Merry Christmas!
Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled.”
Full of Blessings
4th Sunday of Advent
Mary is hailed today as full of grace, full of God’s blessings. Our lives, too, are filled with God’s blessings…but it’s so easy to forget and miss those blessings (and our sins lead us to forget God’s blessings as well). As we enter into this Christmas season, let us, like Mary, recognize our blessings and remind ourselves and others of the good things God has done!
Spreading the Light
2nd Sunday of Advent
Christ comes to bring a peace that every heart and soul longs for but which nothing in the world is able to provide.What we need is more of God, more holiness, more of God’s light shining in and through us. And as we experience God’s light shining out through us, both we and others experience the peace that this world cannot give!
Hell? Is God Fair?
34th Sunday in Ordinary Time
At the end of this liturgical year our readings focus on the end of time, the final judgment, and the coming of God’s kingdom in its fullness, the completion of God’s great plan for all of creation. Jesus speaks of all people being assembled before the Son of Man, and that “he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.” And those on his left “will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Is God fair? Is this treatment fair? Listen and find out why this is actually incredibly GOOD news for us!
Multiplying Faith
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
No matter how many talents we believe the Master has given us, no matter if we have used them wisely up until this point or not, we all still have at least one talent (and an important one) – faith! And our Master expects us to use whatever we have right now, engage with it, “trade” with it, and intentionally multiply that talent. Our Master hasn’t yet come back to settle accounts with us, so we still have time to engage others and the world with that talent and make a good return on what He has given to us!
The Gospel of God & Your Very Selves
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time
This weekend I am thankful to preach back at my home parish of St. Patrick in Hudson. Thank you to all of you who inspired me in the faith and grew me into who I am today. I am a priest because of you. As Paul said in our second reading, “We were determined to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our very selves as well.” Thank you for sharing with me and others not only the Gospel of God but your very selves as well…and keep doing that!
The Evil Temptation: Inaction
29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
I’ve been hearing a lot of discouragement at the state of our world, our country: the divisions, the politics, the games, the manipulation from all sides. I hear people sad that many of their own kids have fallen away from the active practice of the Catholic faith, that their own grandkids or great-grandkids aren’t baptized. I hear people lamenting that our younger generations are spending so much time on their phones and on social media.
All legitimate feelings. But there is a very evil temptation/conclusion that can come about as a result of these feelings. It’s a temptation that must be rejected, with a positive call to action from God that must be accepted and lived out by His followers here on earth if we wish to see souls saved and lives changed for the glory of God!
Atrocity? War in Israel? What is Our Response?
28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
As we realize the state of the world around us (perhaps recently we have been awakened to the ever-present realities of atrocities and evils throughout our world by the media coverage of the war in Israel), but as we realize the state of the world around us, we can respond to what’s happening in three ways: by being discouraged from our task, by being distracted from our task, or by being encouraged in our task. What is our task? It’s the same it’s always been! (And perhaps now we are waking up anew to the reality of just how needed it is!)
Quick to Pray
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Last Advent we preached about the 4 Marks of a Disciple: Quick to Pray, Joyfully Sacramental, Intentional in Relationships, and Committed to Growth. Since then, I hope that you’re finding yourself on certain weeks striving to grow in one or another of those Marks as we have continued to bring them up in preaching. This weekend we return to the first — Quick to Pray — and after some examples of how we as a staff here at our Central Office have been changing our habits and actions to grow in being Quick to Pray, I’d invite you to consider for yourself: How have you been more Quick to Pray in your daily life? What are some ways you’ve thought of being more Quick to Pray but maybe just haven’t acted on yet? (That’s likely the Holy Spirit inviting you to take the next step.) The call in these days ahead: start challenging yourself, as we the staff are challenging ourselves, to grow in being more Quick to Pray!
As We Forgive
24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
“Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven… Remember your last days, set enmity aside;”
“So will my heavenly Father do yo you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”