Faith – Page 6 – Royal Doors

Feb

03

2017

Luke 2:25-38- Jeffersonism

Faithanna, Jefferson, prophesy, symeon, truth

Glory be to Jesus Christ! Ever prefer the Jesus in your mind to the one which we have been presented with through the Scriptures and the Church He established? In his later life, Thomas Jefferson, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, decided to make his own version of Jesus. Very meticulously he took a razor and cut out many of the miracles, the Resurrection and other things he didn't really like about the God-man he had read about in the New Testament. This book he referred to as…

Feb

02

2017

By Fr. Michael Bombak

Luke 2:22-40: Ear Training

Faithholy spirit, Presentation, silence, stillness

Glory be to Jesus Christ! Did you ever have to train your ear to learn singing or play a musical instrument? It is amazing what more you can hear in a piece of music when you are actually listening for it. Little nuances between artist's interpretations of the same piece, the different musical quality of the various instruments all stand out to you when you may have completely missed them before. Today we celebrate the feast of the Encounter of Our Lord in the Temple, and we meet two people, Symeon and Anna, who have been waiting and listening to the…

Feb

01

2017

By Fr. Michael Bombak

Mark 12: 28-37- Shema

Faithcommandments, honesty, love

Christ is Born! When I was a teacher, I taught a student named Shema. This is the Hebrew word for the Greatest Commandment which is referenced by our Lord in our reading today- to love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, all your mind and all your strength. Christ has been speaking to Scribes the whole way through this Gospel and none of them seem to get it. What is the difference here? While the other Scribes had been interested in setting traps for our Lord, this one comes to Him honestly. This is what allows…

Jan

31

2017

By Fr. Michael Bombak

Mark 12:18-27 – Eternal Memory

FaithDeath, life, Time

Christ is Born! What’s your earliest memory? It’s always interesting to ask people this question and see what event stood out in their mind when they were just a little kid. Some people can remember events when they were very young, others have memories which start when they are a little older. God’s memory is eternal. He is from everlasting. For Him every moment is “now” not yesterday or tomorrow or “some other time.” We are creatures who live in time. God is outside of time. We read in our Gospel passage today how our God is not the God…

Jan

30

2017

By Fr. Michael Bombak

Matthew 5:14-19 – Life in the Fishbowl

Faithcommandments, fish, freedom

Christ is Born! Fish seem to be the only pet we can really take care of as a family. Although my kids desperately want a dog, I recently broke and allowed them to get a beta fish which they named dizzy. Dizzy lives in a little bowl on our shelf in the living room. His world consists of a little pool of water in this enclosure. These parameters, limits and restrictions allow Dizzy to survive. We live in a culture brothers and sisters which sees all restriction to choice to be a restriction to freedom. If I don’t have infinite…

Jan

27

2017

By Fr. Michael Bombak

John 10:9-16 What’s My Motivation?

Faithacting, good shepherd, motivation, sheep

Christ is Born! "What's my motivation?" I remember this becoming a half joke among my drama friends back in High School. As an actor struggles to play a character, and to really understand that character from "the inside out," they would continually ask themselves why that character would be doing what they were doing in the scene. What emotion was driving that line? What intention was behind them doing a certain action. In our reading today, Our Lord outlines what His motivation is. He is the Good Shepherd, the one who is motivated through love of the sheep. He is…

Jan

26

2017

By Fr. Michael Bombak

Mark 11:27-33- The Truth!? You Can’t Handle the Truth!

Faithchief priests, honesty, scribes, truth

Christ is Born! Remember when you were younger and there was something you didn't understand and so you brought it to your parents who realized how long it would take to try to answer the question, and how you wouldn't get it anyway, and so they said "we'll tell you when you're older." You may have not been ready to understand the truth because of your age, but at least you were interested in knowing the truth. This is the difference between a child asking, someone who will honestly not understand, and the chief priests and scribes to which Jesus is…

Jan

25

2017

By Fr. Michael Bombak

Mark 11:23-26- Mind Your Manners

Faithcs lewis, faith, manners

Christ is Born! I have heard it said, that when you ask the Lord to move a mountain, don't be surprised if He hands you a shovel. Whatever the method of moving mountains, we need faith to see it through. In today's reading our Lord reminds us of His amazing power, as well as the awesome gift of faith through prayer. And yet we know that faith, which is necessary for our discipleship, can be a very difficult to find at times. The classic example of this is often seen in the cry of the father to Christ "Lord, I…

Jan

24

2017

By Fr. Michael Bombak

Mark 11:11-23- I Don’t Give a Fig!

Faithfigs, fruit, trees, works

Christ is Born! Bible quiz- What type of leaves did Adam and Eve sew together to make themselves clothes in the garden of Eden? That's right, fig leaves! We actually see fig trees in many places in Scripture. The fig tree came to be recognized as a symbol of national wealth and prosperity for God's people in the Old Testament. With this in mind, and only in the context of Our Lord's triumphant entry into Jerusalem and His cleansing of the temple, can we understand what is being conveyed when Christ does not find any fruit on the tree, and…

Jan

23

2017

By Fr. Michael Winn

Blessed Martyrs of Pratulin

Christian Life, Faith, Featured Articles

Today is the anniversary of the massacre of thirteen peasant men and boys who died defending a little Greek Catholic church in what is now Poland. They gathered, with their families and neighbors, to prevent the Russian Imperial government from imposing an Orthodox priest into their parish. This took place when the Tsar destroyed the last Greek Catholic eparchy in the empire, Chelm, in 1873 – 1875. Deportations had already begun of clergy and lay leaders who were sent off in long columns on foot to Siberia. Read more at Father Christopher Zugger