From the Pastor: 11.29.09

FROM THE PASTOR: November 29, 2009 It’s always a privilege to be pastor of a wonderful, warm parish like Old St. Joseph’s; but now and again, one has special graced experiences that are truly transcendent – moments that leave you breathless with joy and gratitude.  I had one of those this weekend, at a training event for our Eucharistic ministers. As most of you already know, my doctoral work was in the area of liturgy, with a special focus on the Eucharist.  My training tells me that ideally, a person’s liturgical ministry should be a special ritual expression...

Homily: 11.29.09

Fr. Dan Ruff, S.J. – Pastor Old St. Joseph’s Church, Philadelphia Advent Vespers – 11/29/09 We throw the word “joy” around a good bit at this time of year.  It blares at us in stores and on elevators: “Joy to the World,” and “Joy!  Joy!  Joy!  Glory to God in heaven on high!”  But what is “joy” exactly?  I’d like to suggest that “joy” is to happiness as “charity” is to ordinary human affection, or as “the peace that passes all understanding” is to mere absence of conflict.  Joy – like charity and peace – is God-touched and...

Homily: 11.29.09

Fr. Dan Ruff, S.J. – Pastor Old St. Joseph’s Church, Philadelphia 1st Sunday of Advent (C) – 11-29-09 – 9:30 a.m. (Children’s Homily) Okay, everybody.  I have a question for you.  Are you ready?  How many people here like waiting?  (Waits for show of hands.) What are some things you have to wait for?  (Takes answers: end of school day, the mail, checkout at the grocery store, etc.) And why don’t we like waiting?  (Because it’s hard, it’s boring, etc.) But we have to wait for some things, because they take time to get ready.  Where did you have...

Homily: 11.29.09

Fr. Dan Ruff, S.J. – Pastor Old St. Joseph’s Church, Philadelphia 1st Sunday of Advent (C) – 11-29-09 – 6:30 p.m. The scriptures for the first Sunday in Advent always about “staying awake.”  Why is that?  Well, because, as a Jesuit confrère of mine used to say, in Advent we focus on the three-fold coming of Christ: his coming in history, his coming in mystery, and his coming in glory.  If we allow ourselves to become distracted – to “nod off,” even figuratively – then we risk missing any or all of these comings of Christ. The coming of Jesus in...

Homily: 11.26.09

Fr. Dan Ruff, S.J. – Pastor Old St. Joseph’s, Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day – 11/26/09 – 10:30 a.m. Jesus seems understandably puzzled near the end of the Gospel story we just heard.  After all, he has violated the law of Moses to interact with ten lepers.  They have asked him not for healing, but for pity.  Who knows, maybe all they were looking for was alms; we’ve all heard it: “Can you help me out with some change so I can get something to eat?”   But instead of offering them five bucks to buy a Starbucks decaf caramel macchiato, Jesus heals their...

Homily: 11.22.09

Fr. Dan Ruff, S.J. – Pastor – 7:30 a.m. & 11:30 a.m. Old St. Joseph’s Church – Philadelphia Feast of Christ the King (34th O.T.-B) – 11-22-09 We Americans are not very “king-y” people; so this solemnity of Christ the King is a challenge to preach every year.  In my search for an angle on this difficult topic, I actually re-read Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper this past week.  It is, after all, the story of a boy prince who exchanges clothing with a peasant lad who looks a lot like him, and as a result, has an experience of walking and...

From the Pastor: 11.22.09

FROM THE PASTOR: Nov. 22, 2009 Generally speaking, in both Christian and non-Christian spiritual usage, “contemplation” refers to a wordless, imageless “resting” in God’s presence.  In Ignatian prayer, by contrast, “contemplation” refers to a form of prayer which relies on active use of the imagination under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  This kind of “contemplation” accounts for about two-thirds to three-quarters of the prayer of the Spiritual Exercises, beginning with the “Second Week.”  When Ignatius instructs the retreatant to pray to “see...

From the Pastor: 11.15.09

FROM THE PASTOR: November 15, 2009 I left us at the very end of the “First Week” – known and loved by God just as we are, grateful to know ourselves as loved and redeemed sinners.  Affectively, this is a place of tremendous gratitude and zeal; we now want to do all we can to love God in return, and to serve God.  At this point in the Exercises, St. Ignatius invites us to direct all this positive energy to discipleship – that is, to following Jesus, as Ignatius himself did. The “grace” we will ask for in the “Second Week” is what I sometimes call the...

Homily: 11.15.09

Fr. Dan Ruff, S.J. – Pastor Old St. Joseph’s Church, Philadelphia, PA 33rd OT(B) – 11/15/09 The readings today are confusing to say the least.  We have in Daniel the prophecy of “a time unsurpassed in distress since nations began,” and the consignment of people to “everlasting horror and disgrace.”  Mark in his turn warns of a time when the light of the sun, moon, and stars will fail, and when “heaven and earth will pass away.”  Yet in the same brief passages, Daniel – in one of the earliest biblical statements about personal immortality –...

From the Pastor: 11.08.09

FROM THE PASTOR: November 8, 2009 I left us last week at the foot of the cross, pondering the questions: “What response have I made to Christ?  How do I respond to Christ now?  And what response should I make to Christ?” (Sp. Ex. #53).  Hopefully, by grace at work in and through the “Spiritual Exercises,” as retreatants near the end of the “First Week,” sin has become for them both mysterious and personal. This change of sin from an abstraction to a troubling personal reality happened for King David.  David’s eye had fallen on the lovely Bathsheba, wife...