Freedom

Homily Given for the Feast of Corpus Christ
Given at St. Patrick's Church in Wareham
On Sunday, June 10th, 2012
By: Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd, STL

Freedom—we American’s often think that we have a monopoly on it

Or at least the best expression of it here in the US.

But although we often use the word,

I am not sure we take the time to think about what it real means

today on this feast of Corpus Christi
a feast which celebrates the ultimate act of freedom,

the ultimate act of love, the total gift of self,

I would like to consider freedom.

You see freedom is really at the core of Christianity,

As St. Paul says, for freedom Christ has set us free.

In the beginning the whole drama of our Faith begins

With God so loving His creation that He respects human freedom

Even when that freedom becomes un-human,

Separating Man from God.

You know it’s funny how often I hear the question,:

“Well, why did God let us do it, why did he let us sin,

when He knew it would result in suffering and death?”

This usually from the same person who thinks it is a horrible imposition

On their freedom to ask them to come to Mass on Sunday’s

Encourage them to keep the commandment’s
and insist that they respect our Faith, even if they don’t practice it.

Freedom is at the heart of creation, it is what set’s mankind apart

From all the other animals.

St. Augustine writes that it is freedom that makes us in the image of God

And how we use it, that makes us in, or mares, His likeness in us!

And it’s important to understand, that Freedom,

a central theme in God’s creation in Genesis

and in Christ’s redemption of creation in the Gospel,

is not a matter of being at liberty to do WHATEVER YOU WANT

     rather it’s the ability to do what we must,

to do that which gives us our dignity, makes us most human,

and makes us unto the likeness of the living God.

At the beginning of the American experiment

the Church was a bit weary of the American expression of freedom.

Particularly what we call the first Amendment,

precisely because many thought it was a misunderstanding of freedom.

The first amendment of course does not establish

separation of Church and State, as many will suggest.

Rather it says: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, 

So while the constitution insists that the Congress not establish a Church,

it also guarantees our ability and RIGHT to practice our faith publically,

even when it is not the majority religion or faith.

This was idea was a bit strange to many thinkers in the early 19^th century

As established Christian Church’s had been the norm for 1600 years

since just after the death of the Roman Emperor Constantine.

Before that, religious toleration, which was practiced sporadically

meant practicing your religion alongside others,
essentially mixing all the different religions of the people together

regardless of the compatibility or truth of these religions.

Religious toleration in America,

was seen by many Catholic thinkers as pagan, for this reason,

because it seemed to them that freedom of religion

implicitly suggested that it didn’t matter what faith you were

it didn’t matter if you were

Catholic, Baptist, or Unitarian, Jewish or nothing at all

So long as you didn’t make waves for the State…

As Catholic’s we know that this cannot be true,

Since Jesus Himself says I am the WAY,

making no provision for another way!

There can be only one truth, and “the truth will set you free.”

However, it’s the connection of freedom of religion with speech,

That show’s the true intent of our founders

Speech in the 18^th century was about argument and debate in search of truth.

And so the right to speech doesn’t protect obscenity

but the quest for truth,

The right to free speech was placed next to the right to free practice of religion because both are a search for truth.


From the beginning humans were made free by our creator,
free so that we could freely choose to love God.

This freedom corresponds with our duty,

To know, love, and serve God—and it is this duty

which makes us human, and gives us human dignity!!!

Because of this duty, man can speak of a natural right.
which simply means that no one can morally interfere with

A human’s freedom to do his duty to God or his neighbor in love,
because that duty is at the core of human dignity. 

Freedom of religion, stems not from the unimportance of religion,

from tolerance, the agreement to agree to disagree,

but from our duty to seek the Truth,

and the immorality of compelling someone to accept a “truth”,

which in all honesty, they don’t believe.

You see it makes no sense to talk about “rights”

to things that are not fundamental to our humanity
to things like health care, or education, or even marriage,
as these things can, and in the history of the world,
have been done without.  

But things like Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,

things like love, and the pursuit of truth

these are essential to what it means to be human

Government can and does limit our liberty in many ways,

but morally it shouldn’t limit our freedom

in a way that attacks human dignity, because to do so

places the state at war with not just you or I, but with humanity.

I meditate on freedom, on this feast of Corpus Christi,

Because it is perfect freedom, in the FACE OF,

state and religious tyranny, that we see

when we look at the Blessed Sacrament.

It is the freedom to love, and to do God’s will come what may.

This freedom is at the heart of the our Faith, and must be imitated!

It’s for this reason, that today, in the face of so many

State sponsored attacks on freedom, that we Catholic’s must stand up.

For the state to prohibit an action

that is universally accepted to be wrong
is the states rightful purview,

but for the state to REQUIRE people of faith

to violate their conscience, to do something, support something,

or pay for something that is at best morally ambiguous,

and at worse morally evil—is wrong!

And puts the state on the wrong side of human freedom and human dignity!

We used to acknowledge and respect this in America.

Respecting the right of conscientious objectors not to fight,

And doctors, nurses, and pharmacists not to treat people

In ways they believed immoral,

But for some time more and more of our politicians

Have felt the need to push their beliefs, their religion,

though granted not a religion based on the worship of God,

on others, more and more placing them, and their human dignity,

at odds with the state.

These same politicians use language like freedom of worship,

rather than the constitutional terminology of freedom of religion

to push religious people, who desire to be faithful to the God

who they worship out of the public sphere.

As people of faith, we cannot let that happen.

We render unto Ceasar what is Ceasar’s,

but our Faith requires that we use our Freedom to put our faith into action.

Over the next few weeks I will be focusing my homilies

On the various attacks on human freedom,

That sadly are happening right here in our country.

It’s important to see, as we think about each one,

how each is really about truth,

about a proposition which if true demands a response in love.

It’s also important to see that in an area where people disagree about truth,

Not because there is no truth but because it’s sometimes hard to find

The Government is in no position to determine truth

Taking away this fundamental duty of the human person

To seek the truth, and put it into action.

This is why we have rights, this is why we have freedoms,

They come from our creator,

and like Christ who offers us His Body and Blood today
and all the martyrs who shed their blood for the truth,

we must defend it today.

Seen and Unseen

Homily for the Feast of Pentecost
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Given at St. Patrick's Church
By: Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd, STL

 “I believe in one God the Father almighty maker of heaven and earth of all things visible and invisible.”

 We say these words every week on Sunday professing our belief in an unseen world. and for centuries this belief was a foregone conclusion to Christians and non-Christians alike. People felt in their heart a longing, a longing for the perfect, a longing for stability, a longing for the unchangeable and eternal, and this longing they reasoned, suggested that there was something in us and in the world, that could not be seen or touched or tasted but which would satisfy the deepest longings of the Human heart. 

Today, distracted by so much busy-ness, by so many material marvels that entertain us and keep us occupied, that help us forget the reality of death and suffering, people often forget that desire, that yearning, for something better than this world. Even many Christians, have a backwards understanding of heaven, thinking that it is just a re-hashing of this world, except that no one will suffer, and everyone will be a millionaire. Often it takes the reality of suffering and sacrifice, to remind us again, that our heart longs for something better than this passing world.  AND… This blindness is not a new thing. Jesus speaks of it over and over again in the scriptures. Jesus cures the blind so often in the Gospels not because there are an inordinate number blind Jews in Israel, but because He is speaking to all mankind, telling us all that there is so much more to be seen and thought of than just what our eyes can see.

 Faith is difficult, because it demands that we who are blind Act as if we can see. Close your eyes for a moment. Imagine yourself walking now down Main Street, here in Wareham, with all the construction going on. Scary isn’t it. Just because you can’t see the holes in the side walk and the men working, and the heavy equipment, doesn’t mean it’s not there.

 In the Gospel of John, our Lord says, “These words are Spirit and Truth and the Spirit gives life” Our Lord was talking on that day about the Eucharist, The gift of Jesus’ flesh and blood, which He says IS TRUE FOOD AND TRUE DRINK! Like the whole of our faith, this teaching then and now is difficult!  Back then many of those following Jesus abandoned Him, because He taught this absurd notion that “We must Eat His Flesh and Drink His Blood.” And He was given every opportunity to clarify Himself to say no, I was just kidding, I was meant it symbolically, But He didn’t, in fact He re-enforced the REALITY of the Eucharist By saying, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you shall not have life within you.”

 As Catholics we TRULY BELIEVE that HE IS REALLY PRESENT That the bread and wine, which we offer God, Is transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, So that after the prayer of Consecration, when the priest lifts First the body, and then the blood, of the Lord, Although it may look like bread, there is no bread there, but TRULY it is His flesh, and although the chalice make look like its filled with simple wine, in truth it is His blood. The Great Angelic Doctor of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas, called this mystery Transubstantiation. Saying that although the accidents were those of bread and wine the substance was His body and blood. Another way of saying this is that the appearance is that of bread and wine, while the reality is His body and blood.

 Initially that is a hard concept to grasp, isn’t it, since usually things are what they seem to be. But then again, all you need to do is look in your car’s mirrors and read: “objects in the mirror are closer than they appear to be,” to realize this. Or think of the Sun and Moon. During the course of the day it often appears as if the Sun moves across the sky, and at night as we drive home in our car I am sure we have all pondered why the moon seems to follow our car. When we look up at that same night sky it appears as if we are seeing stars and planets and galaxies. When in reality, astronomers will tell us, that that light took thousands and perhaps even millions of years to get here, and today that heavenly body, might no longer be there.

I am sure all of us have heard and even used the phrase “things are not what they appear to be,” and that is what our Faith is about, Spirit and Truth, which gives life! Our faith is full of unseen realities: At the core of it is a belief in the unseen God. A belief that He is actually a Trinity of persons A belief that He loves us, and became Man. A belief in the reality of Jesus’ miracles, And the reality of His Sacrifice, A belief in His resurrection and in the promise of Heaven, and danger of Hell. As St. Thomas wrote in His famous song of Eucharistic praise: “Faith for all defects supplying, when the feeble senses fail.” It is the Spirit that gives life! And today Jesus send’s His Spirit on the Church to teach us all things, and help us see, if only in a partial way, for now, the reality of the unseen world.

 The Spirit gives us blind sinners the courage to live as if we could see. and challenges us to act on realities unseen, but very real. It is the Spirit that gives us the strength, to fight our passions, Living according to God’s law, focused on going to heaven, Rather than on the pleasures of this world, which seem so good, so natural for us to seek. It is the Spirit that gives us the ability even to sacrifice everything With Christ on the Cross, for the things of Heaven. The Spirit that allows us to see the perfection of Christ’s Church Despite the imperfection of its Priests, religious, and laity. and to see the beauty of our neighbors even through the camouflage of their sins And on this weekend, when so many of our second graders will make their first holy communion it is the Spirit which gives us the ability to kneel in adoration before the Eucharist aware that what looks like bread, is actually the Body of the Lord, which has been Sacrifice, and what looks like wine, is actually His Blood.  Whether we open our mouth to be fed by the Lord like a little child is fed by a loving parent. Or we raise our hands, brought together to make a throne for us to receive the king of the world, The Spirit allows us to see that Jesus is giving Himself to us, so that we can be strengthened to give ourselves for others! To live in this world, but not to be of it!

 Eucharistic devotion is so important to the life of a Christian because in receiving the Lord and adoring Him, a little piece of that unseen world, the reality that is more real than what we can see is incorporated into our hearts. We receive Him so that we can see how much we have to be thankful for so that we can understand what He gave to us and now asks of us, and so that He can remain with us always, even unto the end of the age. Today we have the opportunity to receive the Lord, if our hearts are free from all sin, and open to His goodness. But it is important to remember that receiving Him is not enough. St. Paul warns against those who receive Him unworthily, with no desire to see the spiritual reality and truth, and be transformed by it. If we would see, we must ask the Holy Spirit to fall down upon us: by regularly confessing our sins, by living lives of prayer, and by acting as if we can see. One of the most powerful ways of doing this is Eucharistic Adoration, When we take some time out of our busy day, out of the material world To focus on the unseen world.

 In two weeks time the Church will celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, often called Corpus Christi. In honor of the Feast day there will be many different events and devotions going on in our Parish and around the Diocese. Particularly, here at St. Patrick’s we will celebrate our annual forty hour devotion, as the Blessed Sacrament remains exposed for Adoration for 40 hours straight on the Altar of our Church. The unseen reality of Jesus’ love and gift for us will be here to be adored all day and all night, So that no one will have an excuse that they were too busy. Today I would challenge all of you hear to consider Individually or as a family spending an hour of Eucharistic Adoration with the Lord, to help you deepen the spirits gift of sight which is poured upon the Church each Pentecost.

The Hard Truth

Homosexual Love is called Friendship
A Homily for the Feast of Ascension of the Lord
Given by Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd
At St. Patrick's Church in Wareham

On this Feast of the Ascension, the Gospel reminds us of the requirements of Love: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned."

Love requires us to speak, and not remain silent even when the Gospel message, the good news that death to the world begets a new beginning of Eternal life, is difficult.
Love requires us to speak because Faith is a matter of eternal life and eternal death.

And so today, I feel compelled by the Lord to speak to you about a difficult topic.

One that raises many tempers because it touches the heart of who we are, why we were created, and how we live.
…
Mr. Charles Darwin, once noted that species seemed to evolve, and he theorized that the success of one genetic line, was due to survival of the fittest, the best genes.

Darwin’s theory of evolution, which in a more nuanced form remains today more or less widely accepted as the best explanation of the evidence gathered by biological science, reminds us of a biological truth, that CORRISPONDS with a truth of our FAITH but IS NOT DEPENDANT ON FAITH.

Namely that the propagation of our species, procreation, the command that the Bible renders “be fruitful and multiply” in the first pages of the book of Genesis is a SCIENTIFICLY verifiable EVOLUTIONARY IMMPERITIVE.

What we call a NATURAL LAW, that anyone: Hindu, Buddhist, Protestant, Atheist, or Agnostic, can see in nature, and accept without reference to God’s Revelation, the Church, or the Bible.

Historically, faiths, societies, and legal orders have PRIVELEDGED the relationship between a man and a woman, BECAUSE offspring, children, are good not just for the propagation of the species, or a particular family line, but also for society.

Demographers note that every stable society, like a stable building, MUST be at LEAST as large in the foundation as it is at the rooftop.

And what is the foundation or base of the societal structure: the young.

To have a STABLE society there must be at least 2.1 children born to every married couple in a society, for it to remain stable. and children, as the cliché notes, ARE THE FUTURE, so the more of them the better the chances of a bright future.

Both for the sake of society and for the individual, NATURALLY not having children is a PHYSICAL EVIL.

Let’s get that straight, a physical evil, not necessarily a moral evil, what we call a sin.

When a couple is trying to have a child and they can’t that’s a physical evil, they are not guilty of it, it’s not a sin it’s just not good.

To be clear, what I am saying as a celibate priest, is that the choice and promise I made at ordination is not natural— you could even say it’s a physical evil.

Sadly, while many of you can understand and agree that priestly celibacy is not natural

Many of the same people get enraged when the Church teaches that other forms of chosen infertility are not natural.

I chose celibacy, as Jesus suggested in the Gospel of Matthew, “For the sake of the Kingdom” for a supernatural reason to do, what I believe is God’s will, but what is the reason that so many others CHOOSE, and that’s the key word when talking morality: FREE CHOICE; what is the reason people choose behaviors that render them infertile?
…
So, what’s all this got to do with the Feast of the Ascension which the Church celebrates today?

Well the Feast of the Ascension, along with the Feast of the Assumption that we will celebrate in August POINT TO a key truth of our Faith.

They point to the fact, that like Jesus who Ascended this day into Heaven, and Mary who was Assumed and sits at the right hand of the Son, we too, are DESTINED, by virtue of our Baptism, to go to heaven, BODY AND SOUL. We believe, as we will soon profess in the Resurrection of the Body.

And what will we do in Heaven?

Well as St. Paul tells us: “…the kingdom of God is not a matter of food and drink, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Spirit…”

Food, in St. Paul’s letter to the Roman’s is a analogy for pleasure, disconnected from “righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Spirit;” In a word St. Paul is telling us that we are made for Charity or Love, which the opposite of becoming a stumbling block for the sake of pleasure, but always doing what is in the best interest of the other.

Love on earth points us to Love in Heaven, and the Feast of the Ascension reminds us that we need to practice on Earth, what we are meant to do for ever in Heaven

Today the world tells us that loving other people is “affirming them” In whatever they WANT to do, irregardless of the Law of God. But our faith tells us that tolerating evil, is the opposite of love.

The other day there was a little controversy in the news, because a church in a neighboring town DARED to challenge people to change the way they were living, this church DARED to freely speak about our Catholic Faith.

The Church posted a sign in front of the Church that read “Two Men Are Friends not Spouses.”

Sadly this sign provoked outraged, But what was so bad about it?

There was once a day when signs were posted in local business that said despicable things like “Catholics need not apply” and “Whites Only” And yet in their day these signs did not cause the outrage that this sign did.

Let’s think for a minute what the sign meant: “Two Men Are Friends not Spouses.”

Obviously is a rebut to the notion of “Gay Marriage,” And our president’s recent endorsement of it. But more importantly it is a statement about the natural law, and love.

First of all it says I love you my brother or sister enough to challenge them because I care about their soul. The truth sets us free, and the truth is that marriage is about the good of procreation and the propagation of the species.

In Heaven, Jesus tells us, that despite the fact that we will have bodies, there will be no marriage.

“For in the resurrection they shall neither marry nor be married; but shall be as the angels of God in heaven,” we read in Matthew’s Gospel.

LOVE does not require marriage; the perfection of Love, is not marriage, but what many married people tell me they long for: true friendship.

Two men, who love each other, are called friends not spouses, Because while the natural good of procreation draws a man and a woman together in that sacred bond in this life, that bond is not possible for two men or two women, AND not necessary for Love, Happiness, or Holiness. The Church is against fornication: in the form of homosexual marriage, but also pre-marital relations and contraception not because the POPE said so. We are against these things, because they are not loving.

Love entails doing what’s good for the other, for your beloved, and nature and Mr. Darwin tells us that procreation is the good for which we marry.

Where procreation is not possible, LOVE still is, friendship still is, and friendship with each other and with God is the definition of the Love we hope to experience forever in Heaven.

Catholic’s don’t hate Homosexuals, we love them, and because of this we desire them to be happy, we profess the truth, that marriage, and the marital act, is only good, only loving, when it is open to the possibility of new life. We deny homosexual “Marriage” because it is contrary to the good of the individual and society And therefore not loving. But LOVE and fulfillment is possible even for those who suffer from same sex attractions, just as it is for me, and countless men and women who have chose to be celibate for the sake of the kingdom.

The Church challenges all these to Love like the Angels, and to remember that as Jesus ascended into Heaven, we are made for Heavenly Happiness not merely for Earthly pleasure.

Hearing God

From a talk given to the Koinonia Vocation Group at Bishop Stang

on Luke 24:1-32
By Rev. Ronnie P. Floyd

I often get the question:

Does God really talk to us? Can we really hear God's voice?

Many Christians, particularly young Christians doubt
that if we talk to God in prayer He will talk back to us.

Perhaps you have talked and talked to God, at times,
and you feel as if you have never gotten a response:
about God's vocation and plan for you,
about your requests
about your questions
about why he allows people you love to suffer

Maybe you would just like him to say: "hey how you doing"
to let you know you're not crazy
for taking time to talk to God and practice your Faith,
when the world seems to be telling you are...

The Problem
The problem with talking with God
is that His response is often lost in translation.

You've all studied foreign languages;
have you ever decided to take your language skills out for a spin?

And tried to talk with an actual foreign speaker,
Bonjour m'amie comment t'allez vous ma cher...

And gotten back in response a garble of jiberish
that sounds like radio static?

Speaking of radio static....
did you know that much of the static we hear on the radio
is actually human voices and signals that we are just not tuning into properly or that are too weak for us to understand.

Like talking to a foreigner or tuning into the radio
it takes time and effort to hear voices from far away.
We need to focus on what is being said, and tune out other noise.
Sometime we just need to listen more carefully
or become attune to how something is being said.

And even when you understand the basics of what they are saying
you need to understand what they are saying means.

We had a professor in Rome who used to regularly say
"e un pezzo di torta..." it's a piece of cake
To which the actual Italian speakers would scratch their head wondering, what does the Trinity have to do with cake?

Our God is not far away or a foreigner,
but one of the key principles of theology is that
God is always so much greater than what we think He is.

God is not like us, in fact He is not like anything
we will ever experience in His creation!!!

And since we learn from experience
and think using these learned ideas
it is hard for God to communicate with us,
because it's hard for us to understand God.

In the Garden of Eden we are told
God walked with Adam and Eve,
somehow making His presence
co-natural with their understanding.

But because of sin that's not the case any more for us.

Movies like Oh God, and Evan Almighty,
demonstrate our human desire
for God to just talk to us man to man.
And of course He tried that in the incarnation.

The problem then and now being that
you can ignore your fellow man, as many ignored Jesus.

How to Hear from God
So how can he get our attention?

Wouldn't it be great if God decided to use billboards to talk to us? Just think, we could drive down the road and God
would simply choose one of a zillion billboards
to get our attention.

On the other hand, he could use something more subtle.
Like a gentle rap on the side of the head
whenever we veer off the course.

Yup, there's a thought. God smacking people upside the head whenever they don't listen.

The problem is I'm afraid we'd all be walking around in a daze from all the repetitive brain trauma.

Hearing from God is a learned skill.
Of course, you could be one of the lucky ones like Moses,
who was walking up the mountain, minding his own business, when he stumbled upon the burning bush.

Sadly although God talks to lots of people in spectacular and seemingly overt ways in the Bible,
the bible is the history of thousands of years,
and in all that time God spoke to people in these ways
only a handful of times.

Most of us don't have those kinds of encounters so we find ourselves looking for skills to help us hear from God.

But the fact of the matter is that God speaks to us
in all these ways and many more on a daily basis,
if only we pay attention and listen to him.

Like that piece of cake my professor used to talk about,
God try's to speak to us with images and symbols that we understand and can interpret.

When I was 16 praying about my vocation
God sent me a message in a little bundle of flesh.

Holding my infant nephew for the first time in a hospital
and marveling at the miracle of life,

for the first time I began to think of my vocation
not just in terms of the job I would do, but who I was called to be.

At that moment I was sure I was called to be a father,
and I was...I just needed to listen a little bit more
it took me another 8 years to understand that there is more than one type of father.

In billboards, on TV, in movies, on the Radio, in Books, in other people, in life events,

God is sending us a message through symbols and images
that we can understand, if we stop and think about them in prayer!

So how can you tell if God is Talking to you?

Here are some common ways God talks to us:
• His Word--In order to understand a person we need to know something about their character and history.
The more we understand the story of who someone is
the more we understand what they say
and why they are saying it.

To actually "hear" from God we have to know who God is, and the way he does things, and who we are to God.

The Bible goes into a lot of detail about how you can expect God to react and what kinds of expectations he has for us,

• Other People--In Genesis God creates man in His Image and Likeness, and so if we want to get to know God we can look at his picture in other people. And if Jesus says in the Gospel whatsoever you do for the least of my brothers you do for me, then logically when we listen to our neighbors we listen to God.

Many times God will use other people to speak directly to us or try to get through to us.

It's possible for God to use anyone at any time, but speaks particularly clearly in those who are striving to do His will.

And let's not forget that listening to other people includes things like the arts and culture, which are after all just alternative means of communication.

I love movies, particularly very artsy and symbolic movies. people often think I am weird when I tell them I hear God talking to me in movies. But why not? And I am not just talking about overtly Christian movies.

Sure, God is speaking to us all about courage and sin in a movie or book like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings,
but why can't he also speak to us through Stephen King, or Shakespeare, or even someone as antiCatholic as Dan Brown.

Our Circumstances--Sometimes the only way God can teach us something is to allow circumstances in our life to lead us to and through the very thing we need to discover.

Peter knew he was a sinner from the start of the Gospel, but he needed to experience his weakness, and how much he needed the Grace of God, in order to internalize that message, and so Jesus said "Verily I say to you Peter, before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times."

God doesn't want us to sin, but if we are to accept what St. Paul teaches: "that all things work for God for those who love God," then even in the experience of sinning God can speak to us.

I am not of course encouraging you to sin to hear God's voice, since the act of sinning is as much a distraction from God as an opportunity to hear Him

• The Still Small Voice--although our God is not in the habit of wacking us upside our head when we get off the path, our conscience attempts to do just that and is the small voice of God speaking to us in our heart.

As St. Ignatius explains when we are doing God's will we should have peace in our heart.

Whenever we're considering something and we don't have peace about it, it's a very good idea to stop and carefully look at the options. There's a reason you don't feel peace about it.

• The Actual Voice--Sometimes in our dreams or even occasionally in ever day life we're able to actually "hear" something that sounds to us like an audible voice.

Pay attention to those occasions because it is very likely God trying to tell you something important.

Overall, when God Talks, Shut Up and Listen!

Jesus is here, remaining with us,
but often we are so afraid, so uncomfortable,
with just being with Him, in His presence.

It all starts here, at the Altar, in the Eucharist,
through the Word of God, and in Prayer.

Here we begin to understand the structure of reality,
and see and understand God's constant conversation with us,
if we believe and are open to it.

Finally like the women who first received the message of the Resurrection at the tomb, don't be surprised or afraid
if other people, and even other Catholics think you are crazy
for hearing the voice of God.

It is always easier, in terms of effort and comfort,
not to hear Him! And that's why many don't...

The O Antiphons

In the Gospel today, once again
we hear the proclamation of the incarnation.

During Advent we hear this proclamation quite frequently
Because the Church wants to remind us of WHO is coming.

Not just a cute baby born of a holy family
but the Son of the Most High.

Born when Mary accepted the Message of an Angel of God
Born by the Power of the Holy Spirit,

Who overshadowed Mary,
like the Lord God overshadowed Mount Sinai

And who dwelt in her womb like the Word of God
Dwelt in the Ark of the Covenant.

He is Emmanuel, God with us,
and the Church doesn’t want us to forget that.

On December 17th, each year the Church begins to remind us
Each day of this reality,
the reality of WHO comes to us each Christmas
with its famous O Antiphons.

The O Antiphons are Short songs
that precede the singing of the Magnificat
each evening in the Vespertime prayer of the Church.

The Church reminds us with these seven titles,
these seven songs of who Jesus is
Yesterday the Church sang O Sapientia:

O Wisdom, who came from the mouth of the Most High,
reaching from end to end and ordering all things mightily and sweetly:
come, and teach us the way of prudence

This song of praise and expectation reminds us
that Christ is the Word of God, Wisdom made flesh,
and all true wisdom comes from Him.

Today the Church will sing O Adonai:

O Lord and Ruler of the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the flame of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: come, and redeem us with outstretched arms.

Reminding us that God is the Lord and Judge, not us,
and that His birth is an invitation to us to judge not
ourselves or others, but to trust in the judgement of God.

Jesus is the Radix Jesse:

O Root of Jesse, that stands for an ensign of the people, before whom the kings keep silence and unto whom the Gentiles shall make supplication: come, to deliver us, and tarry not.

Jesus is both the beginning and the end,
a new beginning from the root of humanity,
the new beginning that all of creation longs for.

O Clavis David begins the antiphon for Tuesday as we sing:

O Key of David, and scepter of the house of Israel, who opens and no man shuts, who shuts and no man opens: come, and lead forth the captive who sits in the shadows from his prison.

Showing us that as John says “I am the way the truth and the light, NO ONE can come to the Father except through me.”
Jesus is the key that sets us free
to obtain the deepest desire of our heart,
seeing God face to face,
if only we allow that key to unlock our hearts.

Four days before Christmas we sing O Oriens:

O dawn of the east, brightness of light eternal, and sun of justice: come, and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

Jesus is the light of the world, the light which He desires to kindle in our hearts and homes and communities.

On Thursday we praise Christ as the King of Kings
singing O Rex Gentium:

O King of the gentiles and their desired One, the cornerstone that makes both one: come, and deliver man, whom you formed out of the dust of the earth.

Proclaiming Christ the King of Kings the one who must rule in our hearts if we have any hope of attaining true peace.

Finally on the day before Christmas Eve we proclaim
Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, recalling His central mission.

O Emmanuel, God with us, our King and lawgiver, the expected of the nations and their Savior: come to save us, O Lord our God.

Reminding us of the central fact of our Faith that God, the rightful ruler of all creation, loves us so much to become man and dwell among us.

Taken together these antiphon’s spell out the central message of Advent, and the challenge for how every Christian must live their lives.

Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai,Sapientia –
The first letter of these seven titles of the Baby Jesus
Spells out in Latin ero cras meaning,

“Tomorrow, I will come.”

WHO will come? Our God will come to us.

You see there are lots of people who want to say
That Jesus was just a nice man
And that the Christmas story is just a nice fable.

But everything that Jesus said about Himself,
And that was written about Him in sacred Scriptures
And that the Church has taught us about Him for 2000 years
Refutes this view of Christ and Christmas.

Did anyone catch its purpose of what St. Paul calls
in the letter to the Romans
“the mystery kept secret for long ages”?

He says the mystery of Christmas is meant:
“to bring about the obedience of faith.”

It’s meant to change us by showing the world
“that God so loved the world..”

but it’s a message not meant for the world but for me and for you,

“God so loved [ME] that in the fullness of time
He sent His only begotten Son,
that [I] may not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

If we truly believe that He loves you and me that much,
That he was willing to give us His Son
Then this fact must bring about change in the way we live.

Every day we Catholics must live this reality,
Humbling our hearts in the obedience of Faith
Because He will come every tomorrow of our lives
To walk with us if only we allow him in.

Will the Child Jesus, who is Wisdom, the Lord, The Root of Our Humanity, the Key to our Desires, the Orientation of our Hopes, the King of all the World, God with us,

find a place in your home and heart this year?

Do Over

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

Do you remember the carefree days of your childhood.

I was reminded of today one of the things that I love about childhood:
the “do over.”

Back then when you were playing a game or taking a test
And the outcome wasn’t what you were expecting
or what you desired all you had to do is say: “do over”
and strangely enough your parents, friends, family and teachers
were ok with that.

I suppose it was a function of their love for you,
and of your childlike humility in being able to admit frankly
that you screwed up and needed another chance!

Today, we get a “do over,”
in fact all of life is a do over,
in which our God challenges us to love
and over and over again gives us the opportunity to succeed.

Though we may fail so many times,
God loves us enough to let us fail,
and for forgive us our failures,
and to give us a “do over”
so that we can become the children he made us to be!

Maybe you have sin against God:
your parents, your best friend, or your spouse.

But that was then and this is now,
now is a gift, because each moment is an opportunity:
to seek out the Lord
to find forgiveness
to change your life and modify your behaviors
and to love, where in the past you failed to love.

Advent is the season of “do over” for the world.
We screwed up…and if you watch TV
you will notice that we continue to screw up.

And don’t get me wrong,
people will continue to screw up until the end of time!

But what’s really important is the realization that
“I have screwed up.”

We can’t control other people, we can’t control the world,
But so long as we ourselves are not perfect
We ought not cast stones at others
Because we have a share in the world’s brokenness.

Advent is a “do over” for the world,
Or rather it is a reminder
that God offers each of us a personal “do over,”
not just now but every moment of every day He gave us.

Will we take this opportunity, with hearts like those of children
and accept our responsibility in the screwed upness of the world
by asking God for a “do over?”

This Advent as we await the celebration of the Nativity of our Lord
why not give the world, and our family, and our friends
the gift of mercy, by first accepting it in your heart.

God wants to give us a “do over,”
so that we can give others this gift of mercy.
And make this dream a reality,

Why not make advent what it was meant to be
A time of preparation for a new beginning,
in which we prepare for Christ’s coming into the world,
not just 2000 years ago, but right now in our lives.

Imagine a perfect world, without war, or injustice, or hatred
This is the World Christ desires to create.

let Christ, who desires to come into our life
and make all things new
Find welcome in your hearts and homes this Christmas.

All of us need to be renewed through confess,
a renewed prayer life,
and through the Mass.

Because it’s only in preparing our hearts to welcome Him
That He can truly be born IN us.
And that the world can truly be renewed.

Let’s make the prayer of the Psalmist our own this Advent:
Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.

What's in the Words?

A Homily for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Given at St. Patrick's Parish

By Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd, STL

What's in a word?

In the bulleting today the insert
about the upcoming translation of the Mass
talks about new words that may be unfamiliar to you
that will appear in the Mass this Advent

Words like Chalice, which will replace "cup,"
or Consubstantial, which "will replace one in being"

What is a Chalice? A cup!

What does it mean to be Consubstantial?
It means you are one in being!

So why not continue to use these much more common and understandable words?

All throughout the world in every religion
one of the commonalities about religion is that
people pray with a unique dialect
or even a completely different sacral language.

In Judaism its ancient Hebrew,
a language that has long been dead
and yet today can still be heard in synagogues
throughout the world.
In Islam the language is Arabic.

In Christianity there are a number of different languages
depending on which branch of the Church you are talking about

Arameic, Greek, Syro-Malbar, Coptic, Ge'ez, Old Church Slavonic are just a few of the ancient tongues that are primarily used today for prayer alone.

In our own Latin rite of the Catholic Church
Latin is our Sacral Language

Latin unites us to the Church of Rome,
which evangelized most of Western Europe,
and gives us a common language to use when praying with
Hispanic Catholics, and Asian Catholics, and German Catholics.

In just a few hours I will be leaving for Spain
on pilgrimage to World Youth Day
where although I do not speak Spanish
I will be able to join with Pope Benedict
in Prayer at Mass in Latin.

However, even in our own venacular language, English,
there is a tradition of Sacral Language
that is a dialect or sub-set of English in general.

The purpose of these sacral dialects and languages
is to make the words hard to understand.

You heard me right--
WE WANT PRAYER TO BE HARD
TO UNDERSTAND!

WHY, you ask?

BECAUSE we are talking to GOD
we are talking to a being completely different from ourselves
or anything we have experienced in creation.

We are ultimately talking to someone who is unknowable
and yet peeking from behind the curtain of creation
desires to make Himself known.

And so it is important that our language
gives us pause, and causes us to ponder
about exactly what the relation is between us
the creator and Him the creator.

Why not use cup, instead of Chalice?
Because a cup is something we drink Mountain Dew out of
while a chalice, reminds us of something elegant,
ornate and beautiful.

It makes us think about the fact that what we are receiving
is not the Wine that is brought up in the cup
but the Blood of our savior poured into the Chalice
from His pierced side as He hung upon the cross for us.

Why consubstantial, instead of one in being?
Because we know what one means;
we know what in means;
and we sort of know what being means,

but we have no REAL idea what it means for the Son to be God and the Father to be God and yet for there to be only one God.

Consubstantial reminds us of the great mystery of the Trinity
three persons in one being, three who's in one what,
a mystery that speaks so much about God's nature
and our vocation to love,
but which we often fail to ponder
each time we hastily cross ourselves
or gallop through that phrase in the Creed.

In the Gospel Jesus always uses language VERY carefully,
in order to emphasize His point
and make us think, so that we might interiorize the Gospel.


In today's Gospel He calls a woman a dog, emphazing the division between the Jews and the Canannites
before praise her Great faith.

He does so to make the Jews, AND I MIGHT ADD
US, God's chosen people
really think about the strenght of our own faith.

If a dog, unworthy of a seat at the table,
in the estimation of the chosen people any way,
can have such great faith, how much greater should me faith be
as the son or daughter of God that I am?

Language has great power if we stop and think about it
and DARE I SAY PRAY ABOUT IT!!!!

Dear Lord grant us the graces we need to enter deeper into the prayers of the Mass through the difficulties we find with the new translation. Amen.