HOMILY WEEK 30 06 – Year I Participating in God’s Mysterious Plan (Rm 11:1-2,11-12,25-29; Ps 94; Lk 14:1,7-11) ********************************************* “Has God rejected God’s people?” The Word Among Us commentary for today begins with that rhetorical question by St. Paul, who is asking whether God has given up on God’s chosen people. This builds on Paul’s […]

HOMILY WEEK 30 05 – Year I Jesus – Messiah and Healer (Rm 9:1-5; Ps 147; Lk14:1-6) ********************************************** Have you seen the movie “Messiah?” That movie about what it might be like if Jesus had come into our modern cellular and connected world relates to the readings today inviting us to place our faith in […]

HOMILY WEEK 30 04 – Year I Our Identity and Life in Christ: Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude (Eph 2:19-22; Ps 19; Lk 6:12-19) ***************************************** A bartender told two strings who went into a bar for a drink the bar did not serve strings and kicked them out. One of the strings asked […]

HOMILY WEEK 30 03 – Year I Humble Faith, Lively Hope and Genuine Love (Rm 8:26-30; Ps 13; Lk 13:22-30) ****************************************** Two questions arise out of the readings today for us to consider: one, do we really believe St. Paul when he claims that “all things work together for good for those who love God”? […]

HOMILY WEEK 30 02 – Year I Groaning with Transformative Hope (Rm 8:18-25; Ps 126; Lk 13:18-21) ************************************ A woman, who had lost her wedding ring while gardening, found it decades later encircling a carrot that she pulled up. Apparently, the tiny carrot seed that she planted grew through the ring that fit snugly around […]

HOMILY WEEK 30 01 – Year I Living in the Spirit and Loving Like Jesus (Rm 8:11-17; Ps 68; Lk 13:10-17) ********************************************** Which rings true for you: Law over love, or love over law? As adopted children of God, we are to die to sin, live in the Spirit, and make loving others our highest […]

HOMILY SUNDAY 30 – B Seeing With the Eyes of Faith (Jeremiah 31:7-9; Psalm 126; Hebrews 5:1-6; Mark 10:46-52) *********************************************************** Fr. Pat Martin is a legally blind priest who gave a retreat in Pine House, Saskatchewan some years back. He thanked God for his blindness because it brought him closer to God and helped him […]

HOMILY WEEK 29 06 – Year I Repent, and Live in the Spirit: Optional Memorial of St. John of Capistrano (Rm 8:1-11; Ps 24; Lk 13:1-9) ************************************8**** The readings today invite us to repent and live in the Spirit. Jesus in the gospel stresses our need to repent if we are to live a new […]

HOMILY WEEK 29 05 – Year I Gratitude for Salvation (Rm 7:18-25a; Ps 119; Lk 12:54-59) ********************************** Have you ever wished you were further along your spiritual path than you are, still struggling with some sin and sinfulness in your life? If so, you are in good company. St. Paul in his letter to the […]

HOMILY WEEK 29 04 – Year I Word on Fire: (Rm 6:19-23; Ps 1; Lk 12:49-53) ********************************************* Word on Fire is what Robert Barron, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, calls his social media ministry. That title was probably inspired by the gospel of today, in which Jesus exclaims that he came to […]