HOMILY WEEK 01 01 – Year I The Threefold Call to Discipleship: Believe, Repent and Follow (Heb 1:1-6; Ps 97; Mk 1:14-20) ******************************************************** Liturgists usually try to choose a reading that connects with the gospel for the day. In today’s liturgy, they succeeded quite well as the author of Hebrews neatly complements the gospel of […]

BAPTISM OF THE LORD – YEAR B Jesus Christ: New Creation, New Incarnation and a New Exodus (Isaiah 55:1-11; Isaiah 12; 1 John 5:1-9; Mk 1:7-11) ************************************************************* A little boy on beach spied a matronly woman sitting under a beach umbrella on the sand. He asked, “Are you a Christian?” “Yes,” she replied. “Do you […]

HOMILY CHRISTMAS SEASON – January 9th Lessons on Faith, Humility and Freedom (1 Jn 5:14-21; Ps 149; Jn 3:22-30) ****************************************** Have you ever felt envy at someone else’s success? One response to such a question might well be, “Who hasn’t?” as envy has surely visited all of us at one time or another. Today’s readings […]

HOMILY CHRISTMAS SEASON – JANUARY 08th Three That Testify: Living God’s Testimony Optional Memorial of St. Raymond of Penyafort (1 Jn 5:5-13; Ps 147; Lk 5:12-16) ************************************************ And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. That sentence from the first reading hints at the dynamic energy […]

HOMILY CHRISTMAS SEASON – JANUARY 7th Faith Expressed Through Love: Optional Memorial of St. André Bessette (1 Jn 4:19-5:4; Ps 72; Lk 4:14-22) ******************************************* The liturgy today invites us to deepen our faith in Jesus as the Messiah, revealing a God who is love, and then express that faith by living his commandment to love. […]

HOMILY CHRISTMAS SEASON – JANUARY 6th Becoming Icons of God’s Love on Earth: (1 Jn 4:11-18; Ps 72; Mk 6:45-52) ************************************************* “… because as he is, so are we in this world.” For some reason, this sentence stood out for me as a focal point for this homily, emerging as it did from the readings […]

HOMILY WEEKDAYS OF CHRISTMAS – JANUARY 5th A God Who is Love, and Loving Like God (1 Jn 4:7-10; Ps 72; Mk 6:34-44) ******************************************** The readings today challenge us in two ways: how well do we really know God, and are we learning God’s language of love? John in the first reading, and Mark in […]

WEEKDAY OF CHRISTMAS – JANUARY 4th Living in the Kingdom through Faith and Love: (1 Jn 3:22-4:6; Ps 2; Mt 4:12-25) ************************************************* According to The Word Among Us, researchers interviewed American Christian youth, both Catholic and non-Catholic, for a recent study. The data indicated although they called themselves Christians, many of the young people didn’t […]

HOMILY – FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY 2021 On Being Stargazers, Not Temple Dwellers (Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72; Ephesians 3:2-3, 5-6; Matthew 2:1-12) **************************************************************** Do you remember when a spacecraft first landed a little rover on the surface of the planet Mars? The news of that historic event that year came the morning of the Epiphany. […]

HOMILY OCTAVE OF CHRISTMAS JANUARY 02 Faith and Fellowship: Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen (1 Jn 2:22-28; Ps 98; Jn 1:19-28) ******************************************************* Can you think of a friendship that changed your life? The reading today from 1 John, and the memorial of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen, invite […]