Sermons on Sacrament:

We Change

Contributed by Kevin Ruffcorn on Dec 14, 2009

Encountering God is a life changing experience. We are never the same.

Luke 3:7-18 “We Change” INTRODUCTION While walking through life, one of the interesting things to do is to observe fads. I’m not sure how they begin or end. All I know is that after the fad is over people always ask themselves, “Why did I do it?” and “What did I see in it?” Remember ...read more

Scripture: Luke 3:7-18

Denomination: Lutheran

The True Summit Of Our Vocation As Human Beings Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on May 7, 2011

Music must be in harmony with Logos, not an offbeat and disordered hymn to individualism.

Monday of 3rd Week of Easter Spirit of the Liturgy The Spirit that inflamed deacon Stephen is always at work in the Church. This spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, fills those who respond to the gift of faith, and makes us hungry for the Word of God, the Sacrament of the altar, and service to those ...read more

Scripture: Acts 6:8-15

Denomination: Catholic

Apostolic Succession, Persecution, And Joy Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on May 24, 2014

Thanks to the Church's magisterium, we know what Jesus taught, and we can rejoice, even amid persecution.

Thursday of the 6th Week of Easter EF: Ascension Day; OF: Easter Weekday Today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles gives us one of those rare and precious bits of information that helps us to date the journeys of Paul and his letters. And it does so in one of the most important of his ...read more

Scripture: John 16:16-20

Denomination: Catholic

God Does Want Humans To Be One In Mind And Heart Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Jun 13, 2014

Faith gives us a heightened respect for nature so that we "discern in it a grammar written by the hand of God." God's Fatherhood makes it possible for us to live together with one heart and one will.

Thursday of the 11th Week in Course 2014 Lumen Fidei Where did we get the idea that God is our Father? Surely the definitive statement of God’s fatherhood is in this prayer we learned from Jesus, the Son. Still, we didn’t fully know what a father is until Jesus came and established ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 6:7-15

Denomination: Catholic

The End And The Reward Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Nov 12, 2016

Paul is not focusing on sinful behavior we should avoid, but on exemplary behavior we should practice.

24th or Last Sunday of the Year 2016 Extraordinary Form The five hundred year period since the end of the Renaissance has been marked by two events we Catholics can realistically call religious catastrophes. The first, of course, was the Protestant revolution most agree was begun by Martin Luther ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 24:15-35

Denomination: Catholic

Squirming In The Lap Of The Trinity Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on May 28, 2020

When we are baptized into Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God, we take our place within the embrace of the Holy Spirit.

Psalm 131–a homily for today Today’s psalm, “O Lord, my heart is not proud,” is the kind of prayer-gem that can stimulate hours of meditation. If you pray it quickly, it takes less than a minute, even with a “Glory be. . .” But let’s start with the declaration to God right in the middle: “Like a ...read more

Scripture: James 2:2-3, John 17:20-26

Denomination: Catholic

Lord, Wouldn't This Be A Great Time For You To Return? Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on May 30, 2020

But when that trumpet blows and the game of life is complete, Christ’s forbearance is done, and those who have been procrastinating in their conversion will be lost.

Pentecost Tuesday 2020 You may have noticed that we reached back into Peter’s second letter to the passage coming right before the one prescribed for today, to grab some context that was lost when we celebrated the Feast of Mary, Mother of the Church, yesterday. The Church has been waiting for the ...read more

Scripture: 1 Peter 3:8-18, Psalm 90:2-16, Mark 12:13-17

Denomination: Catholic

Witnessing To The Culture Of Death Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Mar 7, 2020

We must work and pray, as St. Benedict told us to do. Work for the spread of the kingdom in our families and communities, and vote as a Christian must, for godly men and women who will resist the culture of death and legislate for life, peace, and goodness.

Tuesday of the 2nd Week in Lent 2020 For our first reading today, I have chosen to begin earlier in the first chapter of Isaiah than the Lectionary suggests, and to add the verses the Lectionary omits. The Lenten readings take a great deal of the very long prophecies of Isaiah, but they omit ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 1:10-20, Matthew 23:1-12

Denomination: Catholic

Keep Salt In Yourselves

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Jan 10, 2020

5th Sunday, Year A, Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The late Pentecostal preacher David du Plessis was once approached by a Christian who complained that people don’t seem thirsty for the Lord these days. Without missing a beat, du Plessis replied, “It’s not that they are not thirsty enough. It’s that we are not salty enough!” Since moisture ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 58:7-10, Matthew 5:13-16

Denomination: Catholic

The Gospel Succeeds Even In An Age Of Fecklessness Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Jan 11, 2020

We need to continue on the path we were set on by Jesus long ago–the path to holiness. That means giving up everything of this world that keeps us from imaging Jesus and Mary.

Tuesday of the First Week in Course 2020 Saint Mark gets right to the point, just like the high priest Eli. But Saint Mark gets the whole picture, and Eli does not. Mark’s Gospel is designed to demonstrate to his Roman audience–and us–that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and Messiah. Look how few ...read more

Scripture: 1 Samuel 2:1-8, 1 Samuel 1:9-20, Mark 1:21-28

Denomination: Catholic

Canonized Or Not, All Are Called To Be Saints Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Sep 7, 2019

The slavery to sin that we all labor under for some part of our lives is destroyed by the infinite loving power of Christ.

Tuesday of 23rd week in course 2019 St. Agnes Tsao-Kou Ying We don’t become disciples of Jesus Christ on our own volition. We must be called to follow Christ. Some teachers have misunderstood this to mean that some are called and others are not called, and therefore are damned to perdition by ...read more

Scripture: Colossians 2:6-15, Luke 6:12-19

Denomination: Catholic

The Gift Of Mary, Mother Of The Church

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Jun 10, 2019

By the grace of Christ won on the cross, we are sinners on our way to becoming saints.

Monday of Pentecost Week 2019 Feast of Mary, Mother of the Church Whatever utopian vision human beings must embrace–whether fascism, Marxism, socialism or any other “ism”–that vision and every other one collapses when faced with the reality of sin. Today, on the feast of Mary, Mother of the ...read more

Scripture: John 19:25-34, Genesis 3:9-20

Denomination: Catholic

Restless Hearts Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Feb 24, 2019

The active atheist's life is not only meaningless,. . . but tragic in the worst sense, because, absent a miracle, he turned his back on a free offer of eternal joy.

Seventh Sunday in Course 2019 For the Catholic Students Group Today our Office readings begin a series from the book of Ecclesiastes, or Qoheleth, which means “the Teacher.” It is one of the best-known of the Wisdom books of the OT, purportedly written by King Solomon, who, at least in his youth, ...read more

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 1:1-18, 1 Corinthians 15:45-49, Psalm 103:1-13

Denomination: Catholic

Blessed Are The Poor In Spirit As Applied To Prayer

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Oct 23, 2017

Poverty of soul is a way of entering in prayer, especially at the outset of when we begin to pray.

Poverty of soul is a way of entering in prayer, especially at the outset. Poverty of soul cannot be sought as an item of self-knowledge. It retains always an unknown, elusive quality. It cannot be simply a thought of our unworthiness before God. Much less can it be a mood of despondency about ...read more

Denomination: Catholic

Homilies And The Joy Of The Gospel Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Jul 11, 2015

"The homily takes up once more the dialogue which the Lord has already established with his people. "

Thursday of 15th week in course 2015 Joy of the Gospel Today we see Moses, who you remember fled from Egypt after killing an Egyptian oppressor, being called by God to go and preach to Pharaoh. The message: let all your slaves go into the desert. Let them abandon their jobs for a week or two, ...read more

Scripture: Exodus 3:13-20

Denomination: Catholic