Reflections on the Sunday readings from the Catholic Lectionary for Mass. Includes homilies, sermons, and other thoughts.
Sorry, but there will be no homily this week or next as I am on vacation in beautiful Alaska. Look for some Alaskan homilies on my return and follow my …
That Desire Might be Enkindled In today’s gospel a Canaanite woman comes to find Jesus and asks healing for her daughter. Surprisingly, Jesus won’t even talk to her. When he …
Where is God? In today’s first reading, the prophet Elijah has an amazing encounter with God. Mt. Horeb was the famous mountain where God appeared in smoke and fire to …
Satisfaction for the Thirsty Maybe we’ve never experienced a lack of water in our lives, but all of us experience thirst. We have a spiritual thirst put in us by …
What’s in Your Field? Jesus speaks today of a treasure hidden in a field. Hopefully we get the point that our faith is a treasure and our relationship with God …
A World Full of Weeds With all the violence, difficulties, and scandals in our world, this place can really seem less than ideal. Well, it is. The good news is …
Sink Your Roots Deep Today’s homily was given in the Chapel of the Twelve Apostles on the H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation in Osceola, Missouri. Our young people today have …
The Gift of Freedom This weekend we celebrate our freedom, our Independence Day. What could be more American than freedom? Yet, have you ever stopped to think about what that …
Help for Failing Senses At first it might seem strange to celebrate a day in honor of the Eucharist. Don’t we do that at every Mass? Of course, but today …
Fearful Yet Overjoyed After encountering Jesus after the resurrection, the gospels describe the apostles as being “fearful, yet overjoyed.” Perhaps that’s the best description we can hope for to describe …
Do Not Be Afraid Today is not any ordinary day. Today is Pentecost. It is a day filled with the power of the Spirit. Today the apostles went from being …
I Am With You Always There is more to reality than what we experience in the material world. Many things are very real that are beyond our senses. Today we …
Reason for Our Hope St. Peter reminds us in the 2nd reading today to always be ready to give an explanation for the “reason for your hope.” Perhaps we don’t …
This homily was given at the annual “Sending Forth Mass” to end the school year at Hayden High School. This was also my last Mass there as chaplain as I …
To God We Plight Our Troth In today’s gospel Jesus says that he goes to prepare a place for us and will then return to take us to be with …
Good Shepherd Sunday We often think of sheep as being cute and fuzzy little creatures that you just want to hug when you see them. However, I was reminded of …
This homily was given to the graduating class of Hayden High School at their Baccalaureate Mass.
We Are the Blessed “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Like a time capsule left for us in scripture, these words are addressed to us …
We See and Believe An atheist once admitted in a debate that, although he did not believe in the resurrection, the only logical conclusion was that the apostles did. He …
The Strangest Day It is a great mystery to think that the Almighty God became man and became a part of His own creation. Yesterday we celebrated the incredible mystery …
Sing My Tongue the Savior’s Glory This evening we sing an ancient hymn composed by St. Thomas Aquinas for the Mass of Corpus Christi in the 13th century. While most …
The Blessing of Reconstruction It was Palm Sunday 1865 and General Ulysses S. Grant and General Robert E. Lee were meeting at Appomattox Courthouse to officially end the Civil War. …
Do You Believe This? In today’s gospel we hear of the death of Jesus’ friend Lazarus. St. John makes it very clear that “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and …
3 Types of Blindness In today’s gospel we hear of the miraculous cure of the man born blind. Jesus uses to story to point out that there are ways much …
Time to Kick the Bucket Jesus never avoided difficult issues in his public ministry. In today’s gospel he is going right through the heart of the controversial region of Samaria …
Thank God for Mountains We all love those experiences when we seem to be on top of a mountain in our faith. Everything seems so clear and God seems so …
The Temptation to Love Temptation often seems to leave us frustrated. We ask God why he would allow such obstacles in our life. Yet in today’s Gospel we see Jesus …
Today Is a Very Acceptable Time Why do so many people seem to really enjoy Ash Wednesday and actual look forward to Lent? I think we all need to have …
Riding the Walls St. Ignatius teaches that the devil is like the leader of an opposing army that rides around the walls of a city looking for a weak point …
Finding Peace We live in a very busy world. It seems that everywhere we look we find stress and anxiety. Today’s gospel is meant to provide us some time to …
The Perfect End In this weekend’s gospel, Jesus continues where he left off last week with more hard sayings about what it really means to keep the law. Just when …
Fulfilling the Law in Our Hearts Sometimes we think of the Old Testament as the time when God had all those rules and laws. We think that Jesus came and …