First Sunday after Trinity, June 22nd, 2025

 First Sunday after Trinity, June 22nd, 2025

In the Sixteenth Chapter of St. Luke's Gospel, Our Blessed Lord relates the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man.  In this story, Our Saviour contrasts the difference between how these two men lived their lives:  the rich man wore fine clothing and ate  delicious foods while Lazarus was a poor beggar who lived a miserable existence.  We are further told that when both men died, Lazarus went to Heaven and the rich man went to hell.  In fact, the rich man suffered so much in hell that he cried out to Abraham to send Lazarus to him to give him even the slightest bit of relief to his torment and we then hear the following:  "But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things . . . ." (St. Luke 16:25)

This Gospel passage points out the problem faced by so many in our society today.  So many of us are fixated on the good things in life.  We have everything we want:  the latest gadgets; the newest car; a house in the fanciest neighborhood; the latest fashions; etc.  Now, there is nothing wrong with any of these things just mentioned, but when they take our attention away from God, that is where the problem arises.  We are called as Christians to keep our attention fixed on God.  It is God Who provides all the blessings in life but if these "blessings" divert the attention away from Him, what use are they in the long run?  Fashionable clothes go out of style . . . the latest electronics become obsolete . . .   cars break down . . .  but the one thing they never goes bad is the love of God.  "Put your money where your mouth is."  We've all heard this phrase.  In essence, it means that you better back up your words or else they are "just words" and no more.  Well, God did back up His words.  He proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that He loved us by sending His Only Begotten Son into the world to save us from our sins.  Our Blessed Saviour died on the Cross for us.   Why do we keep our attention focused on earthly items that will fade away into nothing?  We have been given a gift beyond measure:  the gift of salvation.  It is offered freely.   Keep your eyes focused on God.  Keep your attention on your Heavenly Father. 

Join us at 10:30 AM on Sundays at St. Margaret church.  We worship at the beautiful chapel at Marquette Manor, located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis.

Trinity Sunday, June 15th, 2025

 Trinity Sunday, June 15th, 2025

In the third chapter of St. John's Gospel, we are listening to a conversation between Our Blessed Saviour and Nicodemus.  Our Lord tells Nicodemus that we must be "born again."  This phrase confuses Nicodemus a little because he comes right out and asks:  "How can a man be born again?  Can he enter his mother's womb a second time?"  And Our Lord explains to him how this is possible by stating:  "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." (St. John 3:1 ff)  As Our Lord explains to Nicodemus, our physical body can only be born once but in the spirit, we can indeed be born again.  It would be physically and virtually impossible for a human being to be born again, but purely in the spiritual sense, it is possible to begin all over again by turning our lives over to God.  This is because Our Lord makes the point to distinguish between what is physical and what is spiritual.  Thus, in our spirit when we give our hearts over to God and make Him the master of our life, then we become born again.  We become, as St. Paul puts it,  "a new creature."  "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."  (II Corinthians 5:17)  Our Lord says to Nicodemus that "That whosoever believeth in (the Son of Man, Jesus) should not perish, but have eternal life."   (St. John 3:15)  So believe in Our Lord and put all your trust in Him.  Make Him the ruler and the very center of your life and turn your hearts over to Him!

Today, we celebrate "Trinity Sunday" in honor of the Holy Trinity:  Father, Son and Holy Ghost.    "For God, Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts .  . . . ." (II Corinthians 4:6)  We resemble God not in our outward characteristics but rather we resemble God inwardly:  in how we act; how we treat others; how we love; how we have compassion; in how we forgive; etc.  The image of God that we were created in is through the spirit that is within each one of us.  And it is up to us how much we let that light shine forth to the rest of the world.

Join us at 10:30 AM on Sundays at St. Margaret church.  We worship at the beautiful chapel at Marquette Manor, located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis. 

Whitsunday, June 8th, 2025

 

Pentecost, commonly called Whitsunday, June 8th, 2025

In the world in which we live . . .  if you want my opinion . . .  it's understandable if a person is scared.   I mean just look at all the things to be scared of.   All you have to do is turn on the nightly news and see a whole host of things that will terrify you:  rampant crime  . . . . drive-by shootings . . . . wars and threats of wars  . . . .  erupting volcanoes . . . . . These are just things which I saw featured on the news this week.  The news itself does a good job of scaring us.  The media focuses on negative things to begin with.  They report on murders, car wrecks, robberies, factories closing down, etc.  But then when you factor in the news being on for hours and hours during the day, the result is that you keep seeing the same scary news over and over and over and over  again.  It's almost as if the "fear" is pounded into your head hourly by the news media.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I am not saying that there are not things to be scared of or concerned about.  Oh, by all means, yes there are.  What I am pointing out is that by courtesy of the Internet, by courtesy of the news media, we are allowed to dwell on our fears twenty-four hours a day.  In my opinion, you can't watch the news without getting at least a little depressed.  

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.

Join us at 10:30 AM on Sundays at St. Margaret church.  We worship at the beautiful chapel at Marquette Manor, located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis. 

Please consider joining us for Mass.  Come hear the Word of God found in the King James Version of the Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.  Consider setting aside an hour of your week where you can dedicate that time solely to God.  Come hear the Word of God.  Listen to God speaking to you directly and hear what He has to say for YOU!  Receive the Precious Body and Blood at Communion time to be strengthened and nourished for your journey! 

Sunday after Ascension, June 1st, 2025

 

Sunday after Ascencion, June 1st, 2025

St. Luke ends his Gospel with the Ascension of Our Lord into Heaven.  We read in Verse 51 of the Twenty-Fourth Chapter:  "And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into Heaven."  I can only imagine how the Apostles felt as they were in the Presence of Our Lord at that moment.  I am sure they were in great awe of such a moment.  But we read in the following verse: "And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy." (St. Luke 24:52) Without a doubt we are affected by others around us, wouldn't you agree?  Have you ever been in the presence of someone who was in a foul mood, for example, and you began getting in a bad mood?  But haven't we all been in the presence of someone who simply lifted our spirits because they were so joyful?  For the Christian we also should have "great joy" when we praise and bless God. (v. 53)   Joyful because God has created us . . . because He has given us life.  Joyful because Our Heavenly Father continues to sustain us, to nourish us, to feed us.   Joyful because Christ came to save us from ourselves.  In other words, He came to save us from our sins.  Joyful because Christ Our Saviour goes to prepare a place for us in Heaven.  Joyful because we have the Comforter, the Holy Ghost always close to us.  As Christians, we have so much to be joyful for.  The world offers us joy, yes, but the joy the world offers is at best temporary, fleeting and in many cases the world offers us "false joy."  The joy which God offers is everlasting.  Stay close to Our Blessed Saviour.  Remain close to the One Who has chosen us, redeemed us, and saved us.

  Join us at 10:30 AM on Sundays at St. Margaret church.  We worship at the beautiful chapel at Marquette Manor, located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis. 

Please consider joining us for Mass.  Come hear the Word of God found in the King James Version of the Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.  Consider setting aside an hour of your week where you can dedicate that time solely to God.  Come hear the Word of God.  Listen to God speaking to you directly and hear what He has to say for YOU!  Receive the Precious Body and Blood at Communion time to be strengthened and nourished for your journey!

Fifth Sunday after Easter (Rogation Sunday), May 25th, 2025

 Fifth Sunday after Easter (Rogation Sunday), May 25th, 2025

I personally enjoy the Epistle of St. James.  For me, I find this epistle to be straight forward.  In other words, St. James gets right to the point.  "BE ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." (St. James 1:22)  St. James gets straight to the point, doesn't he?  In other words, I am sure  know we all have friends, acquittances or coworkers who seem to "talk a good game" but they really do not back up their talk with action.  As Christian's we need to "show" who we are and not simply "talk" about what we believe.  I am sure this is why Our Lord came into the world as a human being.  He spoke about His Heavenly Father, yes, but He also showed those around Him the love of the Father.  He did this by performing miracles, yes, but He showed the Father's love through interacting with those around Him, both the poor and rich, both ordinary and influential, etc.  He showed those around Him, particularly the Apostles, that it is important to show the love of God to everyone we encounter.  He demonstrated to the disciples that they should show the love of God to all those they come in contact with.  Our Lord did not hesitate to speak with all those around Him.  He did the work of God as He was called to do.  In short, Our Blessed Saviour did not just speak about the love of God, He showed it through His words and actions.  As people of faith, we are called to do the same.  We need to speak about our faith, yes, but we also need put our faith into action.  We do that by helping others around us.  We do that by spending time with those less fortunate.  We do that by assisting those in need.  God uses us as His instruments here on earth.  We are the face of God to those around us.  We do this through by being doing His work here on earth.  While it is important to talk about our relationship with God, I think it means even more to demonstrate our relationship with God through our actions and how we treat others around us.  

Join us at 10:30 AM on Sundays at St. Margaret church.  We worship at the beautiful chapel at Marquette Manor, located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis. 

Please consider joining us for Mass.  Come hear the Word of God found in the King James Version of the Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.  Consider setting aside an hour of your week where you can dedicate that time solely to God.  Come hear the Word of God.  Listen to God speaking to you directly and hear what He has to say for YOU!  Receive the Precious Body and Blood at Communion time to be strengthened and nourished for your journey!

Third Sunday after Easter, May 11th, 2025

 Third Sunday after Easter, May 11th, 2025

When you go on a trip, do you ever notice how much time you spend in preparation for the trip by packing?  If you are like me, it seems like you pack half the house to go on a trip.  And even if you are only going to be gone a few days, it's unbelievable how much stuff we pack for those few days: clothing items and shoes . . . . jackets  . . . .  hygiene items  . . . .  The list goes on and on.    And then when the trip is done, you have to make sure you don't leave anything behind.  You've heard of people with a fear of spiders or people with a fear of flying?  I think I have a fear of leaving something behind in the motel room.   I will check and recheck to make sure I did not leave anything behind.  It's amazing how much time we spend in packing and preparing for going places.  But truth be known, we don't take anything with us when we die, do we?  I joke around and say that I'm going to take my Elvis record collection with me when I die, but of course that's ridiculous.  We don't take anything with us when we die.   The only thing that we take with us to the grave, it seems to me, is the love that we have in our heart.  When our time comes to an end here on this ol' earth that we call home, the only "thing" we will take with us is the love that we have for God . . .  love for our neighbors . . .  and love for one another.  Other than that, what do we take with us when we die?   Just the love that we have in our heart.  Why do we spend our lifetime accumulating so much stuff?  In comparison, though, how much time do we spend preparing our heart in regards to showing love towards God and our neighbor?

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.  

Join us at 10:30 AM on Sundays at St. Margaret church.  We worship at the beautiful chapel at Marquette Manor, located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis. 

Please consider joining us for Mass.  Come hear the Word of God found in the King James Version of the Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.  Consider setting aside an hour of your week where you can dedicate that time solely to God.  Come hear the Word of God.  Listen to God speaking to you directly and hear what He has to say for YOU!  Receive the Precious Body and Blood at Communion time to be strengthened and nourished for your journey!

Second Sunday after Easter, May 4th, 2025

 Second Sunday after Easter, May 4th, 2025

I remember when I was growing up . . .  I find myself saying that more and more .  . . .  . .. anyway, I remember when I was growing up, it was understood that a person started at the bottom and worked their way up from there.  To me that was how things were done.  I suppose that's why while still in high school I got a job scrubbing pots and pans in a cafeteria.  You don't get much more "bottom-rung" than that.  You start at the bottom and then work your way up the ladder, so to speak.  Now I don't want to paint everyone the same way.  I realize there are exceptions to every rule.  But it just seems that today, very often anyways, that people are not content to start out at the bottom and work their way up.  They want to start out at the top.  Even when someone is at the "bottom," so to speak, very often they seem to know things better than the boss.  Even where I work, the kids there seem to have an attitude that they know things better than any adult and they are always right no matter what.  Unfortunately, it's not just the kids that have this attitude at times.  I think we all have this perspective at times.  We so often have to come up with excuses when we are criticized.   We have to explain things instead of just accepting that we could have handled things differently or better.  We have to always be "in the right" or "have the last word."  The reason I am reflecting on these thoughts is because in the Tenth Chapter of St. John's Gospel, Our Blessed Lord is speaking of Himself as being the Good Shepherd.  Our Lord says:  "I am the good shepherd; and know my sheep, and am known of mine"  (St. John 10:11 ff)  Now, keep in mind that there are three different statements or observations in the above sentence:  Our Lords says that He is the "good shepherd."  He also says that He knows His sheep.  And then He ends up by saying basically that His sheep know Him. Regarding this last statement, do we know the Good Shepherd?  Or to put it another way, do we know that we are His sheep?  Are we content with being His sheep?  This sounds strange to ask but do you know anyone that just has to always be right?  Do you know someone that just always has the have the final word in everything . . . . no matter what.  In the spiritual life, there are people like that as well.  When they go to God in prayer, they tell God what they want to happen instead of listening to God telling them what He wants to happen.  Do we ever go to God demanding things when we pray?  Sure, we may do our "demanding" in a nice, respectful way . . . . . . but the bottom line is that we are still telling God to do it our way.  We have things all figured out and we know what's best and so we pray not so much saying "Thy will be done" as much as we do "My will be done."  Our Lord is the Good Shepherd.  As such, there is only room for one shepherd.  Let us continually fashion ourselves and remind ourselves that He is our shepherd.  God is in control.  Let all of us remember that fact and let God be God, in other words.  As human beings we do not like to be told what to do.  We very often have to have the final word.  As devout Christians, let us remember that God is in charge and that God gets to have the final word.  Let us always remember that Christ is the Good Shepherd and that we are His sheep and to follow Him.

Join us at 10:30 AM on Sundays at St. Margaret church.  We worship at the beautiful chapel at Marquette Manor, located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis. 

Please consider joining us for Mass.  Come hear the Word of God found in the King James Version of the Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.  Consider setting aside an hour of your week where you can dedicate that time solely to God.  Come hear the Word of God.  Listen to God speaking to you directly and hear what He has to say for YOU!  Receive the Precious Body and Blood at Communion time to be strengthened and nourished for your journey!