Category: homilies

Mark 12.38-44. 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, year B Most of you have heard today’s Gospel a number of times over the years. And so, you are probably thinking to yourselves that it is a nice lead-in for the Deacon doing a homily about giving. OK. Thats not too challenging. Perhaps a homily that contrasts […]

Mark 10.35-45 whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. What a fascinating scenario is played out before us in today’s Gospel. The two disciples James and John want to be seen as Christ’s left- and right-hand persons. Now, we […]

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, year B. Gospel -Mark 9.38-48 There is an incredible richness to the words of the scriptures we have heard today. In case you didn’t notice, this month, all of our second readings have come from the letter of James ….. one of my favourite letters ….. and one I heartily […]

John 6.60-69. Almost two months ago, we started a very special set of readings. It began with our second readings from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians about how to live as a follower of Christ, a letter we continue to hear from even this weekend. And then at the end of July, we began a […]

Homily for 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B Ahhh – summer is here. A time of sunshine, sand, surf, and short homilies. And today, I thought I would chat about something that is not immediately obvious. Our second reading today was from Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus. Our second reading last week […]

homily for the 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B. 2024. Mark 4.26-34 We live in challenging times. Not that this is new to humanity, or even to some of us here. Indeed, I remember in elementary school sheltering below my desk as we rehearsed what to do in case of a nuclear missile attack. […]

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 […]

Luke 24.35-48 Jesus comes to you and me in ways we least expect. In the Gospel today,  Cleopas and his companion are telling the other disciples how Jesus appeared to them on the road to Emmaus when Jesus shows up out of nowhere, interrupting their conversation.  “Shalom!” he says. “Peace be with you,”  They see him, they hear […]

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 […]

4th Sunday of Lent, Year B. John 3.14-21 What an amazing set of readings we have on this fourth Sunday of Lent. It is known as Laetare Sunday ….. the second of the two times in the year that you will have to imagine that our vestments are pink …… because it is about Joy […]

Mark 1.40-45 In the 1980s, when I was doing my studies at St. Augustine Seminary, I also completed a six month Clinical Pastoral Internship at Toronto East General, now known as Michael Garron Hospital, as part of my formation in Chaplaincy. The very first patient I visited and spent time with was a young man, […]

4th Sunday Ordinary Time Year B : Gospel: Mark 1.21-28 Mark’s Gospel has a particular style.. Very action oriented. Very direct. Seems very simple, but beware- for under that simplicity lays really deep messages; every story, every event, every place, has some hidden depths. In the next few weeks, Mark will tell us stories that […]

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 […]

Matthew 23.1-12 We are fast approaching the end of the liturgical year ……and by next month we will be leaving the Gospel of Matthew behind ….. So, are there some important insights we can gain from todays Gospel reading? The answer, of course, is Yes. And indeed, as is so often true with Scripture, our […]

Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s [Matt 22.21] One of the incredible things about being Catholic is the multitude of ways in which we can pray. A few weeks back, I talked about how scripture can be, and should be, a big […]

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 […]