HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEKDAY 06 02 – Year II 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 from today’s readings: grounded in the love of Jesus […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 06 01 – Year II Knowing God and the Holy Spirit: Optional Memorial of St. Pope John 1 (Acts 16:11-15; Ps 149; Jn 15:26-16:4a) ********************************************** “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father…” That one sentence from Jesus suggests our complete faith in God as Trinitarian […]

HOMILY EASTER SUNDAY 06 – A Living in the Spirit (Acts 8:5-8; 14-17; 1 Pt 3:15-18; Jn 14:15-21) ******************************************** Although we are a few weeks away from the celebration of Pentecost, it is as if the liturgists who chose the readings could not wait. The reception of the Holy Spirit is front and center in […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK EASTER 05 06 – Year II Steadfast Faith and Love (Acts 16:1-10; Psalm 100; Jn 15:18-21) ***************************************************** In the gospel, Jesus warns that just as he was misunderstood and persecuted, his followers will also be misunderstood and persecuted. We must pray for the faith to stay faithful in the light of […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 05 05 – Year II Love Like Jesus and Live in the Spirit (Acts 15:22-31; Ps 57; Jn 15:12-17) ************************************************* “Love one another as I have loved you” and “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us…” These two key sentences from the readings today for Friday […]

HOMILY – FEAST OF ST MATTHIAS, APOSTLE Chosen to Love – Choosing to Love (Acts 1:15-17, 20-26; Ps 113; Jn 15:6-17) *********************************************** Two words leap out at us in today’s readings: “chosen” and “love.” Putting them together, we get the message from this feast day of St. Matthias that we are Chosen by Jesus to […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 05 03 – Year II Abiding in Jesus and Bearing Fruit: Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima (Acts 15:1-6; Ps 122; Jn 15:1-8) *************************************************** In the Domano Retreat center in the Diocese of Prince George, there is a vine covering most of a wall that both clings to and reaches […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 05 02 – Year II Elements of Discipleship: Relationship, Persecution and Proclamation – Optional Memorial of Saints Nereus and Achilleus (Acts 14:19-28; Ps 145; John 14:27-31a) ******************************************************** The readings today offer us three elements of discipleship as followers of Jesus: relationship, persecution and proclamation. The gospel places us back at the […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 05 01 – Year II Experiencing God Through Intimacy (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 to the words of Jesus before the Passover, […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON SUNDAY 05 Serving the Needy and the Word (Acts 6:1-7; 1 Pt 2:4-9; Jn 14:1-12) ************************************************ Brother Walter Demong is a humble eighty-eight-year old Oblate brother living at Trinity Manor in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. After a dedicated career managing a herd of prize-winning dairy cows at the former St. Charles Scholasticate near Battleford, […]