RCIA Class #14 | Official Catholic Teaching, Cult of Personality, & Faith | Fr. Brian Larkin

Father Brian recommends the 1st edition of the RSV Bible. Scripture scholars will tell you this is the best translation in English.

God is truth.

"Can you see who He really is? Can you see His glory?"

We cannot measure the Divine; the Divine measures us.

Faith is letting go of yourself and opening up to God, because when you love someone, you have to learn to surrender.

Another resource: Isaiah 6

Jesus heals the deaf and blind men. All the while, everyone is asking Him for a sign that He is who He says He is.

The paradigm that changed everything.

1st Sunday of Advent

11/29/2020

New Creation & Reading Someone Else's Mail

2 Corinthians 5:17

A New Creation

"Behold, the new has come..."

J.R.R. Tolkien—the way that most modern scholars read the scripture is like taking a single stone out of a tower instead of examining the tower in its wholeness, and complete form.

We will dominantly be reading from the Gospel of Mark in the coming year.

When we read the NT, it's like reading someone else's mail.

Part of the mystery of Jesus is that he's enthroned in the 4 Gospels. Mark's symbol is the lion because he is riding

The person's mail you are reading is in the mid 60s, AD. In 64 AD, Nero set the city of Rome on fire. The image that derived from that is Nero playing the fiddle as it burned. Afterwards, he chose the Catholics a scapegoat. Thus began one of the largest Christian persecutions of Christ. Peter and Paul were martyred during this time.

The Gospel of Mark is written for a church who is suffering. Once you know that God loves you from the Book of Matthew, Jesus in the Book of Mark says, "Come suffer with me."

1 Peter 4

"Beloved, do not be surprised..."

"Rejoice in so far as you join in Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed."

The horrific death on the cross was no accident.

Mark wants to call you out of the shallow waters of the Christian faith. We are in desperate need of Christians who understand what this means.

Mark 8: the heart of Mark's gospel. The closest followers of Jesus are dead and blind. The only thing that opens the apostles' eyes is the Crucifixion.

"I don't care how many books you have read or how long you have been a Catholic. Everyone of us needs God to strip away the hardness so that we can truly understand the mystery of the Crucifixion."

Read Mark, and make a decision today to leave the shallow waters, and enter joyfully into the suffering of Christ.

"Jesus, may I be conformed to the Cross."

Join Father Brian Larkin on Sunday at 10 AM, Mountain Standard Time, for a livestreamed Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes in Denver, Colorado!

Following our Mass livestream, we will continue to offer a Communion procession, via car line, in the Lourdes parking lot. The procession will take place from noon until 1 PM, weather permitting. Please respect our neighbors and do not line up early. Please enter from Warren Street and exit at Iliff Ave.

Also, please note these additional guidelines:

*Firstly, watch a livestreamed Mass before you come to receive Communion; Mass and Communion are meant to be celebrated in combination with each other.

Thank you!

Please wear a mask, bring hand sanitizer. Please remove the mask only after the priest or EMHC backs up from your car, unless you are receiving by mouth.

There will be no distribution of the Precious Blood at this time.

An EMHC or priest will rotate around your car to distribute the Holy Eucharist to all recipients.

Please do not leave your car at any time, or wander the Lourdes campus for any reason—not even for a bathroom break, as these are city orders. Thank you!

**Please stay home if you are sick, or have any risk factors for COVID-19** (i.e., you are 65 or older, or have a compromised or suppressed immune system from transplants or cancer treatments, or if you have diabetes, heart disease, or any other risky health conditions listed by the CDC or NIH).

We look forward to celebrating the holy sacrifice of the Mass with you!

Details about Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church in Denver, Colorado:

For sacramental inquiries: email [email protected]

Location: Denver, Colorado, United States

Links:

Donate: https://lourdesdenver.org/donate/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LourdesDenver/

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Website: https://lourdesdenver.org/

Solemnity of Christ | What Really Matters | 11.22.2020 | Fr. Brian Larkin by Lourdes Denver

In class #11, Father Brian reviews the promises of Abraham from last week, and introduces the importance of the saints, particularly St. Elizabeth of Hungary, and how "love will make you poor," in the sense that when you love someone, you will want to lose yourself.

Details about Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church in Denver, Colorado:

For sacramental inquiries: email [email protected]

Location: Denver, Colorado, United States

Links:

Donate: https://lourdesdenver.org/donate/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LourdesDenver/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lourdes_den...

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Website: https://lourdesdenver.org/

The Christian Mission

Homily @ 30:26

There is an overarching mention of fear in today's readings, however, we should note the varying definitions of "fear," before we settle on that theme.

"Blessed are those who fear the Lord." This is filial fear—based in love of a father.

Out of fear, the servant buries the talent (year's wage) = servile fear. This has nothing to do with love, and everything to do with punishment.

St. Thomas Aquinas describes a filial fear is compared to familial love, that can only come from love of a father. Servile fear is fear that comes from serving a master. Servile fear-has nothing to do with love, but everything to do with self hatred, and fear of punishment; it mis-caricatures who God is. Servile fear is not from God. Don't listen to things that instill servile fear in you; we are called to filial love.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/a....

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Matthew 25: The Parable of the Talents

"Gospel"—Greek for "good news!" 🗞 The Gospel is a message of joy, hope, & freedom.

In Matthew 25, the servant who handled his talents well was the one who lived without fear, whereas the man with the single talent did the opposite, and buried it out of fear of the future.

The parable in Matthew 25 focuses on the master's return.

So, what are you going to do with your Christian life?

Have you ever thought, "If the Christian life is all about going to heaven, why hasn't He come back, yet?"

1 Cor. 15: 58

"Therefore, my beloved brothers, be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."

That talent God gave you—when you do work that is in the Lord—it is not in vain. Root yourself in the Lord and your house will not be torn down. When you go to work, you are a worker for justice, righteousness, love, & mercy. That is your stone in God's Cathedral. —Fr. Brian Larkin

N.T. Wright, on the stonemason: “They are not, themselves, building the cathedral, but they are building for the cathedral, and when the cathedral is complete their work will be enhanced, ennobled, will mean much more than it could have meant as they were chiseling it and shaping it down in the stonemason's yard."

"The Architect already drew up the plan...They might not know how their work is going to fit in that great cathedral, but the architect does." —Father Brian Larkin

The problem with today is we think we can build a perfect society without God. You and I are called to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. So, what are you doing with your talent?

God provides us with 3 ways, in our ordinary lives, to build for God's future world:

1. Righteousness

2. Beauty & Hope: Do not give into fear.

3. Evangelization

Know that we are men and women of hope, and we bring hope of God's faithfulness with us wherever we go. Jesus, help us build that cathedral with the talent you have given us. Free us from fear while we wait for your return, and may we be wise with the talents you gave each of us.

Details about Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church in Denver, Colorado:

For sacramental inquiries: email [email protected]

Location: Denver, Colorado, United States

Links:

Donate: https://lourdesdenver.org/donate/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LourdesDenver/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lourdes_den...

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Website: https://lourdesdenver.org/ See Less

RCIA Class #10 | Unity vs. Uniformity | November 11, 2020 | Fr. Brian Larkin by Lourdes Denver

Virtue of Endurance

Homily at 26:00

All are weary of hardship, and politics, and the pandemic, and the list goes on. But, the Scriptures are calling us to live a life with the virtue of endurance. For your first marathon, the key is endurance:

Resources mentioned in today's homily:

Matthew 25: 1–13:

Compare to Matthew 26 when Jesus is in Gethsemane:

2 Timothy 4:7–8

Paul is about to be martyred...he's approaching his "mile 22"...or maybe "mile 25":

7 * I have competed well; I have finished the race;f I have kept the faith.

8 * From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have longed for his appearance.

In the moments when you're barely hanging on, you don't have to do it alone.

Jesus never promised it would be easy to follow him. But, He promised He would be with us through it all. But the virtue of endurance is key, and it is mentioned all throughout the Old and New Testament:

Matthew 7:13–14

13 * “Enter through the narrow gate;* for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many.j

14 How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.

Luke 8:13: The Parable of the Sewer

Hupomone in Greek is the word for "patient endurance."

Revelation 1:9, 14:12:

Hebrews 12:11—talks about all the martyrs of the OT martyr is also known as "witness" We are being prayed for by the martyrs who have been there:

11 At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.

1 Cor. 9:24–27

"Every one of you here is a person of patient endurance in Jesus Christ, and you're stronger than someone who wavers when life gets hard. But you make it, not because of you, but because of His faithfulness."

Mark 13

The Romans divide the night into 4 watches:

In Gethsemane, we find ourselves at midnight, when the bridegroom comes. It's an analogy for keeping the faith. At midnight, Jesus comes back to the Apostles, and they're asleep. Analogous for when the Church sleeps, we miss the bridegroom. Ephesians 5: gave His body in a marital way for the Church. "WATCH and pray, that you may not fall into temptation."

When you run out of stamina, turn to the Lord; He will carry you. Hebrews 12.

Hebrews 12:2

"Looking to Jesus...the joy that was set before him endured the cross."

When you're ready to stop running and you're at mile 24, do what Jesus did on the Cross. Christ kept a joy in front of Him that carried him through, and that joy was us. If you can do this, you can endure anything.

Redemption is real, heaven is real, life will end, and there is a groom, and there is a finish line.

Jesus, be our joy. ❤️

In RCIA class #9, listen to the fascinating reasoning behind the incorruptible saints, and how we as Catholics strive for similar holiness. Father Brian also untangles the methodology behind relics and the differences between dogma, doctrine, and disciplines of the Faith. Also hear how Christian obedience comes naturally when we truly love, and why we need to avoid sin at all costs.

Details about Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church in Denver, Colorado:

For sacramental inquiries: email [email protected]

Location: Denver, Colorado, United States

Links:

Donate: https://lourdesdenver.org/donate/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LourdesDenver/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lourdes_den...

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user73713480

Website: https://lourdesdenver.org/

All Saints Day | Eyes of a Child & The Royal Tenenbaums | 11.1.2020 | Guest, Fr. Daniel Eusterman by Lourdes Denver