Censings

FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT February 14, 2015 Saint Cecilia Catholic Community Rev. David Justin Lynch Deuteronomy 26:4-10 Psalm 91:1-2;10-15 Romans 10:8-13 Luke 4:1-13 + In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN. If you’ve ever watched the television program “American Greed”, you know what temptation looks like, and you’ve seen the devil at work. Financial fraudsters tempt otherwise honest people into becoming involved in schemes to cheat people out of their money by telling lies and that they will be rewarded for doing that. If anything, that program teaches us that greed ultimately does not pay for anyone involved, for the victims, for those the fraudsters convince to become involved in their schemes, and for the fraudsters themselves. The message of “American Greed” is that everyone loses when they yield to temptation to get rich quick. Every day, all of us are tempted to sin for short-term gain leading to long term harm. If you yield to te...

ASH WEDNESDAY – YEAR C  February 10, 2016 7:00 PM  Saint Cecilia Catholic Community  Rev. David Justin Lynch  Joel 2:12-18 Psalm 51:3-6; 12-14;17  2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2 Matthew 6:1-6; 16-18   + In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN.       I am an extrovert. I enjoy meeting people and interacting with them. I am one of those individuals who is not scared of speaking or singing in front of a crowd. Ash Wednesday, Lent, and Holy Week is a challenge for people like me. The people who do those seasons of the year well are those who groove on inward contemplation, who live an intense interior life with a capacity to reflect on the things of the heart, that which is at the innermost core of our being. That is the part of us to which the prophet Joel, the Psalmist, Saint Paul, and the author of the Gospel according to Matthew are speaking today.       Returning to, and reco...

FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME February 07, 2016 Saint Cecilia Catholic Community Rev. David Justin Lynch Isaiah 6:1-2A; 3-8 Psalm 138:1-8 I Corinthians 15:3-8; 11 Luke 5:1-11 + In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN. [Sing] “Have it your way, have it your way.” You probably recognize that as the Burger King Song. When sung to people in America, it affirms that we live in a society that places a great emphasis on freedom and individuality. Burger King is using empathy with that sentiment to sell burgers. It is effective advertising, because the ability and opportunity to be what you want yourself to be is the holy grail of happiness that many people seek. In today’s America, when you get what you want, when you want it, and how you want it, you are said to be truly in heaven. Many people think the entire world should be one big Burger King where you can “have it your way” twenty-four seven. We see, hear, feel, taste, and smell that th...

FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME January 31, 2015 Saint Cecilia Catholic Community Rev. David Justin Lynch Jeremiah 1:4-5;17-19  Psalm 71:1-6;15-17 I Corinthians 13:4-13 Luke 4:21-30        + In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN.        Last week, we heard Jesus announcing his mission statement, proclaiming that God anointed Him to bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed. Like Jeremiah the prophet in the first reading, God called Jesus to carry out a mission. This week, we hear about how the people who heard Him reacted. The reaction, however, was quite unfavorable: they wanted to kill Jesus, just like the crowds several centuries earlier wanted to kill Jeremiah. As to both Jesus and Jeremiah, the crowd did not accept the mission of Jesus, nor did they wish to heed his words, the same way crowds trea...

THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME January 24, 2015 10:30 AM Saint Cecilia Catholic Community, Palm Springs, CA Rev. David Justin Lynch Nehemiah 8:2-4A;5-6;8-10 Psalm 19:8-10;15 1 Corinthians 12:12-14;27  Luke 1:1-4;4:14-21        + In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN.        One of the things the three Abrahamic faiths have in common is that we are peoples with books. The Jews have the Old Testament, Christians the new Testament, and Muslims the Quran. Every Sunday, we celebrate the Liturgy of the Word with four scripture readings, one from the Old Testament, one from the Book of Psalms, which is also part of the Old Testament, a second reading from the non-Gospel texts of the New Testament, and a Gospel Reading taken from Mark, Matthew, Luke, or John. Today’s readings invite us to meditate on the importance of scripture in our worship, to remind us of what we are, and wha...

FEAST OF BLESSED MARTIN LUTHER KING January 18, 2016 Saint Cecilia Catholic Community Rev. David Justin Lynch Genesis 37:14b-20 Psalm 77:12-21 Ephesians 6:10-20 Luke 6:27-36        + In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN.        I grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut during the nineteen fifties and sixties. When I was a very young boy, probably about five years of age, my mother and I were on the train to Boston, Massachusetts. Sitting next to us was a man with dark skin.  I asked my mother, “Why is his skin dark?” She explained to me that just like some people have brown eyes like I do, and others blue eyes like my sister, some people have light skin, and others have dark skin. That sounded like a pretty logical explanation to me.  A few years later, I had a friend named Vincent Powell who lived on the next street east of the one on which I lived. My mother and his moth...