Censings

TWELFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME June 20, 2015 Church of the Beloved, Northglenn, Colorado Rev. Dcn. David Justin Lynch Job 38:1; 8-11 Psalm 107:23-26; 28-31 2 Corinthians 5:14-17 Mark 4:35-41        + In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.        For those of you who don’t know me, I am the Pastor of Saint Cecilia Catholic Community in Palm Springs, California, a place with triple-digit temperatures, very little rain, and no snow, ever. We’re a very new congregation. We started on April twelfth of this year, and we’re getting about twelve people at Sunday morning Mass.   I can identify with Jesus in this story. Why? God wanted Jesus to be like us, becoming flesh in the person of Jesus. God’s intentional act was to be among us as one of us, to be a part of us, to feel the same things we do.  Like Jesus, I have pastoral responsibilities for a new community of about a ...

FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI June 07, 2015 St. Cecilia Catholic Community Rev. Dcn. David Justin Lynch Exodus 16:2-15;31-34. Psalm: 105:23-24;37-42 Cor: 10:16-17. Gospel: John 6:41-56 + In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN. A few years ago, right here in Palm Springs, I had an encounter with a sidewalk  evangelist who saw the cross on my shirt-collar and asked if I was a Christian. I said “Yes”. He then asked me, “Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?” I responded “I sure do. I eat His Body and drink His Blood every Sunday at Mass. How much more personal can you get?” He then proceeded to call me a cannibal and to tell me I was surely going to suffer in the next life for talking about Jesus that way. What became very obvious to me was that this young man had a very different idea about what happens at Mass than I did. The  Real  Presence  of  Jesus  in  the  Bread  and  Wine in t...

TRINITY SUNDAY – YEAR B May 31, 2015 Saint Cecilia Catholic Community Rev. Dcn. David Justin Lynch Deuteronomy 4:32-34; 39-40 Psalm 33:4-6; 9; 18-20; 22 Romans 8:14-17 Matthew 28:16-20        + In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.        That sounds very appropriate for Trinity Sunday, doesn’t it? I begin my homilies that way because being a Trinitarian Christian is important to me.  Not all Christians are Trinitarian. Our Unitarian sisters and brothers believe that God is one person, that Jesus was not God’s son, and that the Holy Spirit is an aspect of God’s power. And they are not alone. Christian Scientists, Mormons, and Jehovah’s Witnesses are also non-Trinitarian Christians.  And of course, atheists and agnostics, are by definition, non-Trinitarian. Suffice to say that in diverse, secular America, we find a wide ignorance of the Trinitarian nature of God. ...

PENTECOST May 24, 2015 Saint Cecilia Catholic Community, Palm Springs, CA Rev. Dcn. David Justin Lynch Acts 2:1-11 Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34 Galatians 5:16-25 John 15:26-27; 16:12-15 + In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN. The Greek New Testament uses the word “pneuma” hundreds of times. Its usual meaning is “spirit”, but it can also mean “breath” or “wind.” That is what Jesus was describing when He said that the apostles would receive the Holy Spirit, and what the apostles did in fact receive on Pentecost; indeed, today’s first lesson from the Book of Acts describes a “strong driving wind” that filled the whole house and brought tongues of fire.           So it’s natural that when we think of the Holy Spirit, we think of an invisible power, something felt or experienced, rather than a person we can see. However, the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity whom we c...

SOLEMNITY OF THE ASCENSION May 17, 2015 Saint Cecilia Catholic Community Reverend Deacon David Justin Lynch Acts 1:1-11 Psalm 47:2-3;6-9 Ephesians 1:17-23  Mark 16:15-20         +In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.         In the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, a debate raged within the Church of England over whether Jesus was present in the Bread and Wine at the Eucharist. To give you some background, the Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church, is composed of both Catholics and Protestants. Way back then, and now, they continue to argue this and other theological points.  In Fifteen-Fifty-Nine, the Protestant side was dominating that church, and insisted on putting in the Book of Common Prayer what is known as the “black rubric.” It is rather long, but it says, in essence, that Jesus is only spiritually present in the Eucharist, because...

SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER – MOTHER’S DAY May 10, 2015 Saint Cecilia Catholic Community, Palm Springs, CA Reverend Deacon David Justin Lynch Wisdom 3:1-9 Psalm 27:1-6  I John 4:7-10 John 15:9-17          + In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN.          Mother’s Day is a challenge for preachers. Not only is it not a feast in the liturgical calendar, but it raises pastoral issues. Some people have dysfunctional relationships with their mothers. Non-mothers, whether by choice or by chance, feel “left out” of the festivities. Not every woman is called to biological motherhood, and that’s a good thing, because being a good mother requires an extreme level of personal commitment and sacrifice to love a child. Not every woman is psychologically made to do that, and that very fact is what makes mothers special, just as non-mothers are special in their own way in living out the vocations to whic...

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER May 03, 2015 Saint Cecilia Catholic Community Reverend Deacon David Justin Lynch Acts 9:26-31 Psalm 22:26-28, 30, 31-32 I John 3:18-24 John 15:1-8 + In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN. About three weeks ago, I talked about how difficult evangelism is for people of the Catholic or Anglican tradition. It just seems that it’s not in our DNA to talk to other people about our faith in God, and by that I mean our loyalty to Jesus and our Trust in Him. As uncomfortable as that may make us, today’s set of lessons thrust that subject even more directly in our laps than when we last encountered it, and illustrates some of the challenges we face when doing it. In our secular world, the public at large often does not trust those who talk God all the time. People are skeptical of our motives when we go so far as to invite them to church, so we back off so as to avoid an uncomfortable conversation. Today’s firs...