Homilies with Fr John Rutten

Scriptural Proof of Sacred Tradition helps us see in the Apostle’s gesture of going to Samaria to bestow the gift of the Holy Spirit that we call now Confirmation.Today the bishops are the successors with this power and each person who receives the Holy Spirit is sent to give the world reasons for hope!

Philip after being with Jesus still has to ask to see the Father and doesn’t recognize Jesus is the presence of the Father. We too must ask for Him and discover the Father is here and often deeply working in our lives!As graduation day approaches and this group continues the journey, might they ask and recognize Him through the Church!

The sheep know the shepherd through his voice. Christians know Jesus through His voice. However, His voice comes through friends and family and priests and Saints and Apostles and Peter and Popes. We must grow in our capacity to hear Him.

The source and summit of Christian life is the Eucharistic: Jesus is present. When one recognizes this, it should also help reveal His presence in Scripture, the stranger who arrives, the companionship of two, and our hearts that burn.

The early church did these four things and saw growth. We too need to pay attention to these four things.

Holy week begins. What are we doing here?

Back from mission. Mission continues!

Each person is different but we belong to Christ. The Scriptures remind us we do not belong to Paul or Apollos or Cephas but to Christ. This however doesn’t discount that we meet Christ and belong to the Church through the Bishop. How? …

We get surprised when we discover someone we have known has something inside themself we didn’t see. Peter, James, and John were surprised Jesus had something inside himself they hadn’t seen.Today, the Christian has Christ inside and we often don’t see.the Eucharist, is the Glory of God in our midst but we don’t see. However, His Flesh and Blood us really In there!

Someone told me this was “fire”. I have no memory of it, but here it is for everyone to be “sparked”!

The first reading speaks of the breath of life in Genesis and this is also revealed after the Resurrection when Jesus gives the Apostles the power to forgive sins. The power then continues through apostolic lineage and in the sacramental life of the Church.

The Demon Arc is a sign we are made in a way to want to change our lives for the better. Ash Wednesday is Gods way to help us do this together and while I am glad young people today want God to be a part of their change, we know God must come first, middle and last!

Light has been a part of God’s revelation from creation to the Temple in Jerusalem. The worship of Israel points to Jesus Christ who is the “Light of the World.”His Body continues to bring Light to the world. We might miss the little ways our light is His Body!

What is the desire for someone to know people? Why should people in the Church care to know who each other are?it’s a spiritual reality but a human family. St Angela writes about the desire to know, spiritual children.

We often know our belonging by those who are blood related. We add those who are married into our blood families. And over time we add even more people. Through the power of God we add people in differing ways, ultimately everyone belongs to God. But Jesus invites us to belong to the Church.How do we know we are one with the Church?

The lamb - think of a little baby lamb - was offered in sacrifice to God. The lamb was offered because it represented innocence and purity. This prefigured Jesus, the innocent and pure victim.

Jesus is the Way. Through the Church we are instruments who tell others, “this way.” The way is through baptism but also the important aspect of discovering we are children of God! In this way, we even see Jesus being baptized and hearing “this is my beloved son!” while baptism is essential, it is also necessary to discover our identity as sons and daughters. This is “the way”!

It’s important to understand how God works in our lives. How events play into our growth. and to recognize that the Apostles didn’t always understand but with time, He showed them. Is He showing you?

Great readings today remind us we are not the first to live in troubled times. We need to look for the people of light who help us look to the Light and not our troubles and darkness!

Isaiah speaks of the expectations for healing and miracles that are witnessed by the disciples in the Gospel. They are told to go back and speaking of what they have seen. We too have desires and expectations! Many people are looking for signs of “life”. If we have seen them, we too must be willing to “go back” and share what we have witnessed!

Today’s Confirmation is a good moment to reflect upon the May dynamics of Christian life where we have “already” received something we have “not yet” received. List and see if you too live the already but not yet!

God orders us by bestows desires for prayer and healing and longing for Him. He also answers those desires with formulaic prayers like the Our Father. It doesn’t end there, but as we become part of the Body, this Mass is the place we are ordered and reordered.

is it the end of times?

Do you believe your “yes”, even if a little “yes”, impacts people. Both people who are living and people who are deceased?

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector should meet. Each could be changed by the other.

Answers are most received when they are responding to a real, spoken or unspoken, question. How we carry the Gospel to others should respond to what a person is looking for. We too, as missionaries will have questions and in looking for the answers, God can send someone else!

Just as Moses though string and gifted, needed help standing strong in battle. He was aided by Aaron and Hur.Who aids you? Are you prepared to hold others up in their battles of life? Pay attention to your gifts.Pay attention to others.Pay attention to your circumstances. pay attention to Jesus who stands to hold all of us up to the Father.

We are given a gift… GOD! St Paul reminds us to guard this gift and be reminder we have a guide in the Holy Spirit.

What is the Holy Spirit stirring in your desire? What are your gifts? How about the circumstances you live in? St Therese shows us m how each of us can prepare for the Kingdom of God and have Hope!

Do you know it is a Jubilee year? Do you know what a Jubilee year is? I promise listening to this will help you!I didn’t say it in the homily, but the thing that helped me most understand the jubilee year is that indulgences are not the primary point. And secondly, that a main point is that you have a Jubilee year once in your lifetime. Because of how long we live most people experience two or three, lessening the experience of it being a unique lifetime moment to offer mercy and forgiveness and reconciliation.The fruit of this is to discover God’s possession of all things and people! He wants you to know if you belong to him through Jesus Christ the only mediator.

People ask me what the students are responding to with the death of Charlie Kirk. I’m trying to listen to them and understand. I have much yet to learn but I do know the Cross is connected and the Christian needs to widen our awareness to include both Jesus’ saving Mercy and our own person sin.

What ways are we being asked to be his disciples? To follow him requires to give things up, to give up peoples thoughts and opinions. However, how this happens is through a group of people and individually. Consider how this happens. Dawson Lee as a disciple followed Christ into the Catholic Church. Today he received the sacraments of Confirmation and Eucharist!

when someone gives you a gift and it is apparent they know you, it is such a blessing. But humidity is even great! Jesus is the perfect gift.

Start to the new year and we liked the people in Scripture are gathered from many places. We are called by God to belong to his family. We recognize Jesus today by the signs of Him Presence.

our initial understanding may not be correct. It is helpful to pause and consider if things are meant differently than we first think they are.

With 9 in 10 cradle Catholics leaving the Church, it’s worth asking ourselves why we go to Mass? An interesting insight is offered in the first reading (Joshua 3:7). What helps us understand both why we go to Mass and what we should be doing through our participation?

Our lives have moments that Jesus calls us to be attentive to. Listen to your heart and circumstances in order to know what He is calling you to. Then when your “short” life is at the end, you will be eager for your “forever” to to begin!

We are all rich in various things: amenities of life, intellect, beauty, personality, and of course wealth. what are we to do with these if Jesus says we aren’t to store up treasure?

When death gets close, at times it pierces deeply. It can be hard to believe that God is near. At such times there are two options.

Gardens are beautiful: God places the pinnacle of creation, man and woman, in a garden. However he also suffered in a garden and so did the First Roman Martyrs. They were tortured in Nero’s garden. we too are given beautiful places but to follow Jesus will also lead to places of suffering and pain. Maybe not like actual death but how heard it is to die to our own wills!

Funeral mass for Donna Dieren, June 27, 2025

It’s more work to understand the fruitfulness of God than just a quick observation. It’s a work of the Holy Spirit and requires time and patience and new possibilities. Even the wolf can get caught in brambles and have the coat torn off and exposed. And exposure can bring newness to even the wolf!

June 16, 2025 - Back from vacation! A little word from daily Mass.

May 27, 2025 - A little response to a summer Mass.

This homily was preached at the first Mass of Fr Gerald Thornton.

Random summer homilies.

Graduation and the gift of hearing His voice.

People desire to belong to various things. Many people want to belong to Pope Leo XIV or the experience of these last few days. Everyone does belong but like the Ethiopian Eunuch, they need someone to come alongside and get their path and help them understand Christ and how we belong to God the Father!

The disciples were freed from jail and told to go into the court and share about this new life!As students depart for the summer, this too is what all are called to do. How does that happen? Listen in…

Welcoming 14 students and a baby deeper into the sacramental life with Christ and the Church!