For the St. Louis Youth Music Ensemble
By Fr. Dennis | August 17, 2008
Here is the file I told you about:
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The Gates Are Open into the Land of Grace: Homily for 15 August, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
By Fr. Dennis | August 15, 2008
Well, someone recently left a comment wondering how I would tie the local memorial of Elvis Presley with the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Here’s my homily for today, of which the first few paragraphs are indebted to the website RareElvisPresley.com.
Readings for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
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As the sun shined, on a crisp and clear Memphis morning, on a Monday in February, 1957, Virginia Grant was coming out of the old Lowenstein’s Department Store in the Poplar Plaza Shopping Center, which is now divided between the Pet Star and the Spin Street CD and DVD store. And there she spotted “the most gorgeous pink Cadillac [she’d] ever seen.”
Inside the car was a woman named Gladys Presley, who happened to be the mother of Elvis Presley, whom we know today as the King of Rock and Roll. Her husband, Vernon, was inside Lowenstein’s doing some shopping. Well, Virginia Grant was a real estate agent, and she had heard Elvis and his family might be needing a new home due to all the fans tying up traffic in the neighborhood near Elvis’ then current home on Audubon, so she offered to show Gladys a few places the family might be interested in. Gladys was very nice about it and told her they would get back to her after they returned from visiting Elvis in Hollywood.
A couple of weeks later, Virginia was showing Gladys and Vernon a property outside the Memphis city limits on US Highway 51 in the suburb of Whitehaven. The large colonial mansion on 17 acres near the Whitehaven Plaza was called “Graceland.” After seeing the property, Gladys loved it because, once a proper fence was in place, she would be able to raise a few chickens, and there would be room to hang the laundry to dry outside without fear of star-struck fans sneaking into the yard and stealing the laundry.
When Elvis came home from shooting his latest movie in Hollywood called “Loving You,” he went and saw the property and bought it immediately. He could see why his momma liked the house, and he wanted nothing more than to please her.
And that’s more or less how Elvis came to own Graceland, more or less. He bought it because he liked it, but mostly he bought it because he wanted a special place for his momma.
Now Elvis was the King of Rock and Roll, and no one disputes his claim to that title. In spite of that, though, he would have been the first to admit that he was not the King of Heaven and Earth. That title belongs to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. And like Elvis, he too has a mother whom he loves very much.
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Topics: History, Homilies, Mary | 1 Comment »
Free of Charge, No Cost: Homily for 3 August, 18th Sunday, Cycle A
By Fr. Dennis | August 3, 2008
Readings for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A.
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Honeysuckle. It was the sweet smell of honeysuckle drifting lazily on the wind every evening that she would miss most about that grand old garden, with its rambling rows of wildflowers, its mighty oak trees, colorful dogwoods and fragrant magnolias, as well as pear and fig and citron trees that bore fruit all year round. And the brook that ran through the middle of the garden, always cool and fresh, with a sweet taste, as if the water had just fallen from the sky as rain that very morning.
And at the end of the day, she would walk on the grassy hillside, hand in hand with her husband, and sit under the willow. There they would picnic, with fresh berries and bananas and melons and hundreds of other things besides which we don’t even know of. They ate well and delighted in rich fare. There was always plenty, and some to spare. And she’d catch just a hint of the honeysuckle that was growing by the river, and lean against her husband with a happy, satisfied smile on her face.
But she wasn’t thinking of any of those things that one afternoon when it occurred to her that she deserved more. When asked about it later, she wasn’t sure whether she had done it herself, or whether she had let herself be talked into it by a magical talking garden snake who whispered the subtle suggestion that God was holding out on her. That there was something God was not letting her in on. That there was more to see, more to taste, and more to know, and that God was keeping her from it.
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Topics: Homilies | 2 Comments »
Of Human Life: Homily for 27 July, 17th Sunday, Cycle A
By Fr. Dennis | July 27, 2008
Have you ever found a treasure so beautiful that you would sell everything, sacrifice everything, in order to obtain it? Have you ever found a love so amazing that you would pay any price, travel any distance, brave any danger just for a chance to win such love?
Have you ever felt as Charlie and Craig Reid must have when they wrote:
But I would walk five hundred miles
And I would walk five hundred more
Just to be the man that walked a thousand
Miles to fall down at your door.
Those of you who are married must have had that experience. And even if married life is rough and shaky at times, you can probably recall that first flutter of excitement when you realized that nothing else mattered. Nothing else in life would be worth much if you couldn’t share it with that person whom you were so grateful to God for having found.
Parents know that feeling too.
My brother says that he didn’t know how much his heart could love until the day he laid eyes on his son for the first time.
Some things, like love, are so beautiful, so amazing, that they change everything. Nothing can ever be the same again.
Here is something that is true. Just as grace builds on nature, so does love beget love.
God, who is love, speaks his Word of love, and all creation comes into being. The exchange of love between the persons of the Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, overflowing out of the heart of God, to create and create and create. And God is still creating because God still loves. To this very day there are new and wondrous creations that come into existence all around us.
Some of these creations we call them “children,” who come into existence in their mothers’ wombs. Children who have never existed before, and yet made with immortal souls that will exist forever, to the praise and glory of God, made to become saints, made to join in company with the angels in their unending song of joy. Children. Created by God from love. Created by love, created out of love, created for love.
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Topics: Homilies, Pro-Life | 1 Comment »
So THAT’S Where She Learned to Hit Like That!
By Fr. Dennis | July 24, 2008
I was just doing a little Googling, and it turns out that the nun who struck me across the face in high school for no particularly good reason — honest to goodness, there was no cause for it, I’m not exaggerating — it turns out she was friends with young Cassius Clay, better known as Muhamed Ali, the Champion of the World.
Topics: Personal | 4 Comments »
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