HOMILY WEEK 20 06 – Year I Walking the Talk with Humility: Memorial of St. Pius X (Ruth 2:1-17; Ps 128; Mt 23:1-12) ************************************* “Do what they teach you, but not what they do, because they do not practice what they teach.” The gospel today is inviting us to be humble, and to be persons […]

HOMILY WEEKDAY 20 05 – Year I Going Beyond the Law: Memorial of St. Bernard of Clairvaux (Ruth 1:1-22; Ps 146; Mt 22:34-40) ******************************************** Keep it simple, sweetheart! We are probably more accustomed to a less flattering version of that saying, but I prefer this more positive rendering. It also applies to the teaching of […]

HOMILY WEEK 20 04 – Year I Stop Sinning and Start Loving: Optional Memorial of St. John Eudes (Judges 11:29-39; Ps 40; Mt 22:1-14) ********************************************** The readings for today provide us with a challenge: how are we to reconcile the themes of war, bloodshed, child sacrifice, murder, violent revenge and punitive exclusion with the mild […]

HOMILY WEEK 20 03 – Year I Playing Ball in the Kingdom of God (Judges 9:6-15; Ps 21; Mt 20:1-16) ***************************************** Have you ever resented someone else’s good fortune? The gospel today invites us to look at reality from a deeper, broader faith perspective. As a young scholastic, I once questioned my spiritual director about […]

HOMILY WEEK 20 02 – Year I Humble Faith and Spiritual Warfare: (Judges 6:11-24; Ps 85; Mt 19:23-30) *************************************************** August 21, 2017, was a memorable day for millions of people in North America as they witnessed a solar eclipse – total for some and partial for many more. That experience elicited some very interesting responses […]

HOMILY WEEK 20 01 – Year I Our Journey into Deeper Healing: Optional Memorial of St. Stephen of Hungary (Judges 2:11-19; Ps 106; Mt 19:16-22) ************************************************* Where are we at on our healing journey? The readings today fit the two stages of spiritual growth described by St. John of the Cross – the Dark Night […]

HOMILY SUNDAY 20 B  The Assumption of Mary – A Call to Greater Justice (Rev 11:19, 12:1-6, 10; Ps 45; 1 Cor 15:20-26; Lk 1:39-56) ***************************************************** The feast of the Assumption we are celebrating today comes to us, not from scripture as such, but from the lived tradition of the Church, the lived word of […]

HOMILY WEEK 19 06 – Year I Faith – Beyond Happiness to Joy: Memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe (Jos 24:14-29; Ps 16; Mt 19:13-15) *************************************** Some time ago I learned of the book The Happiness Trap, a title that intrigued me. As I suspected, the book affirms that the pursuit of happiness doesn’t really work, […]

HOMILY WEEKDAY 19 05 – Year I Eunuchs on a Healing Journey for the Kingdom of God – Optional Memorial of Saints Pontian and Hippolytus (Jos 24:1-13; Ps 136; Mt 19:3-12) *********************************************** The first reading today seems to miss a few other groups the Israelis had to face upon entering the promised land: the Gigabytes […]

HOMILY WEEKDAY 19 – 04 Our Own Exodus Journey and Paschal Mystery Experience: Optional Memorial of St Jane Frances de Chantal (Jos 3:7-17; Ps 114; Mt 18:21-19:1) **************************************************** One day, Louis, a tall Cree recovering alcoholic, came into my office and shared his story with me: a drunk for years, sobriety, joining AA, a dry […]