The Emmaus Pastorate’s Podcast

Prayer for Ukraine

This evening, the St. Joseph Choir sang a special selection for the people of Ukraine.  We are very happy to share this bonus episode of The Emmaus Pastorate's Podcast with you this weekend, and we encourage you and your family to heed Pope Francis' request that we all fast and pray ever more this Ash Wednesday.  Mary, Queen of Peace, pray for us!

Selected music: Save Me, O God by Marty Haugen.  Reprint and broadcast permission granted under ONE LICENSE #A-626030.

Closing Prayer: Opening Collect for the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Roman Missal, Third Edition, ICEL.

Homily from 2-20-22

Loving thy neighbor isn't always easy.  In fact, it's downright hard sometimes!  But depending on what's in your wallet, that mission might actually be the easiest thing you do all day.  What's in your wallet?

Homily from 2-13-22

The Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick is an often misunderstood Sacrament of the Catholic Church.  Its propose is to provide hope, healing, and comfort to the living; it is not reserved solely for people near death.  People suffering chronic or serious illness and the aging are particularly invited to receive the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick early and often.  And, of course, those in danger of dying are encouraged to be anointed too.  This weekend, all parishes in the Emmaus Pastorate offered the Sacrament during weekend Masses.  In this episode, Fr. John Haugen tells us more about this repeatable Sacrament, and the St. Joseph Choir leads the assembly in sung prayer while he anoints.

 

Copyright acknowledgement: All Is Well with My Soul: Text: 11 8 11 9 with refrain. Verse 1 text, trad.; fr. It Is Well with My Soul; Horatio Gates Spafford, 1827-1888. Verses 2-4 text based on Psalm 62:2-3, 6-9; 63:5; Carey Landry. Music: Philip P. Bliss, 1838-1876. Music arr. and verses 2-4 text © 2008, 2010, Carey Landry. Published by OCP. All rights reserved. Broadcast under ONE LICENSE #A-626030.

Homily from 2-6-22

Today's culture is not what we'd call a "culture of vocation."  Usually, vocation stirs in us images of high virtue or someone super holy.  But actually, EACH of us has a vocation!  Even St. Paul, someone who persecuted early Christians had a vocation, and he became one of the most prolific writers in the Bible!  We all have a vocation, whether we think we're good enough or not.  Remember, God equips the called; he does not call the equipped!  How are you creating a "culture of vocation" in your home and community?

Homily from 1-30-22

Real love, biblical love, is always about others.  That's the message Jesus tried to convey in his hometown.  As the prophets before him demonstrated though, a prophet usually isn't accepted in his hometown.  The people listening grew angry and began to throw him out.  But despite their uproar, Jesus offered them nothing but love because "love never fails," says St. Paul.  People will know we are Christians by our love.  So fall in love, and stay in love.  It will decide everything!

Homily from 1-23-22

“Many gifts, same Spirit!” Saint Paul continues his teaching on our “connectedness” this week with a “spiritual anatomy” lesson. “As a body is one though it has many parts, so also Christ.” (1 Cor 12:12) There is no mistaking his message- we are different, but we are all called to be one! Unfortunately, if we applied this passage to our society today, the body would be pretty dismembered! There are many parts of our country, our Church, our families and our relationships who are making decisions about not belonging to the body. Leaving, withdrawing, divisiveness, personal justification due to opinion and wants, and the like, are all excuses. We seem to have forgotten the “us” and the “we” in favor of “me”! It is going to take some grace-filled healing for the Divine Physician to restore health and wholeness to this fractured and injured body of humanity. St. Paul exhorts us “Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it.” But he precedes that line with this sobering thought: “If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.” Whatever our differences we cannot deny that we share a common existence in Christ Jesus.

Homily from 1-16-22

All of us have gifts.  Those gifts are given to us at birth, and we all have them.  St. Paul tells us that everyone has particular gifts, meant for service to each other.  The trick is to find out what our own gifts are and how to use them.  When the day comes when we see Jesus face to face, he'll ask what we did for him with the gifts we were given.  What will your answer be?

Homily on 1-9-22

John must have been really surprised when he saw Jesus - the Son of God! - come into the Jordan River to be baptized.  Surely, Jesus was sinless and had no need of such a cleansing, right?!  But the Sacrament of Baptism is more than just washing away sin.  It's the moment in which a light is lit in the newborn Christian, a certain power is instilled in him or her.  That light has a chance to grow as time evolves and the same Christian comes to the Sacrament of Confirmation.  But don't be too quick to judge those who haven't received these Sacraments, because that same power can reside in any person - Jew or Gentile.  God has no partiality, and woe to us if we judge or chastise someone whose light might be a little dimmer than ours.

Homily from 1/2/2022

On the Solemnity of the Epiphany, we're reminded that the day isn't just about three kings, wise men, the gifts they offered a newborn baby boy, or the distance they traveled.  In fact, there might not have been three, and they probably weren't kings.  But that they came is the point.  That they followed the star, a revelation of divinity, is the purpose of this annual solemnity.  Epiphanies happen all the time, even if we aren't aware of them.  God reveals himself to every day really!  The challenge is to recognize their occurrence and be willing to be changed by them.  The wise men who followed a strange star allowed themselves to be transformed.  As we start a new year, will you allow yourself to be transformed by the same Light of the World?

Homily on the Feast of the Holy Family 2021

What is a family?  How is a family defined?  Deacon Paul Dolan, a husband and father, gives us several possibilities.  In the end though, the common denominator is simple: love.  The love between people defines family.  Not the overly dramatic love of Hollywood and romance, but the true charity and selfless giving sort of love that focuses not on our own desires but rather on the needs of others.  Ergo, ultimately everyone is included in God's family.  The question, then, for us is simple but ever so complicated: Do we consider everyone we encounter our family?