HOMILY SUNDAY 25-B Be Countercultural like Jesus (Wisdom 2:12, 17-20; Psalm 54; James 3:16 – 4:3; Mk 9:30-37) *********************************************************** Do you want to be happy and live a good life? Be counter-cultural like Jesus: accept some suffering; seek to serve and be humble. This life choice will automatically bring us some sacrifice and suffering. All […]

HOMILY WEEK 25 01 – Year II Unity, Community and a Spirituality of Letting Go: Feast of St. Matthew (Eph 4:1-7, 11-13; Ps 19; Mt 9:9-13) *********************************************** How have you responded to the words of Jesus, “Come, follow me,” addressed to you? The readings today, on this feast of St. Matthew, offers us three interrelated […]

HOMILY WEEK 24 05 – Year II The Power of Resurrection – Good News of the Kingdom: Memorial of Saints Andrew Kim, Paul Chǒng Ha-sang and Companions (1 Cor 15:12-20; Ps 17; Lk 8:1-3) ***************************************************** Can you imagine a walking band of missionaries of about twenty persons going around the countryside? Today, we are invited […]

HOMILY WEEK 24 04 – Year II Believing in Jesus – Befriending our Shadow: Optional Memorial of St. Januarius (1 Cor 15:1-11; Ps 118; Lk 7:36-50) **************************************************************** Saint, sinner and Pharisee – today’s liturgy provides us with a study in contrast of three characters – the first two we can emulate, and learn from the […]

HOMILY WEEK 24 03 – Year II Chosen as God’s Own (1 Cor 12:31-13:13; Ps 33; Lk 7:31-35) **************************************** St. Eugene de Mazenod, founder of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, traces his vocation as a priest, and eventually as a bishop, and finally, as a saint, to a conversion experience at the foot of the […]

WEEK 24 02 – Year II Being like Jesus in the Body of Christ: Memorial of St Hildegard of Bingen (1 Cor 12:12-31; Ps 100; Lk 7:11-17) ****************************************** If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. The readings today invite us to be like Christ in the Body […]

HOMILY WEEK 24 01- Year II A Eucharistic Faith that Heals: Memorial of Saints Cornelius and Cyprian (1 Cor 11:17-33; Ps 40; Lk 7:1-10) ******************************************* Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.  The readings today invite us into a […]

HOMILY SUNDAY 24 – B The Cross as Redemptive Suffering (Isaiah 50:5-9; James 2:114-18; Mark 8:27-35) *************************************************** A woman back from shopping was showing her husband the expensive dress she had purchased. When he asked her why she bought a dress she did not really need, she replied that she couldn’t resist the temptation. Her […]

EXULTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS The Cross – Source of Life Through Faith and Repentance (Numbers 21:4-9; Psalm 78; Philippians 2:6-11; John 3:13-17) *********************************************************** There is much history behind today’s feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Legend has it that St. Helena, the mother of St. Augustine, discovered the True Cross in 326 […]

HOMILY WEEK 23 05 – Year II Journeying into Greater Self-Awareness: Memorial of St. John Chrysostom (1 Cor 9:16-27; Ps 83; Lk 6:39-42) *************************************** “You are, who you are, who you are – what are you afraid of?” Franciscan Father Richard Rohr started a retreat for our Oblate community years ago with the startling statement, […]