WEEK 08 01 – Year I (Sir 17:24-29; Ps 32; Mk 10:17-27) ********************************************** Today’s readings encourage us to pray for faith strong enough to practice a spirituality of letting go. Two of my mentors, Ron Rolheiser OMI and Richard Rohr OFM, share comments pertinent to these readings. Rohr posits that good spirituality is all about […]

HOMILY SUNDAY 08 – C (Sir 27:4-7; Ps 92; 1 Cor 15:54-58; Lk 6:39-45) ************************************************** The readings today invite us to bear fruit in the kingdom of God through greater self-awareness and living out what I call Teepee Spirituality. The wisdom sayings of Sirach in the first reading, surely distilled over the ages, pack a […]

WEEKDAY 07 06 – Year I (Sir 17:1-15; Ps 103; Mk 10:13-16) **************************************** A mother, not wanting to be bothered with a salesman coming to the house, instructed her 5-year old to answer the door and tell him she was not home. The boy obediently opened the door and said, “My mom told me to […]

HOMILY WEEK 7 05 – Year I (Sirach 6:5-17; Mk 10:1-12) ********************************* The readings today speak to us of marriage and friendship and the connection between the two. In so doing, they invite us to strive to be faithful friends to the Lord and to one another. In the Gospel, Jesus is confronted with the […]

HOMILY WEEK 7 05 – Year I (Sirach 6:5-17; Mk 10:1-12) ********************************* The readings today speak to us of marriage and friendship and the connection between the two. In so doing, they invite us to strive to be faithful friends to the Lord and to one another. In the Gospel, Jesus is confronted with the […]

HOMILY WEEK 07 04 – Year I Optional Memorial of St. Gregory of Narek, Abbot and Doctor of the Church (Sir 5:1-8; Ps 1; Mk 9:41-50) ****************************************** “I think I shall never see, a poem lovely as a tree.” That opening line from a famous poem by Joyce Kilmer serves as an inspiration to see […]

HOMILY WEEK 07 03 – Year I (Sir 4:11-19; Ps 119; Mk 9:38-40) ************************************** Years ago, I received the gift of a small book entitled “What’s In A Name?” It described the origin of the names of all the communities in my home province of Saskatchewan. It was enlightening, interesting and somehow even affirming to […]

HOMLY WEEK 07 02 – Year I (Sir 2:1-11; Ps 37; Mk 9:30-37) *************************************** A young man asked his friends if they believed he could push a wheelbarrow on a high wire over Niagara Falls. They of course said no, but then he did it. Then he asked his friends if they believed he could […]

HOMILY WEEK 07 01 – Year I (Sir 1:1-10; Ps 93; Mk 9:14-29) ************************************* Would you like to have a stronger, more powerful faith? Consider doing a monthly Poustinia in which you fast, and pray the prayer of the father in the Gospel today: “I believe, help my unbelief!” It is noteworthy that Matthew begins […]

HOMILY SUNDAY 7-C (1 Sm 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-25; Psalm 103; 1 Cor 15:45-50; Lk 6:27-38) **************************************************************** A magnetic cartoon on a friend’s refrigerator caught my attention one day. It pictured a man holding a banner that read: “Who Would Jesus bomb?” It is time that we let the Law of Love reign supreme in […]