HOMILY
Preached at Holy Sepulcher Parish on October 6, 2018 at the 4:00pm Mass and October 7, 2018 at the 8:00AM and 10:30AM Masses
Recently there was a renewal of vows Mass for married couples at St. Catherine of Sweden Parish and they asked me to be the guest speaker at the dinner that followed Mass to talk about marriage. Because most of the couples in attendance have been married longer than I have been and are also probably better at marriage than I am, I was hesitant to do it. But I agreed to do it as my initial contact with the people of at my new parish assignment, which of course we now know I am staying here at Holy Sepulcher. I was supposed to talk for 15 minutes, but I was very busy at work that week and I didn’t have 15 minutes of material ready. So, to fill time I began by having all the married couples stand and then I said, “Couples married less than five years be seated.” Then I said, “Couples married less than 10 years be seated.” This is done sometimes at wedding receptions and it is a great time filler, so I continued up through all the five-year increments, 15, 20, 25, etc. until there was one couple remaining who had been married 65 years. Obviously, this couple should have been giving marriage advice to me and not the other way around, so I went over to them and asked them to share with those in attendance their secret for how they have stayed happily married for 65 years. The husband took the microphone, looked at the crowd, and said, “I keep my mouth shut.”
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Deacon DSM 