HOMILY WEEK 13 02 – Year II Weathering Life’s Storms with Faith: Memorial of St. Irenaeus (Amos 3:1-8; 4:11-12; Ps 5; Mt 8:23-27) *************************************** Have you ever been caught in a storm while boating? Today’s readings invite us to trust that Jesus can help us weather any storm in our lives. I remember one incident […]

HOMILY WEEK 13 01 – Year II Gratefully Going the Right Way – Optional Memorial of St. Cyril of Alexandria (Amos 2:6-16; Ps 50; Mt 8:18-22) ******************************************** At a first glance, the readings for today’s liturgy seemed to be a difficult read, with a focus on lots of injustice and sin in the first, and […]

HOMILY SUNDAY 13 – C Responding to God’s Call (1 Kings 19:16b, 19-21; Psalm 16; Galatians 5:1, 13-18; Luke 9:51-62) ************************************************************ This Sunday could be called vocation Sunday as the reading are all about a call from God and a variety of responses, culminating in the ideal response that St. Paul presents in the reading […]

HOMILY WEEK 10 06 – Year II Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Is 61:9-11; 1 Sm 2; Lk 2:41-51) ********************************************** “Without God, we cannot. Without us, God will not.” That statement by St. Augustine fits today’s memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who models for us a life of deep faith lived […]

SOLEMNITY OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS – Year II Revealing Our God Who is Love, Mercy and Compassion (Dt 7:6-11; Ps 103; 1Jn 4:7-16; Mt 11:25-30) ****************************************************** What word resonates in your heart more deeply – loyalty or love? Today’s solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus invites us into a paradigm shift from […]

HOMILY SUNDAY 12 – C Solemnity: The Birth of John the Baptist (Isaiah 49:1-6; Psalm 139; Acts 13:22-26; Luke 1:57-66; 80) ************************************************************ Have you answered the call of God in your life? Today’s solemnity of the birth of John the Baptist invites us to respond to God’s call by being a disciple, taking up our […]

HOMILY WEEK 12 04 – Year II Covenantal Love: Optional Memorial of St. Thomas More (2 Kg 22.8-13; 23:1-3; Ps119; Mt 7:15-20) ***************************************** A couple reminded me I had married them 36 years earlier and shared all was going well with their marriage covenant. This stirred up in me pleasant memories of the emotions connected […]

HOMILY WEEK 12 02 – Year II Three Lessons Toward Eternal Life: Memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga (2 Kg 19:9-36; Ps 48; Mt 7:6-14) *************************************** “Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction.” The readings today offer us three crucial lessons or teachings we […]

HOMILY WEEK 12 01 – Year II Befriending our Shadow and Not Judging: (2 Kg 17:5-18; Ps 60; Mt 7:1-5) *************************************************** The readings today offer us two related messages: Do not judge and the importance of self-awareness. The first, do not judge, is one passage from scripture we would do well to take literally, like […]

THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST – C (Gen 14:18-20; Ps 110; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Lk 9:11-17) **************************************************** Noted spiritual theologian Ron Rolheiser OMI recounts how a distraught young man accosted him in the sacristy after mass one Sunday. He had preached on the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan; how the Father had blessed […]