Below is the written text for Deacon Pat Hessel’s homily at Holy Trinity Parish on the weekend of August 6-7, 2016 – on our motivation for living our life of faith. Some people speak about reward and punishment in terms of “the carrot and the stick.” They talk about it in relation to motivating people. […]
God gives us more than we can handle
I came across a quote a number of years ago that is often (erroneously) attributed to Mother Teresa: “I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish that He didn’t trust me so much.” I’ve used it in the past when I’ve presented or answered questions on suffering – largely because it’s a comforting […]
Is it HARD to get to Heaven?
On the night our parish youth group kicked off a semester of youth ministry programming on the Church, our guest speaker took questions from teens. One of them went like this: “You mentioned that it’s hard to get to Heaven. Do you really mean ‘really hard?” A better word than ‘hard’ in this case might be […]
The Last Four Things
Let’s get the bad news out of the way right off the bat: we’re all going to die. While we may not think about it very often, death is inevitable. It often takes a personal brush with death or the illness or loss of a loved one to make us even consider our own mortality. Whether you fear […]
Unfolding Scripture: Mark 10
The first section of Mark 10 (1-12) contains some of Jesus’ most explicit thought on marriage. He is initially challenged by the Pharisees to explain why Moses allowed divorce while Jesus speaks of the permanence of marriage. Jesus responds first by identifying humanity’s “hardness of heart” (Mark 10:5) as the excuse for Moses’ provision […]
Unfolding Scripture: Mark 9
Mark 9 begins with one of the most vivid images in all of Scripture: the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-10). This is the moment where Peter, James, and John are all given the opportunity to see and contemplate Jesus in all His glory – and they are understandably awe-struck.