Ever wondered if there’s any real meaning to the Catholic faith?\u00a0 Why do we bother going to Church every Sunday?\u00a0 I used to ask these questions too.\u00a0 Listen to my homily above from this past Sunday and get a taste about why there’s so much more to our faith and to the Mass than the world sees.<\/p>\n
\nAnd now, O Israel, give heed to the statutes and the ordinances which I teach you, and do them; that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, gives you.\u00a0<\/span>You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it; that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.\u00a0 <\/span>Keep them and do them; for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, `Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ <\/span>For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? <\/span>And what great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day?<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nResponsorial Psalm: Psalms 15:2-5<\/h3>\n
\n\n\n\nHe who walks blamelessly, and does what is right, and speaks truth from his heart; <\/span><\/div>\nwho does not slander with his tongue, and does no evil to his friend, nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor;\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\nin whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; who swears to his own hurt and does not change; <\/span><\/div>\nwho does not put out his money at interest, and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nSecond Reading: James 1:17-18, 21-22, 27<\/h3>\n
\n\n\n\nEvery good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.\u00a0<\/span>Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.\u00a0<\/span>Therefore put away all filthiness and rank growth of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.\u00a0<\/span>But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.\u00a0<\/span>Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nGospel: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23<\/h3>\n
\n\n\n\nNow when the Pharisees gathered together to him, with some of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem,\u00a0<\/span>they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands defiled, that is, unwashed.\u00a0<\/span>(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, observing the tradition of the elders;\u00a0<\/span>and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they purify themselves; and there are many other traditions which they observe, the washing of cups and pots and vessels of bronze.)\u00a0<\/span>And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with hands defiled?”\u00a0<\/span>And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, `This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;\u00a0<\/span>in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ <\/span>You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men.”\u00a0<\/span>And he called the people to him again, and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand:\u00a0<\/span>there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him.\u00a0<\/span>For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, <\/span>coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.\u00a0<\/span>All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man” <\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ever wondered if there’s any real meaning to the Catholic faith?\u00a0 Why do we bother going to Church every Sunday?\u00a0 I used to ask these questions too.\u00a0 Listen to my homily above from this...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"audio","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,35,33,34],"tags":[37,40,39,41,38],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-audio","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-audio","category-homily","category-liturgy","category-mass","tag-homily","tag-liturgy","tag-mass","tag-meaning","tag-sunday","post_format-post-format-audio"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/frsteve.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/holy-trinity-church-fresco.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6LeDY-1N","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/frsteve.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/frsteve.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/frsteve.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frsteve.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frsteve.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/frsteve.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117,"href":"https:\/\/frsteve.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions\/117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frsteve.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/frsteve.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frsteve.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frsteve.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}