Presider: Fr. Mark Payne
Parish: Chaplain, Heart of the Nation
Choir: Heart of the Nation
TEXT FROM THE HOMILY
I had an opportunity to sit with one of my parishioners one time and we sat there and the tears ran down her cheek and she said, "Father I've lost my faith." And I said, tell me about that. She said, “You know when they diagnosed me with cancer that was difficult enough and then waiting for other results after going in for surgery and hoping and praying, and praying and praying and then when finally the news came the doctor called me to come in and the first thing he said was, "I don't have good news for you." and my heart,” she said, “sank within me and I began to cry. Because” she said “I believed, father, and I prayed and I prayed and I believed that God was going to take care of this for me.” And I reached out and I took her hand and I said, “You know, God was there the whole time.” Every moment just as Jesus is with Peter and the disciples today you see, the storms of life, our boats are our lives and the wind and the rain and the winds will always blow us about and there are times when we feel strong and we pray and we feel confident that the Lord is with us but you know something, it's the second storm and the third storm that hits our boats that sometimes causes us to question. Because you know something, we question about Jesus whether he is really there, we question about what folks are telling us, trying to encourage us and yet at the same time that's not the feeling inside. So we're with Peter. We're with the disciples today and so was my parishioner as she cried. And I said “It's not that you do not have faith, our faith will be shaken at times those storms are going to batter us. It wouldn't be so bad if it was just one storm but it's the second and the third storm, that's what gets to us.” When we finally find that we think we're going to make it out of something and then wow we get hit again a tough bill that we have to take care of, now a son or a daughter who has fallen ill or needs some help it can go on and on and on. What I'm here to do to tell you is Jesus is there. Sometimes it doesn't feel like it. Sometimes we feel like we've prayed and prayed just like this wonderful parishioner. And yet at the same time, Jesus is there and he grabs us. We don't sink into the sea, we don't disappear. No, he's there, we just have to keep holing on and even though Jesus' words to Peter was “You of little faith,” I don't believe those are always the words that Jesus would say, but to hold on, be strong. Those are the words that we need to hear even today in the midst of this pandemic. For a lot of us who have lost our jobs or questioning what's going on we may even be faced with lots of bills and all of the tremendous amounts of waves and storms that we're facing really cause us to doubt and think that we don't have faith. But the truth of the matter is all of us have faith. All of us have that faith. Sometimes it’s hard though. The storms get to us. The voices get to us. The media gets to us. Everything can get to us. Just remember Jesus was there to grab Peter and he grabs us as well.
Entrance: Gather Us In
Text: Marty Haugen, b. 1950
Tune: GATHER US IN, Irregular, Marty Haugen, b. 1950
© 1982, GIA Publications, Inc.
Psalm 85: Lord, Let Us See Your Kindness
Refrain texts © 1969, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights
reserved. Used with permission.
Psalm verses Copyright © 2010 Conception Abbey/The Grail, admin. By GIA Publications, Inc.
Preparation: Instrumental
Communion: Here I Am
© 1996 Tom Booth. Published by OCP Publications. All rights reserved.
Sending Forth: Hallelujah Is Our Song
Text: Sarah Hart, b. 1968, Sarah Kroger, Josh Blakesley, b. 1976, and Trey Heffinger.
Music: Sarah Hart, Sarah Kroger, Josh Blakesley, and Trey Heffinger; vocal harm. By Scott Soper, b. 1961
Text and music © 2012, 2015 Sarah Hart, Fiat Music, LLC, Josh Blakesley, River Oaks Music Company,
Meaux Jeaux Music, and Tunes From The Basement. Published by Spirit and Song, a division of OCP. All
rights reserved. Administered at CapitolCMGPublishing.com. Used with permission.
Mass Setting: Mass of Renewal
Text © 2010, ICEL. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Music: Mass of Renewal; Curtis Stephan, b. 1973; choral arr. by Curtis Stephan and Rick Modlin, b. 1966,
© 2009, Curtis Stephan.
Published by OCP. All rights reserved.
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this liturgy obtained from ONE LICENSE, License No. A-718591.
www.HeartoftheNation.org
