Let us make our offering acceptable by making it through the Immaculate Heart and the hands of the Blessed Virgin Mary through which the Word of God took flesh and entered into our world as one of us…

Dear Blog followers. I apologize for not posting a homily last week. Below is the homily for this week my first as a chaplain at OSF St. Anthony's Hospital in Rockford, IL. Please continue to pray for me as I do for you and your families. God bless.
Fr. Lange

Matthew 13, 1,23 Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary time. July 12th, 2014

Today the Word of God speaks to us from the Sacred Scriptures about the Word of God. The Word of God we are told springs from the Father and goes out into the world.... and returns to the Father not void, but, bringing with It great fruit. This fruit is the fruit of souls who have totally entrusted themselves, who have totally given themselves to the Father, Who gives Himself to us totally through His Word. These souls, allowing themselves to be fed by the Word of God, have been transformed and are being transformed, by the same Word, into glorious sons and daughters of the Father. They, by their very lives have become those who the Father seeks, those who would worship Him in Spirit and truth, thus becoming one with the Father through His Word in the unity of His Love. In this transforming union they become a way for others to become one with God through His Holy Word.

This is the fruit of the Word, to become one with God. The Word of God comes to us order to bring this union of love about, in the hearts and the souls of those who would believe. The Word definitely brings this about in many souls. Sadly however, has we have heard from our Gospel, not in all; for many as well, have not allowed or do not allow the Word of God to take root fully in their lives. They refuse to believe or fail to live out that belief in the way they live their lives. They have allowed the devil (and his lies), and the things of the world and the cares of the world to prevent it from being so.

Today we are called, you and me, to allow the Word of God to more fully penetrate our heart, our soul, our mind and our life. Through our personal repentance, our radical turning away from sin and from those things that we have place before God, we are call to turn to Him more fully, to love Him more faithfully. For this to happen we must beg the Holy Spirit to enlighten us to the things in our lives that are not allowing the Word of God to fully penetrate our inner most being, and to take root, grow, and bear fruit.

We must then humbly admit that we have through our sin, what we have done or what we have failed to do, not allowed or choke off a more intimate fruitful relationship with God and with His Holy Church. We do this by confessing these sins in the Sacrament of Confession, truthfully and fully…This leads us to be more open to His Holy Word, to receive it more worthily and fully, thus allowing it to bear more fruit in us, the fruit of becoming one with God in a loving union not only in the life to come but already here on earth….This is a union with leads to great joy in our lives even amidst great sufferings and struggles; a union with allow us to share this joy with others helping to lead them to this same loving union with God.

It is important to remember that the Word of God comes to us today through the Sacred Scriptures, which we just heard. It come to us through those Scriptures which are explain and taught to us infallibly, without error, by the Holy Church and her teachings. It comes to us through It’s minister the priest through the Sacraments of the Church. But most especially and substantially it comes to us through the Holy Eucharist, which is, or better yet, Who is the Word of God become flesh.

The Holy Eucharist, the Word of God who is none other than Jesus, comes to us from the Father. In the Holy Eucharist, Jesus who is equal to the Father and so God Himself comes to us seeking to enter into our souls fully and bear great fruit in and through us through our holiness of life. In the Holy Eucharist Who is God, the Father wishes to bring us into an intimate fruitful union of love with Him. And as I said, the fruit of this union is not only the individual soul becoming one with God, but also others, through that soul and its life, becoming one with God.

God is the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Eucharist is God. Let us at this Holy Mass ask God to help us to rid our lives of anything, anything that is preventing our reception of God at Holy Communion from taking root in our lives and bearing great fruity. Let us be willing to make any effort, suffer any pain or endure any tribulation to do so. For the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed in us by witness of our lives to the Word of God, Jesus whom we receive in Holy Communion.

And when we look at the Holy Eucharist let us remember that blessed are our eyes because they see (through faith) the Word of God which has sprung forth from the mouth of the Father and becomes flesh once again on this altar of sacrifice through the Holy Spirit working through the gift of the Sacred Priesthood. And in order to receive Him more fruitfully let us, in response to the God who gives Himself totally to us in Holy Communion, give ourselves totally to Him by placing our hearts in spirit on the paten to be offered to Him in loving sacrifice.

Let us make our offering acceptable by making it through the Immaculate Heart and the hands of the Blessed Virgin Mary through which the Word of God took flesh and entered into our world as one of us…let us ask her to help us to allow this Holy Mass and Holy Communion to bear great fruit in our lives…for many prophets and righteous people longed to see what we see but did not see it, hear what we hear and did not hear it…that is to see and hear Jesus, the Word of God, truly present in the Holy Eucharist, the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar bearing much fruit through you and me transforming our world by transforming us making us and others through us one with God in Truth and Love. Holy Mary Mother of the Eucharist pray for us