7th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B 22 Feb 2009

Click here to download and listen to this homily (19 minutes) given by Fr. Thomas Weise at the 8:30 am Mass.  Seeing the faith of the friends of the paralytic Jesus says, "Child, your sins are forgiven."  Healing flows from the forgiveness of sins.  Let us learn to forgive as taught to us in the Lord's Payer.  "Loose the cords of mistakes binding us, as we release the strands we hold of others' quilt."  Then we will be able to rise, pickup our mat, and go home.

Readings: Isaiah 43:18-19, 21-22, 24b-25; Psalm 41; 2 Corinthians 1:18-22; Mark 2:1-12.

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B 15 Feb 2009

Click here to download and listen to this homily (25 minutes) given by Fr. Thomas Weise at the 5:30 pm Mass.  Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him and said to him, "I do will it. Be made clean."  Curing the leper of his spots restored him to the community, he was no longer unclean and outside the community.  This restoration is the good news the former leper feels compelled to tell everyone.  In our stain glass window the lepers look like the have polka dots, in some way we are all covered in dots of one sort or the other.  Jesus heals us of these dots.  We need to be like Jesus and invite all those who feel outside the church community to return and be healed through the Eucharist.

Bishop-Elect Edward Burns would like to personally invite back anyone who feels outside our community.  Please let Fr. Thomas Weise know who these persons might be.

Readings: Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46; Psalm 32; 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1; Mark 1:40-45

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B 8 Feb 2009

Click here to down load and listen to this Homily (20 minutes) given by Fr. Thomas Weise at the 5:30 pm Mass.  Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law and she immediately fixes dinner.  When we are sick we long to get back to work, so that when we are healed we do get busy.  After sunset the whole town shoes up at the door wanting to be healed and set free.  In the morning after prayer Jesus heads out to other towns to share the good news.  The good news is that when we come forward for the Eucharist we a touched by God and set free of sin and healed of our infirmities. 

Who will you invite to come to Mass with you this week?

Readings: Job 7:1-4, 6-7; Psalm 147; 1 Corinthians 9:16-19; 22-23; Mark 1:29-39

Conversion of St Paul 25 Jan 2009

Click here to download and listen to this homily (10 minutes) given by Fr. Thomas Weise at the 11 am Mass.  The Conversion of St. Paul on the road to Damascus becomes the touch stone for the rest of Paul's ministry.  He finds Jesus of Nazareth alive in the followers of the way that he was persecuting.  Bono, the lead singer of the rock band U2, when asked about the amazing success of his one.org campaign to end world hunger, said: "We need to stop praying the God will bless what we are doing.  Instead we need to get onboard with what God is doing because it is already abundantly blessed."  Jonah get a trip in the belly of a whale before he gets onboard with God's plan to save Nineveh.  Paul ends up trying to destroy the very Gospel message he will carry to the ends of the earth through his travels and writing before he meets the risen Lord. 

Lets get onboard with what God is already doing, because it is abundantly blessed.

Readings: Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Psalm 25; Acts 9:1-22; Mark 1:14-20

Bishop Elect Edward J Burns 19 Jan 2009

Click here to download and listen to this homily (8 minutes) given by Bishop Elect Edward Burns on the day of the announcement that he will be the next Bishop of the Diocese of Juneau.  "It is with profound gratitude to our Holy Father for his confidence in me to lead this Diocese and with great humility that I have accepted this challenge."  His Episcopal motto is "Pray with Confidence!"  Let us pray for one another.

Monsignor Burns was born on October 7, 1957 to Donald P. and Geraldine Little Burns in Pittsburgh, PA.  He received secondary education at Lincoln High School in Ellwood City, PA.  He obtained a BA in Philosophy and Sociology from Duquesne University, Pitsburgh, PA.  He earned a Master of Divinity and a Master of Theology from Mount St. Mary Seminary in Emmitsburg, MD.  He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Pittsburgh on June 25, 1983.

He will be ordained a Bishop on March 3, 2009 in St Paul Cathedral, Pittsburgh, PA.

He will be installed as Bishop of Juneau on April 2, 2009 in St Paul Parish, Juneau, AK.

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B 18 Jan 2009

Click here to download and listen to this homily (9 minutes) given by Fr. Thomas Weise.  We know very little about the deep oceans.  In fact we may know more about the moon and Mars than we know about the deep sea.  I think this is true for us as well.  We need to go deeper into our selves and find the Holy Spirit dwelling there.  We truly are a temple of the Holy Spirit.

Readings: 1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19; Psalm 40; 1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a; John 1:35-42

Baptism of the Lord 11 Jan 2008

Click here to download and listen to this homily (13 minutes) given by Fr. Thomas Weise.  We are all beloved sons and daughters of the Lord.  Do we live it?

Click here to download and listen to this homily (14 minutes) given by Deacon Charles Rohrbacher.  We are to be the hands, feet, eyes, ears of Christ in the world.  We have been baptized into the living Body of Christ.

Readings: Isaiah 55:1-11; Isaiah 12:2-3, 4bcd, 5-6; 1 John 5:1-9; Mark 1:7-11