HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 04 01 – Year II Jesus as Good Shepherd and Gate to Eternal Life: Optional Memorial of Blessed Marie-Élodie Paradis (Acts 11:1-18; Ps 42 & 43;Jn 10:1-10) *************************************************** Today’s readings invite us to place our faith in Jesus as the Good Shepherd and experience him as the Gate of salvation. The […]

HOMILY SUNDAY EASTER 04 – A Jesus – Shepherd and Gate: Day of Prayer for Vocations (Acts 2:14a, 36b-41; Psalm 23; 1 Peter 2:20-25; Jn 10:1-10) **********************************************************  Do you have a picture of Jesus hanging on the wall in your home? If so, what image is it? Many have the Sacred Heart of Jesus and […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 03 06 – Year II Getting in God’s Wheelbarrow: Memorial of St. Athanasius (Acts 9:31-43; Ps 116; Jn 6:53, 60-69) *********************************************** A man asked his friends if they believed he could push a wheelbarrow on a high wire over Niagara Falls. When they replied they did not, he told them to […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 03 05 – Year II Saul’s Transformative Vision Quest: Optional Memorial – St Joseph the Worker (Acts 9:1-20; Ps 117; Jn 6:52-59) ******************************************** From 1983 to 1988, the Oblate Lebret Task Force organized a series of four-day fasts at late elder Mike Steinhauer’s home in Saddle Lake (onihcikiskwapiwin). We went without […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 03 04 – Year II On Being Missionary Disciples: Memorial of St. Marie of the Incarnation (Acts 8:26-40; Ps 66; Jn 6:44-51) ********************************************* Do you see yourself as a missionary disciple? That is what Pope Francis challenges us to be constantly. In today’s first reading, Philip can serve as a model […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 03 03 – Year II Our Deepest Yearning: Memorial of St. Catherine of Sienna (Acts 8:1-8; Ps 66; Jn 6:35-40) **************************************** Karl Rahner famously stated: “In the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable, we finally learn that here in this life all symphonies must remain unfinished.” That raises the question, […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 03 02 – Year II Living Without Blinders:  Optional Memorial of St Peter Chanel (Acts 7:51-8:1a; Ps 31; Jn 6:30-35) ************************************************** Carol, a friend whom I have known for years, shared something with me recently that I did not know and had not noticed about her – she has been living […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 03 01 – Year II Living the New Paradigm of Eternal Life (Acts 6:8-15; Ps 119; Jn 6:22-29) ********************************************* Sister of Charity Elaine Biolo once offered a course on faith and culture at Newman Theological College in which she explained how the sociological term “new paradigm” applies to our faith. She […]

HOMILY EASTER SUNDAY 03 – Year A Witnesses to the Risen Lord (Acts 2:14, 22b-28; Psalm 16; 1 Peter 1:17-21; Luke 24:13-35) *************************************************************** The readings on this 3rd Sunday of Eastertime are like bookends – they stretch from the appearance of Jesus to his disciples on the day of his resurrection, to the Pentecost event […]

HOMILY – FEAST OF ST MARK Proclaiming the Good News by Word and Witness (1 Pt 5:5-14; Ps 89; Mk 16:15-20) *********************************************** “Go in peace.” “Go in the peace of Christ.” “Let us go out to love and serve the Lord in one another.” These are all dismissals one might hear from different presiders at […]