Because the recent apostolic exhortation is about the Joy of the Gospel, it stands to reason that the Holy Father would spend a significant amount of time and words about a subject we have all heard much about in the past; namely, preaching the homily during our Eucharistic celebration. No fewer than forty some paragraphs of the document are devoted to this topic.
At the beginning...
St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians is so important that we actually hear parts of that letter in all three cycles of the Sunday Lectionary for Mass. It is in this letter that we find St. Paul's famous description of the various gifts or charisms present in the Church by virtue of its many and diverse members. St. Paul prefaces that description with these words: There are different...
In all probability you have seen these little appliances that make it possible to reach things that are out of reach. I have several of them to assist my arthritic arms and hands reach things that are too high up or too far down. I actually have one in both my bedroom and in my office. I use them every day. Perhaps you are in the same situation.
In today's Gospel Jesus begins...
Beginning with paragraph 119 of Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis asks us all to consider our vocation as missionary disciples. Here he draws upon his knowledge of how others came to be evangelists as well as his own vocation. He makes the point that we must all not only preach the Gospel, we must be constantly evangelized by it.
The sad fact of the matter is that most Catholics today regard...
Paragraphs 115 through 118 of Evangelii Gaudium develop the notion that the Roman Catholic culture with which each of us identifies is tempered and affected by the culture into which we were born and matured. As our world has grown smaller through the various forms of communication and media that have been developed, the various cultures of our world have become better known. Most people...