Oro Valley Catholic

A yoke, a yolk, St. Mother Theresa and St. Thomas Aquinas

Jesus did not trust the proclamation of his Gospel to the leaders of Israel, but to fishermen, Zealots, Pharisees like Paul and the tax collector Matthew. Jesus doesn't ask his followers to carry the cross by themselves, he will be there with them. We cannot carry the yoke without his help.
Music performed by Gina McAnn and Russ Ronnebaum under license from OneLicense A-726294

Happiness, our genes, our choices, our wants and the Gospel

Today’s Gospel shows us the implications of belief that includes both the cross and the work of the Church. In all of that, our flourishing requires us to manage our wants so that we can make trusting choices about what and who we support. Because our fundamental need that shapes all others is our need for God.
Music by Russ Ronnebaum, Gina McCann under OneLicense A-726294

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom

What is a wise life? As Christianity has faded from the center to the margins in the West. The Nicene Creed is replaced with the simpler secular creed – I believe in myself. This affirmation—that you should believe in yourself as the ultimate source of meaning and value—is the secular colonization of the religious impulse. Everyone has to worship something or someone. You can’t make people not believe. The gods of illusion just redirect human belief. Believing in myself is celebrated on daytime TV, in inspirational books, and Disney movies. It is as if the garage door of unreality has forever closed off the minds of the self-believers to any real experience of transcendence. Since, there is nothing else to believe in beyond me, this pseudo wisdom goes, I might as well believe in myself. This is, of course, quite contrary to the biblical view of the human condition. Humility is to see oneself as you really are – mortal, limited, doubting and prone to self-destructive behavior. To proclaim the Gospel is to say to the unbelievers, baptized and unbaptized, the way out is to believe in Christ, not yourself. How is that working? Does it matter in the end? Yes it does.
Music by St. Mark Cantor by permission of One License, A-726294

The difference between a who and a what: Corpus Christi

Jesus is the human face of God. Jesus, shares in God’s nature and existed before he took human flesh. Who can understand? A mystery like the Incarnation and the Trinity are not questions to be answered, but realities to be explored.
Music composed and performed by Russ Ronnebaum

Remembering, Understanding and Loving: the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity

The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. This is OVC.
We can’t understand completely the Trinity, but stretching to comprehend Divine Revelation is be part of salvation. Understanding the Trinity ultimately challenges our self-understanding as we are made in God’s image and likeness. St. Augustine proposes that we understand the Most Holy Trinity as analogously like our act of remembering, understanding and speaking.
The music is provided by the Kit Kats under license from One License A-726294.

Fire, a Cloud and the Life of Grace: Pentecost

At Pentecost, the nature of God is revealed for our benefit. We respond to that grace, body and soul, when we try to grow in understanding and participation in Divine Life. God allows us to see something of the Divine interior life in today’s feast. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel [Prudence], Fortitude [Courage], Knowledge, Piety [Reverence], and Fear of the Lord [Wonder and Awe in God’s Presence]. (cf. Is 11:1-2) The Fruits of these gifts of the Holy Spirit are an increase in Charity, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Generosity, Gentleness, Faithfulness, Modesty, Self-control, Chastity. This is the life of grace, not self-condemnation and fear.
The music "Lift thine eyes" is performed by the St. Mark Schola under license from One License A-726294.

The Visible lifts our eyes to the Invisible: the Ascension of the Lord - Ep. 32

St. John Henry Newman, reflecting on the inadequacy of earthly pleasures compared to heaven, wrote:
. . . from sad experience I am too sure that whatever is created, whatever is earthly, pleases but for a time and then palls and is a weariness. I believe that there is nothing at all here below that I would not at length get sick of. I believe, that though I had all the means of happiness that this life could give, yet in time I would tire of living, feeling everything trite and dull and unprofitable. John Henry Newman, Everyday Meditations (Manchester, N.H.: Sophia Institute Press, 2013), 164.
The Ascension lifts our eyes to the Most Holy Trinity and the Kingdom of Heaven. The music "Lift Thine Eyes" is performed by our St. Mark Schola under license from One License A-726294

Breathing, doing and loving: The Holy Spirit - Ep. 31

The Gospel of John begins as does the Book of Genesis, “In the beginning…” The Gospel witnesses to how God is remaking his creation. John the Baptist on the first day of the Gospel of John calls God’s people to repent. Out of his group of disciples, John sends two, Andrew the brother of Simon Peter, and another disciple to follow Jesus, who John the Baptist calls the “Lamb of God.” The Gospel says,“Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come, and you will see.” Jn. 1:38-39
Musice performed by St. Mark Schola under license from OneLicense A-726294

The Princess Bride: True love, fairy tales and the Gospel- Ep. 30

The Gospel is the true story of true love, the Divine Bridegroom Christ for his bride the Church. The Princess Bride is effective and heart-warming as a movie because it imitates the story of the Gospel. Love broken by separation (Adam and Eve) and love restored by the bridegroom’s relentless search for his bride down into the depths of sin and death. It seems too good to be true, if you have a heart for true love distorted by distrust of God. As Buttercup and her true love escape Humperdinck by fleeing into the dread, fire spurting, quicksand filled Fire Swamp with rodents of unusual size, she says to Westley, “We’ll never survive!” Westley rightly responds, “Nonsense. You’re only saying that because no one ever has.” Well, we know that’s not true. In fact, the Bridegroom has gone to prepare a place for us and will return for us. The Gospel is the pattern of True Love.
Music composed and performed by Russ Ronnenbaum

Do you like yourself just the way you are? - Ep. 29

There is a great story about the English Catholic novelist Graham Greene who had converted to Catholicism and then fallen away. When in Italy, he had the chance to meet St. Padre Pio and at the last minute, he cancelled his appointment. When asked why, Greene said, “I believe that man can change me, and I like myself the way that I am.” What do you think? Good enough for eternity?
Music by the St. Mark Choir under OneLicense A-726294