HOMILY WEEK 23 03 – Year II Living the Beatitudes (1 Cor 7:1-31; Ps 45; Lk 6:20-26) ********************************************* The Beatitudes are the Magna Carta of Jesus’ teaching. Part of the Sermon on the Mount in both Matthew and Luke, they present Christ as the new Moses, building on the Ten Commandments of the first Moses […]

HOMILY WEEDAY 23 02 – Year II Celebrating Who We Are (1 Cor 6:1-11; Ps 149; Lk 6:12-19) ************************************ The late Anthony de Mello, in The Song of the Bird, recounts this captivating story: A boy found an eagle’s egg and put it in a nest of a barnyard hen. The eaglet hatched with the […]

HOMILY WEEK 23 01 – Year II Attitudinal Healing (1 Cor 5:1-8; Ps 5; Lk 6:6-11) ******************************* Has the cryptic statement, “Check that attitude” ever applied to you? The liturgy today invites us to be aware of and open to a transformation of attitudes, so we can help others heal in a similar way. The […]

HOMILY SUNDAY 23 – C The Cost of Discipleship (Wisdom 9:13-18; Psalm 90; Philemon 9b-10, 12-17; Luke 14:25-33) ************************************************************** Are you a tourist, or disciple? Travelling with the crowd, or following Jesus? Take up your cross, let go of some detrimental attachments, and follow Jesus as a disciple. Today’s gospel dynamics are very interesting. A […]

HOMILY WEEK 22 06 – Year II Servants of Christ and Stewards of God’s Mysteries: Memorial of St. Gregory the Great (1 Cor 4:6-15; Ps 145; Lk 6:1-5) ************************************************ “Think of us as servants of Christ and Stewards of God’s mysteries.”  That line, from St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, provides us with […]

HOMILY WEEK 22 05 – Year II New Wine, New Wineskins: Optional Memorial of Blessed André Grasset (1 Cor 4:1-5; Ps 37; Lk 5:33-39) *********************************************** “The new wine will burst the skins.” In ancient Israel, the juice from pressed grapes immediately went into a container to ferment into wine. If the wine was going to […]

HOMILY WEEK 22 04 – Year II An Invasion of Grace (1 Cor 3:18-23; Ps 24; Lk 5:1-11) ************************************* Did you know that all wise people come from the East? And that the wiser they are, sooner they come! The liturgy today encourages us to be wise, put our faith in Jesus, receive his forgiveness, […]

HOMILY WEEK 22 03 – Year II Co-workers Building the Kingdom of God (1 Cor 3:1-9; Ps 33; Lk 4:38-44) ******************************************* A key feature of my first year of ministry in northern Saskatchewan was introducing the Christopher Leadership Course to the north, which in turn convinced me of the importance of team ministry. As instrumental […]

HOMILY WEEK 22 02 – Year II Living Out Fully Our Trinitarian Faith (1 Cor 2:10-16; Ps 145; Lk 4:31-37) ******************************************************* Step 3 of the A.A. program reads, “Made a decision to surrender our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.” This step, and today’s readings, invite us […]

HOMILY WEEK 22 01 – Year II Prophets Speaking Truth to Power with Love: Memorial of the Passion of St. John the Baptist School Year Opening Mass – St. Charles Parish (Jeremiah 1:17-19; Ps 71; Mk 6:17-29) ******************************************* When I was to be ordained as coadjutor archbishop of the Archdiocese of Keewatin-The Pas in 2005, […]