HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 07 03 – Year I Important Words of Departure (Acts 20:28-38; Ps 68; Jn 17:11-19) ************************************************** When someone is leaving us whom we know we will never see again, or dying, we tend to hang onto their last words as precious memories of them and teachings that will stay with us. […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 07 02 – Year I Being a Model Missionary Optional Memorial of Pope St. John I (Acts 20:17-27; Ps 68; Jn 17:1-11) ********************************************** What does it mean to be a model missionary? St Paul, in today’s readings, is our model. A captive to the Spirit, he spent his life testifying to […]

HOMILY EASTER WEEK 07 01 – Year I Faith, Praise, Evangelization and Persecution (Acts 19:1-8; Ps 68; Jn 16:29-33) ************************************* Welcome to the Upper Room. The readings today, as we wait in a week-long vigil for Pentecost, prepare us for a life of joyful praise, courageous evangelization, and even possible persecution. This last week of […]

ASCENSION OF THE LORD – Year B Living and Sharing our Faith (Acts 1:1-11; Ps 47; Eph 1:17-23; Mk 16:15-20) ********************************************** CH _ _ CH: What’s missing? The answer is U R! If you are not worshipping with the faith community on Sunday, you are missing, and it is incomplete. St. Paul closes off the […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 06 06 – Year I Mysterium Tremendum (Acts 18:23 -28; Ps 47; Jn 16:23-28) ********************************************** Do you see yourself as walking in the “Way of the Lord?” Actually, we are the descendants of those who did, called to live the Mysterium Tremendum, the Paschal Mystery of Jesus as the way to […]

HOMILY – FEAST OF ST MATTHIAS, APOSTLE Chosen to Love – Choosing to Love (Acts 1:15-17, 20-26; Ps 113; Jn 15:6-17) *********************************************** Two words leap out at us in today’s readings: “chosen” and “love.” Putting them together, we get the message from this feast day of St. Matthias that we are Chosen by Jesus to […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 06 04 United in Hope: Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima (Acts 18:1-8; Ps 98; Jn 16:16-20) **************************************************** Just in case you might have missed it, the Gospel today, for a fourth time this week, begins with the same sentence from John 13 about Jesus going back to the Father. […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 06 03 – Year I Grounded in Love; Evangelizing with Faith Optional Memorial of Saints Nereus and Achilleus (Acts 17:15, 22-18.1; Ps 148; Jn 16:12-15) ************************************************* Did anything about the Gospel proclamation today strike you as unusual? For the third time this week, the gospel begins with the statement: “When Jesus […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 06 02 – Year I Servants of the Word (Acts 16:22-34; Ps 138: Jn 16:5-11) *************************************** “Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world, and to go to the Father.” This statement provides the background for the message of the readings for us today: grounded in the […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 06 01 – Year I Bearing Witness to the Truth (Acts 16.11-15; Ps 149; Jn 15.26-16.4) ************************************************* “When Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father.” Perhaps you have noticed this sentence has consistently opened the gospel for over a week now […]