From My Point of Pew

Readings for the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

From Fr. Jim’s homily – he started by emphasizing how important it is to realize God’s gift to us in our very existence. We must recognize the dignity that each person has and the dignity that we have just by being human. To never ignore someone or pretend they don’t exist. That’s why he says hi to everyone he comes across as he walks down the aisles at the grocery store. Because it’s the only thing he can do, recognize that they exist and are standing right next to him.  And through Baptism we are transformed from ordinary people to people of God. People that have a calling and a mission. Part of everyone’s mission is to recognize the dignity of each person. But imagine if every Christian in the world understood his/her individual vocation and then actually lived it.

Remember to join in the conversation and leave your point of pew in the comment section.

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What is “From My Point of Pew”? Read here.

Every Sunday when we go to church, weapons of Mass distraction (another idea I had to name this series) work against me when it comes to hearing the readings and the homily. But I love having the kids at church with us. Even if they squirm and shriek and fight and cry only at the moments when the entire church is silent. Jesus wants them there, noise and all. It’s their own form of prayer.

Their own form of giving glory to God.

But I don’t think you have to have kids to be distracted at Mass. Sometime homilies are terrible. Sometimes the sound system at church goes out and we’re sitting in the exact wrong spot. Sometimes we’re so hungry all we can do is think about is brunch. And sometimes we’re just plain out of it and daze our way through Mass.

So I wanted to start a little community here. Right here in this very spot. I usually only catch one or two things that stick with me after Mass (you know, other than the amazing sacrifice and gift of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ) and I’m guessing lots of people have this experience. But I’d like to hear more. I’d like to understand more.

Here is a place where we can all throw in our two cents. One takeaway you got from Mass. Whatever your takeaway is, if we all write a few sentences about what the Holy Spirit revealed to us on Sunday, it can add up to a lot that we can all grow from. You can jot down your thoughts in the comment section.

Logistics: Every week I will publish “From My Point of Pew” on Saturday with only a link to the Sunday readings. I’ll write my piece by Sunday midday when the kids are napping. But as we all think of it, we can take a few minutes to tell each other a quick takeaway we heard at Mass. Ideally we could all share here on Sunday but life happens and whenever you can get to it, even if it is Tuesday, I’d love to hear what you have to say.

So we’ll kick it off today —

From My Point of Pew #1: January 12, 2014 – Baptism of the Lord

Our priest told us when he was thinking about his homily, he had no idea how to link Christmas and Baptism. What the heck does baptism have to do with Christmas? But then he realized it’s perfect. Baptism is the bridge to ordinary time. We just witnessed the amazing sacrifice of God humbling himself to become man, to become man at his most vulnerable, most weak, most needy — a baby. That’s hard to top. But followed by Jesus’ baptism, we see how this helps us flow into ordinary time. We go from this miracle, this mystery to a moment that makes it clear what Jesus’ mission is. To teach us what is right and just and to save us from our sins. Now we can enter ordinary time knowing that Jesus will walk with us and teach us.

From your point of pew, what did you hear?