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Anchored In The Lord

Weekly homilies of Father David Neuschwander
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Anchored In The Lord
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Now displaying: 2018
Jun 24, 2018

Nativity of John the Baptist

This weekend we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist.  John was a crucial figure, bridging the gap between the Old and New Testaments and preparing people for the coming of the Lord.  He spent most of his life in quiet preparation in the desert, and even though his role was crucial when he stepped out of the desert and into the spotlight, his time "on stage" was very short.  Maybe in your life you don't feel like you're on the front lines; maybe parts of your life seem un-amazing and un-eventful; maybe you don't feel like God is using you often for a special purpose.  Perhaps, like John, this is your time in the desert, when God is preparing you for the time when He wants you to step on stage and play a crucial role in the life of someone else.

Jun 17, 2018

11th Sunday in Ordinary Time

God has a way of taking something small and making it big.  We see it in the parable of the shoot from a great cedar in our first reading, in the parable of the mustard seed from our Gospel, in the Church that Jesus established which has grown across the world over 2,000 years, and even in our own growth: from a one-celled organism in your Mama's belly to the 49 trillion-celled person you are today. God has a way of taking something small and making it big.  He wants to do this with your faith as well!  No matter how small you think your faith might be, give it to the Lord this day/this summer, place it on that altar at Mass, and He will make it bigger - it's just what He does!

Jun 10, 2018

10th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The first book in our Bible, the book of Genesis, begins with two different creation stories...two DIFFERENT creation stories!  What does it mean?  What do they mean? Could they have something to say about who we are, what our relationship to God is, and why there is evil, pain and suffering in the world as we know it?  Listen to hear more!

May 27, 2018

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Somethings we experience in life are beyond description - words can't reach as deep or as high as the reality.  Love is a good example.  We can use all different kinds of images and words and phrases to try and describe it, but in the end it's something indescribable with words - the experience and reality of love is deeper and truer than any words can express.  In the Trinity, we bump up against another reality (or is it actually the same reality?) that words will always fail to describe.  Words might fail, but we can live in and experience the reality of the Trinity in our lives if we are willing.

May 20, 2018

Pentecost

The coming of the Holy Spirit CHANGED the first followers of Jesus.  We received the Holy Spirit in baptism, we were sealed by the Holy Spirit in Confirmation, we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus at every Mass...but how much are we CHANGED by these experiences?  Do you ever feel like you're in a spiritual rut?  Do you ever long for more in your faith but just not know why you aren't getting it?  If that's ever been you, listen to this homily, and most importantly - remember to breathe (spiritually)!

May 13, 2018

Ascension Sunday

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers!  This weekend we celebrate Jesus' Ascension into heaven - that after rising from the dead and appearing to His disciples for a number of days, Jesus ascends to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father.  The ascension is not a one-and-done event, though.  We are the Body of Christ still present on this earth, so His ascension is still happening in us.  As we follow Jesus, as we run faster and jump higher, as we overcome the obstacles of life and refuse to give up in our pursuit of a more meaningful relationship with God, we also ascend!

 

May 6, 2018

6th Sunday of Easter

Love requires both intention AND action: a good action without good intention is not love; the best intention without action is not love.    Our readings today challenge us to love if we are to remain in God.  But how can we remain in love all day long in the midst of our many different obligations and mundane duties?  The good news is that every daily, ordinary action we do can be transformed into an act of love when we attach it to a good intention by offering it up with a short prayer!  In our faith life, too, love is intention AND action.  Intending to love God isn't enough: we actually have to act on it!

Apr 29, 2018

5th Sunday of Easter

All day, every day, we are making decisions.  Ultimately, what we do and don't do, how we respond or don't respond to different people and situations, is our decision.  I believe everyone WANTS to be a good person: a good mother or father, husband or wife, family member, friend, worker and coworker...but it's our daily decisions (regardless of what we say we want to be) that determine whether we actually ARE any of those things.  In the Gospel today Jesus challenges us to remain in Him always.  God never stops being with us, but we often, on account of our many obligations and pressures and duties, choose not to remain in Him.  But those things are only excuses, because our decisions are entirely ours.  What will I decide to do this week to remain in God just a little bit longer each day?

Apr 22, 2018

4th Sunday of Easter

Peter says in our 1st reading today, speaking about Jesus Christ, "There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved."  If salvation is only in Jesus, then who can be saved?  Can non-Catholics go to heaven?  Can Hindus or Buddhists or Muslims go to heaven? And what part do we have to play in it?  Listen and find out!

Apr 14, 2018

3rd Sunday of Easter

When Jesus appears today to His disciples and says, "Peace be with you," they at first think it might be a ghost.  Ghosts and the supernatural are not talked about very much in our current Church culture.  What do we believe as Catholics about ghosts?  What if we or someone we know claims to have experienced a presence beyond this physical world?  Should we be afraid?  Can they hurt us?  Or can we help them?

Apr 10, 2018

2nd Sunday of Easter

In our Gospel, Jesus appears to the disciples behind locked doors and rather shockingly (since most of these people deserted Him during his arrest and crucifixion) He says, "Peace Be With You."  Then He shows them His wounds - His hands and His pierced side, still present even on His resurrected and glorified body.  God wants to give us a deep, abiding peace in this life.  The path to that peace, however, is counterintuitive: it involves admitting and confessing just how much we have wounded others and God along the way - our sins - because to the extent that we admit our sinfulness, we experience God's amazing mercy; and to the extent we experience God's desire and love for us even in the midst of our brokenness, we experience God's peace!

Apr 1, 2018

Easter Sunday

And I will raise you up
And I will raise you up
And I will raise you up on the last day.

What does God want to do for you?  How does He want to raise you up?  What does He want to do in your life right now?

Mar 25, 2018

Palm Sunday

We are entering the holiest week of the year: we celebrate the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ!  Easter can be a beautiful time filled with family and travels and preparations and celebrations (and I hope it is for you), but I encourage you, in the midst of all the preparations, to set aside some special time for the Lord.  This Holy Week, for you, will only be as "holy" as you make it - so let's make it a good one!

(The Triduum is the Church's liturgical celebration beginning on Holy Thursday with the Mass of the Lord's Supper, continuing on Good Friday with the special veneration of the cross, and concluding with the Saturday night Easter Vigil - one of the most ancient and beautiful liturgies the Church has to offer.  If you have never tried to attend the special Triduum liturgies of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil, I would highly recommend you put that near the top of your bucket list.  Have a blessed Holy Week!)

Mar 11, 2018

4th Sunday of Lent

I can name plenty of ways that I would be able to grow and improve; I know plenty of  areas in my life that could use some more attention and strengthening; I am a work in progress.  And Lent is about opening myself to be changed and transformed by God, because God wants to work on me as well!  God wants to make me a better me, to make me into the person He has created me to be - both for myself and others.  Paul says in our second reading that we are God's "handiwork".  May our Lenten practices and resolutions open us up to the ways that God wants to work on our lives and transform them for the better!

Mar 4, 2018

3rd Sunday of Lent

Every time we say "yes" to something, we're at the same time saying "no" to lots of other things.  When we say "yes" to someone in marriage, we're saying "no" to all of the other people we could possibly spend our life with.  When we say "yes" to having kids, we're saying "no" to lots of our freedom and comfort...and sleep.  When we say "yes" to God, when we decide to enter into a relationship with God, that means we are also saying "no" to lots of other things.  But for the sake of that relationship, those "no's'" are entirely worth it!  I'd invite you today to rethink how you see the rules, regulations and practices God asks of us in the Bible and through the Catholic Church.  Maybe all these little  "no's" are actually beautiful (sometimes inconvenient and difficult, but beautiful) ways that we can live out our big "yes" to God.

Feb 26, 2018

2nd Sunday of Lent

In our first reading this weekend we hear the seemingly troubling story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his only son.  Certain situations in our lives, too, can make it seem like God is distant, cruel or mean.  Yet, in the end, this story proves God's trustworthiness and faithfulness.  Jesus believed in the Father's trustworthiness and faithfulness, even it led him to crucifixion and death...but that crucifixion and death led to the resurrection and eternal life for all of us!  Today let us thank God for his faithfulness to us, and ask that we might, through this journey of Lent, become more faithful to Him and more trusting of His ways.

Feb 12, 2018

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

We are about to enter into the Lenten season.  Lent is an opportunity to encounter God in a new way, to pause the distractions in life and focus on those things that matter most.  As you consider what your Lenten resolutions will be, I have a few suggestions: ADD something to your days for the Lord, do something POSITIVE that will provide you with opportunities to encounter Jesus, give God the space, time and attentiveness He needs in your life to speak to you.  Don't just give up chocolate this Lent.  DO something that will bring you closer to Jesus; GIVE God the time to transform you!

Feb 4, 2018

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Paul felt an obligation to preach the Gospel...but he can't be the only one.  Every Christian, as a follower of Jesus, is called to be a light in the world, to share with others what God has done for them.  So how?  How do we share our faith in a way that is attractive but not pushy, engaging but not offensive?  I have a few ideas, and I'll share them in this homily.  Today's young adults and students are a different generation who require a different way of hearing and experiencing the Gospel - let's be willing to speak a language they will understand!

Jan 29, 2018

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Paul says in our 2nd reading: "I should like you to be free of anxieties."  That would be pretty nice...but how on earth are we supposed to do that?!  Paul's life gives us an answer.

Jan 14, 2018

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

God speaks to us every day.  Yet, if we're not careful, we can miss the Lord's voice or mistake it for someone or something else.  The Mass is a particular hour each week when God speaks directly to us - do we know what His voice sounds like?  Or are our minds sometimes distracted by all the other things going on in our lives?  Samuel is being called by God in our first reading...but he mistakes the voice of God for the voice of another person.  It's not until the fourth time God calls his name that Samuel finally says, "Speak, Lord, you servant is listening."  It might take us a few tries, too, but let's start making Mass a time when we spend our energies not on daydreams, but focusing on what God has to say to us that week: "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening."

Jan 7, 2018

Epiphany

Today three wise men/three kings/three magi arrive at the place where Jesus was born after following the sign of a star.  The presence of these three non-Jewish kings reveals that God is not only calling the Jewish people but ALL people of the world to believe in and follow His Son Jesus.  God's sign was a star; presumably everyone could see it.  So why is it only these three wise men who followed that star?  Was everyone else just too busy?  Were they so caught up in life that they didn't even notice the sign?  We encounter three different kinds of people in the Gospel today: those who don't notice the sign, those who notice the sign but don't follow it, and those who notice the sign AND follow it.  This week: What are the signs God is placing in your life (what are the stars)? And when you see a sign, do you follow it?  

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