Mission Sunday

World Mission Sunday 

Good evening/morning every one. I am so happy to welcome you all for today's Holy Mass. Our special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and every one here today. Friends in Christ our Lord, let us thank God almighty for bringing us all here to this beautiful church of St. Jean de Brebeauf/St. Paul the Apostle Church. Let us thank God for sending His only Son our Lord Jesus Christ to be with us for ever and let us thank Him for showering upon us His countless blessings each and every day, 

Now let us take a moment to prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries of our Lord Jesus Christ calling to mind our sins, short-comings, failures, pain and sufferings asking divine assistance and Christ's  our Lord's forgiveness, mercy and compassion. 

Good evening everyone, our special welcome to all our visitors today. 

After animal blessings, someone asked me...O Father, will dogs go to heaven? Not only dogs, so are the fleas. 

Once a missionary went to a distant land to preach the Good News of Christ our Lord. While he was walking with the guide, he asked about the people, culture, food and so on. And at one point, the missionary priest looked at the guide and said, "What about cannibals? Do you have cannibals in the community?' The guide laughed and laughed and said, "O Father, we do not have any cannibal because the last one we ate him yesterday". 

Today our Holy Catholic Church celebrates 'Mission Sunday'. Today we in a special way, pray for all our missionary priests and people who dedicate their lives to promote justice and peace and who preach the good news of Christ our Lord namely love and forgiveness to all. 

We are by the very nature of the sacrament of Baptism are called to become missionaries at home and missionaries abroad.  

There is a non-canonical story of our Lord Jesus Christ that after His ascension...the angels met with Him and looking at his feet and hands, they said, you suffered a lot to bring love and forgiveness among people and Lord, who is going to preach your mercy, compassion and love now? Jesus said, "My followers because I asked them to go everywhere to preach the good news. What would happen after they die? Do you have any other plan? Jesus said, "My only plan is after my apostles, my disciples, people who were baptized will carry on the message". Yes, we are His plan. We are called to bring the Good News of love and forgiveness to all.  

In the Old Testament time, people did not go out to preach the message of God. They spread the message of God within the community but in the New Testament time and after His glorious Ascension, we are called to go everywhere to preach the Good tidings. 

Once a man came to a spiritual master and offered him two gold coins and said, "Master, I would like to be a missionary and thus go everywhere and preach the good news and what should I do? The master without answering the man picked up one of the gold coins and threw it in the river.  

The man right away jumped in the water looking for the gold coin and upon not finding it asked the master, where did you throw my gold coin?  For that the master took another gold coin and threw it in the water and said, "Right there". Then the master with compassion looked at the man and said, "Son, if you want to be a missionary, you should know how to unbind yourself from material things and hold on to Christ the way. 

Every time Christ our Lord sent His Apostles on mission to preach the Good News, He clearly told them not to take anything with them. As they went, the power of Christ was with them. They preached the message of Christ according to their needs and gospel helped people to look at their culture, custom and traditions differently. 

Once I went to visit a priest friend in Manitouwadge near Thunder Bay and he said that in his mission Church as he was doing a funeral Mass, right after homily...everyone of  them left the church and he didn't know what was going on. They all came in after ten minutes and thus he finished the Mass. Afterwards he asked one of the parishioners why people left right after homily. Do you know what he said? "O Father, this is our tradition. Right after homily, we always go out for ten minutes smoke-break. 

As St. Paul went to different communities to preach the Good News, so many people tried to stop him and so many went against him because they were so afraid to change. They were people who like the Pharisee in today's gospel standing in front of the temple and screaming and proclaiming their righteousness. But Christ's Good News invites us to be like the sinner humbling ourselves before God and others. St.  Paul in order to preach the Good News not 30 thousand kilometers but 30 thousand miles walked. He was given the power and stamina by Christ our Lord. And we all know how St. Jean de Brebeuf did the mission work in Canada. 

Once there was a fight between two African tribes in Niger and a man from one tribe killed his neighbor who belonged to another tribe. When the tribe won, they wanted to take revenge of the killer and they called the  wife who witnessed her husband's death and asked her to point out the killer but she refused saying , "The missionaries who were here taught us how to forgive and accept others like Christ". Once Gandhi said, "Eye for an eye makes the whole world blind". 

Even today there are so many priests, nuns and lay people are going to different countries to preach the good news of Christ our Lord. They build schools and hospitals; they build churches and orphanages. They are doing wonderful job in the name of Christ our Lord. And let us remember them all and pray that God may continue to bless them.  

Today we are also called to become missionaries. We are called to preach the Good News to all. Yes, it's our duty to tell them all about God's love and Christ's forgiveness. Let us preach the Good News and as St. Francis of Assisi says, "Let us preach the Good News to all and if it's necessary, let us use words.... yes let our life preach to the them all the unconditional love and unlimited forgiveness of Christ. Amen.

Persistent Widow

29th Sunday-Persistent Widow 

Good morning/evening every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today's Holy Mass. Our special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and every one here today. Let's thank God almighty for bringing us all here to this beautiful Church of St. Paul the Apostles. Let's thank Him for sending His only Son our Lord Jesus Christ to be with us for ever and let's us thank Him for showering upon us His countless blessings each and every day. 

Now let us take a moment to prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries of our Lord Jesus Christ, calling to mind our sins, weakness, failure, pain and sufferings, asking divine assistance and Christ our Lord's mercy, compassion and forgiveness. 

Once a little boy asked his mother, "Mom, where did people come from?"  

Mom said, "God created Adam and Eve and they had children and thus mankind was made". 

Few days later, the boy asked the same question to his dad. 

The dad said, "You know what many years ago, there were monkeys and which human race evolved from". 

The boy was so confused and said to the mother, "Mom, you said...God created us and dad says that we came from monkeys". 

The mom said, "It is very simple son, I told you about my side of the family and he told you about his". 

In today's gospel, we come to know three important characters that help us to be with God and receive His countless blessings namely patience, persistence and perseverance in prayer. 

1. Like the old poor widow who had so much patience, going to the unjust judge and looking for justice. Though he did not recognize her in the beginning she was so patient and was keep going to Him. 

There an old Jewish traditional story that goes like this. One day as Abraham was sitting outside of his tent, he saw an old man coming toward him tired and hungry and was shivering in the cold. Abraham right away invited him into his tent and washed his feet and served his delicious food. As the man was eating, he noticed that he did not say his prayer of blessing to God and even while eating, he began to curse and blame God. Abraham the father of faith who immediately obeyed the will of God, got so mad and threw him out in the cold dark night. That night God appeared to Abraham and said, "Abraham...Abraham...where is the old man came to your house? Where is the old man who did not any place to go and was hungry? Abraham said, "God...he talked against you and I threw him out". Then God looked at him and said, "Son, I put up with him, I accepted his curse and blames for eighty-five years and how come you could not accept him for a night and how come you did not be patient with him?" 

And unless a person has so much patient, they say that he can not be a bamboo tree grower. After sowing the bamboo seeds, a person has to wait and wait for not one or two but four to five years and on the fifth year, it begin to grow so fast. Even in a day...it will grow one foot tall. But to see the gigantic growth, the farmers have to wait patiently for many years. 

Yes, as we pray to God and we have to be patient and wait. God knows how to give good things to us. Great things will happen to those who patiently wait. 

1. In today's gospel we see how the poor old lady kept going to the judge. She was so persistent and never gave up. At one point, the judge himself began to say, "I neither fear God or people and yet this old lady keep bothering me and I will grant her justice so that she will not wear me out by continuously coming". 

There is a story about King Robert the Bruce of Scotland. After he was badly defeated in battle, was hiding in a cave thinking of give up. That time he noticed a spider how it was carefully and painfully making its way up a slender thread to its web. The king watched as it made several unsuccessful attempt and how it finally made its way to the web. That inspired him so much and got courage and persistent and he finally won the battle.  when everything else tells you to quit and if you still keep going that is called persistence. 

It is easy to give up. We should know that our ways and doings are not His. God does everything in His own time. All we have to do praying. As St. Paul says, we have to pray without ceasing. 

3. Perseverance: 

Theologically perseverance means continuance in a state of grace to the end. 

I remember an elementary school story of the crow and the pitcher. The crow that was dying of thirst and it finally saw a pitcher with water at the bottom. In order to get that water, with perseverance, the crow took a pebble and dropped into the pitcher. One after another, it dropped  so many pebbles into the pitcher and finally the water mounted up near him and the rest of history. 

Conclusion: 

Every time we talk about persistence, patience and perseverance in prayer, we right away think about the mother of St. Augustine, St. Monica or St. Mother Teresa and so many saints. When we pray without ceasing like St. Paul or St. Jean de Brebeuf we too like receive the highest gifts of all. Yes, God himself will come to us. Amen.

Thanksgiving Sunday

Thanksgiving Celebration 

Good morning/evening every one. I am so happy to welcome you all for today's Holy Mass. Our special welcome to all our parishioners, summer parishioner, visitors and every one here today. Friends in Christ, let us thank God almighty for bringing us all here to this beautiful church of St. Paul's church and let us thank Him for sending His only Son Christ to be with us for ever and let us thank Him for showering upon us His countless blessings each and every day. 

Let's now take a moment to prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries of our Lord Jesus Christ calling to mind our sins, short comings, pain and suffering and divine assistance and Christ our Lord's forgiveness, mercy and compassion. 

Once an elderly man from Toronto called one of his children in Calgary and said, "Son, I am so sorry to ruin your day but I have to tell you that your mother and I am divorcing; forty-five years of misery is over now. The son was not happy at all and said, "Dad, what are you talking about. Please do not do anything". Then the son called his sister in Halifax and explained the situation. Then the sister called the dad and said, "Dad, please do not do anything until we come home. Let us talk. We will talk to mom and please do not move out". The old man hung up the phone and looked at his wife and said, " Honey, our children are coming home for thanksgiving. Now what do we tell them for Christmas?" 

As we are celebrating thanksgiving, let us thank God for making us in His own image and likeness. It's because of Christ our Lord, we live, move and have our being. He by dying on the cross destroyed our death and by rising, restored our life. As we put our complete trust in Him, we will be given life that will never end. 

Once one a man said to his friend, "I will never take my wife for turkey hunt again" Why?...asked the friend. "It is because she did everything wrong. She talked a lot and was so nervous and used wrong luring whistles and worst of all, she shot more turkeys than me. 

In today's gospel, ten lepers who were considered unclean, came to the Lord saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us". Christ the compassionate one who never says, "NO' to anyone, immediately asks them to go and show themselves to the priests. It's because those religious leaders were the one who examined and sent them away from the community saying, "They have leprosy and unfit to live in society". Now they are going to the priests to tell them that they are healed and are fit to live with others. 

As the lepers approached Christ with faith, they were already healed. They strongly believed that Christ is the healer and Messiah. Yes, When we put our complete trust in Christ, everything will be given to us. Nothing is impossible with our loving Jesus.  

Though all the ten were made clean, only one came back to the Lord and knelt before Him and thanked and Christ said, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well".  

Scottish minister Alexander Whyte was known for his uplifting prayers. He always found some way to thank God. One Sunday morning, the weather was so gloomy that one church member thought to himself, "Certainly the preacher won't think of anything for which to thank the Lord. It is a very bad day" But much to his surprise, the minister began by praying, "We thank you Lord, O God, that every day is not always like today" 

We are like that Samaritan are  here today to thank the Lord our God. Though many were baptized and though many are called in a special way to follow the Lord and though many are blessing, not everyone is here to thank the Lord but we are here. Coming to Church itself shows that we are grateful and we thank the Lord our Lord. 

Ups and downs are part of life. Though we are so thankful and glorify God, sometimes we have to go through some challenges but we should not give up. If we put our trust in Him, we will see the way to move on.  

Once a man came to a Rabbi and said, "Rabbi, I don't have anything to thank for... know how to live in a small house. We are nine of us living in the same house and I can not afford to buy a big one either. Life is so miserable and what should I do?  

The Rabbi said, "Take your goat into the house with you". The farmer said, "What...I said, we are already nine of us living in a small house and you say that I should take my goat into the house". The rabbi again said, "yes, take your goat into the house and keep it for a week and then come and see me" Thus the man comes in a week and says, "The goat is so filthy and smells and we can't stand it. Please do something". Now the rabbi said, "Let the goat out and come back in a week". The man returned to the rabbi a week later and said, "rabbi...though we are nine in a small house, we are so happy now. The goat is not with us anymore. Life is beautiful and I have something to thank for..." 

Yes, let us thank Christ for our lives and what we have. We will always find something to thank for. Christ is with us and as we thank Him, He will fill us with happiness and joy. Amen.