Sunday Mass LIVE at St. Mary's | February 27, 2022

good morning everyone welcome to st mary's we're glad to have you here this morning and i'd like to especially welcome anyone who's here for the first time so if you're here for the first time or if you're visiting our parish could you raise your hand so we can welcome you alright we got a family up here welcome [Applause] okay so we have some announcements before we get started this morning um [Music] first of all we have an update on restrictions uh here at st mary's and it's good news starting tuesday march 1st all capacity limits will be lifted at st mary's all capacity limits on social gatherings will also be limited will be lifted and physical distancing between households will no longer be necessary so that means you will no longer have to register to attend mass um we will not have to take your name and contact tracing will no longer be required and singing is permitted um however there are a few things still remaining in place including masking and hand hygiene so keep that in mind and while this is definitely great news let us continue to be charitable and respectful to others as we all transition out of this pandemic at our own pace ash wednesday is just around the corner and that is the beginning of the season of lent so if you'd like to join us for ash wednesday you can join us at 9 00 a.m 12 15 p.m and 7 30 pm um because the restrictions will be lifted at that point registration is not required just show up and if you are watching online you'd like to join us for ash wednesday mass on youtube or facebook you can join us at 9 a.m and 7 30 p.m eastern time and finally our young adults group bayswater and young is hosting fiat a night of worship and adoration for adults aged 18 to 40 and this event is next saturday this coming saturday march 5th at 7 30 p.m now i'll invite you to stand and we will begin mass [Music] righteous ruler of the heavens [Music] [Music] lord of all creation holy holy our god every tribe and tom lift your voice as one he is greatly to be praised sing to the lord oh my soul let the heavens shout for joy grace grace is our god [Music] nations come and bow before him [Applause] holy holy our god [Music] angels sing now and forever [Music] holy [Music] lift your voice as one he is greatly to be praised [Music] soul let the heavens shout for joy [Music] is [Music] god to sing to the lord oh my soul let the hands shout for joy the grace [Music] is our god [Music] worthy to be praised [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit the lord be with you so it's good news that things are opening up again there i guess in two days i'm gonna be honest with you i like the distance you know i'm one of these guys i like my space you know and i know that's not a good thing you know it'll be good to be able to fill the church but uh even going to the store sometimes i like putting on a mask so no one recognizes me anyways not a good reason to like anyways i'm being silly but the lord loves us and he wants us to rejoice in his presence amen let's open our hearts to the god of mercy the god of love the god of infinite compassion who sees our wounds who wants to heal our broken hearts let's acknowledge our sins and receive his mercy i confess to almighty god and to you my brothers and sisters that i have greatly sinned in my thoughts and in my words in what i have done and what i have failed to do through my fault through my fault through my most grievous fault therefore i ask blessed mary ever virgin all the angels and saints and to you my brothers and sisters to pray for me to the lord our god may almighty god have mercy on us forgive us our sins and bring us to everlasting life [Music] [Music] lord have mercy [Music] christ [Music] have mercy [Music] curious lord have mercy lord have mercy glory to god in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will we praise you we bless you we adore you we glorify you we give you thanks for your great glory lord god heavenly king oh god almighty father glory to god in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will [Music] lord jesus christ only begotten son lord god lamb of god son of the father you take away the sins of the world have mercy on us you take away the sins of the world receive our prayer you are seated at the right hand of the father have mercy on us [Music] glory to god in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will for you alone are the holy one you alone are the lord you alone are the most high jesus christ with the holy spirit in the glory of god the father [Music] amen amen glory to god in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will let us pray grant us o lord we pray that the course of our world may be directed by your peaceful rule so that your church may rejoice untroubled in her devotion through our lord jesus christ your son who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit god forever and ever a reading from the book of sirach when a sieve is shaken the refuse appears so do one's faults when one speaks the kiln tests the potter's vessels so the test of the just person is in tribulation its fruit discloses the cultivation of a tree so a person's speech discloses the cultivation of the mind do not praise someone before they speak for this is the way people are tested the word of the lord lord it is good to give thanks to you give thanks to you [Music] lord it is good to give thanks to you give thanks to you [Music] it is good to give thanks to the lord to sing praises to your name almost high [Music] to declare your steadfast love in the morning and your faithfulness by nights lord it is good to give thanks to you give thanks to you the righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in lebanon [Music] they are planted in the house of the lord they flourish in the courts of our god [Music] lord it is good to give thanks to you give thanks to you [Music] in old age they still produce fruit they are always green and full of sap showing that the lord is upright [Music] he is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him [Music] the lord it is good to give thanks to you give thanks to you lord it is good to give thanks to you give thanks to you from the first letter of saint paul to the corinthians brothers and sisters when this perishable body puts on imperishability and this mortal body puts on immortality then the saying that is written will be fulfilled deaths has been swallowed up in victory whereo death is your victory where o death is your sting the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law but thanks be to god who gives us the victory through our lord jesus christ therefore my beloved be steadfast immovable always excelling in the work of the lord because you know that in the lord your labor is not in vain the word of the lord okay [Music] hallelujah [Music] hallelujah [Music] shine like stars in the world holding fast [Music] [Music] live [Music] the lord be with you a reading from the holy gospel according to luke jesus told his disciples a parable can a blind person guide a blind person will not both fall into a pit a disciple is not above the teacher but everyone who is fully qualified will be like their teacher why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye but do not notice the log in your own eye or how can you say to your neighbor friend let me take out the speck in your eye when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye you hypocrite first take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye no good tree bears bad fruit nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit for each tree is known by its own fruit figs are not gathered from thorns nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush out of the good treasure of the heart the good person produces good and out of evil out of evil treasure the evil person produces evil for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks the gospel of the lord our lord jesus says that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks i like to do a little bit of reading and a lot of what i read kind of makes its way into my heart and oftentimes i have a lot on my heart and i think that's why my homilies are so long i'm working on short or shorter homilies but it's it's not going too well but today i'm going to try to focus and highlight one simple image and it comes from the chapter we heard read today in the second reading first corinthians chapter 15 saint paul is responding to to people maybe even christians who kind of are balking at the idea of the resurrection of the body and he has to clarify and these verses come just before what we heard read in the reading but he's he's explained like people were thinking that somehow the resurrected body will be kind of a reanimation of our corpses or or somehow made up of the same material our earthly bodies are made up or the idea that somehow our glorified bodies will be kind of a lesser version of what we have now a kind of a ghostly less real almost like a zombie version of what we have now and so peter paul is responding to this and he gives an image to try to explain you know to try to explain that our present bodies they're temporal but our transformed and glorified bodies will be eternal powerful made from the materials of heaven not of earth and they will be built for an eternity with god they'll be more beautiful more wonderful than we could ever imagine and the image he uses to explain this is the image of a seed and again we we read these verses just before what we heard in the reading today paul says but some of you someone may say how are the dead raised what kind of body will they will they come back with what kind of body will they come back you fool what you sow is not brought to life unless it dies and when you s and what you sow is not the body that is to be to is not the body that is to be but a bare kernel of wheat perhaps or of some other kind but god gives it a body as he chooses and to each of the seeds its own body so he uses the image to explain and of course every image falls short but this is a biblical image so it's very accurate the image of a seed and he says you know when you sow a seed into the ground what comes out isn't kind of another kind of seed kind of a bigger or a different seed no it's completely different it's a mystery the wonders of a seed i remember someone once gave me a packet of wildflower seeds a mix a whole bunch of different random wildflowers you take the seeds you throw them on the ground and up pops all these different wonderful wildflowers and when i looked at the seeds they're all these little wee black grains tiny minuscule and i remember thinking to myself you know like if someone spilled these on the floor by mistakes someone would just think they're just little pieces of dirt that sweep them up and throw them in the garbage not realizing that each one of these little seeds has a wonderful wildflower in it and and so too i'm a wreck here this morning by the way i got black all over my hand my bible's kind of shedding the cover but anyways what was i talking about wild flower seeds um every seed has this wonderful flower in it and it's you could almost say it's it's bordering miraculous like seriously how can there be a beautiful flower hidden in the seed or an acorn how can there be an oak tree hidden in an acorn or we can use other images how can there be a butterfly in potential in a caterpillar etc and that's what saint paul is pointing to and he says so to each one of us there's something wonderfully mysterious there is something to come with these with the reality of the glorified body that our lord jesus already gave us an image of and a foretaste of in his resurrection now some people will say oh yeah i know you christians you believe in everlasting life heaven where there's no tears no pain forever eternal bliss but prove it what proof do you have of this wonderful reality called heaven now or of the supernatural now my my kind of typical response is over the years i mean there's a lot of responses um but i would typically go to for example the apparitions of the blessed virgin mary that have been approved by the church especially the recent ones like our lady of fatima or a lady of kibeho you know like at fatima the miracle of the sun there was all kinds of journalists who were against the church who went there to prove these children wrong read their accounts of what happened with this 70 000 people gathered on that day again do you have an explanation for that or again the events of our lady of quebeco and rwanda even more recently it's mind-boggling absolutely mind-boggling god is real or i point people to the eucharistic miracles in the church and again especially the recent ones medically medically and scientifically um analyzed it's it's mind-blowing and again we're not talking about just one eucharistic miracle in some place no we're talking about a number of these things in different parts of the world mind-boggling i point people to the wonders of the saints and again not just the saints from the middle ages that people can just discount oh these are all made up stories no recent saints like saint miriam of bethlehem who was just canonized she would levitate this happened numerous times in front of groups of people here she is floating around singing about the love of god explain that you know and and so on and you know for the atheist oftentimes it's like they always say well there's got to be some kind of explanation for those things and i'm like yeah i agree his name is god okay like if you're looking for an explanation for these countless signs that god gives us to that so that we may believe that's a biblical reference by the way god gives us signs so that we believe because he loves us so much and so again god gives us these these signs so that we may believe and so for the atheist you know to deny these signs in my mind when you really do look closely at the signs god gives in these different things it it's like you need more faith not to believe in god you know than to believe in him now i don't know how many of you have heard of father robert spitzer he's a well-known and respected scholar and priest and he's written and spoken quite extensively on the whole phenomena of near-death experiences i've been talking about this lately one of the things he highlights is that the university of virginia has a whole department in its medical school dedicated to studying these near-death experience near-death studies and the phenomena of the survival of the soul after bodily death and he says this has become a more widely studied phenomena including published peer-reviewed published articles in well-respected medical journals um but this has become more commonly studied since this whole phenomenon of cardiac resuscitation you know people who are brought back to life they're they're clinically dead and they're brought back to life and there's so many people um who who testify that when i was out it's like i went to heaven i saw that i saw the things of heaven and there's a little joke about this i don't know if it's inappropriate but you know peter was waiting at the gate and a man appeared and peter said oh welcome you made it to heaven come on and he disappeared and peter's like where'd he go and also he appears again and and the guys and peter says oh sorry come on in you're and he disappears again and peter's just as strange and then the guy appears again and peter says what are you doing like you keep and he says it's not my fault those darn dogs doctors keep resuscitating me you know anyways i i don't know if i told the story well but the point is is there's so there's ample evidence you know of people having these experiences and what's kind of well first i want to read this this passage to you from this is from imagine heaven a pastor who studied over a thousand near-death experiences he says every experience is unique and each should be filtered with a measure of skepticism i hope everyone here has a healthy skepticism you don't just believe something because someone says it you know like we need to in in the book he gets into all the different kind of hesitations and explains how we need to view these things but anyway he goes on to say however when thousands of people of all ages across the globe report the same core elements over and over we need to consider what this means and so many scholars like father robert spitzer are saying hey you know like this is this is something to be taken seriously and we we can even say when a person is asking for evidence or signs of the next life we can point them to what we're discovering with these near-death experiences now i want to give you one amusing example of how and why the medical world and others are taking these near-death experiences seriously because people come back and they know things that there's absolutely no way they could have known that one example is a guy he was on the operating table and um he went out and a nurse dressed in blue told the doctor he's not conscious he's out and he heard the nurse saying this while he found himself or in floating above his body watching this from above and then he said he just found himself floating out of the room through the fan and through the ceiling and had this experience of heaven and when he came back he told the medical staff about this but he said no one was interested in listening to him except for the one nurse because he told her some of the things he heard her say when he when when he was out and she declared him out you know and so he he said listen when i was floating out i saw a sticker on the fan but on the opposite side of the fan and so she looked into it and he he writes i finally convinced her to get a tall ladder and see for herself the red sticker whose appearance i described in great detail on the hidden side of the emergency room ceiling fan the nurse and an orderly saw the sticker confirming all the details of its appearance as i described now a person can say well that's just a coincidence or maybe made up but the thing is there's so many examples of this i can share with you all kinds of them but i'm trying to keep my homily shorter now in the book he writes after studying over a thousand near-death experiences i found that they all add color to a similar grand picture of the afterlife and so people are having these experiences there's a similarity there's different dimensions but they line up with what scripture says he goes on to say why why this is important the whole point of why i'm talking about this this morning he says the way you think about what's to come after this life affects everything how you prioritize love how willing you are to sacrifice for the long term how you view suffering what you fear or don't fear and so again this is this is why you know it's so important for us to know and to realize that it's true our catholic faith is true even when so many people who are being swept away by the spirit of the age by worldly thinking stop believing we as followers of christ we need to know and understand that what we believe is true it's marvelous now a book i read a while ago it's called a time to die the author nicholas death visited a number of well-known austere monasteries in the catholic world and he interviewed the monks about the reality of dying and death and how they experienced dying and death in monasters i know it sounds morbid but it's actually a good read but the point is is he hit the last monastery he saved the best for last he visited the carthusians the grand chartreuse in france and i think it's the abbot don anyways dawn innocent he said eternity passes through death and so we enter into eternity through death we must love this door that will allow us to know the father we are born for heaven earthly life and eternal life are intimately connected christians no longer really believe in the resurrection of bodies paradise is likened to a void of floating souls but men are in the image of god it will not be necessary to leave our humanity in order to be united with god and that's a catholic reality we are human unity of body and soul in heaven we will still be human unity of body and soul with a glorified body but still human he says eternity will be much more human than we can imagine we will be wonderfully human mysteriously human gloriously human in ways we can't even imagine but part of the reality is you know people who have these near-death experiences they say in heaven there's still flowers and trees and wonderful things like that you know things but at a whole other level of beauty and mystery and then his last point he says we should cultivate an imaginary image of eternal life and when he says an imaginary image what he's what he means is that the holy spirit wants to work through the gift of our imagination to give us light so that we can somehow already in this life sense and come to understanding penetrate the mystery of eternal life already taste in this life the things of heaven so the point is scripture commands us to seek the lord one of the ways we seek the lord is by studying our faith learning about our faith reading good books when we seek god we find him our hearts ons are set on fire and then we have something to tell others to give this world hope let us profess our faith i believe in god the father almighty creator of heaven and earth and in jesus christ his only son our lord who was conceived by the holy spirit born of the virgin mary suffered under pontius pilate was crucified died and was buried he descended into hell on the third day he rose again from the dead he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of god the father almighty from there he will come to judge the living and the dead i believe in the holy spirit the holy catholic church the communion of saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and life everlasting out of the divine goodness that grows in our hearts through the holy spirit let us pray for our needs and the needs of all people for the ongoing synod in the church that it will lead us to greater unity in carrying out our mission as baptized catholics we pray to the lord for world leaders that the lord will guide them in diffusing international tensions and in finding peaceful resolutions to conflict we pray to the lord for the people of ukraine for those who have died those who are displaced and those who are defending them we pray to the lord for those who suffer the wounds of racism and discrimination that the lord will heal them and fill their hearts with knowledge of his unconditional love we pray to the lord for our parish community that we recommit to focusing on god's voice during the coming season of lent we pray to the lord for those who are ill that they may be healed and strengthened and for those who have died especially larry share that they may share in the new life of the resurrection we pray to the lord for the special intention for this mass for the repose of the soul of doris hutchinson we pray to the lord god of saints and sinners as we open our ears to hear your son's word we ask you to open our lives to receive what is for our good in answer to these prayers yours be the praise and the glory now and always through jesus christ our lord amen [Music] purify my heart let me be as gold and precious silver purify my heart let me be as gold pure [Music] refiner's fire my heart's one desire is to be holy [Music] set apart for you lord i choose to be holy set apart for you my master ready to do your will [Music] purify my heart cleanse me from within and make me holy cleanse me from my sins deep within [Music] refiner's fire my heart's one desire is to be holy [Music] set apart for you lord i choose to be holy set apart for you my master ready to do your will [Music] ready to do your will pray brothers and sisters that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to god the almighty father oh god who provide gifts to be offered to your name and count on count our oblation as signs of our desire to serve you with devotion we ask of your mercy that what you grant as the source of merit may also help us to attain that merits reward through christ our lord amen the lord be with you r lift up your hearts let us give thanks to the lord our god it is truly right and just our duty and our salvation always and everywhere to give you thanks lord holy father almighty and eternal god through christ our lord for through his paschal mystery he accomplished the marvelous deed by which he has freed us from the yoke of sin and death summoning us to the glory of being now called a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for your own possession to proclaim everywhere your mighty works for you have called us out of darkness into your own wonderful light and so with angels and archangels with thrones and dominions and with all the hosts and powers of heaven we sing the hymn of your glory as without end we acclaim [Music] heaven and earth are full of your glory [Music] blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord [Music] [Music] in you are indeed holy oh lord the fount of all holiness make holy therefore these gifts we pray by sending down your spirit upon them like the dewfall so that they may become for us the body and blood of our lord jesus christ at the time he was betrayed and entered willingly into his passion he took bread and giving thanks broke it and gave it to his disciples saying take this all of you and eat of it for this is my body which will be given up for you [Music] in a similar way when supper was ended he took the chalice and once more giving thanks he gave it to his disciples saying take this all of you and drink from it for this is the chalice of my blood the blood of the new and eternal covenant which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins do this in memory of me [Music] the mystery of faith when we eat this bread and drink this [Music] therefore as we celebrate the memorial of his death and resurrection we offer you lord the bread of life and the chalice of salvation giving thanks that you have held us worthy to be in your presence and minister to you humbly we pray that partaking of the body and blood of christ we may be gathered into one by the holy spirit remember lord your church spread throughout the world and bring her to the fullness of charity together with francis our pope and marcel our bishop and all the clergy remember also our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection and all who have died in your mercy welcome them into the light of your face have mercy on us all we pray that with the blessed virgin mary mother of god with blessed joseph her spouse with the blessed apostles and all the saints who have pleased you throughout the ages we may merit to be coheirs to eternal life and may praise and glorify you through your son jesus christ through him and with him and in him oh god almighty father in the unity of the holy spirit all glory and honor is yours forever and ever [Music] at the savior's command and formed by divine teaching we dare to say our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven and give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil deliver us lord we pray from every evil graciously grant peace in our days that by the help of your mercy we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our savior jesus christ lord jesus christ who said to your apostles peace i leave you my peace i give you look not on our sins but on the faith of your church and graciously grant her peace and unity in accordance with your will who live and reign forever and ever the peace of the lord be with you always let us offer each other the sign of peace [Music] [Music] of god you take away the sins of the world on us [Music] of the world have mercy on us of god you take away the sins of the world [Music] peace behold the lamb of god behold him who takes away the sins of the world blessed are those who are called to the supper of the lamb lord i am not worthy that you should enter under my roof but only say the word and my soul shall be healed an act of spiritual communion my jesus i believe that you are present in the most holy sacrament i love you above all things and i desire to receive you into my soul since i cannot at this moment receive you sacramentally come at least spiritually into my heart i embrace you as if you're already there and unite myself holy to you never permit me to be separated from you amen thank you [Music] boys [Music] so [Music] you can't go back to the beginning [Music] can't control what tomorrow will bring but i know here in the middle [Music] is the place where you promise to be [Music] i'm not enough unless you come will you meet me here [Music] i again is [Music] as i walk now through the valley [Music] let your love rise above every fear like the sun shaping the shadow in my weakness your glory appears i'm not enough unless you come will you meet me here again [Music] cause all i want is all you are will you meet me here again unless you come will you meet me here again [Music] cause all i want is [Music] not for a minute [Music] a forsaken the lord is in this place the lord is in this place come holy spirit [Applause] the lord is in this place the lord is in this [Music] a place was a forsaken the lord is in this place the lord is in this place become [Music] the lord is in this place not for a minute was i forsaken the lord is in this place the lord is in this place [Music] the lord is in this place the lord is in this place i'm not enough unless you come will you meet me here again [Music] cause all i want is all you are will you meet me here again i'm not enough unless you come will you meet me here again cause all i want [Music] will you is me here again [Music] i'm not enough unless you come will you meet me here again [Music] cause all i want [Music] is all you are will you meet me here again [Music] you come will you meet me here again [Music] is all you are will you meet me here again [Music] [Music] [Music] so let us pray nourished by your saving gifts we beseech your mercy lord that by the same sacrament with which you feed us in the present age you may make us partakers of life eternal through christ our lord so apparently we're going to be getting somewhat back to normal this week i want to take a minute to thank all the people the volunteers over the last two years who helped saint mary's keep going during these crazy times i think in particular of the ushers they had the hardest job of all but also all the many other people it was complicated the last two years have been complicated keeping things going at st mary's and we've had a phenomenal team of volunteers who self-sacrificed who put up with the law to put up with all the curve balls and all of that and i'm just so grateful i know i know we're all so grateful for the wonderful people who so selflessly serve saint mary's parish because they love the lord they love the parish and they love the parishioners and all people and so can we give a big round of applause to all the people who serve [Music] [Music] the lord be with you bow down for the blessing father pour out your blessing upon your children father through this blessing heal your children restore them and make them new fill them lord with your joy and your peace lord give them your love through this blessing and may the blessing of almighty god descend upon you now the father the son and the holy spirit and remain with you forever mass is ended go in peace saint michael the archangel defend us in battle be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil may god rebuke him we humbly pray and do thou prince to the heavenly host by the power of god cast into hell satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls amen [Music] [Applause] [Music] faithful promises time and time again you have proven that you do just what you say though the storms may come and [Music] to pass [Applause] [Music] is your faithful to me from the rising sun to the setting same i will praise is your faithfulness to me [Applause] god from h to age though the earth may pass away your word remains the same your history can prove that there's nothing you can't do you're faithful and true though the storms may come and the winds may blow i'll remain steadfast and let my heart learn when you speak a word your faithfulness to me great is your faithful to me from the rising sun to the setting same i will praise your name great is your faithfulness to me [Applause] you

Channel: St. Mary's Parish - Ottawa

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Keywords: Catholic, Church, Mass, Sunday Mass, Fr. Mark, Fr. Mark Goring, Fr. Ken Lao, Companions of the Cross, Charismatic, Worship

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Length: 71min 44sec (4304 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 27 2022