-You can't love God if you don't fill your mind with thoughts of Him; if you're not attentive to Him. You can't do it. -Fr. Brian -shema (Hebrew) — hear -(Deuteronomy 6:4-5) -The load-bearing wall of your life, is the love of God.... If you don't have that, if you take that wall out, it might stand for a little bit, but nothing else in the end will make sense. This is the centerpiece of everything—not just for Christians. The way that God created humanity, brothers and sisters, He made us so that this is the center of our existence. -Fr. Brian -He did not create you for a life of comfort, or a life of success, or a life of power, or a life where you did some great things. God created you to participate in this mysterious, beautiful, mystical word. This word we call love. And that's the reason you exist. -Fr. Brian -Real love means that I know how to sacrifice for you, it means that I choose you, even when it's difficult. Love is not just that feeling, it is something much more beautiful and something much deeper, it is something that lays claim to all of our existence. It is a love that is conformed to Jesus Christ. This is what our religion is about. Do you love God? -Fr. Brian -"But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days—oracle of the LORD. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people." (Jeremiah 31:33) -The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) -"You are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by all, shown to be a letter of Christ administered by us, written not in ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets that are hearts of flesh." (2 Corinthians 3:2-3) -In the Old Covenant, He taught us to love Him and to love our neighbor and He wrote it on tablets of stone. But what happened on Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, and Pentecost—Jesus, the love of God, is not something that is outside of me. It's not something that I have to look up in a book. It's not that I have to read the Catechism. Jesus, the day you gave your life to me, you wrote the law of love on my heart. You engraved it into my very flesh. And that's why you made me. -Fr. Brian -What it means to be a Christian is not to follow a moral code. It's not to know certain truths about God. It's to encounter a miracle. And the miracle of Christianity is that the God who created the heavens and the earth, is Him (Jesus). And that He loves you enough to do that (be crucified). -Fr. Brian -kardia (Greek) - heart

Our Lady Of Lourdes Podcast

31st Sun. of Ord. Time | The Load-bearing Wall | 10.31.2021 | Fr. Brian Larkin

Fr. Witold Kaczmarzyk preaches about the Gospel for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time on October 24, 2021. -- "The blind man replied to him, 'Master, I want to see.' Jesus told him, 'Go your way; your faith has saved you.' Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way." (Mark 10:51-52) -"He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus." (Mark 10:50) Holding on to this cloak was the key, that was everything he had. So actually throwing aside his cloak, he took a 100 percent risk to leave everything he had. -Fr. Witold -Each one of us has this kind of cloak in our lives, whatever it is. This cloak says that this was something that the blind man depended on. All his happiness was there. That's what each one of us has in our lives, this kind of self-sufficient, "I can do whatever I want," I'm holding onto something, I don't need God. -Fr. Witold -For each one of us, there is something—this kind of cloak that we hold onto—and we need to find it out and make a decision like the blind man. Take the risk, throw it aside, and just go to Jesus so he can do a Catholic LASIK in less than five seconds so you can see. -Fr. Witold -"Every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins." (Hebrews 5:1) -Be always honest with [Jesus]. He knows what's here. So call out like the blind man.... Talk to Him like a friend, like your brother, your sister, your spouse. Be honest, because if we are honest, He really helps. -Fr. Witold -Find out: What is your cloak? What is the thing that you think brings you happiness, and just make a decision that that is not the right thing. Jesus is the one who brings happiness, who can heal you, who brings your vision back so you can see the world. -Fr. Witold

30th Sun. of Ord. Time | Throw Aside Your Cloak | 10.14.2021 | Fr. Witold Kaczmarzyk

I am not your priest. Jesus is. And that's such good news.... You and I need to pray with this more. We have to drink deeply of the reality that we have a high priest that is the greatest priest imaginable. —Fr. Brian -"Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession." (Hebrews 4:14) -"Every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins." (Hebrews 5:1) -"Aaron shall offer the bull, his purification offering, to make atonement* for himself and for his household." (Leviticus 16:6) -The good news of the New Testament, and what Hebrews is all about, is that our sacrifice is not a bull or a goat. It's Jesus Himself. Whatever your sin is tonight, whatever you've done, whatever the brokenness is in your life, whatever that message is that Satan is whispering in your ear—when he tells you that your sin is too great, or that your heart is too corrupt—whatever that message is, your sacrifice is not a bull or a goat, my sacrifice is not a grain offering or a drink offering or a blood offering. Jesus, you are my offering. You are my sacrifice. You are the one atonement that won my forgiveness. Jesus, you are my priest. -Fr. Brian ​​​​Men are called to priesthood to sacrifice their life in union with Jesus Christ. -Fr. Brian -The Priest is Not His Own by Fulton Sheen -You are not called to be the type of Christian who says, 'Lord, I love you, I'll give you part of my time.' -Fr. Brian -'Through Him, with Him, and in Him,' all of us offer not just an external sacrifice, but we offer ourselves with our high priest. -Fr. Brian -"It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him." (Mark 1:9-10) -"Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom." (Mark 15:37-38) -"Jesus said to them, 'You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?'" (Mark 10:38) -The day you were baptized, you were united to the death of Jesus Christ. -Fr. Brian -"The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him." (Romans 8:16-17) -Do you want to be a good Christian? To be a Christian means to be united to the suffering of Jesus, because you love. When the Church loves that way, when you and I enter into true discipleship, when we follow Jesus in a way that says, 'Here's everything, Lord. Here's not ten percent, here's my whole life, I'll lay it down.' When you and I do that, people find God. —Fr Brian

29th Sunday of Ordinary Time | I Am Not Your Priest | Fr. Brian Larkin | 10.17.2021

Lord, I want your joy, your generosity and your freedom. That love that just emanates, it radiates from you. Jesus I want that life; Lord, do I want the lifestyle that goes hand-in-hand with the life you give? -Fr. Brian Larkin Readings for 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time "If you want to experience the life of Jesus, you have to adopt the lifestyle of Jesus." (John Mark Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry) "'Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?'" (Mark 10:17) Lord, I want your joy, your generosity and your freedom. That love that just emanates, it radiates from you. Jesus I want that life; Lord, do I want the lifestyle that goes hand-in-hand with the life you give? -Fr. Brian "I want that life. But then I think about the lifestyle behind it. While I was up watching The Man in the High Castle and drinking red wine until midnight (hypothetical scenario, I promise...), they ate celery and water for dinner and went to bed at 9 p.m..... The reality is, I want the life, but I'm not willing to adopt the lifestyle behind it." (John Mark Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry) He is the Son of God, that He is the creator of the universe, the Savior of the world.... But in the midst of that, one of the things that we miss is that Jesus also is a teacher. He is not simply a teacher, He is much more than that. But, brothers and sisters, our savior is also a teacher. And sometimes we forget that He has teachings for how you and I are supposed to live. -Fr. Brian About 25 percent of Jesus' teachings in the New Testament are about money. -(Matthew 6:1-2) "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be." (Matthew 6:19-21) "No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." (Matthew 6:24) "But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’" (Luke 12:20) "Those sown among thorns are another sort. They are the people who hear the word, but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word, and it bears no fruit." (Mark 4:18-19) If you and I are not intentional about our relationship to money, if you do not think about your money and think about the teachings of Jesus Christ around it, I promise you it will cause you anxiety. It will cause you to worship mammon, and it will lessen your relationship with God. It will cause you to be just like the rest of the world. -Fr. Brian We do not need more professionals. We do not need more people who know everything that is happening in the news. We don't need more politicians. Desperately today we need men and women who will offer up their lives for Jesus Christ in a radical way. -Fr. Brian Some of you are called like the rich young man today, Jesus is going to put His finger on your heart and he will say to you, "Go sell everything that you have, give it to the poor, and come follow me." Some of us are called to that. Most of you are not called to that form of it, but every single Christian is called to live according to the mind of Jesus in regard to wealth. -Fr. Brian pe'ah (Hebrew) - corner, edge, or border "When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not be so thorough that you reap the field to its very edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest." -(Leviticus 19:9-10) What are you doing with your corner? What are you doing with your pe'ah? -Fr. Brian

28th Sun. of Ord. Time | The Life, But Not The Lifestyle | 10.10.2021 | Fr. Brian Larkin

Fr. Sean Conroy preaches on the readings for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time on October 3, 2021. -"Then God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness." (Genesis 1:26) -"God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good." (Genesis 1:31) -"The LORD God said: It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suited to him." (Genesis 2:18) "The man gave names to all the tame animals, all the birds of the air, and all the wild animals; but none proved to be a helper suited to the man." (Genesis 2:20) -"So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The LORD God then built the rib that he had taken from the man into a woman. When he brought her to the man, the man said:“This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of man this one has been taken." (Genesis 2:21-23) -From the side of Adam is the birth of woman, just as from the side of Christ, from that rib, is the birth of the Church, where blood and water flowed forth from the cross. Just as God puts Adam in a deep sleep and does this amazing work to create woman, to create Eve out of him, so, too, sometimes God has to put us to sleep to work on us as well. -Fr. Sean -"That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body." (Genesis 2:24) -This happens before the Fall, the plan for marriage, that man and woman are called to cling to another. That two become one. The beauty of this: The symbol of marriage pointing ultimately to God and what He wants to do with us, that God wants to come into our hearts, come into our lives, and espouse Himself to each one of us. An image for the Church as well: Jesus the bridegroom, the Church His bride. This is why Jesus quotes this, the original plan for marriage. -Fr. Sean - (Mark 10:2-4) - (Mark 10:5-9) -The marriage covenant is an indissoluble bond, that binds a man and woman together, that cannot be separate, and Jesus teaches us that today. This is something that the Church has continuously taught. I want to make it clear though, that for those that are divorced, the Church loves them and reaches out to them, continuously calling them into God's love and mercy. But the Church will continue to invite those who are divorced and remarried, invite them deeper into the Church as well. -Fr. Sean -"In the house the disciples again questioned him about this. He said to them, 'Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.'” (Mark 10:10-12) -The house that Jesus is in with the apostles is a symbol for the Church. This homily is meant for those who are walking with Jesus, who have a prayer life. But maybe if you haven't been to church in awhile, this homily is not meant for you, but for those who are in that house, who are pursuing Jesus, who are in relationship with Him. -Fr. Sean -"It is a fundamental duty of the Church to reaffirm strongly, as the Synod Fathers did, the doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage. To all those who, in our times, consider it too difficult, or indeed impossible, to be bound to one person for the whole of life, and to those caught up in a culture that rejects the indissolubility of marriage and openly mocks the commitment of spouses to fidelity, it is necessary to reconfirm the good news of the definitive nature of that conjugal love that has in Christ its foundation and strength." (Pope St. John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio) -What does your conscience dread? What's burdening your conscience right now? Maybe there's places in your heart that need healing. Maybe it has to do with divorce, wounds of divorce, maybe it has to do with other things that are on your heart right now. What is Jesus inviting you to bring to Him today? -Fr. Sean

27th Sunday of Ordinary Time | The Original Plan For Marriage | 10.3.2021 | Fr. Sean Conroy

Fr. Brian Larkin preaches about the readings for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, particularly Mark 9:38-48, on September 26, 2021. -Jesus calls you and I not to be haphazard about our Christian life, but to be intentional in fighting against temptations to sin. -Fr. Brian -"If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna." (Mark 9:43) -You and I, we don't compromise with sin, we make war against sin.... We have to be intentional in the battle against sin. -Fr. Brian -"If I, who seem to be your right hand and am called a priest and seem to preach the Word of God, if I do something against the discipline of the Church and the rule of the Gospel so that I become a scandal to you, the Church, then may the whole Church in unanimous resolve cut me, its right hand, off and throw me away." (Origen) -We follow one God, we follow one Church, we do not follow people who veer too far off the track of what Jesus and His Church teaches....The Scriptures and the Church herself are the only things that have authority. -Fr. Brian -Fr. Brian's Challenge: Our Lady of Lourdes should be a sanctuary in the city. We will never build that unless we do it together.

26th Sun. of Ord. Time | Make War Against Sin | Sept. 26, 2021 | Fr. Brian Larkin

Fr. Brian Larkin preaches on the readings from the 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time on September 19, 2021. -"Taking a child he placed it in their midst." (Mark 9:36) -paidiá (Greek) — child, or servant -"Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, 'If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.'" (Mark 9:35) -The Gospel teaches that one human soul, one, is worth more than all the created universe. -Fr. Brian -The greatest Christian heresy of all of our history is called gnosticism. -Fr. Brian -Gnosticism is already being addressed in the New Testament: 1 Corinthians, 1 John -The reason gnosticism is so dangerous is because it has so much truth in it. But then it distorts it. -Fr. Brian -gnosis (Greek) — knowledge -Gnosticism is the belief that some kind of wisdom, knowledge or polished mysticism will save you.... The Gnostics couldn't handle the cross. -Fr. Brian -Christianity is not a collection of wisdom, it is not a moral law, it is not good advice. Christianity is good news. The good news is not that God has good advice for your life. The good news is that you were a slave, you had no hope and neither did I.... Until [the crucifixion] happened. -Fr. Brian -"The good news that Jesus announced, like the good news that his first followers announced about him, was not a piece of advice, however good. It was about something that had happened, about something that would happen as a result, and about the new moment between those two, the moment in which people were in fact living, whether they realized it or not.” -N.T. Wright in Simply Good News -The Bible is not simply wisdom for your life. The Gospel is the story of how the world was set free by the love of God. -Fr. Brian -The old world died on the cross. The old world that was captive to Satan, the world that was in rebellion against God. The day Jesus died on the cross, it wasn't me that did something, it was the day that Jesus changed all of history and all of eternity. -Fr. Brian -"But may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which* the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." (Galatians 6:14) -"A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” -H. Richard Niebuhr in The Kingdom of God in America -“The cross is the key to understanding reality in God’s new eschatological age. Consequently, to enter the symbolic world of the Gospel is to undergo a conversion of the imagination, to see all values transformed by the foolish and weak death of Jesus on the cross.” -Richard B. Hays

25th Sun. of Ord. Time | The Gospel Is Not Good Advice | 9.19.2021 | Fr. Brian Larkin

Fr. Witold Kaczmarzyk preaches on the Gospel for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time on September 12, 2021. "He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days." (Mark 8:31) "Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, 'Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.'" (Mark 8:32-33) "And he asked them, 'But who do you say that I am?' Peter said to him in reply, 'You are the Messiah.'” (Mark 8:29) Who is He for you? Not for the world, but for you. That question has to be answered by each one of us. -Fr. Witold ​You have to, each one of you, has to take up your own cross. Which is not easy. We don't like, as human beings, we don't like suffering. No one likes it. We always take painkillers.... St. Peter is trying to be a painkiller for Jesus. -Fr. Witold If you do not understand something, try not to be a St. Peter. Always trust and come to Him, because He knows the whole movie of your life.... The best way is to say, I believe you are in charge. You are the Messiah. You are God, my God. -Fr. Witold

24th Sun of Ord. Time | Do You Want to Leave? | 9.12.2021 | Fr. Witold Kaczmarzyk

Notes for Fr. Brian Larkin's homily on the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time on September 5, 2021 Paul Claudel, French poet + playwright (b. 1868 - d. 1955) -Many of the mistakes we make in life and the problems we have in life come when something is off and we don't perceive something correctly.... If you don't see straight, if you don't hear correctly, brothers and sisters, if your senses are off, you cannot live in the world as you should. -Fr. Brian Physical healings in the Bible are almost never just about physical healing. -Fr. Brian -"Make the heart of this people sluggish, dull their ears and close their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and their heart understand, and they turn and be healed." (Isaiah 6:10) -"And [immediately] the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly." (Mark 7:35) -"He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on him and asked, 'Do you see anything?'" (Mark 8:23) -If you do not think you are deaf or blind to the things of God, you are unbelievably naive. The saints tell us that if you saw Him for what He is, if you actually saw Him for who He really is, you would never be tempted to commit a sin again the rest of your life. His beauty, His truth, His goodness, His glory, would captivate your heart in such a way that you would wonder why you were ever tempted to do anything but spend your life being close to Him. But you and I are deaf and blind. -Fr. Brian -"What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of life..." (1John 1:1) -"Likewise, He willed in His compassion to do the very same for our interior senses. To make Himself available to their grasp and hold Himself in readiness for them. Not Thomas alone, but an innumerable host of the deaf and the blind exclaims 'As for me, say what you will, unless I touch Him I will not believe.'" -Paul Claudel -Mark 7, Mark 8 -"When he became aware of this he said to them, 'Why do you conclude that it is because you have no bread? Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear?'" (Mark 8:17-18) -If we just saw the beauty of Jesus Christ, He moves our hearts and it cures every one of our sins. Because Christianity is about love, brothers and sisters. And if we love and we walk on that way with Him, our hearts find healing. They find strength and they are converted. -Fr. Brian -"He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, 'Ephphatha!' (that is, 'Be opened!')" (Mark 7:33-34) -Are you walking with Jesus? Or do you just go to Mass on Sundays? You have to risk something. No one can follow Him, no one can be His disciple, not a single one of us. No one can be a true Christian unless we leave something behind, unless we risk something to follow after Him. -Fr. Brian -Charles Péguy, French poet (b. 1873 - d. 1914) -"Mine is no ordinary life. My life is a wager. At the deepest level there is a Catholic renaissance coming to fulfillment through me. I am a sinner, I am not a saint. You can recognize a saint at first glance. I am a good sinner. A witness. A Christian in the parish, a sinner, but one possessed of the treasures of His grace." -Charles Péguy

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Our Lady Of Lourdes Podcast

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