Fr. Rick’s Two-Minute Homily for the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time

November 17, 2024, Matthew 13:24-32

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111724.cfm

https://www.dosp.org/courageouslyliving/

Bishop Parkes Call to Conversion

This past Sunday I was honored to administer the Sacrament of Confirmation to our young people and today I will administer this sacrament to four of our young people at (this) the 11:30 Mass.

Confirmation is not like graduation when you finish your studies and leave your school returning only occasionally, say for a reunion or an alumni event.

As Pope Francis says, Confirmation is not ‘the sacrament of goodbye!’ – goodbye to the Lord and to the Church, goodbye to the Mass and the sacraments.

Instead, I’m confident you’re thinking of Confirmation as ‘the sacrament of hello’– a new beginning and not an end, more like a commencement than a graduation.

After all, Confirmation perfects your Baptism, your initiation into the Church.

It is meant to make you fully a member of the Church, not a part-time member . . . .

That is Bishop Parke’s longing for all the people of our Diocese.

After listening to hundreds of people in our diocese at various meetings over our five counties, he is not looking to impose new burdens on our clergy and people, but rather to call all of us to conversion – to follow Christ more closely – and to seek new and creative ways of spreading the gospel.

It all begins with a thirst to place God first in all things.

This relates to the gospel we heard where Jesus talks about the destruction of the world as we know it.

Like any good friend, Jesus doesn’t want us to be caught by surprise.

Let us thank Jesus that our Bishop is offering us a real opportunity to let go of the old in us and welcome His new way of relating to Jesus and each other.

Please pray every day for this grace for all God’s people.

Pease visit Bishop Parkes
A CALL TO CONVERSION

2025 – 2029 Pastoral Plan