Homily Monday, November 24 2025

34th OT



Daniel 1:1-6, 8-20

The question of food in Daniel's time is not an issue for Catholics. Except for meat offerings to idols.



The example we can draw from this is to distance ourselves from evil and allow ourselves to be loved by God.



Allowing ourselves to be loved by God, drives away evil.



Luke 21:1-4

What Jesus says here is a lesson in itself:

"Those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood."



As we know, Jesus wants to guide us to the realities of heaven.



The "surplus wealth" is a danger of pride.



But, for the little woman, she is present with her heart, and in her heart is peace.



Let us be like this little woman who allows God's Love to go ‘round.



Let us allow all people to discover simple joy within themselves.



God's Love is in all hearts.



Biblical texts: NAB-RE

Normand Thomas.

In the United States of America, where I live, marked on our calendars is a yearly day of celebration and thanksgiving to God. Evidently, one of our former presidents by the name of Abraham Lincoln, who was later assassinated, declared it a national holiday in 1863 during the Civil War. “Lincoln’s proclamation was a way to unify the nation during the war by establishing a day for ‘Thanksgiving and Prayer’” (source Google AI). And this day of celebration will be this Thursday, November 27, 2025.

But for us who have trusted in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of our lives, every day should be a day of “Thanksgiving and Prayer.” Every day we should be giving thanks to the Lord for the breath of life and for his love and forgiveness, and for saving us from our sins, and for giving us new life in him to be lived for his glory, and for his purposes, and for his praise. And this is not to be verbal only, but from our hearts of gratitude, and shown in how we live our lives in submission to God and to his purpose for our lives.

For thanksgiving to God is not in words only or it is not true thanksgiving. For if we are truly thankful that he saved us from our sins, and that he has given us new lives in him to be lived for his purpose, then we should be following him with our lives in doing what he commands. We should be walking in obedience to his commands, and sin must no longer be our practice. This doesn’t mean that we will never sin (1 John 2:1-2), or that we will never fail, but day by day we should be following Jesus with our lives.


Yes! As Jesus’s true sheep (followers) we are to be listening to (heeding, following, obeying) his voice, and we should be following (obeying, abiding by) his teachings and his commandments (New Covenant). And we are those to whom he gives eternal life, and we will never perish, and no one can snatch us out of his hands and the hands of God the Father because we pay close attention to our Lord’s words, and we love and obey our Lord and his teachings, and we follow him wherever he leads us in doing what he says.

And that is the best thanksgiving and praise that we can give to God, is when we bow to him in submission to his will and we follow him wherever he leads us in doing all that he commands that we must do as his followers. Yes, I am certain that he loves to hear us sing praises to him and to give him verbal thanks and praise, but provided that our praise is sincere and that it is accompanied by genuine submission to him as Lord of our lives. For the praise that he desires most is our surrender of our lives to him as our Lord.

And this will be evidenced by us serving him with our lives in doing what he has called us to do collectively and individually. And it will be shown through our humility in recognizing that all we have is from the Lord and not of our own doing, and when we become his true and abiding sheep (followers). For true thanksgiving to God is not in lip service only, but in surrender to his will in doing all that he commands that we must do as his followers. And the Lord is good, and his lovingkindness and faithfulness is everlasting. Amen!

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

My Sheep

Based off John 10:1-30 NIV
An Original Work / June 24, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

My sheep hear me. They know me.
They listen to my voice and obey.
I call them and lead them.
They know my voice, so they follow me.
They will never follow strangers.
They will run away from them.
The voice of a stranger they know not;
They do not follow him.

So, I tell you the truth that
I am the gate, so you enter in.
Whoever does enter
Will find forgiveness and will be saved.
Nonetheless whoever enters
Not by the gate; other way,
He is the thief and a robber.
Listen not, the sheep to him.

Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,
Who laid his own life down for the sheep.
I know them. They know me.
They will live with me eternally.
The thief only comes to steal and
Kill and to destroy the church.
I have come to give you life that
You may have it to the full…

They know my voice, so they follow me.

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The Sheep of His Pasture
An Original Work / November 23, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

As a young Christian and someone who was into Led Zeplin, Floyd, Hendrix, and Cream ect Phil Keaggy filled that gap well. Even better as even his guitar work sounded Christian lol. I remember having the Sony Walkman and listening walking down the street or on a bus. It was great.

My favorite song was 'Time'

I love the studio version of the original album 'Love Broke Through'. But I also like this later version from a few years ago.

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But you can't be blessed and oppose the 10 commandments, can you? You can't sin and be blessed? One has to go with the other, right? Maybe both need displayed. Always half stories and this is how we've lost our way, IMO

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Day 6... 11/23/25

O Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of Our Lord Jesus and our Mother, penetrated with the most lively confidence in your all-powerful and never-failing intercession, manifested so often through the Miraculous Medal, we your loving and trustful children implore you to obtain for us the graces and favors we ask during this Novena, if they be beneficial to our immortal souls, and the souls for whom we pray.

(Privately form your petitions here.)

You know, O Mary, how often our souls have been the sanctuaries of your Son who hates iniquity. Obtain for us, then, a deep hatred of sin and that purity of heart, which will attach us to God alone so that our every thought word and deed may tend to his greater glory. Obtain for us also a spirit of prayer and self-denial, that we may recover by penance what we have lost by sin, and at length attain to that blessed abode where you are the Queen of angels and of men. Amen.

partinobodycular said:

I don't know if the internet is the cause, but I find it almost impossible to watch more than 10 or 15 minutes of a movie or tv show before I have to find something else to do. Yet I'd watch YouTube! shorts for hours if I'd let me. I've got the attention span of a three year old.

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Yeah that might have ruined us. But then again it seems to me that flipping through yt shorts isn't much different than channel surfing. A little while ago I saw that Roku has Law & Order. But it's live streaming and I didn't want to be tied down to sitting through a whole episode without being able to pause it.

Angeleyes7715 said:

I don't feel like I can pray right anymore. I'm scared I'm going to hell. I hallucinated audible demons. I have diagnosed schizophrenia but it felt so real.

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I pray that God directs a pathway for you, both spiritually and physically, and pray that in Jesus' name.

Are you on a prescribed medicine, and taking it ?

The Barbarian said:

Koalas simply outran the cheetahs, and got to Australia first.

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No they are too stoned on eucalyptus leaves lol. Its the Roos, the Red Kangaroo who can outrun Cheetahs. Or is at least the fastest land animal.

essentialsaltes said:

Inside the DOGE Succession Drama Elon Musk Left Behind

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Inside the DOGE Succession Drama Elon Musk Left Behind

SWEET!

Headlines from a few papers do not clarify what the actual situation is like compared to say 10 years ago.
Sensationalism to cloud the mind, hey?

But compare it all to decades and decades of data and see what you get.

Also - just let Trump send the military in anywhere he wants to - and see what you get!

Be careful what you wish for!

Yes and no.

Other apocalyptic symbolism of the time shows us that it works by dressing up the political entities of the day as villains, and the 'goodies' somewhat as universal archetypes.

So there are specific warnings to specific churches - but at the same time we know from history that there were 10 main churches in that area. John chose 7. Why? It's the perfect number. It's the universal number.

So just as Paul wrote to the Corinthians a few times - and it was specifically to teach and rebuke and encourage them - but also us today - so too Revelation works like that.

But you haven't answered the main issues above.

Is John saying "Toughen up princess" to his generation or not? Is he patronising their struggles by saying "You just wait till you see what starts in 1948, and all the failed and ridiculous prophecies that my letter will generate around then!"

If I produce or sell Ferrock, would I be guilty of anti-cementism?

Please remember Taco Tuesday.

TUES

Some hippies do marijuana daily.

MARIJ

blood

wing2000 said:

"my little communist mayor"

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This needs a caption that says "Step into my oval parlor", said the spider to the fly.

rusmeister said:

Well, there IS a Russian version of the “Orthobros”, and they are those that seek to venerate Stalin and dream of the Russian Empire (or of a “Christianized Soviet Union”), and tend to identify Orthodoxy with “Holy Rus”. For years I stood in our parish consciously aware that I was a walking rebuke to that attitude, that a representative of their Cold War enemy was standing among them and worshiping with them.
That’s all gone with the wind, now, though.

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I completely understand patriotism and even a longing for "glory days" of the past, but how Stalin gets venerated among Christians is bizarre to me. Are these bros ignorant of history? Do they know that the people of Belarus and Ukraine often welcomed Nazi soldiers marching in by throwing flowers at their feet, because they initially thought they were being liberated from Stalin? (Until they quickly found out otherwise.)

Benaiah468 said:

Islam is now spreading in the US. Not to the same extent as in Europe, but with the same negative consequences. The new mayor of NYC is a socialist, and thus professes a destructive, misanthropic worldview that has long belonged in the ideological/historical waste bin.

What lies ahead for NY has been on display in London for years: Sadiq Khan has been mayor there for nine years. He won not primarily through broad support from native Britons, but through high voter turnout in Muslim-dominated neighbourhoods such as Tower Hamlets and Newham, combined with alliances with left-wing parties.

Khan, who is of British-Pakistani descent, has shaped London's politics to be Islam-friendly: he prioritised the construction of mosques, introduced hate crime laws that criminalise criticism of Islam, and ignored protests against radical preachers. Under Khan, London experienced several terrorist attacks (e.g., London Bridge in 2017); the city became the ‘Islamist capital of Europe,’ as a former MI6 chief put it.

In New York, Zohran Mamdani, who has embraced the ‘Defund the Police’ demand (which Islamist terrorist cells will only welcome), will now govern, while at the same time showing understanding for Palestinian ‘resistance’ against Israel and supporting the BDS boycott movement against the Jewish state. Mamdani also waffled around a clear rejection of the ‘globalisation of the intifada’.

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Yup, far too many people in the west are so afraid of being called or feeling like a racist that they are refusing to look at the truth. They are voting against their own interests. Dearborn isnt going to be the only Islamic city in America.

Jipsah said:

Then

ok, fair play, the abandonment of phonics was moronic. But many parents (like my wife and myself), simply taught our kids to read ourselves. All our young ‘uns could read a newspaper when they entered first grade. We also read to them and stuffed the house with books. We considered raising them our primary responsibility, and it turned out quite well despite the sad level of public education.

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Phonics as a method of teaching reading has not been abandoned here in the UK. I found this on the Government's website:

"The phonics teaching programme validation process​

By ensuring high-quality phonics teaching and improving literacy levels, the government wants to:

• give all children a solid base on which to build as they progress through school
• help them develop the habit of reading both widely and often, for both pleasure and information

In April 2021, we published the revised core criteria for effective systematic synthetic phonics teaching programmes (SSP) and launched a new process to validate those programmes. The process applied to both previously assessed programmes and new applicants.

A number of publishers completed an initial self-assessment based on these criteria, which was then reviewed by independent evaluators. After 3 rounds of evaluation, 45 SSP programmes were validated.

We are not planning an imminent future validation round, but any update will be provided on this page. Although the process has now been completed, the information provided for 2021 to 2022, including the criteria used and the guidance supplied, remains available."