HOMILY LENT WEEK 01 01 – Year II Doing the Works of Mercy: Optional Memorial of Saints Perpetua and Felicity (Lev 19:1-18; Ps 19; Mt 25:31-46) ************************************************ Did you know that today’s first reading contains the one sentence Jesus used to give us a new commandment? The two readings combine to flesh out that command: […]

HOMILY LENT SUNDAY 1-C Spe Salvi or Hope (Dt 26:4-10; Psalm 91; Rm 10:8-13; Lk 4:1-13) ***************************************************** The message from the readings this first Sunday of Lent is very clear: we are to put our faith in a loving relationship with God and say “no” to any temptations. In the Gospel, we see Jesus, blessed […]

HOMILY SATURDAY AFTER ASH WED Called to Loving Obedience and Holiness (Is 58:9-14; Ps 86; Lk 5:27-32) ********************************************** Have you ever felt a call from God to do something more with your life? The call of Levi today invites us to reconsider God’s call to us, our deeper purpose in life, and how we can […]

FRIDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY Towards More Mature Fasting: Optional Memorial of St. Casimir (Is 58:1-9; Ps 51; Mt 9:14-15) *********************************************** Does it strike you as rather curious that on this Friday after Ash Wednesday, when the gospel was all about the three disciplines of Lent – prayer, almsgiving and fasting – Matthew has Jesus explaining […]

THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY Seeing the Cross as a Blessing (Dt 30:15-20; Ps 1; Lk 9:22-25) ****************************************** The late Fr. Mathieu OMI, a veteran missionary who spoke Dené fluently, was a boxer in his youth, ran a dog team, and ingeniously extracted a caterpillar half-submerged on a frozen lake with a winch and horses, used […]

ASH WEDNESDAY – ABC Lent – a Time of Repentance and Healing (Joel 2:12-18; Psalm 51; 2Cor 5:20-6:2; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18) ********************************************************* A dishonest painter hired to paint a church building thinned his paint with water. As long as it didn’t rain, he would be okay he thought. That night there was a rainstorm. He […]

HOMILY LENT WEEK 05 06 – Year I A Covenant of Peace (Jer 37:21-28; Jer 31:10-13; Jn 11:45-57) ******************************************* Have you ever had an experience of being in exile? of feeling alienated and lost? out of sorts? One day on Facebook someone from north central Saskatchewan posted: “Pray for me today – I don’t feel […]

HOMILY LENT WEEK 05 05 – Year I Faith, Prayer and Presence (Jer 20:7-13; Ps 18; Jn 10:31-42) ************************************* Faith, prayer and presence sum up the readings for today. We are invited to place our total trust in Jesus as Son of God, pray to God from the heart out of our need, and live […]

SOLEMNITY OF THE ANNUNCIATION Birthing Jesus into the World in Imitation of Mary (Isaiah 7:10-14, 8:10d; Ps 40; Heb 10:4-10; Lk 1:26-28) ************************************************* Sr. Connie Piska UJ of Edmonton gave me a gift she made for my priestly ordination in 1974 that still hangs on a wall in the bathroom so that I see it […]

HOMILY LENT WEEK 05 03 – Year I Glory and Praise; Worship and Blessing (Dan 3:13-95; Dan 3; Jn 8:31-42) ******************************************** Many parishes are familiar with the hymnbook Glory and Praise that came out many years ago. That title, the psalm response and readings today combine to provide us with a clear message centred on […]