HOMILY ADVENT WEEK 02 04 – Year I Purgatory – the Pain of Entering Heaven: Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Loretto (Isaiah 41:13-20; Ps 145; Mt 11:11-15) ********************************************************** “Since John the Baptist, the violent take heaven by force.” These are strange words. What are we to make of them? The readings today invite us […]

HOMILY ADVENT WEEK 02 03 – Year I Yoked with Jesus: Optional Memorial of St Juan Deigo Cuauhtlatoatzin (Is 40:25-31; Ps 103; Mt 11:28-30) *************************************************** In the gospel today, Jesus reassures us that his yoke is easy, and his burden is light. We are not to avoid suffering, but to turn to him for the […]

SOLEMNITY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION Balancing Devotion with Imitation (Gen 3:9-20; Ps 98; Eph 1:3-12; Lk 1:26-38) ********************************************************** A husband asked his wife why she had purchased an expensive dress after she had told him she was only going window shopping. She replied that she did go window shopping and when she saw that beautiful […]

WEEKDAY ADVENT WEEK 02 01 Redeemed and Ransomed by the Lord (Is 35:1-10; Ps 85; Lk 4:17-26) ****************************************** The movie Argo depicts the liberation of American hostages from their captivity in Iran with the help of Canada. Imagine the feelings of those hostages as their feet touched freedom for the first time in months. The […]

HOMILY ADVENT SUNDAY 2 – B Repentance – Key to the Kingdom (Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11; Psalm 85; 2 Peter 3:6-15; Mark 1:1-8) **************************************************************** A dishonest painter thinned paint with water and painted a church. As long as it didn’t rain right away he would be okay, he thought. That night there was a big storm. […]

HOMILY ADVENT WEEK 01 05 – Year II Seeing with the Eyes of Faith: Optional Memorial of St. John Damascene (Isaiah 29:17-24; Ps 27; Mt 9:27-31) *********************************************** “Do you see what I see?” This line from a familiar Christmas Carol, along with today’s readings, invite us to see Jesus with the eyes of faith, and […]

HOMILY ADVENT WEEK 01 04 – Year I Building Our Lives on Rock: Memorial of St. Francis Xavier ((Is 26:1-6; Ps 118; Mt 7:24-27) ************************************* At the Western Wall in Jerusalem, our guide pointed out that the massive stones we saw were really just a retaining wall to support the platform on which the temple […]

HOMILY ADVENT WEEK 01 03 – Year I Love That Satisfies Spiritual Hunger (Is 25:6-10a; Ps 23; Mt 15:29-37) ************************************************* “Is that all there is to my life?” This is a question many people end up asking, especially as they enter into the second half of life. Our yearning for the fullness of life can […]

HOMILY ADVENT WEEK 01 02 – Year I A Shoot Shall Come Out (Is 11:1-10; Ps 72; Lk 10:21-24) **************************************** There is a bumper sticker that reads, “If you want peace, work for justice.” The powerful readings for day two of the first week of Advent inspire me to adapt that saying to become, “If […]

HOMILY ADVENT 01 01 – Year I Feast of St Andrew: Kerygma and Didache (Rm 10:9-18; Ps 19; Mt 4:18-22) *************************************************** “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your hearts that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” This message of Paul to the Romans succinctly […]