HOMILY EASTER SUNDAY 06 – A Intimacy – A Key to the Kingdom (Acts 8:5-8; 14-17; 1 Pt 3:15-18; Jn 14:15-21) ******************************************** If you were to summarize the whole bible in one sentence, what would that one sentence be? The answer: Love your neighbour as yourself. The gospel today is all about Jesus’ farewell discourse. […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 05 06 – Year I Participating in a Divine Paradigm Shift: Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima (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 trinitarian […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 05 05 – Year I About Our Identity and Activity: Optional Memorial of Saints Nereus and Achilleus (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 […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 05 04 – Year I The Gift of Sheer Joy Acts 15:7-21; Ps 96; Jn 15:9-11 ****************************************  “God is sheer joy, and sheer joy demands company.” That comment by St. Thomas Aquinas, a theologian, and today’s gospel, invite us to join in God’s joy through love. Another famous person, this time […]

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 (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 the movie. The readings today are […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 05 01 – Year I Experiencing God Through Intimacy: Optional Memorial of Blessed Catherine of St. Augustine (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 […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 03 04 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 of Mary Immaculate, […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 04 05 – Year I A Home for Us All (Acts 13:26-33; Ps 2; Jn 14.1-6) *********************************************** The late Oblate missionary, René Fumoleau, recounts the story of a house that burned down to the ground in one of the Indigenous communities he served in the NWT. When someone tried to console […]

HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 04 04 – Year I After God’s Own Heart – Living a 9th Beatitude: Optional Memorial of Blessed Marie-Léonie Paradis (Acts 13.13-25; Ps 89; Jn 13.16-20) ***************************************************** If you were invited to speak in a synagogue, what would be your message? The readings today provide us with one: have faith in […]