definition
which is the cause of our great hope during the advent season

Because Mary our Mother and the Mother of the Church
is not just a Saint in Heaven who intercedes for us,
but she is the model of the Church.

Mary is a preview of coming attractions
Because Mary is what we will be one day,
if we persevere in holiness.

Baptism purifies us from the guilt of original sin
making it possible for us to love God,
but we still struggle with the effects of sin.

For Mary all the stain of original sin is removed
and whats more she is given
the add grace of life with the Holy Spirit

In Mary's singular privilege we see
what God has planned for all of us
if we trust in Him and persevere to the end.

However to understand and apprieciate this gift
we must understand what we mean by original sin and its effects.

Original sin is that first sin of the human race
to choose knowledge of good and evil
over the sure path of following trusting God.

By doing so we chose to make ourselves the judge
of what is good and bad, right and wrong,
and we see the repercussions of that today.

Because of original we lost control of bodies
and became subject to them
Concupiscence—or the tendency to make bad choice
apart from God's plan and law took control of our will
so that even when we tried to do the right thing,
evil motives crept in.

A large part of this is our passions and emotions
which became unduly powerful in our decision making process

Our bodies literally took on a mind of their own,
not doing what we want them to do
and doing what we wished they wouldn't

Physically Death and Sickness entered the world

But worse than this spiritual death became a reality.

Our eyes became cloudy and we became blind to the Truth
about creation, ourselves, our nature, God, God's law,

And this spiritual blindness made it even more difficult
to choose well.
Original sin is a mess.
And it creates a mess in our lives and relationships
it creates so many knots of tension and anxiety
that make it so hard to be happy.

The gift of the Immaculate Conception
is freedom from all the knots that sin creates in life.

Freedom from the physical, spiritual, and mental
limitations that sin causes

so that we can be at peace in all situations
come what may

because we know that God is walking with us
in the garden of this world
just as he walked with Eve and Adam in paradise.

Today as we look toward Mary with hope,
praying for that day when our Baptism is completed
and we become completely free to love and be loved by God
Free to be completely happy

We remember Mary under the title of the Immaculate Conception
but also under the title of Mary the untirer of knots.....

Birthday Cake

, originally uploaded by stpatrickswareham.

Thanks Everyone!

Let God in to your Car

Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent
Given at St. Patrick's Church
By: Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd, STL

Three priests were driving down the road when they missed a turn and went into the ditch.

As they pulled themselves together, a drunk pulled up and asked if they were all right.

"Oh, yes, Jesus is with us," one replied.

The drunk thought that over for a minute then said: "well, you'd better let him get in with me, because you're going to kill him!"

My friends, today we wait and prepare ourselves for Emmanuel, which means God with us. In the Gospel today we hear a long litany of names that mean little or nothing to most of us, Twenty centuries after the fact, we are interested in Jesus, not in tetrarchs and obsolete geography, but these names and places are important because they anchor the story of Jesus' birth to history, to a particular time and place, to the everyday world of work and taxes and politics. Pope Benedict XVI made this same point in the Advent of 2006, when he said: “In these days the liturgy constantly reminds us that ‘God comes’ to visit his people, to dwell in the midst of men and women and to form with them a communion of love and life: a family” (Angelus, 10 December 2006).

In today’s Second Reading, St Paul makes the same point in one of the most memorable, beautiful, and powerful phrases of the entire New Testament: “"I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus."

God doesn't create us and then forget about us, like some kind of divine architect or watchmaker. RATHER He gives us the gift of life, and then wants to accompanies us, gently trying to guide us into a deeper and deeper friendship with him, never giving up on us. He knows where we were born, where we grew up, what we have suffered and enjoyed, the wounds in our hearts. Nothing about our lives is unimportant to Him, because we are each important to him.

As today’s First Reading puts it, we should rejoice because we are “remembered by God.” Its so important to realize that God is not a God of the North Pole or a galaxy far far away, but the God of the here and now, the God of our everyday life.

God is not an alien He isn't up there and we don't just find him in Church, he is in that car with the three priests, but also with the drunk he is in our workplace, at school, and on the sports field,

St. Paul teaches us that we should pray always, this is only possible if God is where ever we are, and if prayer is not something foreign to us, but as simple and essential to us as breathing.

The many saints that God has given to the Church throughout the centuries are powerful reminders
that God is with us in all the situations of our life. St John Vianney, used to make a point of being available to the faithful no matter what--He would spend 13 hours a day in the confessional and travel long distances to visit the sick. This was before the invention of the automobile, and since he had no horse of his own, his generosity often took him on long walking trips

One time word came to him that a very sick man about three miles away was asking for confession.
so St John Vianney threw on his cloak and hit the road. Unfortunately, it was bitter cold, and raining. Thinking of the sick man, the saint was undaunted. He trekked through the cold and the freezing rain,
and finally made his way to the house of the sick man. By the time he arrived, St John was himself shivering and dizzy with a high fever. He had fallen so ill that he had to hear the confession lying down on the ground beside the sick man's bed. Witnesses, in fact, noted that the priest was sicker than the penitent.

The determination of St John Vianney to make sure this sick man could experience the mercy of God's forgiveness in the sacrament of reconciliation is a living sign of just how much God wants to stay involved in our lives. Not because we are perfect, or even good, but because he loves us as a perfect Father loves his little children, and he wants to give us an abundant life. We all want to believe that God wants to be involved in our lives. And yet, sometimes it feels as if God is pretty far away.

Sometimes, in the face of economic difficulties, sickness, and so many other kinds of suffering, it seems hard to find him. Advent is the time to remember and get used to the idea that God wants to be a part of, to accompany us, in everything we do and to get better at finding God's hand in all things, even our crosses,

This advent I would like to propose three things to do to help you see that God is with us in the Year that Barrack Obama became president, when Deval Patrick was Govenor of the State, in the Pontificate of Benedict the XVI and the Episcopate of our Bishop George

First, we need to have an honest, regular prayer life.
• Too often we only pray to God when we are in trouble.
• Imagine Mary or Joseph coming to the infant Jesus only when THEY needed something; That's not just child abuse,
• it's GOD ABUSE --> and yet so often we are all guilty of it.
• We need to recommit ourselves to daily, personal prayer,
• even if it's only for 10 or 15 minutes.

Second, we need to take the crucifix seriously.
• It is no coincidence that the crucifix is the central image of our religion
• As Catholics we start all our prayer with this sign because God chose to save us by sharing in human suffering.
• We need to look often at the crucifix, and contemplate it, and teach ourselves to remember that suffering is not outside of God's plan of salvation, but an essential part of it.

And third, we need to help others carry their crosses.
• The devil's favorite tactic is to make us think so much about ourselves that we lose sight of the bigger picture.
• When we go out of our comfort zone to support, console, and encourage those who are suffering even more than we are, we break the devil's spell.

This week, if each of us chooses just one of those three tactics, I can guarantee you will begin to see more clearly and have a deeper experience of God's involvement in your life, and thus gain a bigger share of Advent joy.

This Advent let God into your car with you, let him into your homes, and schools, and workplaces so that you can exerience life with God.

I just can't wait

Homily for the First Sunday of Advent
Given at St. Patrick's Church
By: Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd

“I can't wait until Friday.”
“I can't wait until summer.”
“I can't wait until Christmas.”
“I can't wait until graduation, until I'm older, until I'm married,”
I can't wait, I can't wait!

Its amazing how often you hear this little phrase or its equivalent, everyday!

Personally I like most Americans used to hate waiting: Waiting in traffic, for public transportation, for weekends, waiting for the next phase of my life to begin.

We do not live in a culture that values waiting, rather we live in a hurry up world where waiting seems to cause stress and anxiety. And as a result, we have found ways to avoid it:
We can take pills to grow stronger or to lose wait faster.
We can shop online to avoid waiting in line.
We overwork to get to where we want to be in life faster

Or we just pretend that what we are waiting for is already here. The other day I was walking in Boston,
going to my 10 year HS reunion and as I walked through downtown crossing tt looked like it was December 25th not November 25th.. And we wonder why our kids are in such a hurry to grow upand make adult mistakes while they are still in middle school?

We live in a “can't wait” culture that is always looking forward to the future and looking forward to the future is a good thing, after all it is the basis of the Christian virtue of of hope. However, while hope looks forward to the future, the other two theological virtues Love and Faith point to the past and present, to the now, to testify to God's goodness giving us a basis for our hope not just in the future when, God willing, we get to heaven, but right now, at this moment in history!

The problem with a “can't wait” culture, with always looking toward the future. is that we miss the present and rushing toward the future for so much of our life we often fail to ever stop pushing forward long enough to enjoy the things we once hope for, but which have now been displaced by new “I can't waits.”

A perfect example of this is Christmas, how many of us, if we continue along our “can't wait” path
will be sick of Christmas by the 26th of December?

For the Christian the now is essential, because God gives us each moment, as a little gift, a piece of the puzzle of life, that we will need to be happy forever in the future joy of heaven. Waiting, is not wasted time for the Christian but an opportunity to reflect on what we are, why we are doing the things we do, and where we are going in life. The Church gives us the season of Advent to contemplate the reason for the Season to consider where the joy of Christmas truly comes from,and to prepare ourselves to receive it.

When we live our life moving from one “can't wait” to another, we are like athletes who don't take time to stretch, let alone practice in between games, sure we play a lot of games but we win few because we are just not prepared!

Ultimately, Advent is a time to remember that we can offer ourselves to others just as God offered himself to us when He humbled Himself to be born, the child of Mary, in a stable.

This advent I challenge you to hold off on the presents hold off on the parties, hold off on the Christmas carols and cards, and take some time to remember that the three kings gave gifts as an expression of their joy at the birth of Christ - an expression, not the cause!!


There is no record of Jesus giving Mary Magdalene silver earrings for Christmas; instead he gave her respect. He didn't buy Peter a new fishing boat; rather he gave him responsibility. He didn't go to the mall to buy the apostles new PS3s he humbled himself and washed their feet.

Jesus' gift to mankind wasn't based on material wealth, because Jesus knew, what we so often forget, that stuff is ok, but stuff never makes up for the absence of love, fellowship, and communion. This is what makes us happy, joyful, and fulfilled

If we really look at the needs of others, we may see that while they may want presents, perhaps what they really need is simply to be acknowledged. They deserve dignity, respect, and love for which gold, silver, and precious gems, are cheap replacements.

The paradox of the American Christmas season is that we bypass Advent because we can't wait for the joy of Christmas and then we focus on toys, jewelry, and electronics hoping that these things will bring us the joy we so desire, while in fact they distract us for that joy. Just look at the exchange lines at the malls the day after Christmas. So much for bringing us joy!!! We want to enjoy the material stuff that makes Christmas the cultural extravaganza that it is. In doing so, we lose sight of why Christmas is so important.

Advent is the time to stop and remind us what makes Christmas so important. Advent provides an opportunity for us to direct our intentions, so that our relationships with God and others can be renewed by our celebration of the birth of Christ. So don't rush into Christmas. Enjoy the season of Advent. Take advantage of this time of waiting to ask yourself what will really make my family and friends more happy this Christmas?

Truth

Homily for the Feast of Christ the King
Given at St. Patrick's Church
By Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd

Friends, its important to remember that God is essentially unknowable. To remember, that He who created all things and keeps all things in existence is Himself without origin, and uncreated a being unlike any we have ever experienced, and so while we can know by faith that He exists and we can say some things about Him, because He has told us about Himself. Whenever we say something about God we are grasping as something we truly can't comprehend.

When we call Him Father, we must understand that He is a perfect father unlike all us fallible imitations on earth. When we call Him good, we must realize He is pure goodness unlike anything we have ever experienced. When we say God is Love, only the love of Christ on the Cross begins to capture what we mean by Love, and still we can't understand or imagine the depths of His Love. And so today when we call Him King, we must realize that He is a King unlike any King the world has known.

As American's we often have a hang up with the idea of Kings. Sure we like the quaint relic of monarchy, but when we talk about a King who actually rules, American sensibilities are quickly offended! Maybe this is why people have such a hard time with the idea of hierarchy in the Church, a monarchy based on God's monarchy, though certainly not as good!

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King, and on this feast day it is important to realize how much different Christ's kingship is. Most worldly rulers rule by force, although occasionally they rule by personal popularity, and its the same whether our ruler is one person, as in a monarchy, or many, as in a Republic like ours. Christ our King, in contrast rules not by the sword or popularity but by the strength of truth.

And again truth is not the truth we think of but the x-ray like truth of God which reveals the deepest darkest secrets of our heart. It was this sword of truth that cause our first parents Adam and Eve to be ashamed, they were ashamed of their nakedness, but not only of their body but of their soul before the eyes of God. And it was the sword of truth that barred them from paradise! God's truth is a weapon more powerful than any sword and more merciful—because although it cuts to the core of who we are it also heals those who trust in God!

God's truth reveals our sins, and reveals our shame, by first revealing who we are meant to be, and then revealing all of our failures. It reveals that we are God's children, who God loves so much, and in the light this Truth our sins look grotesquely horrible. God's truth harms us, because we are rightfully shamed by how ungrateful we are to God.

When we realize that all goodness and happiness comes from Him we realize how stupid we are when we go against His plan, and how wretched we are when we fail to give Him thanks. And yet, when we trust in God, through the Sacraments of Baptism and Reconcilliation His Truth also heals us, showing that God is able to Love and forgive us even when we commit the most horrible sins.

In these sacraments He forgives our sins and restores us to the dignity of the person that He created us to be.

The Mass is all about truth, because at the Mass, while still in this world, we experience a glimpse of our destiny in Heaven were we are meant to enjoy God's presence and give Him thanks and praise for His Goodness. And when we abide in truth the Truth sets us Free to be God's Children, to obey God's Law, to be Happy, and Holy. When we live as Children of the Truth we choose to be God's subject's and His Children. We choose to call our brother Jesus Christ our King. When we live in the Truth, God's kingdom exists inside of us, and begins to break into this world through us.

Every Sunday we pray as Jesus taught us Thy Kingdom Come on Earth as it is in Heaven. But its only by living in the truth, by avoiding sin, which is a lie, and by doing good, which is an act of truth, that our prayer can become a reality. Because when we live in the truth we realize who we are, what we were created for,

We realize that all people are our brothers and sisters made to help us grow in holiness, even when they themselves fail in this task, even when they sin against God and against us! When we live in truth we realize that there is no gain in murder, stealing, and lying, we realize that abusing our bodies hurts not just ourselves but the whole world. We realize that all sin is a lie, which separates us from the Truth, God, and from the children of truth, our neighbors.

Today Jesus invites us to be Children of the Truth to take to heart the Truth and Live it, who will we claim as our king?

Marriage: The Wedding Feast of Cana

In November I finally witnessed my first Marriage. Below is the Homily given at St. Patrick's Church.

Marriage has been around for a long time
since the day that Man first saw woman
and saw that she was very good, a fitting match for him.

And long before Jesus gave us the Sacrament of Marriage
the ancient Greeks declared marriage
to be the building block of civilization.

Natural marriage, calms us down, teaching them responsibility
it gives men and women an outlet
for their emotional and physical needs,
it provides the world with a future
in the form of the gift of children,
who are not just created
but also raised and educated by the family.

Natural marriage is a good thing,
and anyone who thinks logically about it
can see that it is praiseworthy, and should be cherished, protected, and encouraged.

But we are not here for just a natural marriage today,
today we are here for a sacrament.

A living reality and outward sign
of God's inward action in our life.

And like all Sacrament's the Sacrament of Marriage
was given to us by Christ for our salvation.

In fact, marriage is the first sacrament alluded to in the Gospels.
In the Gospel of John, as we heard today
Jesus' first miracle happens at a wedding feast.

Jesus is attending the wedding feast of some friends
and, as sometimes happens, the wine runs out.

But, the wine is not simply wine, it's also a symbol
of celebration and the fullness of life.

God gives us our life to be a celebration of creation,
and there is nothing He created that is not good
when used in accord with His plan.

God made us to celebrate and drink in all creation,
and this celebration is meant to culminate
in love of our neighbors, and of God Himself.

Sin ruined this plan, leaving us confused
about our place in creation
and unbalancing the delicate equilibrium of goodness
that God created.

The wine at the wedding feast
is a symbol of the fullness of married life,
an important part of God's original plan,

and so it's running out is what happens so often as a result of sin
when the spark in our relationships are extinguished
by selfishness, jealousy, lust, anger, or pride.

Into the midst, of this tragedy,
the tragedy of our separation from God
which ultimately leads to our separation from each other
walks Jesus, who at the request of His Mother,
enters into this faltering marriage feast.

Jesus orders six stone jars filled with water,
but it's important to see that these weren't just any old jars,
these were the water jars used for ceremonial washing.

The washing that was required by the old Jewish law,
and thus these jars themselves are a symbol of the law,
a symbol of the order that we humans try to establish
to make life tolerable after the rejection of God's plan.

This is emphasized by the # 6, which symbolizes imperfection.

Jesus orders the jars filled with water,
and then instructs the waiters to draw some water out of them

What they discover is that not only has Jesus
changed the water into wine but it is really good wine,
much better than the wine that came before!

It is so important to remember the symbolic element
when reading Scripture--because almost everything in the Bible
has many levels of meaning.

The meaning of the Gospel today is that marriage,
a good thing that God created from the beginning
to help men and women learn to love,
in the sacrament of marriage is transformed
into a new thing, better than the old.

And more importantly
whereas so often the old wine of marriage ran out
so long as we depend on Jesus, the wine of celebration
will never run out.

Today Ashley and Ryan are embarking
on the adventure of life together,

after much though and prayer they believe
that God made each of them especially for each other,
to help each other learn to love and thereby to grow in holiness.

This journey will be difficult, sadly married life,
in this world of sin is not one long honeymoon,
at times it will seem like the wine of celebration has run out.

But have faith, that if you place Jesus at the center of your life
and do as the BVM instructs: Do whatever He tells you!

The good wine of Jesus Christ will always fill up your marriage
and your family, and help you perservere
in the midst of all life's challenges with a spirit of celebration

Ashley and Ryan build your marriage and your family
on the foundation of Christ--and I promise you
that you will be happy and holy in this life,
and that you will help each other and your children
to attain eternal happiness in the world to come.

The End of Days

Homily for the Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Given at St. Patrick's Church
By: Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd.


The idea of the end of days
of a calamity that will wipe clean the face of the earth
has always fascinated man

who is at the same time horrified by the possibility of death
and intrigued by the promise of radical change.

In this way the Apocalypse is an analogy for a more common reality that we prefer not to think about too often
the reality of death, that we all approach each day.

However for the true Christian, the prospect of the end of days,
or simply of the end of our days, our life on Earth,
though still clouded in mystery and uncertainty
no longer causes dread, in those who have received
and believed in the promise of Christ.

You see, from all the great calamities
recounted in the Old Testament
whether the flood, or Israel's slavery in Eygpt,
or the exile of the Jewish people from Israel,
God worked an awesome good in spite of a grave evil.

The waters of the Flood, for example,
killed many and ended almost all life on Earth,
but it also brought an end to a period of horrible
man-made misery, the result of sin,
and gave us the promise of a renewed covenant with God.

Indeed all calamity and disaster is meaningful and good for us
if only it calls us back to that central reality
that we are made for God,
that He is the source of all life and without Him we are nothing,
and that we must never place created things before God.

All suffering, all pain, all lose, and all death
can have good repercussions--because
they bring us closer to God
and the reality of life beyond this mortal world.

That's not to say pain and suffering and death
are good in themselves, but rather that like dieting and exercise
these things can be good if we desire health,
spirtual health, and eternal life, that is.

On the Cross, Jesus accepted death gratefully
from the Father showing us how to live and how to die.

As St. Paul writes so eloquently: If I live it I live for the Lord
and if I die I die for the so that I may be the Lord's in all things

Jesus teaches us to accept God's plan,
even if we don't understand it,
even when we don't like it,
even when it hurts
And more than accepting it, He teaches us to be thankful for it
because God works all things for good for those who love Him.

Jesus, perfect man, and perfect God, died doing the Father's will
revealing the promise of new life,
waiting beyond death for all who love God.
This is the promise we gained in our baptism.
In Baptism we died with Christ so that
when we die we might live with Him.

This is the promise to all the faithful

This is the faith given to us by our parents
who were given it by their parents and their parent's parents
who came before them.

This is the faith that was originally given to the World
by Christ and through His Apostles and the early Church.

This is the faith we have received,
and it is a great gift, because it fills us with hope
and takes away all our fears,
save only the fear of sin, of displeasing God and damnation.

As Christian we should fear neither death,
nor sickness, nor suffering,

We should laugh at death
and look forward hopefully to the worlds end
because we know that death brings with it
the promise of life with Christ.

The darkness of the end of the year is shattered
by the birth of light
and so as we remember the last things
we are not afraid but rather we joyfully pray:
Come Lord Jesus


"In those days after that tribulation
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will be falling from the sky,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

"At that time there shall arise
Michael, the great prince,
guardian of your people;
it shall be a time unsurpassed in distress
since nations began until that time.

At that time your people shall escape,
everyone who is found written in the book.
“Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake;
some shall live forever,
others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace.

God's Accounting

Homily for the Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Given at St. Patrick's Church
By: Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd

Many of you know that before entering seminary
I worked for the US Senate Budget committee.

You can imagine that one of the most frustrating things
about my old job was looking the US Government's Budget.

It was difficult not just because of the sheer amount of our money
that Washington was spending daily.

But most of all because of the way
they accounted for our money in the budget.

Most of us make a weekly, monthly, or yearly budget
by figuring out how much money we have
in income, savings, and investments
and then figuring out how much we need to spend
making priorities and sacrificing items that just don't fit the budget.

In Washington, in contrast, the budget is calculated
based on how much was spent last year
regardless of whether or not there was enough money
to pay for last years expenses.

Budgeting zero dollars for a particular item in Washington
doesn't mean that you are going to spend zero dollars
but simply that you aren't going to spend more than last year.

And I knew it was time for me to leave Washington,
when a high level economist friend told me
that it was impossible for the US Government
to ever have too much debt. > talk about drinking the coolaid.
In the Gospel today Jesus shows us
another method of accounting
that is in stark contrast to Washington's method.

The widow in the Gospel today
put only a few cents in the collection plate,

and yet in Jesus' estimation she gave more than the rich
who gave large sums.

For the widow without income of her own
she must depend on the generosity
of her friends and family for income.
To the widow a few cents is a major portion of her livelihood.
And yet in her poverty she gives generously.

To God the widow's few cents are greater
than all the money in the federal budget,
because they are given out of love.

The rich, in contrast, who give large sums, give out of a surplus
out of monies they really don't need,
and so there is no sacrifice involved in giving these donations.

And whats more, Jesus reveals the true intentions
behind many of the large gifts of the rich.

These acts of charity, Jesus judges, are done more to be seen,
for the sake of human respect and honor, than out of simple love.


The fact of the matter is that it is easy to give, to love,
when it doesn't hurt, when it doesn't cost us anything,
and when our gift is rewarded by joy, respect, or honor,

just as it is easy for Washington to be generous
when they are spending other peoples money
and getting honor and praise for it.

True love in contrast is tested and proved
when we get nothing for our gift of love.

When our love is unnoticed, unappreciated, and even unwanted.

Any parent knows this—sure its great to have a baby
when they are clean and cute and giggling,
the object of affection for all who see them.

But a parent's true love is tested and proved
when they spend the whole night with a puking child.
Or when their teenage child rejects their loving concern.

The same is true with all human relationships,
love is for better or for worse, as we say in marriage vows,
and its only in the midst of the worse that our love is proven true.

Jesus shows us on the cross that the purpose of this life
is to learn this sacrificial love.

To learn to love God and our neighbor
even when we don't want to, when it hurts,
when we feel unloved and abandoned.
On the Cross Jesus gains us the grace needed to love,
not just superficial but selflessly and passionately!

As we hear in the Letter to the Hebrews
we have one life to learn this lesson,
to learn to love, and to choose to love.

And we will be judged on how well we learn it.

God judges not by appearances but realities.
God Judges the heart.

And the scary thing about God's judgment
is that who we are is determined by each of our actions,
every time we fail to love, when we act selfishly
we turn away from God—and choose not be be God's children.

God's judgment is simply the revealing of the truth
about who we have chosen to become.

Thankfully through the power of the cross of Jesus Christ,
even the most hardened sinner,
can have the slate wiped clean,
and can be given a second chance.

Last night I was at the Barnstable county jail hearing confessions
and over and over again I heard the same question
asked in different ways—Do you think I can change.

I always answer the question the same way:

The grace of Baptism and the Sacrament of Pennence
gives us the ability to change.

But it doesn't take away all the bad habits
that our former lives of sin have formed.

Change is possible, for all of us who sin so often
but like love itself, it isn't easy! It takes constant vigilance!

We must always be aware of what we are doing
and why we are doing it!

We must always keep Love of God in our mind
so that our motives always remain pure.

And focus on doing all the little things in our life well
so that when it comes time to love sacrificially
when it comes time for those big and difficult things
when it comes time for our cross
we can pray as Jesus taught us: your will be done.

Each time we make a choice
we are making a gift to God,
and when those choices are both good and difficult
our pennies start to add up.

Lets ask the Lord for the grace to live and love sacrificially.
Like the humble widow in the Gospel today.

Purgatory

All Souls Day
Homily given at St. Patrick's
By: Rev. Ronnie P. Floyd

What joyous words spoken by our Lord today in the Gospel: I will not reject anyone who comes to me.

Today as we remember all those who have died who are dear to us, > this is the reason for our hope. As Jesus says: this is the will of the One who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what He gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day.

We believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

We believe that in the mystery of the incarnation God became and experienced everything that is truly human and becoming like us in all things but sin gained for us, for our humanity, a place in heaven. We are here today because of that hope!

We believe that God who is Love, will gather all those who live in Jesus into the perfection of the Kingdom of heaven even though we are not perfect even though we so often fail to love.

However, even though we gain the promise of eternal life, for sinful man it is still necessary to be purified from our sins, by the fires of the Holy Spirit after death.

We know and believe that God who is good and just requires this purification, as a punishment for the sins we commit in this life but more importantly, as a preparation for a fuller share in the life of heaven.

Our current life is a school of love, where God gives us the opportunity to learn what it truly means to love so that in heaven we can enjoy His Love. All that matters in this life is the sacrificial and Eucharistic love that Jesus demonstrates on the cross. When we suffer in this life, that love is tested and deepened, and our attachments to all that is not God are weakened. But what we do not learn and suffer in this life, God allows those who die in the Lord to learn after death.

And just like preparing for a race, this preparation is rightfully called painful, and just as the difficulty of this training is increased by the bad habits we have--our sins--must punished, and overcome, if we are to share in that perfect love of Heaven

The Catholic doctrine of Purgatory, is the doctrine of a second chance, a second opportunity to learn to love, given to those already chosen by the Lord. And while those who die in the Lord are destined for heaven.

We believe that we can help them in their preparation for life with God.

And that they can help us, by their prayers for us to God the Father.
And so on this All Souls day we are filled with hope that our loved ones who have died, died in the Lord and are even now in the hands of God.

And we offer up our memories of these beloved dead as a prayer of thanksgiving to God for their lives while at the same time we ask Him to purify our loved ones quickly so that they may be admitted into the Kingdom where we will experience the radiant embrace of God's Love and see His face, and know true happiness.

Eternal Rest Grant unto them O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon them may they rest in peace. May their souls and all the souls of the faithful departed by the mercy of God rest in peace.

The Miracle is Existence

Sermon for the 22nd Sunday after Pentacost
Given at St. Francis Xavier in Hyannis
By Rev. Ronnie P. Floyd

In the Gospel today Jesus heals the royal official's son taking pity on the man, who believed that Jesus had the power to save his son.

However at the center of this Gospel, it seems, is not the miracle itself, but Jesus' exasperated statement: Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.

Our God is so good He called us into being out of nothing simply because He loved us and He gives us all that is for our use and edification. He created the sun which warms the Earth, and gives us light, rising and setting so beautifully. He created the stars of the night, and the moon, the sky, and the clouds which bring us rain. The earth is his handy-work as are all the creatures that walk on it, fly over it, and swim in its oceans. God created all things, creating us last, because all of creation was made for man,
and He infalliablly declared it all good. And yet despite all this, Man reject's God's word unless he sees signs and wonders.

My friends miracles are a means of get out attention, or answering the purest of our prayers. But we must not forget to see and thank God for the greatest miracle of all: our existence! This too is truly a miracle, which no scientist can ever explain away! How often we take it for granted that we exist, and yet logically speaking there is no need for it. That we exist is a marvel, this is why Jesus tells us that we must have hearts like Children to enter God's kingdom, children wonder in awe at the gift of the world, and receive each new experience with such eagerness and joy. Children, at least until we spoil them, are born with an innate spirit of wonder and thanksgiving.

St. Paul in the Epistle to the Ephesians reminds us of the need to approach the world in this way when he says:
Address one another (in) psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.

Jesus did not come into the world to temporarily heal the little boy in today's gospel, or Peter's mother in law, or the blind man on the road to Jereco
He didn't even come to raise Lazarus, his friend, temporarily from the dead!

Jesus came to heal us all, by renewing in us the spirit of Thanksgiving, and with it a loving trust in God's providential plan for mankind. On the cross Jesus shows us that even the greatest evils, the greatest suffering, and the loss of the gift of life can be made to work for good, if we love and trust God!

As Christians we must take Paul's instruction to heart and live our lives openly praising God for the goodness of existence! & Teaching others to do the same

Modern culture today is really not much different than pagan culture at the time of Christ
it is a culture of death, because weary of its own sin, it has rejected the goodness of Life of existence. Thus, our Christian duty to give witness, to be martyrs, to the Gospel begins with this spirit of thanksgiving.

It was this spirit that allowed the early Church to suffer every sort of persecution for the sake of the Gospel doing so not just with courage, but with such joy that the pagans thought we were drunk!

Friends, do not get drunk on wine, instead get drunk on the goodness of God made manifest in the goodness of Creation.

The Incarnation is the Good News!

Homily for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
Given at St. Patrick's Parish in Wareham, MA
By: Rev. Ronnie P. Floyd

One afternoon a little boy was playing outdoors. He used his mother's broom as a horse and had a wonderful time until it was getting dark. At dust he left the broom on the back porch and came inside. His mother was cleaning up the kitchen when she realized that her broom was missing.

She asked the little boy about the broom and he told her where it was. So she asked him to go get it.

The little boy informed his mom that he was afraid of the dark and didn't want to go out to get the broom.

His mother smiled and said 'The Lord is out there too, don't be afraid'.

So the little boy opened the back door a little and said 'Lord if you're out there, hand me the broom'.

This past week I was visiting an 8th grade class, that was talking about the good news, the gospel. And as I heard one student read that the definition of the word Gospel was good news I began to wonder if these students knew what the good news was! What is at the center of our faith after all?

When I read this weeks readings I wondered if the majority of Catholics could answer the same question. What is at the heart of the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ?

You see, many people think that at the core of the Gospel there is a moral ethic—rules—do this, don't do that, love however the heart of the Gospel is not a commandment but a historical fact.

First and foremost we believe that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son so that we may not perish but have eternal life!

The good news is that in the midst of the darkness of the world our loving and all-powerful God is with us not just spiritually, but physically. He shares in our human experience not as a spectator but as a brother, a team-mate, a real partner. And while he might not do our job for us, He never asks us to do anything that He himself was not willing to do!

The reality of the Incarnation, the reality that God loved us so much that He came down from heaven, becoming truly man, while remaining truly God, so that he could show us what it meant to be man and prove to us that holiness is possible, in spite of sin, is at the heart of our faith.

Jesus shows us by his life that man can travel the road of perfection, even in the midst of an imperfect world. Jesus shows us that while we may suffer much in this life it is possible to choose to love, trust, and serve God inspite of all life challenges. Jesus shows us that God is truly with us in our sufferings.

Jesus remains with us today, really present in the Sacraments most particularlly the Eucharist. And from heaven, Jesus intercedes with the Father for us. As Paul says:
we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin. So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.

The Miracle of Christmas and of Easter, the miracle of our weekly celebration of the Mass is the central mystery of our faith, The miracle that God who owes us nothing and who doesn't need us in any way shape or form so loves us, that He remains interested in us. Interested to the point that He allowed:

His un-containable being to be contained in the body of a tiny baby.
His all-knowing Word to be taught by human parents and contradicted by his enemies
His unchanging perfection to grow and change, experiencing all the states of life, with all their challenges and difficulties.
His Holy name to be attacked by his detracters.
His all powerful strength to be made weak on the road to Calvary and
His undying person to be killed on the cross.

If God loves us so much, an knows us so well how can we do anything without realizing his presence
and asking for His help? Our faith is a great gift, that changes the world we live in. Don't ignore the awesome goodness of the Gospel.

As it was in the beginning

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Homily given at St. Patrick's Parish
By Rev. Ronnie P. Floyd

People often give the Church a hard time because we have so many rules about relationships and about the way men and woman live together. But the fact of the matter is that the Church really only has one rule: The rule of marriage—that Jesus points to today. And as Jesus points out, this is God's rule, that follows God's plan—and is given for our happiness!

So what is the rule of marriage? Its what we all want in our heart its the desire to be loved and to love another person totally.

It's the desire to spend our life learning about the mystery of ourself by exploring the mystery of another physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

All of us want to be loved, and we are, by our God, our parents, our siblings and family but at some point we all begin to desire a mutuality and intimacy with someone who is at once our equal and yet so very different from us.

While God gives us so many people in our lives to love and form friendships with, He gives us one person to know inside and out and He gives us only one person to love, because a person is a mystery that takes an eternity to explore. Sex, which really should be called the marital act, is good within the rule of marriage because it is a way of coming to know and to love another person.

The Churches many “rules” about the marital act all point back to the rule of marriage.

Its interesting, our Catholic faith, like natural science, is concerned about truth. And its my belief, like Einstien, that science is always backing up the reasonableness of our faith

A few years ago the Royal British Academy of Medicine released a study that showed that those who engage in the marital act whether married or not—become addicted to their partner. The act of physically intimacy they found releases chemicals in the brain that are as addictive as cocaine, How good God is that he gives us this chemical and physical bonding tool to help us to love and allow ourselves to be loved. But the scientists also found that this bonding effect wears off in 5 to 7 years, after that it seems we are on our own to keep our marriages a live. They also found that when we abuse the marital act using it outside of marriage with more than one partner we weaken its natural power to bind us together.

God made us, and knows better than we do what will make us happy and He gives us the law of marriage because He knows that we want that amazing love that can only come from a lifetime spent loving one other person.

When asked about divorce in the Gospel, Jesus declares, it was not so in the beginning. the beginning that Jesus is referring to is that time, before the fall, when man still followed God's plan, and when the world was at peace. This original state of marital love is the model, that the church has always held up as an example of what intimate relations between men and women are supposed to look like,

In the beginning God saw that it was not good for man to be alone in the world and realizing that the wild beasts could not provide us with the interpersonal relationships we need to grow as persons learning to love, God created a helper for man: woman.

This partnership was meant to be mutual; men and women were created different to help each other learn about the miracle of their differences, which any married couple can tell you are more than just skin deep.

In marriage we choose to love another forever and in choosing to love them we give ourselves to another allowing ourself to be loved in return. The fruits of marital love, then, is unity as we read in the book of Genesis and as Jesus reminds us today: the two become one flesh.

Not one soul, or one person, but one flesh which means that their bodily wellbeing depends now not just on their own body but on another's. And since our soul depend on our body our spiritual health now depends on our beloved.

Marriage is meant to give us a safe trusting relationship in which we can share our most intimate selves with someone else and believe it or not the marital act, which we vulgarly call sex, is just the first and most superficial level of this sharing.

By learning to love another, by risking our happiness on someone outside ourself—we learn to trust and love not just our husband or wife but God and other people more deeply.

Marriage is a school of love, that teaches us how to love like God loves.

Marriage teach us patients and kindness it teaches us self-sacrifice it teaches us to risk our own vulnerability for the sake of love, it teaches us that love is forever, a lifelong exploration of another person who is ultimately a mystery.

Finally, marriage teaches us that love is creative creating from two distinct creatures one flesh, with the potential of creating a family.

Marital love opens up our heart to see the potentials of love it opens us to the miracle of children, and it opens us up to divine providence to trusting our happiness to God's plan for us. All the Churches rules about intimcy come back to this prophetic vision of what will truly make us happy!

Marriage is so important because since the beginning of creation marriage is the natural way that men and woman grow in holiness. The church, like Jesus in the Gospel today, knows that holiness & happiness depends on the correct use of our sexuality. And it's because of this natural importance of marriage that Jesus chose marriage to be one of His seven signs of God's love for us.

Jesus infused marriage with the grace of His life when he connected marriage to the Eucharist at the wedding feast at Cana and when he connected love to the cross on Calvary.

If marriage is meant to teach man and woman to love and the Cross the ultimate sign of Love then the cross becomes the ultimate sign of marital love and marriage the ultimate school of the Cross. When we reject the rule of marriage we reject the possibility of true love by breaking down the bonds of trust and commitment that love requires.

As a culture we have separated the marital act from marriage because we have seen so many failed marriages. And so its not surprising that today its fashionable to think that we can take relationships on and off like a pair of socks that are warms and soft when they are newly out of the dryer but after stepping in a few puddles become dank and smelly.

Thats why people contracept—because they haven't learned to love and to trust their lover enough to want to have their children.

What a horrible thing to say to your beloved—I don't want to have your baby—because I'm not sure I want to spend my life with you but that is exactly what we say when we use contraceptives! And its this same mentality that underlies why a woman would consider killing her own baby—worry that she will be abandoned to care for a baby alone.

Spouses promise love for better or for worse, because, intimate relationships between men and women, marriage, can't be a school of love, when we give our spouse 10, 30, or even 90% of ourselves. If we hedge our bets, and don't give our beloved 100% we break down the bonds of trust that allow us to love, and learn to love more profoundly.

When two married people even consider the possibility of breaking their word to their spouse, they open up the option in their mind, and this option becomes more likely every time they think about it. Because if this option is on the table in your mind, how do you trust your spouse with your deepest secrets how can you risk allowing someone who you are willing to abandon and so who presumably is willing to leave you, to play with the strings of your heart?

Jesus wants us to be happy, and so he wants us to follow God's plan the rule of marriage, so that men and women can find fulfillment in teaching each other to love,

Pray today that young people listen to God's plan for their happiness and give it a chance.

God knows what your heart wants and your heart needs he should, he gave them to you, take a chance on God's plan and help build up a true culture of life.

Jesus is the Way, the only Way

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
Homily given at St. Patrick's in Wareham
By: Fr. Ron Floyd

My friends today we get to the heart of our Christians Faith.

Today Jesus tells us the Christian difference. He tells us what makes our faith in Jesus Christ so different, and so much better than anything that came before it or has come since.

All religions set up a strict separation between God and Man and a system by which Man appeases God and thus wins favor All religions demand obedience and submission to God’s law All other religions fall short of showing us the true face of God Who made us, not because He needs, not because He desires our help, not because He is lonely, or even desires our worship—but because HE loves us

As we read: God so loved the world that He sent us His only begotten Son that we might not perish but have eternal life.

Finally today in John’s Gospel Jesus reveals himself as the bread of life

Today our Lord reveals Himself as the way, the truth, and the light as the only way to the Father.
And for this revelation the crowds reject Him. The world has always rejected Him, even when much of the world professed Christianity, as was once the case in our own state, because we have always rejected giving up the counterfeit Christ: Our way, our truth, and our light.

We reject giving up “religion,” because we really don’t want a relationship with our God. All we really want is a way to control God! Jesus tells us today there is no other way to the Father, it’s His way or the Highway to Hell. You see Catholicism is a journey on which God is both our destination and travel guide. We like the Prophet Elijah are making a pilgrimage to God through all the difficulties of Life and all the while being fed and kept alive by God.

Catholicism doesn’t promise you that if you follow the rules you will win God’s favor, and be rewarded in this life. It promises that God favors us already no matter what we do and that our eternal reward, awaiting us since the beginning of the World, is returning to the embrace of our Creator.

You see my friends, properly speaking, Catholicism is not a religion, it’s not a system for pleasing an aloof God rather it is a way, a road, to approach and eternally embrace a God who has always loved us who made us to share in His life.

Today in John’s Gospel we are told that Jesus is a map, a compass, and a pack of food. He is all we need to lead us to hidden treasure.

He gives us fuel for the long journey ahead, He shows us the way, is the way, and walks with us along the way. But we reject the way, because we don’t want to follow it!

We want to do a couple good deeds, or a couple of rituals, to satisfy God and then we want to be left alone to follow our own ends.

But our true end and purpose is God! And like any destination every deviation and every wrong turn away from our goal, must be corrected, if we ever hope to arrive at our destination.

Our heart and our soul needs God, but our mind and our will point us toward other things. And so today when Jesus attempts to set us straight He is rejected.

This is the revelation the world has always rejected, even after they saw Jesus’ miracles and heard His wisdom, even after it saw Him risen from the dead, even during the days of the Churches greatest power and influence when most everyone claimed to be a Catholic Christian.

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Light, He is the bread that will sustain us and lead us back to the Father. Will we eat this bread? His Body, and allow its saving power to change the course of our life or will we eat it, to fulfill a ritual obligation, and not give up our way, our truth, and our light?

Christianity is not about doing this or that but about being on the way to Heaven, and to God. Will we reject Jesus’ invitation to join Him on the Way?

What are you hungry for?

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
Homily given at St. Patrick's in Wareham
By: Fr. Ron Floyd, P.V.

What are you hungry for? I think it is important question to ask every now and then.

What is our goal and purpose in life? Where do we find our motivation and happiness? Where are we going and how do we get there?

When we forget to stop and ask these types of questions we end up attaining short term goals, but forgetting our long term goals. Forgetting our destination and trading in the pursuit of happiness
for the every day routine of life, mere contentment.

We end up going in circles, or as Jesus says in the Gospel today, working for the food that perishes
rather than the food that satisfies us forever.

Have you ever felt like you are spinning your wheels in life caught up in the mundane affairs of everyday life, never getting closer to your hopes and dreams?

Many of us forget to ask these questions and so like the Israelites we end up eating bread and quail
each day, rather than accomplishing what we really want.

So I will ask you again: what are you hungry for?

Its not a simple question, it is the question of the meaning of life and purpose of your life in particular!
Some years ago I taught conversational English to a group of 7th and 8th graders in Europe, asking them this very same question in different words. I asked them, “what is happiness?' which is essentially the same question since we all hunger for happiness, even if we don't know what it is! Their answers were probably quite similar to what we might answer off the cuff: money, fame, toys, relationships, etc. Over the four weeks that I was teaching these kids we talked about and by process of elimination
crossed off these answers one by one until at last we were left with just one answer.

True happiness—comes from loving! Because while food, money, fame, things, and even relationships
might give us pleasure, adding flavor to the main course of happiness, who would give up the steak for the seasoning salt?

And note: I said Loving, not being loved, because while it is good to be loved, and we always are loved by our God and Creator the reason for human if is God's Love for us but the purpose of human life is our love for others, most particularly God!

Happiness, unlike pleasure, is long-lasting and is not contingent on things outside ourselves, but is a personal attitude toward the gift of our life.

We are happy when we receive the world around us as what it is a totally undeserved gift of God
and in receiving this gift, we are thankful for it. True happiness comes out of a spirit of thanksgiving, which prompts us to love our creator, and also our neighbors. And true happiness is perfected when we see God face to face together with our brothers and sisters,
and are able to give Him thanks and praise!

In the first reading today the Israelites forgot this! They forgot that they were really hungry for God.
They forgot that Moses' original request of Pharaoh was not liberty from slavery in Egypt but permission to go and worship God freely.

They grumble to Moses because their stomachs are empty forgetting that they came into the desert to be with their God to share fellowship with their creator not to make love to their crock-pots.

Jesus warns us about this temptation in the Gospel, accusing the crowds of only following Him
because they were looking for a free lunch. Jesus didn't come to feed the poor or heal the sick, rather he makes these miracles an occasion to remind people of His real mission, to feed people with the presence of the living-God, for which they truly hungered.

Jesus gives the crowds earthly food, to prepare them to receive the heavenly food the bread of angels, and cup of salvation which he would win for them on the Cross. Jesus feeds us His own Body and Blood to remind man that he is truly hungry for LIFE, life with God!

What are you hungry for?

If you don't believe me that we all hunger for God you need only to search your heart
for your purpose in life to prove I am right!

As we prepare the gifts today, offering over to God bread and wine, the simple symbols of our entire human life I encourage you to ask yourself this question: What am I hungry for?

If you are prepared to receive Him today, in the Eucharist Jesus will dwell with you and give you the opportunity to be with your God and to love Him.

The meal as an encounter.

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time year B
Given at St. Patrick's in Wareham
By: Fr. Ron Floyd

Turkey, cranberry sauce, pumkin pies, and sweet potatoes? Mmmh! Friends can you guess what I am thinking about?

Food is such an integral part of our lives as humans. We need it for nourishment and energy,
but unlike animals, for humans, food is also a means to an end and not just the end itself.

You all might remember the famous scene from the movie, Lady and the Tramp, where Tramp offers Lady the last meatball and a shared piece of spaghetti becomes an occasion for a kiss.

Living with Fr. Sullivan, or rather should I say, living with his golden retriever Mave I know for a fact that dogs don’t share this unique human ability to make food an occasion for communion. Mave has a one track mind when it comes too food: MORE!! Give me More! But as people, we often eat for more profound reasons!

Think about all the occasions that are touchstones in our lives that focus on food: 1st dates, weddings, birthdays, baptisms

For most of us, the shared meal, no matter how good, or bad, it is, is only an excuse to be with the ones we love and share fellowship with them! This is why Jesus chooses food and drink to be the center and heart of the Faith He reveals to the Apostles, and to us.

John’s famous 6th chapter on the Eucharist. Begins today with the story of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. In the Gospel today Jesus starts, as always, with what we know, and then uses the things of this world to point us toward the mysteries of God, to what lies beyond!

Jesus goes off with His Apostles to a secluded place to rest a while, but the people don’t let Him get away, realizing they had found something special in Jesus.

They follow Him, and so He sits down among them and begins to teach them. He begins to reveal the word of God to them to reveal, Himself, who He is, and who God is for us. And the people are captivated by Him, so much so that they go all day without eating.

Naturally they finally get hungry, and so in the midst of this encounter with Jesus! The Word of God, which has been feeding them spiritually feeds them physically, with a food, that seems to come from nowhere, so that we can prolong this experience, this encounter with God!

Notice how closely this multiplication of the loaves resembles the Mass, which is the perpetual celebration of the Eucharist! This is no accident, because the Mass has always been at the center of our faith. It is a singular key to interpreting scripture

Jesus starts His public life by turning water to wine, and today He ends this first part of His public life by feeding thousands with a few loaves. This miracle and the subsequent teaching about the bread of life marks a turning point in John’s Gospel, a turning point which ultimately leads to the Cross. After the discourse on the Eucharist, the crowds turn away from Jesus and Jesus’ relationship with the leaders of the people becomes increasingly more adversarial.

Jesus feeds the crowds and in doing so reveals Himself as the only Son of the Father, the source of all nourishment, and the only Way to the Father.
This will become clearer and clearer as we make our way through Chapter 6 of St John's Gospel, and as Jesus reveals His life, His Body and Blood, as the bread of Life.
The result of Jesus’ teaching about the Eucharist, then, as today, was disbelief! Disbelief based on a fundamental rejection of Jesus’s Divinity! Jesus is not just giving the crowds a free lunch to show them God's generosity and concern; he is also getting them ready to understand his coming discourse about the Eucharist. Jesus gives us the Eucharist because we need it, for the same reason that He feeds the crowds today!

We need it to be fed, we need it to grow, and ultimately we need the Eucharist to be the occasion for encountering, knowing, loving, and servering God! This is our ultimate purpose in this life!
In the Eucharist, our lips touch the lips of God in a kiss! In an embrace, that is meant to satisfy our heart, and eventually last forever!

Today, our God is here, through me His unworthy servant and through the holy Gospel. He is teaching you just like he taught the crowds. When He tells us—I am the bread of Life. Unless you eat by flesh and drink my blood you will not have life within you.

How will we react?

Will we be scandalized like the crowds and abandon Jesus? Or will we become angry, and persecute Him. Or will we say with the Apostles: Lord You have the Words of ever lasting life and we belief and are convinced that You are the Son of God!

As we go to the Altar of God and approach our Eucharistic Lord let's make an effort to live this reality more deeply:
• by paying attention to the sacred words of the liturgy,
• by stirring up sentiments of gratitude and faith in our hearts,
• and by remembering the reality that what we eat and drink is the Body and Blood of Christ, that unites us to Catholics throughout the world and throughout history who have gathered around the same altar and received the same Holy Communion, obeying our Lords' command: "Do this in remembrance of me."

Rest with Jesus

16th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B
Given at St. Patrick's in Wareham
By: Fr. Ron Floyd, P.V.

My brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus, many people don’t really understand
what it means to be a Christian.

What it means to be a Catholic! They think:
- That being a Catholic means being a “good person”
- That it means following the rules
- That it means lots of prohibitions

In general they think that being a Catholic is hard work! And in a sense it is, because being a Catholic always means being counter-cultural. Even in the best culture there are always things that can be improved and made more perfect.Christians must accept the good but also always work hard to resist and reform the world around them. However in Christ even this can become easy for us if we know and understand what it really means to be a catholic, because being Catholic, being Christan, as the Church was first called in Ephesus means being with Christ.

In the Gospel today Jesus invites his Apostles "Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while." Jesus understands that the work of being a follower of the Way: The Way the Truth and the Light of Jesus Christ can be tiresome, not because of the burden of our own faith

But because our faith requires us to help lift the burden off the shoulders of our neighbors: friends and enemies alike.. It is the way of the world that is truly difficult characterized as it is by selfishness, greed, and malice.

Its difficult to be a pagan, unbeliever, or even a half-hearted believer, because a life without God, without Christ, is a life dominated by fear and insecurity, which begets frustration, envy anger, and wrath. In contrast Jesus tells us in the Gospel that: my yoke is easy, my burden light!

Being a Christian is not primarily about following rules and regulations

Its not about being “a good person,” its not about fearing God’s wrath and retribution—its primarily about resting in Jesus. Its about being close to Jesus who is both Love and Truth

When we are close to Jesus, as we are whenever we read the scriptures, or pray in his name
and especially when we gather together to offer His Sacrifice of Praise—the Mass.

Jesus shows us the truth about ourselves. He shows us the truth about what is good and the truth about what it means to love and how to do it. If we are active listeners, if we have open ears, and hearts, and minds just the grace of being with Him will be enough to free us from our world of sin and teach us to Love.

This is why St. Augustine can say: Love and do what ever you will. When we truly learn the way of Jesus the way of love—then we don't have to worry about sin because in true love there is no room for sin! Love permits no evil! When we are loved by Jesus, by God, we have nothing more to fear from the world. And so we are free from all its traps.

As St. Paul says: He is our peace, he who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his flesh, abolishing the law with its commandments and legal claims, that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile both with God, in one body, through the cross, putting that enmity to death by it.

If you have ever been around someone who made you feel safe, and want to be a better person, then you have experienced what it means to be a Christian, only with Christ this effect is infinitely more powerful.

As we turn to the Altar then, pray for the grace to be able to rest with Jesus in this great Sacrament. Let Jesus into your heart and let him transform you into another Christ; into a person that make those around them want to be a better persons!

Lord Jesus send down your spirit and renew the face of the Earth.

Schema Israel: Hear the Word of God!

15th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B
Given at St. Patrick's in Wareham
By: Fr. Ron Floyd, P.V.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.

Today Jesus is standing at the door, and knocking, and calling out to each of us asking us to let him in. Imagine him standing there waiting for you on your doorstep Would you let him in?

I think most of us want to see Jesus. Most of us want to talk to him, ask him questions, to learn what we need to do to be truly happy. So, if Jesus came and knocked at our door and sat down in our living room, we would probably listen carefully to what he had to say.

At least, that's what we would like to think. However, despite our desire to see God, there is an equally strong fear in our heart of doing so. A fear of what hearing God’s word might mean. Listening to God's word isn't always easy because while many of us like the notion of having the Son of God in our house the reason why the book of Revelation paints a picture of Jesus standing at the door and knocking is because many of us don’t like the reality of what Jesus’ presence means!

And so we often keep him outside just as in the first reading today the Israelites banish Amos, forcing the bearer of God’s word, outside the kingdom of Israel.
• Amos had been telling the people of Israel that they needed to return to the basics of their faith, following the commandments and giving up their self-indulgent idolatries.
• You would think that with God's authority and power behind him, everyone would simply hear and obey.
• But the message wasn't comfortable for them, and so they rejected it, exiling the bearer of God’s word from Israel.

In the Gospel today Jesus warns his Apostles that like Amos they too will be despised and rejected by some, for knocking on the doors of hearts and trying to bring Jesus in.

Jesus is preparing them for rejection because he knows that fallen human nature doesn't like to be pushed outside of its comfort zone. But his message of salvation does just that; it pushes us out of our comfort zone.

The Gospel is always a two edged sword, always able to both wound our enemies and ourselves.
And so today the Gospel not only tells us what to do when inevitably we are rejected for being Christians. But it also indicts us for all those times that we have shut the doors of our hearts and our homes to the Word

Today we must ask ourselves if we truly let Jesus into our heart? When we hear him knocking how well we listen to God's words? Are we selective listeners, picking and choosing according to what fits our comfort zone? Do we open the door just a crack for Jesus, make sure the chain is still on the door so Jesus can’t truly get in? Or are we true followers of Christ, willing to love and obey him even when it means carrying our piece of the cross, willing to say with today's Psalm: "I will hear what God proclaims"?

It's an important question, because our hearts are like the house Jesus mentions in the Gospel. If we welcome God's word, his grace will come and stay there, bringing peace, wisdom, and salvation, but if we don't, God's word will shake the dust from its feet and move on.

Each time Jesus knocks on our door we are given a chance, a momentary occasion, to enter more deeply into the life of God, and while God is merciful we must Beware,
as St. Augustine warns of the grace of God that passes by, never to return again.

Of course, when we keep Jesus out of our life we save ourselves a lot of trouble. I mean, if you are really living your Christian life you know that it is not easy to be a follower of Jesus. God’s word demands that we change the way we live! It demands that we live as God Created us! It demands that we live sacrificially and it demands that we ultimately die for love of our neighbors. God’s word forces us to confront the difficult reality of who we are and what we were made for and how we have utterly failed over and again!

But the question we must ask is whether it’s better to live a comfortable lie or a difficult truth?

This question, which is not new to man, but has plagued us since the Garden of Eden is captured perfectly in a scene from the blockbuster movie: the Matrix.

At the beginning of that movie the main Character Neo is confronted by a choice, symbolized by two pills, one blue, one red.

Choose the blue pill and he will forget that he was ever confronted with a choice returning to a computer generated prison, a lie, but a pleasant lie.

Choose the red one however and we will awaken to the reality of a post-apocalyptic nightmare and a war for the future of mankind.

When Jesus knocks on the door of our heart, we too are confronted with the same choice as Neo,
a name which coincidentally means new—suggesting that he is a symbol of a new or a renewed humanity.

If we let Jesus into our heart He will remain with us and feed us we will become new creature, new men and women in Christ, but we will also be faced with the unpleasant reality that our modern life is based on so many lies and half truths.

In contranst if we ignore him, we will remain the same, undisturbed but also unchanged.

What’s at stake? Truth, and with it true happiness, fulfillment, and love.

What’s at stake is our salvation.

Listening to God can be uncomfortable – there's no escape from that. God loves us too much to let us vegetate in our comfort zones. Rather he is always leads us further along the path of spiritual maturity, further up the mountain of wisdom, courage and holiness—even though it is difficult! Today God is inviting us to renew our commitment to be good listeners, to let Jesus in and thus be changed. He reminds us that He is worthy of such a commitment at the Altar where He gives up His life for us in the Eucharist.

Part of the difficulty, however, of allowing Jesus into our heart and receiving Him in the Eucharist, is that its not enough for us to be changed. We who are filled with the Word and Spirit of God, must in turn bring the Word of God with us into the World to all those who are not here today.

God wants to speak to them too, to convince them that his commandments and counsels are the real path to lasting happiness now and forever. Therefore we must reminded our families and friends who are afraid to swim against the current of popular opinion that Jesus is knocking, speaking also to them today!

Remember each momentary encounter with the Word of God in the events and encounters of our life is a priceless, irrepeatable gift. While we may have other opportunities to answer Christ’s call and to bring it to others, we never know what graces we will miss if we fail to let Jesus in and listen to His Word today!

Pray that we be given the strength to open the door to Jesus and to invite Him into the lives of those around us.

So what was accomplished?

See my commentary on what was accomplished by the Notre Dame Speech over at Thoughts and Ramblings

Willing to die for the Truth?

Its a shame the Bishops, particularly the 60 Bishops who publically spoke out against this, didn't take the opportunity to come and preach the Gospel down in the trenches with this priest. It would have been interesting to see if they would be willing to haul Catholic Bishops off to jail for "tresspassing" on a Catholic Campus. It is my opinion that a Catholic priest can't trespass on the property of a Catholic institution, but Jenkins et al. who went out of his way to accomadate Obama, seem perfectly willing to have his brother priests arrested.

Mass at the Clementine Altar: Te Igitur

Mass at the Clementine Altar: Te Igitur, originally uploaded by fr.ron_floyd.

Pictures from Fr. James McCarthy's Mass of Thanksgiving.

Life in Rome

One of the seminarians shot this video of ride through Rome on a bike. He departs from my university the Angelicum and demonstrates just how dangerous it is to live in Rome.

Palm Sunday

I can't believe Passiontide is midway over and Palm Sunday is here. Today I had the awesome experience of processing with the Holy Father in the Palm Sunday Procession and then distributing communion at the Mass. Below are some pictures of the procession getting ready.
















And more here



And for Palm Sunday in Rome click here

This is how God wants us to Love Him

TAKE JOY IN THE LORD!!

St. Joseph: Icon of true Fatherhood

Homily for the Solemnity of St. Joseph
Celebrated at the Station Church
Ss. Cosmas and Daminan in Rome
Thursday, March 19th 2009













This summer I was visiting a Catholic Grammar school in my diocese to speak with the 7th and 8th grade boys about priestly vocations.

Speaking about the complementary need for both male and female parents I made what I thought was a common sense claim: we all have fathers

The boldness of my claim was pointed out by a seventh grade boy who retorted, “not everyone has a father.”

In response I said rather flippantly: if I remember my biology class right--we all have fathers!!!

However in retrospect the young man was right, biological paternity was a far cry from true fatherhood.

This young man’s claim is a sad commentary on the reality of the situation in the world we live in. More devastating than the Economic Crisis and possibly at the root of the crisis in morality and culture is the crisis in Fatherhood—how can we know God the Father if we only have a negative or nonexistent experience of fathers? And yet this is the case for so many people today.

In the example of St. Joseph we see the reality that for rational human beings true fatherhood is so much more than paternity. This is an important message for all men to hear, not just priests, because all men are called in some way to show others the image of God the Father.

In Joseph we see a icon of human fatherhood, which in turn is an icon of Divine Fatherhood. Though scripture is relatively silent about the manthat Jesus called abba before he taught us to call His heavenly Father Abba. Through what we do learn of Joseph we see the sketch of the vocation of the Father.

Joseph was first and foremost a man open to the will of God; both in his just yet merciful treatment of Mary according to the Mosaic Law and in his willingness to forego the law and endure the shame associated with taking Mary into his house at the message of the angel. True Fathers, Joseph teaches us, are men of prayer who teach and communicate the will of God to their families

In the mercy he shows to Mary, in seeking to divorce her quietly we also see that true fathers always defend and protect their spouse, even when they feel hurt or betrayed by her

In the trust he placed in God, when forced to take his very pregnant wife on the long journey to Bethlehem, we see that real Fathers, though men of action, must always put their trust in the providential plan of God.

And in his silent life of work, providing for Mary and Jesus--we learn that true fathers always do everything for the other never seeking personal gain or glorification, but rather always building up their wives and Children.

Thus today as we celebrate the Feast of the foster-father of Our Lord lets pray and ask God:

That following the example of Joseph more men embrace their vocation to fatherhood generously offering themselves as icons of the Father even to children not physically their own.

And that women, fulfill their vocation to be helpers to men by encouraging their husbands, brothers, and sons, and all the men they know to take up the exalted title: Father and live this vocation faithfully.

St. Joseph, pray for us.