ponderings on life and faith
Here is where I have posted some of the homilies and reflections given over the years. Some also have an audio track …… I hope you find them helpful. Enjoy!
It was a dark night in April back in 1973. The Vietnam War was just coming to an end. Richard Nixon said “I am not a crook” and the Watergate scandal was just beginning – as was the construction work on the CN tower. Trudeau was the Prime Minister. The Old one -not the kid. OPEC was just […]
At this 10am Mass today, we celebrate with those preparing to enter our church, our community, in what is called the First Scrutiny. It means that the readings at this Mass are a little different than the readings at the other Masses this weekend. In the Gospel reading at this Mass, we have a fascinating dialogue between […]
Life Happens. What an interesting sequence of readings we have had over the past few weeks. Two weeks ago, when Lent started, we heard about how the Devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness. The message from that was to discover how important it is to take time away to reflect, to fast from all that can get in the […]
In our Gospel today, Jesus tells us to love our enemies, and the word he used for love had nothing to do with sentimentality, but rather it means “to want what is best for the other person.” To want the best for our enemy is a difficult, disturbing and uncomfortable message. It is a message […]
Something happened to you some years back. You probably forgot it. In fact, it is very likely that you don’t remember it at all. Which is strange, because it fundamentally changed your life… It let you know what it is you were going to grow up to be. It answered the question of why you are here, and […]
If we but open our eyes, we see echoes of the Nativity Story all around us. We have just passed through the Feast of Christmas. For many of us, it has been a time of Joy. A time to take a break from work, and to spend time with people we love, with family and friends. […]
The third Sunday of Advent, like each of the Sundays in Advent, has a traditional theme. This week, it is Joy. And as we get closer and closer to Christmas, Joy seems to surround us. It’s there in our Christmas carols, and on our cards and decorations. Who doesn’t like to hear about joy this time of […]
This weekend we mark the end of Church’s year, the Feast of Christ the King. Often, at the end of the calendar year we often reflect back on our life over the past year, its events and activities, the things we started the year wanting to achieve (remember all those New Year’s Resolutions!) and how […]
30th Sunday OT(b) Mark 10: 46-52 As Jesus and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Many […]
Often, things slip by, unnoticed, in the background. I guess that is why it is called the background. This month, there has been something playing out in the background of our Masses. It is hidden in the Second Readings, where throughout the course of this month we have heard parts of the Letter of James to […]
Who are you? Better yet, Who am I? Do you know? If you do, could you please see me after Mass and tell me? I have been trying to figure it out for 65 years. I have the sense that if I asked 20 of you who am I, apart from some obvious answers (Deacon, […]
The Nativity of John the Baptist is a fascinating Feast. It is one of only three Church feasts that celebrate a birthday …. The others are the births of Jesus, and of his Mother, Mary. John the Baptist is well known to Catholics, and yet we too often underestimate his importance to us as Christians. […]
Gospel (Luke 24.35-48). The two disciples told the eleven and their companions what had happened on the road to Emmaus, and how Jesus had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled […]
Holy Thursday 2018 Alice, a dear friend of mine, passed away a few days ago. After getting the news, I spent some quiet time looking through the pictures I had on my computer of Alice and her family, and the memories of our journey through life together. Memories. As humans, we want something of the person […]
This is not just another Sunday: Palm Sunday is the beginning of what the Church calls “Holy Week. It is the beginning of a week with Christ that culminates next Sunday at Easter. It is a profoundly symbolic week, for by participating in the liturgies, we are not just on-lookers engaged in a pageant; rather, we are uniting ourselves with […]
Shepherd me, O God, Beyond my wants, Beyond my fears, From death into life. What follows is the majority of the text that made up a Lenten Mission given in 2015 at St. John Chrysostom parish in Newmarket, and in 2018 at Saint Aidan parish in Toronto. The three presentations that were delivered have been compiled into one document. […]
Lent comes early this year, and over the next 40 days, you will be hearing a lot about the Three Pillars of Lent – Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving. So today, on this first Sunday of Lent, lets touch on just one of the three pillars – Prayer, and perhaps explore this pillar just a bit. Prayer […]
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, year B I shall resist all temptations to tell a mother-in-law joke. Pray for me … it will be hard… What an interesting set of readings we have today. It starts off with Job …. that insightful and powerful story about the person who has everything, then has nothing, then […]
Hidden under one form or another , there is always a star glittering out there in the darkness to lead us to God. The Feast of the Epiphany achieved great importance early on in the history of the Church. It was celebrated long before even Christmas itself came to be regarded as a feast. I think it was […]
Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Cycle B It’s easy to build a house. It’s much harder to build a home. David found that out a long time ago, as we heard in our first reading. He felt guilty that he should have so much around him, while the Ark of God lived in a tent. […]
