HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 06 04 United in Hope: Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima (Acts 18:1-8; Ps 98; Jn 16:16-20) **************************************************** Just in case you might have missed it, the Gospel today, for a fourth time this week, begins with the same sentence from John 13 about Jesus going back to the Father. […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 06 03 – Year I Grounded in Love; Evangelizing with Faith Optional Memorial of Saints Nereus and Achilleus (Acts 17:15, 22-18.1; Ps 148; Jn 16:12-15) ************************************************* Did anything about the Gospel proclamation today strike you as unusual? For the third time this week, the gospel begins with the statement: “When Jesus […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 06 02 – Year I Servants of the Word (Acts 16:22-34; Ps 138: Jn 16:5-11) *************************************** “Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world, and to go to the Father.” This statement provides the background for the message of the readings for us today: grounded in the […]

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 […]

SUNDAY EASTER 06 – B The Commandments to Love (Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48; 1 Jn 4:7-10; Jn 15:9-17) ******************************************************** In one community where I was for Holy Week, I worked with one of the local catechists preparing a group of seven young couples for the baptism of their children that Easter. In the course of […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 05 06 – Year I Participating in a Divine Paradigm Shift: Optional Memorial of Blessed Catherine of St. Augustine (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 […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 05 05 – Year I About Our Identity and Activity (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 to do with the church? That they […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 05 04 – Year I 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 […]

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 Optional Memorial of Blessed Marie-Leonie Paradis (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 […]