ASH WEDNESDAY – Year C (Joel 2:12-18; Psalm 51; 2 Cor 5:20-6:2; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18) ************************************************************* The message that emerges from the readings for today’s Ash Wednesday celebration leaps out at us from the second reading, Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. St. Paul urges his readers to be reconciled to God first, then to […]

HOMILY WEEK 08 02 – Year I Optional Memorial of St. Casimir (Sir 35:1-15; Ps 50; Mk 10:28-31) ******************************************* Yesterday’s gospel was about the attachment of the rich young man to his wealth, and the need for detachment, leaving all to follow Christ. Today the Gospel presents us with the disciples who have left everything […]

WEEK 08 01 – Year I (Sir 17:24-29; Ps 32; Mk 10:17-27) ********************************************** Today’s readings encourage us to pray for faith strong enough to practice a spirituality of letting go. Two of my mentors, Ron Rolheiser OMI and Richard Rohr OFM, share comments pertinent to these readings. Rohr posits that good spirituality is all about […]

HOMILY SUNDAY 08 – C (Sir 27:4-7; Ps 92; 1 Cor 15:54-58; Lk 6:39-45) ************************************************** The readings today invite us to bear fruit in the kingdom of God through greater self-awareness and living out what I call Teepee Spirituality. The wisdom sayings of Sirach in the first reading, surely distilled over the ages, pack a […]

WEEKDAY 07 06 – Year I (Sir 17:1-15; Ps 103; Mk 10:13-16) **************************************** A mother, not wanting to be bothered with a salesman coming to the house, instructed her 5-year old to answer the door and tell him she was not home. The boy obediently opened the door and said, “My mom told me to […]

HOMILY WEEK 7 05 – Year I (Sirach 6:5-17; Mk 10:1-12) ********************************* The readings today speak to us of marriage and friendship and the connection between the two. In so doing, they invite us to strive to be faithful friends to the Lord and to one another. In the Gospel, Jesus is confronted with the […]

HOMILY WEEK 7 05 – Year I (Sirach 6:5-17; Mk 10:1-12) ********************************* The readings today speak to us of marriage and friendship and the connection between the two. In so doing, they invite us to strive to be faithful friends to the Lord and to one another. In the Gospel, Jesus is confronted with the […]

HOMILY WEEK 07 04 – Year I Optional Memorial of St. Gregory of Narek, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (Sir 5:1-8; Ps 1; Mk 9:41-50) ****************************************** “I think I shall never see, a poem lovely as a tree.” That opening line from a famous poem by Joyce Kilmer serves as an inspiration to see […]

HOMILY WEEK 07 03 – Year I (Sir 4:11-19; Ps 119; Mk 9:38-40) ************************************** Years ago, I received the gift of a small book entitled “What’s In A Name?” It described the origin of the names of all the communities in my home province of Saskatchewan. It was enlightening, interesting and somehow even affirming to […]

HOMLY WEEK 07 02 – Year I (Sir 2:1-11; Ps 37; Mk 9:30-37) *************************************** A young man asked his friends if they believed he could push a wheelbarrow on a high wire over Niagara Falls. They of course said no, but then he did it. Then he asked his friends if they believed he could […]