HOMILY WEEKDAY 26 04 – Year II Discipleship: A Test of Faith, and Memorial of St Thérèse of the Child Jesus (Job 19:21-27; Ps 27; Lk 10:1-12) ***************************************************** A priest, who was addressing his sermon on Jesus especially to the kids in the congregation, started by describing an imaginary special person who was very kind, […]

HOMILY WEEKDAY 26 03 – Year II Following Jesus into the Kingdom (Job 9:1-16; Ps 88; Lk 9:57-62) ***************************************** The kingdom of God, discipleship, priorities, sacrifice, witness, redemptive suffering and prayer are a sequence of themes making up the readings today. The kingdom of God is the underlying reality of the gospel, revealing again the […]

HOMILY WEEK 26 02 – Year II Known and Loved – Like Nathanael: Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael (Rev 12:7-12; Ps 138; Jn 1:47-51) ******************************************************* Have you ever wondered what it must have been like to be one of the apostles and meet Jesus in person? Today’s feast of the Archangels and the […]

HOMILY WEEK 26 01 – Year II Qualities of a Strong Faith Optional Memorial of St. Lorenzo Ruiz and companions (Job 1:6-22; Ps 17; Lk 9:46-50) *************************************************** “In all of this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.” That conclusion to the first reading today sets the stage for the readings and the […]

HOMILY SUNDAY 26 – A Faith, Repentance and God’s Will (Ezekiel 18:25-28; Psalm 25; Philippians 2:1-11; Matthew 21:28-32) ************************************************************* At the age of twelve, Frank was sent by his father to pick wild oats out of a quarter section of land sowed to oats. While his father probably thought it was a reasonable request to […]

HOMILY WEEK 25 05 – Year II Taking up the Cross and Living Calvary in Slow Motion: Feast of Saints Jean de Brébeuf, Isaac Jogues and Companions (Rev 7:9-17; Ps 124; 2 Cor 4:7-15; Lk 9:23-26) ************************************************************* The feast we celebrate today is a significant feast for the Canadian Church, evidenced by two readings plus […]

HOMILY WEEK 25 05 – Year II The Messiah of God: Optional Memorial of Saints Cosmos and Damian (Ecclesiastes 3; Ps 144; Lk 9:18-22) *********************************************** In today’s gospel, Jesus poses a question about his identity in the peoples’ eyes to his disciples, and then asks them who they think he is. Peter replies with a […]

HOMILY WEEK 25 04 – Week II An Intimate Faith in Jesus: Optional Memorial of Blessed Émile Tavernier-Gamelin (Eccles 1:2-11; Ps 90; Lk 9:7-9) **************************************************** The late Serge LeClerc, former gang leader turned motivational speaker, stressed in one of his talks how he was always looking for identity in his career of crime. He also […]

HOMILY WEEK 25 03 – Year II Sent to Proclaim and to Heal: Memorial of St. Pius of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio) (Prov 30:5-9; Ps 119; Lk 9:1-6) ****************************************** “Take nothing with you.” What a difference there is between this admonition of Jesus to the apostles he sends out on mission, and the Boy Scouts motto […]

HOMILY WEEK 25 02 – Year II Like a Stream in God’s Hand (Prov 21:1-6, 10-13; Ps 119; Lk 8:19-21) **************************************** The Grand Canyon is two hundred, seventy-seven miles long, up to eighteen miles wide, and over a mile deep. Water flowing there, over millions of years, has left its mark in layer after layer […]