God's love shines radiantly upon us in the Nativity of his Son Jesus birthed by Mary his Mother - Wed. Dec. 23, 2020 - S + L Mass at MQW Cathedral downtown Montreal

 Homily MP3 version          Homily PDF version    

Day 8 of Mary & Joseph’s Pilgrimage from Nazareth to Bethlehem

Hello. I’m Father Gilles Surprenant. It is the day before Christmas Eve. Christmas is so close now. We thank God for bringing us together via Salt + Light for this live Mass in Mary Queen of the World Cathedral in downtown Montreal. Television air time is so very expensive to produce; so we appreciate your support by way of your prayers and donations. Thank you.

Sign of the +                      Greeting                                  Penitential Rite

Listen attentively to the sounds of silence…. Can you hear the little bells on the donkey’s harness? It is day 8 of the 9-day pilgrimage of Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Mary was very heavy with the Child Jesus still in her womb. How difficult and uncomfortable it must have been for her to ride on the donkey; yet she did not complain. Sadly, we may at times be inclined to complain, making life more difficult for those around us, and we may forget to be grateful and may neglect showing others our appreciation. Let us ask the Lord to forgive us….

 

HOMILY

There is a divine glow coming from the love of God and shining brightly upon our souls as we approach the radiant days of the Christmas Season. Of course we see more and more lights shining their Christmas beauty – whether you prefer waiting for Christmas Eve to turn on your exterior lights or began lighting up the front of your home as early as the beginning of Advent.

More dramatic is the radiant light shining on us from the loving face of Jesus, warming the cold and damp of our minds and hearts. As children see their parents expending great effort to prepare for Christmas, they might be inclined to take greater care to please their parents and to avoid having conflicts with their siblings; they may even volunteer to help more spontaneously.

Employers may be more inclined to show patience and gratitude to their employees; while workers may be inclined to work harder and give their employers a better effort and result for their labors. Siblings may have already begun to show each other deeper understanding and compassion through better words and more gestures of kindness, gratitude, and generosity. We may even begin to notice the poor and homeless, who suffer so much from feeling invisible, and we may stop to chat with them and ask them how they are managing and offer them a gift.

All year long, but especially during these holy days of Advent followed by the radiant days of Christmas, the Holy Spirit is constantly at work: attracting our minds, hearts, and spirits to adopt better attitudes of understanding, patience, kindness, and compassion. As the script writer of the classic movie “Miracle on 34^th Street” had the character Kris Kringle put it: “This time of year inspires people to lay aside the more hateful and selfish tendencies that usually tend to dominate our lives, in favor of mutual understanding, kindness, and generosity….”

It is necessary and good for us to cooperate with this work of the Holy Spirit within us, because God – the Most Holy Trinity – is a blazing furnace of divine love. If we accept to be purified now, during our life on Earth, of every hateful and selfish tendency, and replace these with thoughts, words, and gestures of kindness, forgiveness, compassion, and generosity; then when we come face to face with God the meeting will be joyous and not painful.

On the other hand, if we insist on complaining, pouting, being miserable, making trouble for others, and thinking only of ourselves; then when we come face to face before God – who is an intense furnace of divine love – God’s blazing fire of love will be shockingly painful indeed.

We can see the clear difference between our ways and God’s ways in what happened around the birth and circumcision of John the Baptist. The whole family was taken up with the family traditions which would require the child to be given his father’s name. Elizabeth very courageously stood her ground when she insisted, with her husband Zechariah, on doing what God had asked them to do through the Angel Gabriel; that is, to name the child John.

These are privileged days of grace for us. As we continue our own journey of faith in God – personally and as a family – we have these wonderful witnesses present to us to encourage us: Elizabeth and Zechariah, Mary and Joseph, the Archangel Gabriel, and the two infants: John who would become the Baptist, and Jesus, who would become our Saviour.

It is an act of love at this time of year to remember before God all those who are unwanted, unremembered, and unloved; as well as those who are unable to make room for them; because all of us are personally loved by God: the Father, + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Announcement: 

Salt + Light Media and Mary Queen of the World Cathedral are happy to receive your contributions and Mass intentions in support of this Live Daily Mass. Please continue to send your donations and Mass intentions to Salt + Light Media or to the Cathedral. Thank you for your support. To contact me just send an email to fathergilles@gmail.com

 

https://frgilleshomilies.blogspot.com

 

© 2006-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2006-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC

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God loves us tenderly - See Jesus the Good Shepherd & Our Lady of Guadlupe's dialogue with St. Juan Diego - Wed. Dec. 9, 2020 - S + L Mass at MQW Cathedral downtown Montreal

 Homily MP3 file with announcement         Homily PDF file with announcement   

Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin (Our Lady of Guadalupe 1531)

Hello. I’m Father Gilles Surprenant. In this second week of Advent we gather to worship the Lord our God in Mary Queen of the World Cathedral and are pleased to join you in your home, you who are participating via Salt + Light TV or the Internet.

We are only in the 3^rd month of this Daily LIVE English Mass on Salt + Light Media. By now you are coming to know some 15 priests worshipping with you in real time. We are blessed to ponder the Word of God together and to worship in his presence.  

As you may or may not know, television time is expensive to produce – both for Salt + Light and for the Cathedral – so we appreciate your support by way of prayers and donations. The startup costs have been steep; so we would be very grateful to donors able and willing to be particularly generous in helping us balance our budget by the end of the year. Thank you.               Sign of the +

HOMILY

The Lord our God is addressing to us a particularly tender Word today. Through the prophet Isaiah the Lord gently reproached his people in exile for feeling abandoned by their God. “Have you not known? Have you not heard?” The Lord said to them as He says to us, “Don’t you realize that I love you and don’t get tired, and that my eyes penetrate into the most hidden depths of your spirit; so that I may shine my light into every dark shadow?” God is a divine Spirit and the Holy Trinity remains hidden from our eyes to protect our free will.

God is hidden from our eyes but not from our inmost spirit; so the Psalmist was pumping himself up to give thanks and praise to the Lord. The Psalms are the inspired Word of God because they are God’s answer to the shadows that plague our minds, hearts, spirits, and even our bodies. Christians recite the Psalms, ponder them, and murmur them prayerfully to freely invite the Holy Trinity to dispel our shadows with their divine light and radiant love.

You see, we are not ready yet to see the radiant splendor of God – if we could see God now as He is, we would be seduced, but seduction is a form of manipulation and control. God loves and refuses to manipulate us. A relationship that is not freely chosen but imposed is incapable of love. God wants us to have the satisfaction and delight of truly and freely loving Him.

The Father sent Jesus to us as the Good Shepherd to speak tenderly to our distressed spirits, discouraged hearts, and tired bodies: “Come to me you who are weary & carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

On this day, December 9^th, 1531 in Mexico City, Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to a 57-year-old indigenous man baptized a Catholic Christian by the Franciscan missionaries. The Lord sent his Blessed Mother to bring the Divine Mercy to a people who had suffered much by the human sacrifices demanded by the pagan goddess. Listen to a glimpse of their dialogue.

 “Know my son, Juan Diego, my much beloved, that I am the ever Virgin Mary, Mother of the True God who is the Author of life, the Creator of all things, the Lord of heaven and earth, present everywhere. And it is my wish that here, there be raised to me a temple in which, as a loving mother to thee and those like thee, I shall show my tender clemency and the compassion I feel for the natives and for those who love and seek me, for all who implore my protection, who call on me in their labors and afflictions: and in which I shall hear their weeping and their supplications that I may give them consolation and relief.”

Our Lady sent Juan Diego to the Bishop with her request, but the bishop refused to believe.
Juan was overcome with shame and then his uncle became deathly ill; so he went out to get the priest but tried to avoid meeting Our Lady and took another road. She found him out anyway and asked him where he was going. Utterly confused, and at a loss for an explanation, he spontaneously resorted to pleasantries, “My daughter, my dear little one; God keep you, Lady! Did you sleep well? And how is your health?”

He talked to Mary as he would have to his own daughter, and most assuredly it wrung from her childlike heart a humoring smile. Perhaps it called to her mind tender questions she heard on earth from her own dear father, St. Joachim. Then, quickly regaining his presence of mind, Juan spoke more soberly about his uncle’s sickness and his intention of going to get a priest.

He looked up to see the lovely Woman smiling most affectionately upon him. With supreme gentleness and compassion she replied – and these words should reverberate from the walls of every church, home, and school in Christendom:

“Listen, and let it penetrate your heart, my dear little son; do not be troubled or weighted down with grief. Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle? In the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else you need? Do not let this illness of your uncle worry you, because he is not going to die of his sickness. At this very moment he is cured.”

Never before had Our Lady so openly revealed the tenderness of her Immaculate Heart. This revelation marked the beginning of the Age of Mary. What saint or mystic was ever so privileged as this humble Mexican Indian to hear, “Am I not here who am your Mother?”

In the end Our Lady’s mission was successful. The beautiful multicolored roses she picked miraculously in the dead of winter and arranged in Juan Diego’s tilma became a photo of her imprinted on the mantle which is preserved to this day in the Cathedral in Mexico City.

Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego and his people - through her timeless and beautiful "Polaroid" image imprinted mysteriously and miraculously on Juan Diego's tilma - and the native Aztec "Indian" people immediately recognized Our Lady as one of their own, yet not of this Earth but from the heavens. She rescued them from the harsh slavery to their pagan goddess, a giant feathery serpent; whose priests carried out countless human sacrifices. 

To this day the Mexican people owe their freedom and Christian faith to the greatest evangelist of all time, Our Lady of Guadalupe; for within a decade of her apparitions to St. Juan Diego more than nine million Aztecs were came eagerly to Christ and were baptized. In light of these wonderous apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe and with gratitude for the tender motherhood which Mary shows us today; let us remember now before God those hundreds of thousands who today will die unwanted and unremembered; as well as for those who were unable to make room for them; for they – like each of us – are loved by God: the Father, + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Announcement: Mary Queen of the World Cathedral (Cathédrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde) and Salt + Light Media are happy to receive your contributions and intentions in support of this Live Daily Mass. Please continue to send your donations and Mass intentions to Mary Queen of the World Cathedral and Salt + Light Media c/o Mary Queen of the World Cathedral, 1071 Rue de la Cathédrale, Montreal QC H3B 2V4. Thank you for your support. To contact me just send an email to fathergilles@gmail.com      https://frgilleshomilies.blogspot.com

© 2006-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC        © 2006-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC

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