HOMILY WEEK 25 05 – Year II Taking up the Cross and Living Calvary in Slow Motion: Feast of Saints Jean de Brébeuf, Isaac Jogues and Companions (Rev 7:9-17; Ps 124; 2 Cor 4:7-15; Lk 9:23-26) ************************************************************* The feast we celebrate today is a significant feast for the Canadian Church, evidenced by two readings plus […]

HOMILY WEEK 25 05 – Year II The Messiah of God: Optional Memorial of Saints Cosmos and Damian (Ecclesiastes 3; Ps 144; Lk 9:18-22) *********************************************** In today’s gospel, Jesus poses a question about his identity in the peoples’ eyes to his disciples, and then asks them who they think he is. Peter replies with a […]

HOMILY WEEK 25 04 – Week II An Intimate Faith in Jesus: Optional Memorial of Blessed Émile Tavernier-Gamelin (Eccles 1:2-11; Ps 90; Lk 9:7-9) **************************************************** The late Serge LeClerc, former gang leader turned motivational speaker, stressed in one of his talks how he was always looking for identity in his career of crime. He also […]

HOMILY WEEK 25 03 – Year II Sent to Proclaim and to Heal: Memorial of St. Pius of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio) (Prov 30:5-9; Ps 119; Lk 9:1-6) ****************************************** “Take nothing with you.” What a difference there is between this admonition of Jesus to the apostles he sends out on mission, and the Boy Scouts motto […]

HOMILY WEEK 25 02 – Year II Like a Stream in God’s Hand (Prov 21:1-6, 10-13; Ps 119; Lk 8:19-21) **************************************** The Grand Canyon is two hundred, seventy-seven miles long, up to eighteen miles wide, and over a mile deep. Water flowing there, over millions of years, has left its mark in layer after layer […]

HOMILY WEEK 25 01 – Year II Unity, Community and a Spirituality of Letting Go: Feast of St. Matthew (Eph 4:1-7, 11-13; Ps 19; Mt 9:9-13) ***************************************** How have you responded to the words of Jesus, “Come, follow me,” addressed to you? The readings today, on this feast of St. Matthew, offers us three interrelated […]

HOMILY SUNDAY 25 – A Disneyland and the Reign of God (Isaiah 55:6-9; Psalm 145; Philippians 1:20-24, 27; Matthew 20:1-16) ********************************************************** Do you have an attitude problem? Do you need to check your attitude? Today, we are invited to live life in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That Gospel invites us […]

HOMILY WEEK 24 06 – Week II On Being Rich Soil for the Word of God: Optional Memorial of St. Januarius (1 Cor 15:35-50; Ps 56; Lk 8:4-15) ******************************************* “Regnum Dei Intra Vos” is Latin for “the kingdom of heaven is among you.” That is my episcopal motto as an archbishop, taken from Luke 17:21, […]

HOMILY WEEK 24 05 – Year II The Power of Resurrection – Good News of the Kingdom (1 Cor 15:12-20; Ps 17; Lk 8:1-3) ************************************************** Can you imagine a walking band of missionaries of about twenty persons going around the countryside? Today, we are invited to experience and proclaim the power of the resurrection as […]

HOMILY WEEK 24 04 – Year II Believing in Jesus – Befriending our Shadow Optional Memorial of St. Robert Bellarmine (1 Cor 15:1-11; Ps 118; Lk 7:36-50) **************************************************************** Saint, sinner and Pharisee – today’s liturgy provides us with a study in contrast of three characters – the first two we can emulate, and learn from […]