ponderings on life and faith
Homily, Ascension Sunday 2024 Can you imagine being there when Jesus ascended? Can you see the look of Surprise and Shock on the apostles’ faces as Jesus ascended into heaven? It was then, and is now, a surprising event. A shocking event. The Apostles expected the Messiah to come as a mighty King. Surprise! He came […]
Easter Sunday 2024 It is said that every generation has a defining moment. For my generation, it was likely the Cuban missile crisis and its threat of starting a global thermonuclear war. A close second was the decade of the 1960’s and the massive social changes which that decade encompassed. Those defining moments changed us. Shaped […]
Feast of the Holy Family [2023] The Son of God could have come to us in any way he wanted. He could have come to us full grown and alone. Or he could have come as a child under the protection of some royal court. Instead, he chose to come to us as a baby, […]
Homily for Family Christmas Mass, 2023 There is something about Christmas that kids get, almost without explanation, and that we as adults can perhaps – overthink. As adults, we ask ourselves questions like … “why would God come to earth as a poor baby?” I mean, it makes for a cute story, but … really […]
Second Sunday of Advent, Year B We often think that Advent is about us waiting for Christ, but in fact, it is God who has been waiting – for you and for me. From all eternity, the Lord has been waiting to have a heart to heart with us, to speak words of consolation to […]
While most homilies for this 23rd Sunday of ordinary time [A] would focus on how we are called to help call one another into community, or on the sacrament of reconciliation, In my preparation for today, I was drawn to part of the last line of todays gospel ….. “Where two or more are gathered in my name, I am there […]
Homily for the 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time, year A Stuck in the middle of August is this really powerful, insightful, challenging, disturbing, essential message. You know, it’s one of the few times that we find that the Old Testament reading and the Psalm and the epistle from Paul and the Gospel all have the […]
Early one morning a few weeks ago, I was sitting on the beach in Port Stanley. Playing at the edge of the water was a young mother and her 1 year old baby boy – on his first ever visit to a beach. The joy of the Mom and child was evident in the broad […]
Trinity Sunday is a difficult day for preachers. We start by saying “the Holy Trinity is a mystery.” Then we take the next 10 or 15 minutes minutes trying to explain that mystery. And as hard as that is for us, it is even harder for you, who have to sit through that long and […]
Let’s take a moment to enter into the Gospel and readings on this Ascension Sunday – We see the scene painted in the words of Acts and of our Gospel …. Jesus ascends in a cloud into the sky. And the eleven are standing, looking up in wonder and amazement. Then Angels appear – messengers […]
John 4.5-42 How true it is of our human nature that we so often define ourselves by our failures, especially when others know that we have stumbled and treat us poorly as a result. How often we hear our inner voice telling us that we do not measure up to whatever illusion of perfection we […]
We have now left the Christmas season, and have come back into Ordinary Time. Just like in Advent when we heard a lot about John the Baptist, so too – we start off this Ordinary time hearing about John again in todays Gospel. And, no surprise here, our Gospel reading today is layered with deeper and deeper […]
As much as I enjoy the Gospel of Luke (Luke kind of tells you what’s going on and always tells you how Jesus is feeling about things. And if you want to know what happened with the women, Luke will tell you), John though, John is always filled with so many layers. Whenever you read […]
There is a fundamental problem with the way society treats this time of the year. And nowhere is it more obvious than on this Gaudete Sunday ….. This “Rejoice” Sunday. The day when we celebrate JOY And the problem, simply put, is this ….. The message that surrounds us at this time of year is that to find […]
In a few short weeks, I will turn 70, and enter into a whole new decade of my life. It seems as if these decades are coming along faster and faster. I wouldn’t be surprised if I turn 80 by next Thursday. And so, as is likely typical for many of you as you approach […]
When we hear the words of Luke in todays Gospel, telling of the 10 lepers that were healed ….. and the one (and only one) who came back to thank God for the healing, we can easily dismiss the other 9 lepers as being insensitive, ungrateful. And maybe just a product of the society that […]
What a powerful and disturbing message the Gospel of Luke and the reading from Amos presents to us this 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time! In our first reading, Amos is speaking to his world in the 8th century B. C. And like in our Old Testament reading last week, Amos powerfully comments on how indifferent […]
We live in a world that is made up of pyramids. We are surrounded by structures and relationships that seem to focus on one entity at the top, with more and more entities spread out below. It is how we organize ourselves to do things, and it seems to be the way the […]
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C) [Ecclesiastes 1,2] Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. Sometimes one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by another who did not toil for it. What does a person get from all their toil and strain, […]
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them […]
