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Father Raymond Harris is a priest of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. He has served in parochial, university chaplaincy, seminary formation, and canon law ministries. He serves as the Pastor of Holy Family Parish in Randallstown. This podcast includes homilies, and Bible Study presentations.
Episodes
Monday Jul 26, 2021
July 25, 2021 - Worship Jesus With the Right Expectations
Monday Jul 26, 2021
Monday Jul 26, 2021
[Audio problems are being addressed, but you can hear every word of the homily.] Some Catholics say, “I don’t get anything out of Mass.” We can lovingly inquire about their expectations. If we think that worshipping Jesus is about ourselves first, then our expectations are unreasonable. The Lord said that we are to do this in memory of Him. Therefore, we should come with an expectation to meet the Lord as He chooses to present Himself. For the next five Sundays, the Gospel reading is taken from the sixth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint John. Many members of the multitude wanted Jesus to perform for them. They were not interested in encountering Him as a Person. As a result, many would reject Jesus because He did not meet their expectations. It cannot be that way with us. We have come to participate in the one eternal sacrifice of praise to our Lord God and Savior. We can never thank Him enough! If someone asks you what happed during Holy Mass today, tell them, “I met Jesus.”
The is the first of the homily series, “Mass Movements: How Holy Mass Forms a Holy People.” For the Christian disciple, there must be a vital connection between the celebration of the sacred liturgy and the conduct of our sacred lives.
Sunday Jul 18, 2021
July 18, 2021 - No Vacation from Our Vocation in Christ
Sunday Jul 18, 2021
Sunday Jul 18, 2021
“The apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught” (Mark 6:30), One aspect of the apostolic character of the Church is that each disciple is called to engage in her mission by virtue of being baptized. We proclaim the Gospel of Christ, build His Church by making disciples, and impact our communities for good. The Lord summoned and sent His Apostles to sanctify through ministries of reconciliation, liberation, and healing (cf. Mark 6:7-13). Now they return to Jesus with a report of their ministry. It had remarkable results! In context, a “vast crowd” of tens of thousands of people had followed the Apostles back to Jesus (cf. Mark 6:31. 34, 44). As we engage in the work of the Lord, we must take time for necessary rest so that we do not get burned out. However, there is never a vacation from our vocation in Christ. There is never a holiday from our becoming holy and helping others to do so.
Monday Jul 12, 2021
July 11, 2021 -Summoned and Sent by the Lord to Sanctify
Monday Jul 12, 2021
Monday Jul 12, 2021
"Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two..." (Mark 6:7). We profess that we believe in "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church" (Nicene Creed). The Church is apostolic because she was founded by the Lord Jesus, who entrusted His message and mission to His Apostles. The Apostles, along with their successors, the bishops, are responsible for ensuring that the Church is faithful to what Jesus handed on. The Church is also apostolic because the Sacrament of Baptism empowers every member of the Church to be witnesses to the Gospel. We are summoned and sent by the Lord to sanctify. What does this mean in the concrete circumstances of our lives?
Sunday Jun 27, 2021
June 27, 2021- The Road to Recovery
Sunday Jun 27, 2021
Sunday Jun 27, 2021
Holy Family Parish is observing our 145th anniversary. We have been striving to be faithful to our mission to proclaim the Gospel of Christ and build His Church in our part of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. This includes the challenging experience of this pandemic. Time allows us to reflect on the healing of a woman who had been afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. After hearing about Jesus and learning that He was near her, she courageously engaged in practicing her faith. She worked through the crowd, encountered the Lord, experienced healing, and left with the confident expectation that her recovery would be complete. Holy Family Parish had experienced growth in the last five years. Then the pandemic came. With the Lord Jesus Christ remaining at the center of parish life, we can confidently expect that we are on the road to recovery.
Sunday Jun 13, 2021
June13, 2021 - Growing in Faith Takes Patience
Sunday Jun 13, 2021
Sunday Jun 13, 2021
It takes time for plants or crops to grow. Our Lord Jesus Christ uses two parables to encourage His disciples to trust in God's timing. The Kingdom of God has grown from a declaration by the Lord (cf. Mark 1:15), to the proclamation of the Gospel, the building of the Church by making of disciples of every nation who are professing and practicing the faith. The same growth in faith can happen in our individual circumstances. However. it takes trust in God and patience as the process unfolds.
Sunday May 09, 2021
May 9, 2021 - The Will to Love as Christ Loves
Sunday May 09, 2021
Sunday May 09, 2021
After extending Mother’s Day greetings, Father Harris begins part 5 of his Easter season homily series, “Arise: Experiencing Life in Christ.” Love can refer to the bonds between friends, family members, and romantic couples. However, the love in which Christ speaks about in the Gospel reading is a sacrificial love which promotes the good of the other for the sake of the other as God defines what is good. This is the love that God shows us. It influences how we are to love in every respect, including those who set themselves in opposition to us. To act in love is an act of the will. Holy Baptism identifies us with Christ and how He is saving us. Therefore, to love as Christ loves includes helping people to die to sin and to live to glorify God in their lives.
Sunday May 02, 2021
May 2, 2021 -The Fulfillment of A Fruitful Christian Life
Sunday May 02, 2021
Sunday May 02, 2021
Part 4 of Father Harris' Easter season homily series, “Arise: Experiencing Life in Christ.” The context of the Gospel reading is “The Last Supper” (cf. John 15:1-8). The Lord Jesus is about to suffer His passion and death. However, He would rise again on the third day. The first Christian generation did not understand what resurrection meant. After they encountered the Risen Lord, they remembered what He said before with a new perspective. To arise with hope in Christ is to trust in the fulfillment of His promises in light of His resurrection. If the Lord Jesus fulfilled His promise to rise from the dead, He will fulfill every promise, which includes experiencing the fulfillment of a fruitful Christian life.
Monday Apr 26, 2021
April 25, 2021 - Let the Lord Jesus Lead the Way
Monday Apr 26, 2021
Monday Apr 26, 2021
Part 3 of Father Harris' Easter season homily series, “Arise: Experiencing Life in Christ.” Our baptism into Christ is an ongoing reality. We continue to receive the divine gifts of faith, hope, and love. The virtue of faith was the subject for the Second and Third Sundays of Easter; hope, for the next two Sundays. Faith enables us to believe in God, and what He has revealed through His Church because God is truth. Hope enables us to trust that God will fulfill His promises as we cooperate with His providence. We continue to arise with hope because of the promises that God has already fulfilled. Let the Lord Jesus lead the way through our journey of life in preparation for the life to come.
Sunday Apr 18, 2021
April 18, 2021 - Christ Has Confience in the Power of our Witness
Sunday Apr 18, 2021
Sunday Apr 18, 2021
Part 2 of Father Harris' Easter season homily series, “Arise: Experiencing Life in Christ.” In the Gospel Reading, the disciples went from confidently declaring that the Lord is risen to becoming terrified when the Risen Lord appeared to them. But theyhad a joy that they could not contain when they realized that it was the Risen Lord and heard His message. Through our successes and stumbles on the journey of faith, the Lord Jesus Christ has confidence in the power of our witness. We must never discount it. Christ does not. He is depending on it for the salvation of souls.
Sunday Apr 11, 2021
April 11, 2021 - God Will Do What He Has Promised
Sunday Apr 11, 2021
Sunday Apr 11, 2021
Part 1 of Father Harris' Easter season homily series, “Arise: Experiencing Life in Christ.” Believing in the Risen Lord raises our expectations about what Jesus Christ can accomplish within us as we cooperate with Him. When we arise with faith in God, we trust that God will do what He has promised. We can cooperate with the Risen Lord by practicing the virtues of faith, hope, and love. God gave them to us through Holy Baptism. When we arise with faith in God, we trust in what God can do for Himself (i.e., rise from the dead), through His Church, and through each disciple. (Note: At one point, Father Harris had to address a major distraction in the church while he was preaching.)