Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church
Hot Springs Village, Arkansas
Click here for information on the 2024 LOSH Charity Golf Scramble held on Monday, April 22, 2024.


Click here for information on the Knights of Columbus Charity Golf Tournament held on Saturday, June 15, 2024.



Eucharistic logo cropped Check out the new SHJ web page for the National Eucharistic Revival.
Some of you (at the very least those who read the bulletin) are aware that I spent part of last week in Little Rock with brothers priests and a few deacons for our semi-annual continuing education sessions.

Over my 30 years of priesthood, I can truly say that we have had some wonderful speakers/teachers who have come from all over the United States

Honestly, in many cases I have returned eager to share with you what I have learned in those few days, but as the saying goes, there's a time and a place for everything......usually don't find an immediate opportunity to share it with a group of people.

Happy to say that this weekend's Masses IS, I believe, a good and appropriate opportunity, given the readings we have just heard proclaimed especially the first one from Sirach and the Gospel passage from Luke.

I would like to start by asking you what comes to mind (if anything) if I speak the word CANON.

If you have been a TV junkie for many years you might immediately think of the television series by that name that starred William Conrad as a private detective

My hope is that more of you....especially those who love the bible......immediately thought of the books of the bible in the order that they were given by the Church way back in the 4th century.

At this point I wish to pause and say that I regret that I'm not taking the time during this homily to go into great detail about what our speaker, Fr. Tom, a Benedictine from Pennsylvania taught us about the Catholic Bible and the Muslim, Quran.

Over the years, Fr. Tom has developed a good understanding of the differences between the written words in the Bible and those in the Quran

I also discovered that he also has developed a mutual trust and respect for Muslim scholars and is eager to foster in Christians and Muslims a mutual respect for each other's writings and beliefs....and  counteract the radical and even militant ways that some interpret the Bible and/or the Quran.

The Quran is THE holy BOOK of the Muslims first printed in mid 7th c.after what Muslims believe to be direct revelations of God to Mohammad... while the Bible is the collection of holy books bound together by the Church's leaders in the 4th c.

Bible is a library of different literary forms......from Gospels, to poetry....to history to name a few

It's not news to many of you that the Old Testament as found in the Catholic Bible differs in number of books and the order of these books from the Hebrew Bible (24 books), the Protestant Bible (39 books) and the Greek Orthodox Bible (48 books and 3 additions)....How many are there in the Catholic Bible...48 books and 2 additions.

Book of Sirach....(Ecclesisticus)...a passage of which we heard proclaimed today, is NOT found in the Protestant Bible nor in the Hebrew Bible of the Jewish faith

As a book it deals mostly with general religious and ethical truths.......and it's because of that the Protestants and Jewish faiths believe it doesn't fit in with the focus of the rest of the bible which is on salvation history..... the personal redemptive act of God in human history.

We as Catholics say that it DOES fit in with the rest of the bible and we have Jesus as our best example of this.

In Jesus, the Word made flesh, we not only have God speaking and acting in our midst as the Prophet (big P) of all prophets (little p), we also recognize in Jesus the bearer of heavenly wisdom, the ETHICAL TEACHER par excellance as we find in today's Gospel where he promotes through this scenerio the virtue of humility (which he embodied through his Incarnation and practiced most perfectly in his passion).

You and I and all genuinely "Practicing Catholics" are explicitly, or at least implicitly recognizing and giving ourselves over to the authority of the Church when we use....and I hope, cherish the Canon of books that has been passed down to us from the 4th century.

That teaching authority of the Church's lived Tradition is there for us thankfully in other ways like for instance, the document first put out by our United States Bishops in 2007 and recently revised entitled: Forming our Consciences for Faithful Citizenship".

I hope you will (or have taken the time) to read the entire document, not only as a preparation before going to the polls to vote....but also, long after the election is over, to always be ready to engage as citizens of this country in forming our society according to our Catholic values, principles, beliefs and priorities as they have been handed down to us from the time and ministry of Jesus.

Just as the Bible comes to us from the authority of the Church.....and I hope none of us would ever say that we can take it or leave it  as we seek to follow the path of salvation, so I hope none of us would EVER have a "take it or leave it attitude" or any apathy when it comes  to the teachings of the Church which help us to function and flourish in a Christ-like way in the society/country in which we live.

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Mass Times

Tuesday, Thursday, Friday   9:00 am
Wednesday   4:00 pm
First Saturday   9:00 am
Saturday    5:00 pm 
Sunday   8:00 am
10:00 am
Holy Day Vigil (with obligation) As announced
Holy Day (with or without obligation)   9:00 am


Confession Schedule
Tuesday, Thursday & Friday 8:40 to 8:55 am
Wednesday 3:30 to 3:50 pm
Saturday 4:00 to 4:45 pm
By Appointment Call Pastor