HOMILY LENT WEEK 02 06 – YEAR II On Being as Compassionate as God (Micah 7:14-15, 18-30; Ps 103; Lk 15:1-3, 11-32) *********************************************** When was the last time you saw a play? Today’s liturgy unfolds like a three-act play, inviting us to be as compassionate as our God is compassionate. The prophet Micah provides the […]

HOMILY LENT WEEK 01 05 – Year II Repentance, Reconciliation, Righteousness, and Restored Relationships (Ezk 18:21-28; Ps 130; Mt 5:20-26) *********************************************************** Five words starting with “R” sum up the readings for today: Repentance leads to Reconciliation which leads to Righteousness that in the end results in Restored Relationships. Sinners who repent and become righteous (in […]

HOMILY WEEK 01 04 – Year II On Faith, Prayer and Living the Golden Rule (Esther 14:1-14; Ps 138; Mt 7:7-12) ******************************************** Two young brothers, staying at their grandparents’ house overnight, were saying their night prayers – one quietly, the other shouting out his desire for a new bike as loud as he could. The […]

HOMILY LENT WEEK 01 03 – Year II Repent, Believe and Heal (Jon 3:1-10; Ps 51; Lk 11:29-32) ************************************** The people of Nineveh — proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth. (Jonah 3:5) Today’s readings proclaim a clear message – believe and repent, which coincides with the first words […]

HOMILY WEEK 01 02 – YEAR II God’s Will and the Power of God’s Word (Is 55:10-11; Ps 34; Mt 6:7-15) *************************************************** Will of God and Word of God – two expressions that capture the essence of today’s readings. They present us with a clear message: listen to God’s Word and strive to do God’s […]

HOMILY LENT WEEK 01 01 – Year II Doing the Works of Mercy (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: be holy, love and care. In the […]

SUNDAY LENT 01 YEAR A Two Kinds of Sin (Genesis 2:7-9, 16-18, 25, 3:1-7; Psalm 51; Rom 5:12-19; Mt 4:1-11) ************************************************************** A woman who told her husband she was just going window shopping and promised not to buy anything, came back with an expensive dress. When he asked her why she bought a dress she […]

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 (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 to the Pharisees why he […]

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 […]