HOMILY WEEK 31 01 – YEAR I God’s Great Gift of Mercy: (Rm 11:29-36; Ps 69; Lk 14:12-14) *************************************** Have you ever received an unexpected gift that touched you deeply, and even had an effect on your life? The liturgy today invites us to reflect on gift-giving – God’s gifts to us, especially mercy, and […]

            HOMILY WEEK 30 06 – Year I Participating in God’s Mysterious Plan: Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo  (Rm 11:1-2,11-12,25-29; Ps 94; Lk 14:1,7-11) ********************************************* “Has God rejected God’s people?” The Word Among Us commentary for today begins with that rhetorical question by St. Paul, who is asking whether God has given up on God’s […]

HOMILY WEEK 30 05 – Year I Jesus – Messiah and Healer: Optional Memorial of St. Martin de Porres (Rm 9:1-5; Ps 147; Lk 14:1-6) ********************************************** Have you seen the movie “Messiah?” That movie about what it might be like if Jesus had come into our modern cellular and connected world relates to the readings […]

HOMILY – ALL SOUL’S DAY Living the Paschal Mystery (Job 19:1, 23-27; Ps 103; 1Cor 15:20-23; Jn 12:23-26) ***************************************************** “Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved.” Both the readings and today’s commemoration of All Soul’s Day invite us to follow Jesus in living the Paschal Mystery. Jesus, in the […]

SOLEMNITY: ALL SAINTS DAY 2023 Living In the Reign as Saintly Servants and Children of God (Rev 7:2-4, 9-14; Ps 24; 1 Jn 3:1-3; Mt 5:1-12) ******************************************************** “It is heaven all the way to heaven.” This statement from St. Catherine of Sienna, and the All Saints Liturgy today, invite us to live in the reign […]

HOMILY WEEK 30 02 – Year I Groaning with Transformative Hope (Rm 8:18-25; Ps 126; Lk 13:18-21) ************************************ A woman, who had lost her wedding ring while gardening, found it decades later encircling a carrot that she pulled up. Apparently, the tiny carrot seed that she planted grew through the ring that fit snugly around […]

HOMILY WEEK 30 01 – Year I Live in the Spirit and Loving Like Jesus (Rm 8:11-17; Ps 68; Lk 13:10-17) ********************************************** Which rings true for you: Law over love, or love over law? As adopted children of God, we are to die to sin, live in the Spirit, and make loving others our highest […]

HOMILY SUNDAY 30 – A The Bible in a Sentence (Exodus 22:21-27; Psalm 18; 1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10; Matthew 22:34-40) *************************************************************** How would you summarize the whole Bible in just a few sentences? Jesus does just that in the Gospel today, with his teaching to love God with our whole being, and to love our neighbours […]

HOMILY WEEK 29 06 – Year I Our Identity and Life in Christ: Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude (Eph 2:19-22; Ps 19; Lk 6:12-19) ***************************************** Today’s readings, and this feast, firmly establish our identity in Christ, and what it means to live in Christ. The late motivational speaker Serge LeClerc claimed throughout his […]

HOMILY WEEK 29 05 – Year I Gratitude for Salvation (Rm 7:18-25a; Ps 119; Lk 12:54-59) ********************************** Have you ever wished you were further along your spiritual path than you are, still struggling with some sin and sinfulness in your life? If so, you are in good company. St. Paul in his letter to the […]