HOMILY WEEK 19 01 – Year II Learning to Listen – Lavishing Praise: Memorial of St. Jane Frances de Chantal (Ezk 1:2-5,24-28; Ps 148; Mt 17:22-27) ************************************** Have you ever heard God speak to you? Was your response one of praise? Today’s liturgy invites us to hone our ability to listen to God’s voice, and […]
Category: Homilies
St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr
HOMILY WEEK 18 06 – Year II A Spiritual Athlete: Feast of St Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr (2 Cor 9:6-10; Ps 112; Jn 12:24-26) ********************************************** Have you ever participated in a triathelon? Today’s gospel challenges us to do just that – participate in a spiritual triathelon of three activities: be a grain of wheat that […]
St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)
HOMILY WEEK 18 05 – Year II Radical Discipleship and Redemptive Suffering: Optional Memorial of Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Nahum 1:15, 2:2, 3:1-7; Dt 32:35-41; Mt 16:24-28) ******************************************************* When asked to address a Christian Business Men’s Association breakfast just before Holy Week one year, I decided to speak about Radical Discipleship and Redemptive Suffering. […]
St. Dominic
HOMILY WEEK 18 04 – Year II Covenant Love: Memorial of St. Dominic (Jer 31:31-34; Ps 51; Mt 16:13-23) ************************************* Yearning for intimacy is one thing that God and humans have in common. For God, that was always expressed through covenant relationships. The liturgy today invites us into an ever-deepening covenant relationship with Jesus that […]
St. Sixtus II and Companions
HOMILY WEEK 18 03 – Year II Persistent Faith: Optional Memorial of St. Sixtus II and Companions (Jer 31:1-7; Jer 31:10-13; Mt 15:21-28) ******************************************************** There is a very significant faith process at work in the readings today, calling us to have humble and persistent faith in Jesus; to come to him for forgiveness and healing, […]
Feast of the Transfiguration
FEAST OF THE TRANSFIGURATION OF THE LORD Being Attentive to the Mystery (Dan 7:9-10/2 Pt 1:16-19, 13-14; Ps 97; Lk 9:28-36) ********************************************** “You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place.” These words in the second reading from St. Peter, a witness to the transfiguration, invite […]
Blessed Frédéric Janssoone
HOMILY WEEK 18 01 – Year II Multiplication of the Loaves: Memorial of Blessed Frédéric Janssoone (Jer 28:1-17; Psalm 119; Mat 14:13-21) *************************************** Give them some food yourselves (Mt 14:16) Forty-two years ago, the Holy Spirit brought these words alive for Joe Difato and his colleagues, who founded the magazine The Word Among Us. This […]
Transformation
SUNDAY 18 – B Change, Conversion and Transformation (Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15, 31a; Psalm 78; Ephesians 4:17, 20-24; John 6:24-35) ************************************************************* A saying attributed to Cardinal John Henry Newman fits the readings today: “To live is to change; to live well is to have changed much.” St. Paul, in the second reading to the Ephesians, puts […]
St. Peter Julian Eymard
WEEK 17 05 – Year II Our Struggle with Unconditional Love: Optional Memorial of St. Peter Julian Eymard (Jer 26:1-9; Ps 69; Mt 13:54-58) ***************************************** One of the traditional “seven sayings of Jesus” on the Cross is, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” Renowned theologian Karl Rahner offers the following intriguing reflection […]
St. Alphonsus Liguori
HOMILY WEEK 17 04 – Year II Choosing Light and Life: Memorial of St. Alphonsus Liguori (Jer 18:1-6; Ps 146; Mt 13:47-52) ******************************************** “He tried again, making of the clay another object.” Israel had wandered from the Lord – not once, but multiple times, over many years. The people were worshipping false gods of money, […]
