Third Sunday after Trinity, July 6th, 2025
The blog of Father Todd Bragg . . . Anglican Priest and Rector of St. Margaret of Scotland Anglican Church (Indianapolis, Indiana) . . . Husband . . . Chicago Cubs Fan . . . . Notre Dame Fighting Irish Fan . . . Elvis Presley fan . . . Indiana native (aka "Hoosier") . . . Baseball Fan . . . Did I mention a Chicago Cubs Fan????? . . . This blog will contain sermons and other random musings of Fr. Todd along with interesting pictures, links, etc.,
Saturday, July 5, 2025
Third Sunday after Trinity, July 6th, 2025
Saturday, June 28, 2025
Second Sunday after Trinity, June 29th, 2025
Second Sunday after Trinity, June 29th, 2025
Saturday, June 21, 2025
First Sunday after Trinity, June 22nd, 2025
First Sunday after Trinity, June 22nd, 2025
Saturday, June 14, 2025
Trinity Sunday, June 15th, 2025
Trinity Sunday, June 15th, 2025
Saturday, June 7, 2025
Whitsunday, June 8th, 2025
Perhaps this is the precise reason Our Blessed Lord said what He said. If we look at the Fourteenth Chapter of the Gospel of St. John, we hear Our Lord say: "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." In fact, let's look at the whole verse: "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (St. John 14:27) In this verse Our Blessed Saviour makes a point to specify that it is "His peace" that He is giving us. He is differentiating between His peace that He is giving and the peace that the world gives. The peace that the world "gives" is anything but peaceful. The world gives us doubt. The world gives us fear. The world imparts jealousy and hatred. We always have worries at the back of our mind about a whole host of things. We are scared . . . . sometimes rightly scared and sometimes not . . . but still scared, nonetheless.
But throughout all of these anxieties and fears and worries and concerns, the Lord is the cure to our concerns. He is the sure foundation that we need in our life. He is the One . . . . the only One . . . . Who can offer true peace and security of mind. "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." God will always be with us, no matter what. God will always be there for us, in good times and bad. God will never forsake us. God will never leave us. God is ever faithful to His promise even when we are not. Our Blessed Lord promised that when He left this world, He would send us the Holy Ghost to comfort us, to strengthen us, to fortify us. "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in My Name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (St. John 14:26) We have to keep in mind as well that the Holy Ghost is known as the "Comforter" but that name is misleading in our modern day English language because it almost describes something very "comfortable" such as a nice comfy pillow, for example. Actually, the translation would be more accurate as "Strengthen" or "Strength." Our Lord is sending us the Holy Ghost to strengthen us. Either way, let us be assured of one thing: God is always there for us and we should not be afraid of anything this old world can throw at us.
Saturday, May 31, 2025
Sunday after Ascension, June 1st, 2025
Saturday, May 24, 2025
Fifth Sunday after Easter (Rogation Sunday), May 25th, 2025
Fifth Sunday after Easter (Rogation Sunday), May 25th, 2025
Saturday, May 10, 2025
Third Sunday after Easter, May 11th, 2025
Third Sunday after Easter, May 11th, 2025
In the Sixteenth Chapter of St. John's Gospel, we hear Our Lord speaking to the disciples about various matters. One of the things that He tells the disciples is preparing them for when He shall leave. He says: "A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father." (St. John 16:16) Our Lord is preparing the disciples for His departure because He knows that they will be in sorrow and distress at His departure: But Our Lord states that the sorrow the disciples will feel at His departure will be turned to joy. "And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." (v. 22) Again, many things that we have in life can be lost, taken from us, or stolen but the love and joy we have in our heart, nobody can take that from us. Our Lord's last words in this discourse state: "I came forth from the Father; and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father." (v. 28) We can say the same thing, it seems to me. When we are born, our life is a gift from the Good Lord Himself. And when we die, we leave the world and return to God. And when we return, the only thing that we have to show for our journey is how we have lived our life while we were here . . . how much love we have for one another . . . and how much love we showed while we were here. When we travel here on earth, we are careful to pack what we need for the trip. We should also prepare for our "final trip" by loving one another and showing the love that God has shown us and sharing that love to one another.
Saturday, May 3, 2025
Second Sunday after Easter, May 4th, 2025
Second Sunday after Easter, May 4th, 2025
Saturday, April 26, 2025
First Sunday after Easter, April 27th, 2025
First Sunday after Easter, April 27th, 2025
How often when we are in disbelief about something . . . anything . . . do we have to show the evidence to show what we are talking about? If we get cut doing something, we run and show the cut. Or if a storm has gone through and knocked down a tree or at the very least knocked down heavy branches, you tell somebody to come and look at this. "Oh, look at that . . . . " As humans, we are physical beings. We see with our eyes. We feel with the touch of our hands. We hear with our ears. We want to experience something first hand by seeing it for ourselves. Our Lord knew this and this is why He showed the disciples His wounds. He wanted them to see with their own eyes the "evidence" that it was Him.
In our own life . . . for those of us who claim the name of "Christian," . . . . . the question remains how do we show the "evidence" of our faith? As mentioned above, we are able to see with our eyes, for example, the result of a storm . . . or a car crash. We can see the fruit of our labour when we work hard on a project and we see it after completion. Such as building an addition on a house, cleaning and organizing a room, etc. We can see the results with our eyes with examples such as those mentioned. But how do we "see" a person's faith? Faith is definitely something that is internal to each one of us. Faith itself is not something that we can "see" physically with our eyes. And yet the faith that we have inside of us. The faith that we have internally that demonstrates our love for God. This same faith is translated into action. The way that we treat others. The way that we are moved with compassion. The things that we do for others around us that are less fortunate. These are all examples of how we can "see" faith.
As human beings, we want to "see the evidence," we want to see with our own eyes. Let us all work on "showing" others our love of God. Let others see how much we love God by how we live our lives. As I often say in my sermons, the majority of people that you encounter this week probably do not ever go to church. For those people they will only see the face of Christ as it is found in you. If this is true, what will the world see?
Saturday, April 12, 2025
Palm Sunday, April 13th, 2025
Saturday, April 5, 2025
Fifth Sunday in Lent, Passion Sunday, April 6th, 2025
Fifth Sunday in Lent, Commonly Called Passion Sunday,
Let's give credit where credit is due. In my opinion, the Pharisees ask a perfectly valid question which, quite frankly, each one of us should ask ourselves: Who are you trying to be? So many of us try to be someone else. As we grow up when we are young children we try our best to be the characters in our favorite story book or movie. Children want to be super heroes or a princess or their favorite character from their favorite cartoon. As we grow older, we try to be someone different as well. We want to dress like our favorite musician or our favorite movie star. We want to be popular so we wear what we believe is the "latest style" in clothing or shoes. We get our hair cut just a certain way because it is popular. So often we try to be somebody else by what we wear . . . or how we act . . . or what we do . . . or what products we buy. We only wear a certain type of jean or a certain brand of shoe. We have to arrive at work with an eight dollar cup of Starbucks coffee because everybody else goes there and buys an eight dollar cup of Starbucks coffee. Again, we ask the question: Who are you trying to be? The Pharisees asked Our Blessed Lord this very question and He gave the response that each one of us should give. We should try to be someone that God wants us to be. Instead, so often we try to be someone the world wants us to be. But for the devout, faithful Christian we need to focus on what God would have us do . . . what God wants us to become. So often, as I like to say because it's true, we defeat ourselves before we can ever get started. In other words, we convince ourselves that we aren't holy. We convince ourselves that we can't accomplish what we are trying to do. And then what happens? We quit. We stop trying. Of course we are going to fail in life. Of course we will never be perfect. But despite these facts we should never stop trying. When things got tough, St. Peter denied Our Blessed Lord three times. Yet, Our Lord still remained loyal to St. Peter. God always remains faithful to us even though we do not always remain faithful to Him. This is because God always stays true to His promises. He never breaks His word. Stay true to your commitment to God. Let us try to be more like Christ and less like the world.
Saturday, March 29, 2025
Fourth Sunday in Lent, March 30th, 2025
Saturday, March 22, 2025
Third Sunday in Lent, March 23rd, 2025
Third Sunday in Lent, March 23rd, 2025
Sin is like that as well. We may keep doing the same wrong things all over again even though deep down inside we know that the sinful behaviour is no good for us but we keep going back and doing the same thing over and over again. In the Fifth Chapter of St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians, we hear the following: "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord." (Ephesians 5:8) Our Blessed Saviour redeemed us by His Own Precious Blood. Our Saviour took our sins upon His shoulders and carried them to that hill at Calvary. Our Saviour saved us from our sins by dying on the Cross for us. With all of this in mind, it begs the question: why do we do what we do . . . . especially when we supposedly know better? How often do we do something really stupid and then we say out loud to ourselves: "Why did I do that?" St. Paul is saying to the Ephesians just like he is saying to us: "You used to be ignorant of your sins but now you have knowledge in Christ . . . you are knowledgeable of Our Lord . . . you know about Him . . you know His ways . . . you know Him . . . . now, act like Him and do not go back to your former, sinful ways." This, in essence, is what St. Paul was saying to the church at Ephesus and what he is saying to us.
Saturday, March 15, 2025
Second Sunday in Lent, March 16th, 2025
Second Sunday in Lent, March 16th, 2025
Now the point that we can all learn from this is to be determined and to have faith. The woman of Canaan had both. She recognized Our Lord to be the source of help and healing for her daughter. But she was also determined. In faith, we need to be determined. But we need to be determined for the right reason. In other words, sometimes we only get "religious" when we need God for something: We want to get hired for a new job. We need a favour of some sort. We need guidance to get our of a jam. Now there is nothing wrong with going to Our Heavenly Father when we need His assistance. What is wrong, though, is when we ONLY go to Him when we need something and forget about Him the rest of the time. A lot of people only go to God when they get into a jam or when they need something. They suddenly get real "religious" when they are in need but the rest of the time they act as if there is no God. Our Lord came to offer us Salvation. He came to die on the Cross for us. But He also spent some thirty-three years on this earth being a human being like you and I. He knows what it is like to walk in your shoes. He knows what it is like to laugh and to cry. He knows what it is like to work and to rest. He knows what it is like to walk in your shoes as a human being. As such, we can go to Him on a daily basis and we should go to Him on a daily basis. Do not just go to God when you are in need of something. Go to God every day with your concerns, your joys, your sorrows, your everything.
Saturday, March 8, 2025
First Sunday in Lent, March 9th, 2025
First Sunday in Lent, March 9th, 2025
Saturday, March 1, 2025
Quinquagesima, March 3rd, 2025
Quinquagesima, or the Sunday Next before Lent, March 2nd, 2025
Saturday, February 15, 2025
Septuagesima, February 16th, 2025
Septuagesima, or the third Sunday before Lent, February 16th, 2025
Saturday, February 8, 2025
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, February 9th, 2025
Fifth Sinday after Epiphany, February 9th, 2025
Saturday, February 1, 2025
Presentation of Christ in the Temple, February 2nd, 2025
Presentation of Christ in the Temple, February 2nd, 2025
Saturday, January 25, 2025
Third Sunday after Epiphany, January 26th, 2025
Third Sunday after Epiphany, January 26th, 2025
Saturday, January 18, 2025
Second Sunday after Epiphany, January 19th, 2025
Second Sunday after Epiphany, January 19th, 2025
Saturday, January 11, 2025
First Sunday after Epiphany, January 12th, 2025
First Sunday after Epiphany, January 12th, 2025
Truth be known, we normally do not begin to look for something until we discover that the item is missing. For example, when we are trying to leave the house to go to work or to an appointment and then suddenly we discover that the car keys are not where we thought we left them. And then we panic because we don't want to be late and we need to find the car keys. Any item that you can think of . . . . the remote control, . . . . the shirt that you wanted to wear . . .. even the "missing" mate to a sock that you have just taken out of the dryer . . . . where, oh, where did it go?!?!? Obviously, we don't search for things or items until we know that we are in need of them and suddenly realize that we don't know where the item is. e.g., the lost car keys. And only then do we make a point to go search for them. I would contend that this is how it is in regards to our search for Jesus. So many people do NOT search Him out because they do not know that they are missing Him. This is because their minds are caught up in the things of the world: their material possessions; their money; their pleasures; their food; their drink; etc. They are too busy concerning themselves with the cares of the world that they don't have time to "search out" Jesus. We do not make a point to search for something until we realize it is missing or realize that we need it. Let each of us make the point to realize our need for Jesus and then search for Him until we find Him and never let Him go.
Saturday, January 4, 2025
Second Sunday after Christmas, January 5th, 2025
Second Sunday after Christmas, January 5th, 2025