HOMILY WEEK 21 05 – Year I Living with Lamps Lit: Memorial of St. Monica (1 Thess 4:1-8; Ps 97; Mt 25:1-13) ************************************* Recently, after years of burning messy candles, we noticed an oil lamp sitting on a side table in our chapel. We filled it with oil, held a match to it and voila! […]

HOMILY WEEK 21 04 – Year I Rooted in Faith; Living in Hope and Growing in Love (1 Thes 3:7-13; Ps 90; Rm 11; Mt 24:42-51) ********************************************* “Participate, don’t anticipate” is what we used to tell youth who were beginning either a TEC (Teens Encounter Christ) or a Search weekend in the north years ago. […]

HOMILY WEEK 21 03 – Year I Worthy Lives or Whitewashed Tombs? Optional Memorial of St. Joseph Calasanz (1 Thess 2:9-13; Ps 139; Mt 23:27-32) ******************************************* As it was a few days ago, the readings today are a study of contrasts. That being said, the gospel acclamation and St. Paul in the first reading come […]

HOMILY WEEK 21 02 – Year I Called to Unite Heaven and Earth: Feast of St. Bartholomew (Rev 21:9b-14; Ps 145; Jn 1:45-51) ******************************************** A somewhat forgetful preacher at a wedding was an ardent fisherman.  He asked the groom, “Do you promise to love, honor, and cherish this woman?” “I do,” said the groom meekly. […]

HOMILY WEEK 21 01 – Year I Living Faith: Optional Memorial of St. Rose of Lima (1 Thes 1:1-10; Ps 149; Mt 23:13-22) *************************************** The problem of addicts is not that they think they are worms, nor that they think they are special. Their problem is that they think they are very special worms! This […]

SUNDAY 21-B Experiencing Eternal Life through Faith and Love (Joshua 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b; Ps 34; Eph 4:32-5:2, 21-32; Jn 6:53, 60-69) ************************************************************* There is a Portugese saying: “What is important for us we find time and money for.” To enjoy eternal life now, we need only believe in Jesus as the Bread of Life, and […]

HOMILY WEEK 20 06 – Year I Walking the Talk with Humility: Memorial of St. Pius X (Ruth 2:1-17; Ps 128; Mt 23:1-12) ************************************* “Do what they teach you, but not what they do, because they do not practice what they teach.” The gospel today is inviting us to be humble, and to be persons […]

HOMILY WEEKDAY 20 05 – Year I Going Beyond the Law: Memorial of St. Bernard of Clairvaux (Ruth 1:1-22; Ps 146; Mt 22:34-40) ******************************************** Keep it simple, sweetheart! We are probably more accustomed to a less flattering version of that saying, but I prefer this more positive rendering. It also applies to the teaching of […]

HOMILY WEEK 20 04 – Year I Stop Sinning and Start Loving: Optional Memorial of St. John Eudes (Judges 11:29-39; Ps 40; Mt 22:1-14) ********************************************** The readings for today provide us with a challenge: how are we to reconcile the themes of war, bloodshed, child sacrifice, murder, violent revenge and punitive exclusion with the mild […]

HOMILY WEEK 20 03 – Year I Playing Ball in the Kingdom of God (Judges 9:6-15; Ps 21; Mt 20:1-16) ***************************************** Have you ever resented someone else’s good fortune? The gospel today invites us to look at reality from a deeper, broader faith perspective. As a young scholastic, I once questioned my spiritual director about […]