Saint Patrick Roman Catholic Church in York Pennsylvania is rich in history dating back to 1776. The parish continues to serve faithfully those in the York Area.
St. Patrick is covering a Peaceful Vigil at half hour or hourly intervals on Fridays during October outside Planned Parenthood @ 728 South Beaver St, York. Please consider being part of this Vigil for Life by contacting Patti & Tom - tomevans54@comcast.net or 235-8833 or 885-7977 or sign up for Vigil Hours 40daysforlife.com/York!
“Would that all the people of the
LORD were prophets!” This acclamation
from Moses in today’s first reading from the Book of Numbers reminds each of us
that we have a call from God to be prophets.
Our Lord has given us a charism unique to each individual for a particular
purpose on this earth.
Turing our attention to the Gospel of
Mark, John said to Jesus warning Him about those who were driving out demons in
His name. Our Lord responds to John in
that familiar line “Do not prevent him. There
is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak
ill of me. For whoever is not against us
is for us.” The significance of this
line for us is that it ties back to what we heard in the first reading of the
gifts one has received and the reminder of the call we have received to be true
prophets.
I want to say something about
demons. There are many demons in our
world and if we are going to remove them it must begin with us. We all struggle with a demon because demons
can take the form of an addiction or attachment to a particular sin (such as alcohol,
drugs, sins of the flesh, etc.). How do
we address demons…let me go back to my homily for last weekend, “In God we
Trust.” Do we truly trust God’s merciful
love? For example, a question one must
ask, when was the last time one went to confession? If one is not going to confession or it’s
been years, then one truly isn’t placing their total trust in God. Now some people struggle with the concept of
going to confession because they feel they can go directly to the Lord and seek
forgiveness. In light of the priest
shortage at the moment of someone’s death if no priest is available I do
believe God can act in the extraordinary way, but there is a reason for the
sacrament. Reason number one it teaches
us humility and allows us to hear with our ears the voice of the priest echo
the words of Jesus, I absolve you from your sins. The second reason is because if you have a
question or concern you can talk it over with someone who understands your
struggles. For you I am a priest,
however like I am a professional sinner who needs God’s forgiveness and mercy.
Before one can tackle any demon from
the world we first must trust in God’s merciful love. There is an old saying “one cannot give what
one doesn’t have.” If one hasn’t trusted
in the merciful love of God and experienced firsthand one cannot share it. The second point having received the grace of
God then we must be faithful to the mission we have been called. Just
by simply living the life to which we have been called, being faithful to the
precepts of the Lord which give us joy to the heart and fills us with life, is
all we really need to drive out demons. How
cool is that! All are called to be prophets,
which mean we have to work. Just because
we come and sit here every week doesn’t make us prophets. There is more to coming to Church; our faith
calls us to respond. God has given us
the tools necessary, may we pray for the courage and grace to respond
faithfully.
The next time you walk into the narthex of the church, please stop by this bulletin board where you will find the image of "Our Lady Undoer of Knots" There is a ribbon around the image with strings tied to the ribbon. Here is how this devotion works...if you have a knot you would like untied take a string from the basket and tie it around the ribbon with a few knots...please knot the string only...just simply tie the knotted string onto the ribbon. Someone then can take the knotted string off the ribbon and pray for intention of the one who tied the string on the ribbon.
Truth is we all have knots. Seek the Blessed Mothers intercession on our behalf to her Son to help us untie the knots in our lives.
Think about it, instead of giving a tip with a check, credit/debit card use cash...
The back of our currency serves as a reminder of whom we should be trusting each and every single day!
Point number two...get away from the computer and get out and socialize. All too often we have our face focused on a computer screen, television screen, or playing a video game. We cannot be self-absorbed or self-centered we need to get out of our comfort zone and live the Gospel.
