I'm Still Here!

It's the feast of Corpus Christi today, and my small but dedicated band of readers may be wondering whether I have given up posting homilies.

Well, I'm still here, but last week we had Bishop Gary Gordon visiting the parish, and he preached (wonderfully) at all the Masses. This week I am back in the pulpit, but decided it was time to preach without notes for a change, which gives me nothing to post for the blog.

Actually, I did have notes of a sort--I followed the outline of a brochure that we handed out with the bulletin this week. It's called "Five Ways to Prepare for Mass," and it's overflowing with helpful ideas that can deepen the experience of attending the liturgy.

The five ways are 1) "Know why you are there," 2) "Reflect on the readings,", 3) Think about your offering" (i.e. what you bring with you to Mass, both joys and sorrows), 4) "See yourself as part of the community," and 5) "Enter into God's presence" (by quiet and prayer before Mass begins).

The titles don't do justice to the richness of the text, which was written by Father Ralph W. Talbot, Jr. with Lorene Hanley Duquin. Under each heading there's several really practical ideas.

There's a separate section called "Preparation leads to Participation," listing another nine excellent suggestions.

The brochure is printed by Our Sunday Visitor. We've given out many of their various pamphlets over the past few years, and I can't recommend them too highly.