Announcements: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear Holy Rosary Mission Parishioners, here are a few annoncements:

Gospel: Below is a copy of the homily for this coming Sunday. The Gospel is about a very short speech that changed the world. The length of the speech is 38 words. Long is not always good. It takes more time and thought to write a short, focused speech with a clear and memorable message that people remember. It is not that difficult to ramble on for fifteen or twenty minutes about everything and anything. By the way, the Lincoln's Gettysburg Address was only 250 words and it changed the history of the United States.

Visitor: The editor of the Catholic Anchor, Joel Davidson, will be at Mass this Sunday. We have a few trips planned, i.e. Ugashik, Koliganek, Clarks Point, Ekuk, and King Salmon. Depending on the weather, we hope to get to at least a couple of these villages.

Potluck: This Sunday is Potluck Sunday. Please bring your favorite dish and visit with the Editor of the Catholic Anchor, Joel Davidson.

AMEN: Amen means, “It is True.” When we go up for communion and say Amen, we are acknowledging that the bread has actually changed to the Body of Christ. Let us start saying Amen with meaning, after all, “IT IS TRUE!”

Have a fantastic week and see you Sunday…Fr. Scott

17th Ord C DLG 2010, Genesis 18:20-32; Colossians 2:12-14; Luke 11:1-13

Homily: Short Speeches

One of the family heirlooms that has been past down from generation to generation to me is an old Rocking Chair. As the story goes my great great-great-great grandpa Shirtcliff was good friends with Abraham Lincoln. That’s right, THE Abe Lincoln. Occasionally Lincoln would visit Great Grandpa Shirtcliff. And guess where his favorite seat was? It was in my old rocking chair.

Lincoln was known for his short, 250 word Gettysburg address. The man before Lincoln spoke over an hour. Today, no one remembers that hour long speech. By contrast, Lincolns two and one half minute speech changed the history of the United States and the mentality of the Western world.

As far as preaching goes, I believe that no matter how good a speaker you are a homily during mass should not be over about seven or eight minutes. I shoot for about 550 words or five minutes.

There is another speech that was only 38 words. I suspect that the impact it had on the world will never be matched, ever. That speech is called the Our Father, or Lord’s Prayer. Jesus spoke it to his disciples to teach them how to pray.

Those 38 words give us a road map to live by. They unite us as one body of Christ. Luke’s Gospel, written fifty years after the death of Jesus, contains six major themes. Most of those themes are contained in the Lord’s Prayer. They are prayer, hospitality, compassion, forgiveness, the common life, and care for the outsider.

When we pray the Lord’s Prayer it is like logging on to the internet. It hotwires us directly to God. The Lord’s Prayer connects us to God. Through this connection we develop our relationship with God and learn to communicate with Him. Do you know what it means to “live as a person of faith?” It means to be connected to Jesus, communicate, and develop a relationship with God. We do that, and we live as people of faith.

The greatest thing about the Lord’s Prayer is that it is the only time Jesus actually taught us how to pray. It came directly from him.

One effective way to combat sin and temptation in our lives is to recite the Our Father. Try making that first thought into your mind in the morning…and the last thought at night…the Our Father. When bad thoughts enter your mind…try interrupting it with that beautiful prayer that Jesus Gave us…It works.

The Our Father is the one prayer that our Lord Jesus gave us and instructed us to pray. Reciting it on a regular bases, really listening to it, and trying to abide by it in our daily lives, makes us a holier people (452 Words).

Readings for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time:

Genesis 18:20-32
Then the LORD said: "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin so grave, that I must go down and see whether or not their actions fully correspond to the cry against them that comes to me. I mean to find out." While the two men walked on farther toward Sodom, the LORD remained standing before Abraham. Then Abraham drew nearer to him and said: "Will you sweep away the innocent with the guilty? Suppose there were fifty innocent people in the city; would you wipe out the place, rather than spare it for the sake of the fifty innocent people within it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to make the innocent die with the guilty, so that the innocent and the guilty would be treated alike! Should not the judge of all the world act with justice?" The LORD replied, "If I find fifty innocent people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake." Abraham spoke up again: "See how I am presuming to speak to my Lord, though I am but dust and ashes! What if there are five less than fifty innocent people? Will you destroy the whole city because of those five?" "I will not destroy it," he answered, "if I find forty-five there." But Abraham persisted, saying, "What if only forty are found there?" He replied, "I will forebear doing it for the sake of the forty." Then he said, "Let not my Lord grow impatient if I go on. What if only thirty are found there?" He replied, "I will forebear doing it if I can find but thirty there." Still he went on, "Since I have thus dared to speak to my Lord, what if there are no more than twenty?" "I will not destroy it," he answered, "for the sake of the twenty." But he still persisted: "Please, let not my Lord grow angry if I speak up this last time. What if there are at least ten there?" "For the sake of those ten," he replied, "I will not destroy it."

Colossians 2:12-14
You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. And even when you were dead (in) transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he brought you to life along with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions; obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims, which was opposed to us, he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross;

Luke 11:1-13
He was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."

He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test."

And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,' and he says in reply from within, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.' I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence. "And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the holy Spirit to those who ask hi

The Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth (250 Words)