Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, August 29, 2021. In our changing times when many are questioning the relevance of the Church, I was reminded of a quote by Carl Jung that sparked this meditation. “It is high time that we realize it is pointless to praise the light and preach it if nobody can see it. It is more needful to teach people the art of seeing.” How, then, do we teach
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, September 5, 2021. I have been re-reading a little book I first read a long, long time ago in high school. It is called THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD by a Catholic monk by the name of Brother Lawrence. The practice he recommends is simply this: to keep one’s heart and mind on God at all times. As simple and obvious as that may be, Brother
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, September 26, 2021. Ken Wilber is a contemporary philosopher and writer in Transpersonal Psychology. In his book entitled GRACE AND GRIT he tells his personal story of loss and transformation. In it he speaks about love in a way you may never have heard. He does not use the romantic language you hear on TV or in movies. He tells the truth. In fact, his definition of
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, October 10, 2021. It seems to me that the story of the Widow of Nain is the whole of the Gospel in one short take. I had never thought of it before, but maybe every pericope in the Gospels tells us the whole story if we look deeply enough. Like small facets in a great jewel that reflect the Lord in their own special way. The Son
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, October 17, 2021. The Sower of seeds is the Lord. The soil is in our hearts. The seeds are the Word of God, the Person, the Son of God Himself. The seeds are what we know as the energies of God: love, compassion, kindness, forgiveness, peace, joy, creativity, grace, light and many others. The energies are not created things, they are uncreated. They are God Himself. By
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, October 24, 2021. Jesus asked the man his name. He answered, “Legion.” Legion was not his real name; it was what had become of him. He was fragmented, shattered, traumatized. He had lost sight of who he really was. His true identity had been hidden away. No matter what has happened to us, or what we have become, Christianity has Good News for us. There is a
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, December 12, 2021 We know that Jesus used parables in his teaching. It is important to remember what a parable is. Parables are extended metaphors that use concrete examples to form a brief, coherent story. Parables are not history and their meaning is not immediately accessible. They are meant to draw us in and provoke us to “subvert conventional ways of seeing and living and to invite hearers
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, January 23, 2022 I love the image we see of God at the beginning of the Genesis story of the creation. Let’s read Genesis 1:2. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:2) An interesting point that demonstrates the metaphorical nature of the story is that God is said
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, February 6, 2022 No one is “outside” of God, nor can be. Olivier Clement writes that “not one blade of grass grows outside the Church.” The Syro-Phoenician Woman was outside the Jewish fold, yes, but that did not mean she was disconnected from God. Jesus calls her a woman of great faith. Therefore, she must have been very connected with God indeed for all good things, like
Sermon Preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, April 1, 2007 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ! The crowd in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday long ago was mistaken. Jesus was not the Messiah they had hoped for. He did not come to overthrow Rome or to establish an earthly kingdom. They would have known that if they had listened
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