Liturgy Live

This week on the Podcast we talk about Discipleship and zeal. In the first reading we talk about how Elijah throws his cloak over Elisha while he is farming. This seems quite strange to our ears, but it is a call to discipleship that Elisha would have understood in his time. Elisha was allowed time to slaughter and cook the oxen and feed his people before leaving, he destroyed the temptation of ever looking back from this choice to follow Elijah. In the second reading we talk about how the political climate resembles the words of St Paul when he says if you keep biting at one another you will soon be devoured by one another. We have to be careful to not destroy each other. In the Gospel we talk about how, again in a moment of zeal, James and John are clearly wrong. The teaching this week tells us that there will be groups of people who will not welcome us because of Christ, and we are to keep moving forward and not bring down destruction upon them.

This week we discuss Gods love. Through the gift of the Body and Blood of Christ. Fr Ian talks about the thought of earning God's love as a motivation for working harder and digging deeper in life. Alanna reminds everyone that technically you can not earn God's love because He loves us perfectly from eternity and cannot love us any more than He does now. It was an interesting conversation thinking about what motivates people to work hard for their sanctification. We talk about the Priesthood of Melchizedek and the sacrifice of thanksgiving using Bread and Wine that continued through the temple eras of Judaism. We talked about the Jewish concept of remembrance in the Exodus Passover liturgy, that ties into the meaning of Christ's command of the liturgical remembrance of the Eucharistic celebration. And finally we talk about the feeding of the 5,000 as a prefigurement of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, which is also a communal meal.

This week on the podcast we talk about pondering the Trinity. How it is so difficult to teach the mystery of the Trinity because all examples that we try to use fail. Trying to describe the Trinity is the easiest way to accidentally stray into heresy. We accept by faith and ponder the mystery, and allow it to inform and inspire us. The first reading we talk about how Christ is created wisdom, and how in the mystery and wonder of creation he delights in us. Even in our brokenness. God sees that we are searching for Him even if we are looking in the wrong places. In the second reading we discussed the Theological Virtues of Faith Hope and Love, and how it is a continual process. Suffering creates endurance, this process helps us understand the hope and can finally see the Love that the Holy Spirit has poured into our lives. In the gospel section we discuss how the Holy Spirit informs our hearts and minds, we are not alone in the Church.

The waiting period is over and the apostles receive the gift promised! So too, do we receive the Holy Spirit, especially in the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation. This week on the podcast we talk about how not all experiences with the Holy Spirit are dramatic, some feel like nothing, but we can trust in the power of the grace transmitted in the sacraments. We discuss how the Jewish feast of Pentecost was a celebration of Moses receiving the law on Mount Sinai, and how the new Pentecost is the celebration of the apostles receiving the law of the New Covenant, written on their hearts by the Holy Spirit. We discuss the differences in the Charismatic movement and the contemplative live and the influence of St John of the Cross. The conclusion of that discussion was that our end goal is unity with God, and if those spiritual ways of life become the end, they become corrupted.