Sermons on Maundy Thursday Reflections:

Sight And Hearing; Faith Knowledge And Love Knowledge

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Jan 2, 2014

People need to hear the word of God and to see a vision of His plan in order to nurture both faith and love in their hearts, and to bring Christians together.

Thursday of First Week in Course 2014 Lumen Fidei Everyone who loves the parent loves the child, so we can’t say we love God and avoid loving our neighbor. We are all children of God, so we must love one another. In fact, one of the main reasons we come to hear the word and share the Body ...read more

Scripture: Luke 4:18-22

Denomination: Catholic

Seeing And Hearing In Order To Live Christ's Life

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Jan 11, 2014

We cannot make Jesus into the Messiah we want; we must see His vision and hear His word so that His kingdom can be built within us, and we then can attract others to Him.

Thursday of 2nd Week in Ordinary Time Lumen Fidei Why are we so unwilling to do what Our Lord commands? The Israelites were directed by God to be His presence in a pagan world, spreading the word about His power and goodness, and ultimately drawing all to worship the One God. But if you look ...read more

Scripture: Mark 1:40-45

Denomination: Catholic

Faith: Touching And Being Touched By Jesus

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Jan 18, 2014

"the light of love is born when our hearts are touched and we open ourselves to the interior presence of the beloved"

Thursday of 2nd Week in Ordinary Time 2014 Lumen Fidei King Saul of Israel exhibited what we might call paranoid schizophrenic tendencies. He had an on-off relationship with his son, Jonathan, and the same kind of relationship, but even more intense, with the man he considered his main rival, ...read more

Scripture: Mark 3:7-12

Denomination: Catholic

Can We Refuse To See Our Brothers And Sisters? Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Jan 3, 2015

We cannot love God if we refuse to work for the betterment and evangelization of the poor.

Thursday after Epiphany 2015 Joy of the Gospel St. John’s letter is pretty stark today: “If any one says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” Our love for our brothers ...read more

Denomination: Catholic

Evil Embedded In The Structures Of Society Leads To Death Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Jan 17, 2015

The sacrifice of Christ needs to be imitated by the Christian, by loving service and working to put down evil.

Thursday of 2nd Week in Course Joy of the Gospel There is an innate drive in every human, once he has discovered the existence of a transcendent reality, a creative Being who can impact his life, to offer something to that Being. In pagan societies, where the forces of nature, or economics, or ...read more

Denomination: Catholic

Evangelization--Sacred Vs Secular Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Jan 31, 2015

The pope encourages us to understand that non-Western cultures are suspicious of Christian evangelization because they confuse it with the spread of secularism and the culture of death.

Thursday of the 4th Week in Course 2015 Light of the Gospel St. Mark’s Gospel is rarely verbose. He always tells the story of Jesus using an economy of words, perhaps because the Church of Rome was too poor to supply him much in the way of writing supplies, or because it was often ...read more

Scripture: Mark 6:7-13

Denomination: Catholic

Secularism And The Fight For The Family Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Feb 7, 2015

The information-driven society is one that tries to secularize and pervert the human family into something it can never become.

Thursday of 5th week in Course 2015 Joy of the Gospel Jesus has such a sense of humor that some commentators have mistaken it for cruelty. Of course, Jesus never sinned, so thinking this comment about throwing the bread to the dogs is a real insult is wrongheaded thinking. In reality, Jesus was ...read more

Scripture: Mark 7:24-30

Denomination: Catholic

That They All Be One Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Mar 31, 2017

Our witness must be positive–we hold fast to what we know is true, and treat those who don’t share those views with charity and patience.

Thursday of fifth week in Lent 2017 Joy of the Gospel Today we look at the person and commitment of Abraham, whom the Liturgy calls “our father in faith.” Genesis records the fundamental promise that the Jews–and Christians–hold dear. And it’s not the land of Canaan, or Palestine, over which ...read more

Scripture: Genesis 17:3-9

Denomination: Catholic

"Great Offers On Beer And Cider. Good Friday Just Got Better” Series

Contributed by Fr Mund Cargill Thompson on Apr 13, 2017

Why a crass 2017 advert from Tesco may be wrong but can help us understand what is really Good about Good Friday. (a short sermon for an outdoor service)

“Great offers on Beer and Cider. Good Friday just got better” That if you have not seen it is the advertisment that Tesco have been tweeting all over the internet “Great offers on Beer and Cider. Good Friday just got better” Now I’m an Anglo-Catholic. We do partying Heck I even run a biblestudy ...read more

Scripture: John 3:16

Denomination: Anglican

We Are A People Of God Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Jun 16, 2017

"To be evangelizers of souls, we need to develop a spiritual taste for being close to people’s lives."

Thursday of 4th Week in Course 2017 Joy of the Gospel This is a solemnity, one of the three or four greatest saints festivals of the year, and it comes on the heels every year of the solemnities of Corpus Christi and the Sacred Heart, and the birth of St. John the Baptist. Today we hear from St. ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 16:13-19

Denomination: Catholic

The Social Dimension Of Evangelism Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Oct 21, 2016

"the service of charity is also a constituent element of the Church’s mission and an indispensable expression of her very being."

Thursday of the 29th Week in Course 2016 Joy of the Gospel Why did Herod and the Pharisees hate Jesus so much that they endeavored to kill Him, and not only once? And why ultimately did Jesus lay this curse on Jerusalem, or, rather, turn their curse on themselves, so that in 67 AD the Jews ...read more

Scripture: Luke 13:31-35

Denomination: Catholic

Gather Up All Things In Christ Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Oct 28, 2016

We generate history, not by politics and war, but by service to the poor and helpless.

Thursday of the 30th Week in Course 2016 Joy of the Gospel Every time we turn a page in the New Testament, we are–if we are sensitive–struck by how counter-intuitive the Christian message is. Consider St. Paul’s life. He was, by his own account, a super-Jew. He observed every ...read more

Scripture: Philippians 3:3-8

Denomination: Catholic

Instruments Of Liberation Of The Poor Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Nov 11, 2016

it means working to eliminate the structural causes of poverty and to promote the integral development of the poor, as well as small daily acts of solidarity in meeting the real needs which we encounter.

Thursday of the 32nd Week in Course 2016 Joy of the Gospel As we move into the last Sunday and last week of the liturgical year, we continue to be challenged by Jesus to follow Him all the way to death. We know not what that end shall be, except that He has promised to be with us. We live for the ...read more

Scripture: Mark 6:36-37

Denomination: Catholic

How Much Must We Do? Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Dec 30, 2016

It’s ironic that when dealing with these positive commandments, we don’t ever come to a point when we can say, “I have fulfilled them.”

Thursday before Epiphany 2017 Joy of the Gospel St. John teaches us today in both Epistle and Gospel: “By this we know love, that [Jesus] laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But if any one has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet ...read more

Scripture: 1 John 3:11-21

Denomination: Catholic

Writing Straight With Crooked Lines Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Dec 9, 2017

In the midst of the Reformation, God weaves a tapestry of faith in the lives of weak human beings.

Thursday of the 2nd Week in Advent 2017 Reformation/Revolution When external situations are the bleakest, God acts to fulfill His promises to His people–first in the history of the Jews, and now in the age of the Church. The second and third parts of Isaiah were probably written by his followers ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 41:13-20

Denomination: Catholic