Breaking open the Word of God …Applying it to the lived experiences of daily lifeIn the busyness of modern life, it is sometimes difficult to see and experience God in our lives. Through his homilies, Fr. Brendan challenges and invites us to take a break focus on what the Lord is saying. God is not only present but is opening up the divine story in each of us.
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Homily for the Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time - Love your Enemies
7:22
7:22
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7:22Jesus reorders life. He quotes the golden rule. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” That was in the Book of Deuteronomy as one of the laws of the Lord. But he takes it a step further. He deepens it and calls his disciples, the ones who call themselves Christian, to have a higher standard, a deeper reality. He says it is not enough,…
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Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Guardians of Beauty and Prophets of Truth
7:39
7:39
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7:39Pope Francis has declared 2025 a Jubilee Year of Hope, a timely reminder that even in the face of immense suffering in our world, we are not abandoned, Jesus always accompanies us and most especially in our times of suffering. The cross stands at the center of our faith, not as a symbol of defeat, but as a sign of ultimate hope. (Read more…) Here i…
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Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Limitation to Invitation to Abundance
12:35
12:35
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12:35You can hear a sense of frustration in today’s gospel with Peter. Peter has been working hard all night with his friends, he says they were up all night and caught absolutely nothing. Then here comes Jesus. Remember, Jesus is a carpenter and he is telling the fishermen what to do. You can see how outrageous this sounds. So you can imagine what Pete…
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Homily for the Presentation of the Lord - The Marian and Christian Way
9:35
9:35
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9:35Mary watched her son suffer greatly. This prediction by the prophet Simeon is very real. The climax of that suffering for her was at the foot of the cross. We have to examine this because it is very important how Mary suffered. It was not just that she suffered but how she suffered and gave witness to us. (Read more…) Here is my homily for the Pres…
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Homily for the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time - Dialogue With Scripture
12:18
12:18
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12:18Jesus is the fulfillment of the scripture. Jesus is the bright light that leads us to see all other lights. He is the one who enables us to see what God is fulfilling in our lives. So Jesus, in a sense, God becomes our north star, if you would, that we look to seek in this sky of lights. (Read more…) Here is my homily for the Third Sunday of Ordina…
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Homily for the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time - Abundant Joy In Life
8:39
8:39
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8:39In today's Gospel, Jesus turns everything around. He takes six stone jars fills them with water and turns that water into wine. These jars would have held 20 to 30 gallons each. Just to give you an understanding of how much wine we are talking about. He produced 600 to 800 bottles of wine! That is a lot of joy! (Read more…) Here is my homily for th…
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Homily for the Baptism of the Lord - In You I Take Delight
8:19
8:19
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8:19We need to hear this message of delight because we hear all the other messages, all the other negative messages, the competitive ones on online, how good everyone else is and not how good we are. Let’s combat it with a message of love. Let’s say to one another “You are my beloved one, with whom I am well pleased, with whom I am delighted.” (Read mo…
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Homily for the Epiphany of the Lord - Change Your Perspective
11:20
11:20
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11:20There are layers of irony here that Matthew is trying to communicate to his Jewish audience, kind of waking them up. “Hey, hello. It is the Messiah. The Messiah was born. You need to go to Jerusalem. You need to leave Jerusalem and go to Bethlehem.” But they missed the point. Why did they miss the point? It is because they are so rooted in their ow…
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Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family - Wisdom and Joy: Hold Onto Love
12:43
12:43
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12:43With the passing of time we certainly grow in age, but we do not always necessarily grow in wisdom. There are no guarantees that wisdom comes with age! It is one of those things that is an opportunity for us, but we have to apply the lessons that happen in our life in order for us to gain the wisdom from those moments. (Read more…) Here is my homil…
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Homily for the Nativity of the Lord - Make Room in Your Heart for The Story of Jesus
9:47
9:47
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9:47Today , we stop and we share what we believe is the greatest story ever told. The story of Jesus Christ being born among us. And right from the very beginning, there is a twist. And the twist is that God, the Author of life, the author of the Book of Life, enters into the story himself. He becomes one of the twists. (Read More) Here is my homily fo…
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Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent - Hear the Voice of the Father and Believe What we Hear
6:36
6:36
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6:36Mary believed! She just did not just hear, she heard and believed. And so we too must be willing to hear and then to believe what we hear. We will need to hear and believe that we are a beloved child of God. And we are called to go share that love with others today. Not in some future year, not in some future time, but today. (Read more…) Here is m…
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Homily for the Third Sunday of Advent - What is Stealing Your Joy?
10:19
10:19
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10:19Stuff comes in life and stuff happens! It is hard to, in a sense, frolic and enjoy life. Joy is not about circumstances. Joy is not about what happens to us. Joy is about what we choose when stuff is happening to us. Joy is a response that we have regardless of what is happening to us. (Read more…) Here is my homily from the Third Sunday of Advent.…
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Homily for the Second Sunday in Advent - Health of the Spiritual Heart
8:29
8:29
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8:29Our parish theme for the whole year is “Be still and know that I am God.” But during the advent period it is to be still and be joyful with the Lord. In the current secular climate today, we have the craziness and the busyness of Christmas. We cannot stop all the shops doing what they need to do and to try to get us ramped up and amped up on all th…
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Homily for the First Sunday of Advent - God Waits For Us
11:26
11:26
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11:26We are called in a more profound way to not try to change all the circumstances outside. We are not going to change the secular world, we are not going to change the stores. If they have goods to sell and they are going to start selling it. But we can change our attitude. See the difference between heaven and earth is not about altitude. It is abou…
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Homily for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe - Follow Christ Not Chase The Squirrel
8:34
8:34
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8:34Here is a photo taken by the James Webb telescope. Now, where are we in this universe? We are a tiny little point in the middle of that tiny place, we are so far away that you can not even see it. What is illustrated here is that the universe is massive! There are over 200 billion galaxies in the universe, and each of those galaxies has billions of…
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Homily for the Thirty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time - Love is Transient
6:59
6:59
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6:59Life is transient. One minute you are driving along, next minute, boom, the car flies off the road and you are taken out and your life could be gone. Never take life for granted. And we do. What today’s reading is trying to do is to wake us up. It says, ‘Listen, look, stop, take it. Pay attention.” Jesus is saying, “Wake up, wake up. I am always he…
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Homily for the Thirty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time - Carry the Grief Together
10:20
10:20
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10:20May God take all our loved ones to himself for all eternity. And one day, we will join him as well. Together we will be one in heaven. Until then, we will ask those clouds of witnesses to witness to us their love and help us to carry our grief and each other’s grief. (Read more…) Here is my homily from the Thirty-Second Sunday of Ordinary time. Ple…
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Homily for the Thirty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time - Magnifying Glass of God
12:53
12:53
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12:53Every time we come to the Eucharist God says that he loves us completely. So much so that he gives us Jesus Christ in his person. I want to quote Thomas Merton. Let me explain first. When the sun is shining bright, you can take a magnifying glass, focus the sun and you can set a piece of paper even on fire. Thomas Merton says that Jesus Christ is t…
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Homily for the Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Open The Eyes Of My Heart
6:48
6:48
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6:48We should understand the context of today’s reading. This is Mark’s gospel, the very first gospel to be written. And remember it is a continuation from last week’s gospel, where the rich young man comes up to Jesus and asks, “What must I do to inherit kingdom of of heaven?” And he says to him, “Give away everything.” Then James and John come along.…
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Homily for the Twenty Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Love One Another
6:59
6:59
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6:59We should understand the context of today’s reading. This is Mark’s gospel, the very first gospel to be written. And remember it is a continuation from last week’s gospel, where the rich young man comes up to Jesus and asks, “What must I do to inherit kingdom of of heaven?” And he says to him, “Give away everything.” Then James and John come along.…
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Homily for the Twenty-Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Letting Go
7:38
7:38
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7:38Today there are so many things that draw our attention, distract us from even our own goodwill. We may not even want to be a certain way, but because we send so much time with those things. The question is what do we treasure the most? If somebody were to take away something, we would go, “Oh, no, no, no, no. Not that.” (Read more…) Here is my homi…
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Homily for the Twenty Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time - ACL, Awe, Curiosity and Love for Christ
10:19
10:19
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10:19I just returned last night from our pilgrimage and I had a long trip home. I finished the pilgrimage in Greece and Turkey and then I flew to Vienna for a Stanford class reunion. Then I flew from Vienna to San Francisco last night. One of the things I love to see while traveling is how children and parents interact. God bless the parents; it is a lo…
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Homily for the Twenty Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Life is More Poker Than Chess
10:55
10:55
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10:55You are not going to win every hand in your plan, in your life. That is just the way it is. You get some really doozy hands sometimes when you are sick and when you are suffering and you have gotten a bad hand, you still have to play the hand. Pick up your cross and come and follow me. You can not just fold the hand every single time. And that is w…
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Homily for the Twenty Third Sunday of Ordinary Time - Ephphatha! Be opened
10:23
10:23
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10:23In today’s gospel, Jesus moves in close with this deaf and mute man. He moves in real close. And Jesus just does not say be healed or be opened in this case, he sticks his fingers in his ears. He puts his spittle on his tongue. I mean, that is moving in pretty close. He is intimately engaged. It is ultimately what Jesus did in becoming human. (Read…
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Homily for the Twenty Second Sunday of Ordinary Time - Doers of the Word
10:01
10:01
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10:01Henry Nouwen, the great Catholic priest and theologian of modern times, explains this reconnection concept using four words: taken, blest, broken and given. These connects us back to God as his beloved. When we truly discover that we are the beloved of God, that changes everything. (Read more…) Here is my homily from the Twenty- Second Sunday of Or…
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Homily for the Twenty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time - To Whom Should We Go?
12:13
12:13
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12:13We come to church not just for ourselves. We come for the sake of others. If there was only one person here, it would not be a celebration. It is a celebration because so many of us have made the decision to come here. That is what makes church. (Read more…) Here is my homily from the Twenty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time. Please feel free to share …
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Homily for the Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time - True Food for the World
11:24
11:24
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11:24I want us to understand what we need to do because the whole world needs this nourishment so desperately. We are the remnant few who come to church. We need to be the bread of life for the world. If we do not do it, then who is going to do it? There is no one else out here. It is just us guys. It is up to us to live what Christ gave to us and to be…
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Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Taste and See the Goodness of God
11:28
11:28
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11:28Watching the Olympics was such a wonderful counterpoint to so much we listen to in the news. It is such a relief for the human spirit. Because all we ever seem to see or hear is all bad news. But it is such a relief to watch this, the best of humanity. And it is such a relief and joy to watch. I cannot help but think of that phrase from St. Ireneus…
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Homily for the Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Become the Bread of Life
10:41
10:41
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10:41What we can do is share the nourishment we receive from here. And what does that mean? It is exactly what Paul says in the letter to the Ephesians. He said, “We shed the old self and we put on new self.” We need to become different when we come back from here. We need in some way to be nourishment for the world. We need to be the bread of life for …
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Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Jesus Sent Them Out
11:30
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11:30Jesus sent out the apostles, the twelve. In Mark's gospel, it depicts as just the twelve. But in the other gospels he sends out all his disciples. He sends all of us out to share the good news of the gospel with others. How we do that is incredibly important, but more important is that we do something to spread the good news. (Read more…) Here is m…
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Homily for The Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Familiarity Breeds Contempt
10:41
10:41
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10:41Let us open our eyes and see what is among us and see if we can participate. At least recognize them for the gifts that are here, that are the ordinary being turned into extraordinary. That we can be grateful for the gift among us and be part of it, maybe to be willing to step in and to help in some way. (Read more…) Here is my homily from the Thir…
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Homily for the Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Humble and Faith-Filled
11:04
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11:04What does it mean then for us to be faith-filled? And what does it mean for us to be humble as disciples? The lesson of the woman with the hemorrhages gives us is to reach out and touch his garments, if I could just reach out and touch God. Our constant sort of mode is to always be looking to touch God in our lives. (Read more…) Here is my homily f…
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Homily for the Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Jesus, Chief Meteorologist
9:50
9:50
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9:50There is something consoling about knowing when the storms will come and go. It does not take away from the fact that storms are there and they are coming and the damage that they are going to do, But it does sort of help to get ready for it. That is kind of the way it works. I find it very helpful, very consoling. (Read more…) Here is my homily fr…
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Homily for the Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time - Little Things
10:35
10:35
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10:35It is true that the little things are what matter in our own lives as well. It is the little things we will become known for. The little things that we do or say that matter the most. That is what Christ is saying in today's gospel with this parable of the kingdom of God. A mustard seed is the smallest of seeds, but yet when it grows, it becomes th…
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Homily for the Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - The Glory of God is Man Fully Alive
10:35
10:35
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10:35Today, I do not want to focus on the fall of humanity. I want to focus on the rise of humanity that will return to being fully human, fully alive, by seeing with new eyes, by hearing with new ears, by tasting and touching and smelling with new vitality so that we want to drink in the whole world and give glory to God. (Read more…) Here is my homily…
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Homily for The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ - Open Hands, Open Heart
7:44
7:44
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7:44Henry Nouwen, the great theologian and Catholic priest wrote in a book called Open Hands, Open Heart, “Most Catholics, when we come to church on Sunday, in fact, do not have open hands or an open heart. When we come, our hands and our hearts are full of many other things, and they are not open.” He challenged us in a very strong way. He said, “many…
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Homily for The Feast of the Most Holy Trinity - Look At Me. Listen To Me.
8:18
8:18
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8:18A lot of ink has been spilled over the mystery of the Holy Trinity for the past many years. Indeed, actually sadly, even more blood has been spilled over it. Even now, the East and the West Church are still split over a single word called the Filioque. This means that the spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. The gospel today brings us back …
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Homily for the Ascension - Mission Not Absence
11:14
11:14
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11:14The message is God loves us. The good news is that God loves you completely. The bad news, he loves everyone else completely too. But it is not really bad news. Of course, it is good news all around. The challenge then is, where we are called to be the church in the world where we are called to share this love where we are called to witness this lo…
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Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter - Love One Another
11:55
11:55
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11:55God loves us not for what we have or what we do, what we own or what we look like. God loves us for who we are. We know that intellectually, I guess we know that, but we need reminders of it. And in this world, there is so much coming at us that we need reminders often for that purpose. Sometimes there are things in our life that will illustrate th…
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homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter - Mountain Behind the Flowers
9:22
9:22
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9:22“I looked out upon my window and I saw the leaves and the flowers falling from my beautiful tree outside my window. And I lamented as I saw the barren branches appear, and I lamented the beautiful flowers and leaves I had. And then I noticed, as I looked through the tree with its barren branches, the stunning mountains behind the tree that I had no…
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Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Easter - Chickens or Eagles
9:33
9:33
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9:33Over the last few weeks, we have been reading from the Gospel of John and it hammers away at this metaphor of the Good Shepherd. And today’s version is a powerful one about how a good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. That is the image, a good shepherd. But I sometimes wonder if we really internalize that message? Do we really understand w…
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Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter - Live And Tell Our Story
11:08
11:08
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11:08Our faith is all about God as love and how we are called to be love to one another. And we are called to bring that story alive. We gather every Sunday to tell this story but sometimes I fear that we do not really believe the story, I am not sure we are convinced about the story we tell. (Read more…) Here is my homily from the Third Sunday of Easte…
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Homily for the Second Sunday of Easter - Wounded Healers
10:29
10:29
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10:29We often name the gospel from this Sunday as “Doubting Thomas." One of the things that has always struck me about this particular gospel passage is that Jesus has now risen from the dead, glorious victory over death and he has wounds. Why does he have wounds? Is this what it will be like when we all are raised? We will have all our wounds or broken…
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Homily for Easter Sunday The Resurrection of the Lord - Resurrection is For Real
11:51
11:51
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11:51Our role is to witness to love in the world so that others will come to know and experience the joy of eternal life. In the gospel t we get a hint of what the disciples found it hard to do it. Jesus says, “Go to Galilee.” Galilee was not just a physical location, it was much more. It was where they first met Jesus, where they first fell in love wit…
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Homily for Holy Thursday Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper - Wired to Imitate
12:02
12:02
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12:02When we witness something that is powerful, we tend to want to immediately mirror it. Our brains wire immediately to repeat it. If we witness a young person helping an elderly person we will typically say, “Wow, that is really wonderful. ” Our brain is now rewiring to repeat something like that for ourselves within the next twenty four hours. We wi…
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Homily for Good Friday - Beyond the Cross
9:39
9:39
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9:39We look upon Jesus on the cross and we take all our suffering wherever we have been, whether we have witnessed it, whether we are currently in the middle of it or when we are indifferent to it. We talk to Christ and accept his invitation of the cross to move beyond the cross. (Read more…) Here is my homily from Good Friday. Please feel free to shar…
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Homily for Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion - Feed the Good Wolf
6:31
6:31
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6:31We tend to think there are good people in the world and there are bad people in the world. Of course, we are part of good people, right? I mean, we do not ever consider ourselves bad, so we are the good ones. And they, whoever they are, are the bad ones. The challenge with that is that it is simply not reality as much as we want to believe it. (Rea…
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Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent - Surrendering to the Pain
7:54
7:54
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7:54There is something inside of us that we have to let go for something new to grow within us. We have to surrender to it for new growth to happen. In fact, we believe in it so much that we have a whole season dedicated called Lent. We must die to so much of ourselves and let something new grow, but it is cooperation with the grace of God that we can …
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Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent - Be In Right Relationship with God
10:44
10:44
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10:44Every action needs to ooze and come forward from that very sight that we want peace. Because peace is the loving relationship and right relationship with God. Because we know that is so hard to do, we come to receive the peace here with the body and blood of Christ. We come here to receive what we promise to become out in the world. (Read more…) He…
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Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent - Sabbath as a Day of Rest is Good For Your Soul
7:27
7:27
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7:27Sabbath became a way to understand and treasure people's time and leisure. It enhanced the people's relationship with God while intensifying their shared identity. Keeping the Sabbath holy was another way that Israel better appreciated the sacredness surrounding them and highlighted places and practices that sharpened their awareness of the presenc…
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