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Homilies are posted no later than during the week
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Baptism of Lord
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Baptism of the Lord - Cycle B - Mark 1:7-11
An atheist said, "If Christians are the light of the
world, somebody has forgotten to turn the switch on."
"Since 1960, there has been a 560% increase in
violent crimes, more than a 400% increase in illegitimate births, a
quadrupling of divorce rates, tripling of children in single-parent
homes." The speaker was William F Buckley, Jr. The world, according to
him, does seem to be going to hell in a hand-basket.
But was the world of Jesus really that
different when He
was baptized by John in the Jordan? Listen to John as he answers
that question in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. "Turn away from your sins.
You snakes. Don't collect more than is legal. Don't take money from
anyone by force or accuse anyone falsely." The world of Jesus' time
seems to resemble our own. John the Baptizer could very easily recycle
his Jordan sermons to speak to our problems. Listening to him,
contemporary preachers might be tempted to whisper, "I could use John's
material. He describes our times."
The crucial question is how the Christ
responded to the dry rot all about Himself. The answer is to be found
in the cleansing waters of the Jordan and in today's feast.
It is important to note that all four Gospel
writers refer to the baptism of Jesus. So, in their minds, the baptism
is
e-mailing an important message. It is our job to discover what that
message is.
The baptism was important to Him. He uses this
dramatic
event to commence His public life and work. If one could say
Jesus had an inauguration, this was it.
The silent Jesus waded out to the spot where John
stood in the Jordan river. He asked for baptism. John went into
immediate shock. He intuitively knew that this baptism was not designed
for the Man from Nazareth. He waved Him off. He had no desire to hold a
fully grown tiger by the tail. Yet, Jesus insisted and gave him no
choice. John knew who it was standing in the cold rushing water before
him. The reluctant John baptized Him, but he must have sensed the
Saviour had a method in His apparent madness. He did and we find the
answer in art, courtesy of Henri Daniel-Rops.
Artists from day one have wrestled with the
Master's baptism. You will find drawings in the catacombs, in
early sculptures, in books on liturgy, in mosaics, and in stained
glass. Curiously though, the artists have invariably treated the
subject in a minimalist style. One finds neither embroidery nor
embellishment. What you see is what you get.
Even the untutored eye will find this
minimalism in the
stained glass window at the Chartres cathedral outside Paris. It is the
case even more so in a famous medieval psalter by the Dane, Ingeborg.
His work portrays Christian subjects in rich and opulent colors with
one exception. Yes, Jesus' baptism! But why?
Jesus is telling us that we must first direct
our attention to our own personal lives with little ceremony and less
pomp. We must cleanse ourselves with rough brown laundry soap in clean
waters as He did. Then and only then can we properly address ourselves
to the many human problems referred to by Mr Buckley. Every reformation
must first begin in one's own home and with oneself. It must be done as
simply and quickly as possible.
It was St Paul who told us that "He was like
unto us in all things except sin." And yet that sinless Christ took it
upon Himself to enter the waters and wash Himself before He set out to
reform anyone else. Can anyone of us do less?
The Teacher is a doer, not a talker. He wants
action, not
pious platitudes or vague resolutions.
The Associated Press breathlessly reported
that a British astronomer speculated that the Christmas star was the
"coming together of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation of Pisces
in 7 BC." Perhaps and of course perhaps not.
Yet might we not all agree that one can still see
traces
of that Christmas star in the night sky? But this time it is
illuminating not the creche but the confessional in your church.
Why not step in there and first purge yourself of your sins?
Then, like the renewed Christ, tackle the problems in your families,
community, and the world.
St Peter of Alcantara puts the case this way.
"Truly
matters are in a bad state. But if you and I begin to reform
ourselves, a really good beginning will have been made."
Remember the monk's dictum. To show His love, Jesus
died for us. To show our love, we must live for Him.
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http://www.st.ignatius.net/pastor.html
Baptism of Lord
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The Baptism of the Lord: A Call to Change the World
This
is the last Sunday of the Christmas Season and the First Sunday of
Ordinary time. The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord concludes
Christmas and begins the meditation on the ministry of Jesus.
There are four aspects of this feast: 1) the Lord humbles himself
before John the Baptist, 2)the Lord is empowered by the Spirit to begin
the mission of the Father, 3) the Lord accepts the mission to
suffer and die for us and 4) the Lord expresses his solidarity with
those looking to change the world.
The
first aspect, the Lord humbling himself before John the Baptist is the
traditional emphasis of the feast uniting the feast to Christmas.
The Son of God humbled Himself to such a degree that He was born in a
manger. He humbled Himself accepting the baptism of John even
though He was sinless. Christ refused to consider Himself better
than anyone.
The
second aspect, the Lord is empowered by the Spirit to begin the mission
of the Father, is the aspect of the baptism that is emphasized by the
Eastern Church, Catholic and Orthodox. At His baptism, the Spirit
comes upon the Lord to such an extent that He is empowered to begin the
mission of the Father.
The
third aspect, the Lord accepts the mission to suffer and die for us,
flows from the first reading which is one of the Songs of the Suffering
Servant in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. Isaiah prophesied a
Messiah who would not be a military commander but one who would suffer
and die for the people.
Today, though, I want to focus on the fourth aspect of the feast, the
Lord expresses His solidarity with those looking to change the
world. One of the terrible realities of our world is the fact
that wars continue to be fought. A war says that whoever spills
the most blood of the enemy is right. A war says might makes
right. This was nonsensical when we were 10 years old in
the school playground fighting about whether a ball was fair or
foul. It is far worse on the international level.
I
want this world view to be changed. You want this to be
changed. This also is not new. We are no different than the
people of Jesus' time. Those who stood before John the Baptist
were sick of a world full of cruelty, persecution, and war. They
wanted a change and they wanted to do something about this
immediately. And do you know what they did? They repented
their own sins. They recognized that the world is not going to
change unless they change. Jesus saw this and joined them.
The Man of Peace accepted the baptism of John because He also wanted
the world changed. Then Jesus began His public life saying that the
Kingdom of God, the New Order, is upon us.
For
the New Order to take place we have to conquer our enemies with
love. We had to stop striking back. The law of talons, "An
eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" can not exist in the New
Order. "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute
you." "If someone wants to take your cloak, let him have
it." It takes two for hatred to grow.
How
can we be shocked at the presence of war when we all have refused to
accept the dictates of the Sermon on the Mount? There are people
who continually attack me and who continually attack you. How do I
respond? How do you respond? Do we say a few choice words
back to the person? Do we tell someone else what a terrible
person her or she is? Do we do something to hurt the other
person? If that is our normal mode of operation, then we know why
the world is always ready for war.
Jesus stood before John the Baptist seeking a change in the
world. He saw those who had been baptized before Him as people
realizing that the change had to begin with themselves. He joined
them. He was baptized.
We
can all be outraged by wars or other moral evils. But we must
also recognize with an intense guilt that we participate in evil every
time we answer hatred with hatred instead of with love. We who
call ourselves Christians must be Christians. Jesus accepted
John’s baptism to begin the work of the Kingdom. Today we ask for the
strength to join Him in seeking a new way, a new mode of action, one
that promotes love, even when under attack. We ask for the courage to
join Him in the Jordan River, before John the Baptist, and seek the way
that promotes love, the way that furthers the Kingdom of God.
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http://www.geocities.com/seapadre_1999/
* available in Spanish - see
Spanish homilies
Baptism of Lord
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The
Power of Baptism
(January 11, 2009)
Bottom line: When a Christian embraces his baptism, he has an
inexhaustible source of power.
Last weekend we commemorated the four Seattle Fire Fighters who gave
their lives in the Pang Warehouse fire. It seemed like an odd
coincidence that all four were Catholics - especially since we make up
only about 15% of the local population. Mary Beth Celio (Director of
Research for the Archdiocese), however, had a different perspective. As
a professional researcher, she said that she was not surprised. She
noted that we Catholics tend to be over-represented in areas of
service: hospitals, education, police, fire departments and so on. The
emphasis we place on service obviously has an impact on our young
people
There is also something deeper here, something we focus on this Sunday:
the mysterious effect of baptism. The four fire fighter - Walter, Greg,
James and Randy - had all received the sacrament. We see the power of
baptism in our Scripture readings. The Old Testament lesson pre-figures
the sacrament: Isaiah compares God's word to rain that comes down from
heaven and does not return void. Baptism waters the dry earth of the
human soul. St. John, in his letter, tells us that the person "begotten
by God conquers the world." He does not mean that we will be Alexander
the Great, but that we have the power to stand up to seductions of our
culture. And Jesus himself accepted baptism - not because he needed any
strength from the water, but because he wanted to give the water power.
The great saints recognized the power of baptism. St. Louis, King of
France, seeing one of his subjects baptized, said, "a few moments ago
you were only my son, but now you are a child of God." St. Francis
Solano - a famous preacher, healer and miracle worker - knew that his
power came ultimately from his baptism. After a missionary journey to
the America's, he returned to his home town in Spain. He entered the
church and knelt in front of the baptismal fount. In a loud voice, he
said the Profession of Faith that his parents and godparents had made
on his behalf.
And I am sure many of you remember the beautiful moment in 1979 when
Pope John Paul returned to Wadowice, his birthplace. People in the
parish had placed flowers around the fount where he was baptized in
1920. The Holy Father knelt down and reverently kissed the baptismal
fount.
The sacrament of baptism has great power. This does not mean that a
baptized person will automatically become a saint. Adolph Hitler and
Joseph Stalin both received the sacrament. The person who turns from
his baptism has a greater potential for evil. A comparison: Lilies are
beautiful, but if they spoil, they give off a terrible odor. Something
similar happens if a person turns against their baptism. For that
reason, when parents present their child for the sacrament, we ask if
they intend to raise that child in the practice of the faith.
It is beautiful when a Christian embraces their baptism. The sacrament
then has inexhaustible power. To express this in a more poetic way, I
would like to conclude with something that a girl in this country
embroidered on a sampler. She was a German girl whose family had
immigrated to Pennsylvania at the end of the eighteenth century. She
sewed the words on the sampler. A sampler is a piece of cloth
embroidered with a design or motto. In another homily, I quoted the
words she embroidered, but they bear repeating today:
I have been baptized.
Even if I die, how can the cold grave do me harm?
I know my homeland and my inheritance, which I have with God in heaven.
After I die, there is prepared for me the joy of heaven and the robes
of glory.
I have been baptized.
I stand in covenant through my baptism with my God.
So say I always with glad lips
In crosses, tribulations, troubles and needs:
I have been baptized.
I rejoice in that.
The joy remains forever.
By our baptism you and I also have a homeland, an inheritance, a
covenant with God. No matter what trial or distress we face, that joy
remains. When a Christian embraces his baptism, he has an inexhaustible
source of power.
I have been baptized.
I rejoice in that.
The joy remains forever.
**********
General Intercessions for Baptism of Lord (from Priests for Life)
Spanish Version
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http://www.agreeley.com/homilies.html
Baptism of Lord
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January 11th, 2009 A.D.
Baptism of our Lord
Background:
Scripture: Mark 1:7-11
We have hear about John the Baptist three times in the last month and
will hear about him again next Sunday. There is just so much one can
say about the conflict between the followers of Jesus in the years
immediately after his return to the Father and the followers of John
the Baptist. Perhaps the wise liturgists might revise the readings so
that we didn't have to face the Baptist, great man that he admittedly
was, quite so often. But liturgists never worry about such things. For
us this Sunday, it is probably best to emphasize against the
Monophysites among us the humanity of Jesus and the fact that he came
only gradually to understand his religious mission, through study and
work and following earlier leaders like the Baptist. Given the temper
of the times, however, you might be delated to Rome for insisting that
Jesus was truly human and grew in wisdom age and grace.
Story:
Once upon a time, Molly Whuppi and the girl's basketball team at
Mother Mary High School had a home game against Christ the King High
School. CK was always a push over for MM because their players were not
very good, didn't have good coaches, and didn't take the game
seriously. They were in short dweebs. So Molly and her team thought
they'd breeze through the game and win by twenty five points, they
didn't practice much and they were busy celebrating Christmas. At
least. Alas for them, they started slowly and MM played better than
they had ever played before. Ever. Finally in the fourth quarter MM
made its move, though they were down twenty points. They narrowed the
gap to five points, but in the last two minutes of the game, they were
just too tired. Their legs ached like they had become jelly and they
could hardly raise their arms to shoot. CK won by two points, after
Molly herself and missed two free throws, which she had not done all
season. The boys in the school all laughed at them. "Well," said Molly,
"all right we were guilty of presumption. We're only human. Some days
even Michael Jordan gets tired."
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http://www.saintvincentarchabbey.org/homilies/index.lasso
Baptism of Lord
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Jan,
11, 2009
Mark 1:7-11
Demetrius R. Dumm, O.S.B.
Baptism of the Lord
Gospel Summary
John the Baptist offered his disciples a baptismal ritual which was
essentially preparatory. It was a visible, public way of declaring
one's readiness for the coming of the Messiah. It said in effect that
from now on no human preconditions would be laid down. This represented
a significant decision because we humans are always tempted to tell God
how to do things.
When the Messiah does come, he will bring with him his own powerful
baptismal rite. It too will include a water ritual but it will be far
superior to the baptism of John because it will confer the Holy Spirit.
This is the same Spirit that was sent from heaven at Jesus' baptism and
which signaled the dawn of a new age.
This Spirit is said to have appeared as a dove over Jesus because it is
God's powerful agent of creation. This is the same Spirit that hovered
over the deep to call being out of nothingness and that appeared to
Noah as a dove thus signaling the advent of a new world after the
deluge. This Spirit brings to all who are baptized in the name of Jesus
a share in the same kind of power that enabled him to announce the new
world of God's kingdom and to illustrate its nature by a ministry of
healing in Galilee. It is this creative Spirit also that empowers the
baptized to follow Jesus in loving service, self-sacrifice and final
victory.
Life Implications
It is very difficult for us to appreciate adequately the baptism that
most of us received long ago as infants. In fact, I think most of our
mothers prayed that we would sleep through our baptism, something that
is more likely now that we no longer need to put salt in their mouths!
This is a sad situation, however, unless we take serious measures to
guarantee that we discover just how important and how powerful this
sacrament should be in our lives.
The most important part of the baptismal rite is the faith commitment
that we bring to it. Our sponsors may have made this promise for us
many years ago but we must now claim that commitment in our own names.
And that means nothing less than a deeply personal decision to follow
Christ by living in a truly unselfish manner. It also means to renounce
the alluring but false suggestion of Satan that self-indulgence leads
to happiness.
Living unselfishly is very difficult and we could never manage it by
our own limited resources. However, the powerful, creative Spirit, who
comes to us in baptism, is ready and willing to enable us to be truly
sensitive to the needs of others and truly generous in our response to
those needs. Not only does this enable us to be experienced as a gift
in the lives of others but it also brings us a deep sense of happiness
and satisfaction…and ultimately victory with our risen Lord.
Demetrius R. Dumm, O.S.B.
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http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html Meeting Christ in the Liturgy
Baptism of Lord
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Feast
of THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD
Isaiah 42:1-4.6-7; Psalm 29; Acts 10:34-38; Mark 1:7-11
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
MERRY CHRISTMASTIDE. Throughout the ages, Christians have celebrated
Christmas as a season, with the twelve days between Christmas and the
Epiphany as one long Christmas "day." The Christmas season ends today
with our celebration of the Lord's baptism.
Jesus' public life begins with his baptism by John in the Jordan. (Lk
3:23; Acts 1:22). The Baptist hesitates, but Jesus insists and receives
baptism. Then the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, comes upon Jesus
and a voice from heaven proclaims, "This is my beloved Son.'(Mt
3:13-17) This is the manifestation ("Epiphany") of Jesus as Messiah of
Israel and Son of God. (CCC 535)
Recounted in our liturgy today through the proclamation of the gospel
of St. Mark, chapter 1, verses 1-11, the baptism of the Lord is "on his
part the acceptance and inauguration of his mission as God's suffering
Servant. He allows himself to be numbered among sinners; he is already
'the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.' "(CCC 536)
What is revealed as only a sign of the Lord's coming death in John's
'baptism of repentance' is not merely a sign for the new Christian who
rises from the waters of the sacramental font. For each of the
baptized, the immersion in, or pouring of, water and the invocation of
the Trinity is a real sharing in the death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ.
Through Baptism the Christian is sacramentally assimilated to Jesus,
who in his own baptism anticipates his death and resurrection. The
Christian must enter into this mystery of humble self-abasement and
repentance, go down into the water with Jesus in order to rise with
him, be reborn of water and the Spirit so as to become the Father's
beloved son in the Son and 'walk in newness of life' (Rom 6:4)(CCC 537)
Jesus' public life begins with his baptism by John in the Jordan. (Lk
3:23; Acts 1:22). The Baptist hesitates, but Jesus insists and receives
baptism. Then the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, comes upon Jesus
and a voice from heaven proclaims, "This is my beloved Son.'(Mt
3:13-17) This is the manifestation ("Epiphany") of Jesus as Messiah of
Israel and Son of God. (CCC 535)
St. Gregory of Nazianzus spoke well of this mystery when he preached:
"Let us be buried with Christ by Baptism to rise with him; let us go
down with him to be raised with him; and let us rise with him to be
glorified with him." (CCC 537)
St. Hilary of Poitiers expressed, more poetically, our adoption as true
sons and daughters of God in baptism:
Everything that happened to Christ lets us know that, after the bath of
water, the Holy Spirit swoops down upon us from high heaven and that,
adopted by the Father's voice, we become sons of God. (CCC 537)
The greatest of gifts is ours in baptism: God's very own life and love.
A life to overcome the death which is our inheritance from Adam's sin,
a love to overpower and win us away from love of self to love of God
for his own sake and our neighbors for his glory.
Another of the baptismal gifts we receive is the ability, in Christ, to
praise and worship the Father in the Holy Spirit, and to be found
pleasing to God as we do so. The baptismal font was often placed in the
courtyard or near the entrance of early churches, and the practice
continues so in many places today. We "entered" the Body of Christ at
the moment of our baptism. We became worshipping members of the Son,
pleasing and beloved by the Father, through our baptism. This is why
holy water fonts are placed near the entrance of our churches.
As you dip your fingers into the font and make the sign of the cross
each time you enter the house of worship of the Lord, remember it is by
the power of your baptism that you render fitting and pleasing worship
to God in your spiritual sacrifice of holiness of life and, most fully,
the Eucharistic sacrifice. It is by your bath in the waters flowing
from the side of Christ the priest in his perfect offering that you
have been incorporated into the one, holy, catholic and apostolic body
of Christ in the world, his bride the Church.
I look forward to meeting you here again next week as, together, we
"meet Christ in the liturgy", Father Cusick (Publish with permission.)
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http://www.ctk-thornbury.org.uk/
Baptism of Lord
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Baptism
of the Lord, Year B
Today with the feast of the Baptism of the Lord we come to the end of
the Christmas season. We end Christmas as we began Advent with the
figure of John the Baptist.
At the beginning of Advent he was presented as the figure foretold in
Isaiah come to “prepare the way for the Lord.” Today we see the
fulfilment of his mission in the Baptism of Jesus and the inauguration
of Christ’s public ministry.
The sacred liturgy cannot follow the various events in the life of
Christ in chronological order since we celebrate them all within the
space of a single year. What the Church does is place these events in
relationship with each other so that the various mysteries that we
celebrate compliment each other.
That’s why we have the accounts of the ministry of John the Baptist in
Advent, then we celebrate Christmas, Epiphany and now the Baptism of
Jesus. They are not in chronological order but in a sequence which
illustrates their meaning and significance. What we are doing is not
considering them chronologically but theologically.
Christ’s Birth was celebrated two weeks ago and in between we have had
two feasts which were directly complimentary to it: the Feast of Mary
the Mother of God in which we clarified our understanding that this
child was our Saviour, Son of God and Son of Mary; then in the Feast of
the Epiphany we saw how he was not destined merely for the people of
Israel but for the people of the entire world.
In today’s Feast of the Baptism of the Lord we see our Saviour begin
his ministry with the blessing and affirmation of God himself: “You are
my beloved Son, my favour rests on you.”
And at this apposite moment we are introduced to the Sacrament of
Baptism, the door to the Church and the gateway to salvation.
Christ doesn’t need to be Baptised, but by undergoing Baptism at the
hands of John he transforms it into the great sacrament of salvation.
Just like everything else he touches it is transformed. He makes it not
just a Baptism of repentance for sins but a Baptism for the forgiveness
of sins and the entrance to the Life of the Spirit.
Jesus receives Baptism from John as a sign that he is sorry for the
sins of all mankind and an expression of his decision that he would
save us through his death on the Cross. This is a bold statement made
right at the very beginning of his ministry and it indicates clearly
the direction in which he is going.
Of course, this was not evident to any one present except John the
Baptist; it is something that only becomes clear in retrospect. But it
is clear that John the Baptist gets the message because as is recorded
in the Gospel of John the following day he points out Jesus to his
disciples and says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of
the world.”
He knows who Jesus is and he knows what Jesus is to achieve; he might
not be fully aware of the details or how it is going to be worked out,
but he knows God has a plan for the salvation of the world and Jesus is
going to be the one who is to fulfil the promises God has made down
through the ages.
We have, each of us, been Baptised; our task now is to live out the
implications of our Baptism. Being Baptised means being a Child of God,
being Baptised means living a new kind of life, being Baptised means
that we are now Witnesses to Christ.
Because most of us were Baptised as children we have completely
forgotten the experience of Baptism. However, we might have been
present recently at the Baptism of a child and we were reminded us how
the priest poured water on our heads in the name of the Trinity and how
we were anointed with holy oil and consecrated to Christ’s service.
We know that Baptism is the sacrament of our initiation into the Church
and that through it we became members of Christ’s body. It is a simple
ritual but it has extraordinary implications.
I mentioned that this feast falls at the very end of the Christmas
season. But it is also regarded as the first Sunday of Ordinary Time.
It acts like a sort of bridge between Christmas and Ordinary Time.
As we have noted, and it is especially evident in the Gospel of Mark,
the Baptism of Christ marks the beginning of what we call his public
ministry. In Ordinary Time we go systematically through the Gospel and
consider the important events of this ministry. We look at the various
miracles in turn and we examine Christ’s teaching, especially as found
in the Sermon on the Mount.
We should take all this seriously; if we are to be his witnesses to the
world of today then we need to know all about Christ—what he did and
what he taught. That means we need to study his life and there is no
better way of doing this than by following the Gospel readings as
presented to us by the Church through the Liturgical Year.
As we celebrate this feast today we are invited to remember and take
ownership of our own Baptism. We will renew our faith using the
question and answer format as was done at the time of our Baptism and I
will sprinkle you with Holy Water in blessing as a further reminder of
Baptism.
As we do these things let us give thanks to God for the gift of faith
and for all that we have received as members of his Church. Let us ask
him to come into our lives afresh and fill us with his Holy Spirit. And
let us resolve to live our lives in this New Year as his faithful
disciples.
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Father Bonar will not be posting homilies for Cycle B to allow himself
time for other projects. His collection of homilies (including homilies
for Cycle B) is available at www.clydebonar.com.
Baptism of Lord |
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These
homilies may be copied and adapted for your own use;
however, they may not be commercially published without permission of
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