HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 06 01 – Year I Bearing Witness to the Truth (Acts 16.11-15; Ps 149; Jn 15.26-16.4) ************************************************* “When Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father.” Perhaps you have noticed this sentence has consistently opened the gospel for over a week now […]

HOMILY EASTER SUNDAY 06 – A Intimacy – A Key to the Kingdom (Acts 8:5-8; 14-17; 1 Pt 3:15-18; Jn 14:15-21) ******************************************** If you were to summarize the whole bible in one sentence, what would that one sentence be? The answer: Love your neighbour as yourself. The gospel today is all about Jesus’ farewell discourse. […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 05 06 – Year I Participating in a Divine Paradigm Shift: Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima (Acts 16:1-10; Ps 100; Jn 15:18-21) ************************************************* Have you ever experienced a paradigm shift? The readings today invite us to join the early disciples in their paradigm shift from a monotheistic to trinitarian […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 05 05 – Year I About Our Identity and Activity: Optional Memorial of Saints Nereus and Achilleus (Acts 15:22-31; Ps 57; Jn 15:12-17) ************************************************ Have you ever heard people say they believed in God but not in an institution? That they believed in Jesus but did not want to have anything […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 05 04 – Year I The Gift of Sheer Joy Acts 15:7-21; Ps 96; Jn 15:9-11 ****************************************  “God is sheer joy, and sheer joy demands company.” That comment by St. Thomas Aquinas, a theologian, and today’s gospel, invite us to join in God’s joy through love. Another famous person, this time […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 05 03 – Year I The True Vine and Fruitful Branches (Acts 15:1-6; Ps 122; Jn 15:1-8) ******************************************** When I began my strawberry patch, I bought two kinds of strawberry plants with some berries on them and planted them with great expectation. The berries that were on the plants grew, matured, […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 05 02 – Year I Being Missionary Disciples (Acts 14.19-28; Ps 145; Jn 14.27-31) ************************************************ To announce the release of a new movie, a trailer is often produced giving the viewer an idea of what the movie will be like, enticing viewers to go see the movie. The readings today are […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 05 01 – Year I Experiencing God Through Intimacy: Optional Memorial of Blessed Catherine of St. Augustine (Acts 14.5-18; Ps 115; Jn 14.21-26) *********************************************** When someone is on their deathbed, and sharing their last thoughts and words with us – we pay attention. The gospel today asks us to pay attention […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 03 04 Be Proclaimers and Evangelizers: Memorial of St.  Francois de Laval (2 Tim 4.1-5; Ps 96; Jn 10.11-16) ****************************************** “Evangelizare pauperibus misit me – Pauperes evangelizantur.” This phrase (“He has sent me to evangelize the poor – the poor are evangelized”) is the motto of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 04 05 – Year I A Home for Us All (Acts 13:26-33; Ps 2; Jn 14.1-6) *********************************************** The late Oblate missionary, René Fumoleau, recounts the story of a house that burned down to the ground in one of the Indigenous communities he served in the NWT. When someone tried to console […]