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Thursday of the Twenty-sixth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings I want to begin my homily by reminding you of the words we heard in our first reading from Nehemiah: He read out of the book from daybreak till midday, in the presence of the men, the women, and those children old enough to understand; and all the people listened attentively to the…
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Saint Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church
Saint Jerome is something of an enigma. He wasn’t the epitome of the quiet, scholarly saint that one might think him to be. Perhaps unfortunately, he was known for his quick temper and sometimes mean-spirited pen. If they had email in those days, he’d probably be the one to fire off a quick nastygram without…
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Saint Vincent de Paul, Priest
(Mass for the school children.) Back in the days when Saint Vincent became a priest, they had a rather easy life and were quite wealthy. This was the expectation he had when he was ordained. That was his goal in some ways until he heard the deathbed confession of a dying servant. That encounter led…
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Saint Pio of Pietrelcina
At the age of 15, Francesco Forgione joined the Capuchins and took the name of Pio. He was ordained in 1910 and was drafted during World War I. After he was discovered to have tuberculosis, he was discharged. In 1917 he was assigned to the friary in San Giovanni Rotondo. On September 20, 1918, as…
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Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist
How wonderful for us to celebrate the feast of St. Matthew. I say that because Matthew was qualified to be a disciple of Jesus in much the same way that we are qualified to be disciples of Jesus – which is to say, not at all. Matthew was a tax collector, working for the Roman…
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Thursday of the Twenty-fourth Week of Ordinary Time
Simon the Pharisee had committed a grave error in hospitality, and a serious error in judgment. In those days, when a guest came to your home, you made sure to provide water for him or her to wash their feet, because the journey on foot was often long and hot and dirty, and it was…
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Saints Cornelius and Cyprian, bishops and martyrs
St. Cornelius was ordained as the Bishop of Rome in 251. His major contribution was to defend the faith against the Novatian schismatics, a group who denied the readmission of those who had lapsed in the faith by being made to perform a ritual sacrifice to pagan gods, under the threat of death by the…
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Thursday of the Twenty-third Week of Ordinary Time
Christian disciples are called to go the extra mile. Sure, it’s easy enough to love those who love you, and to do good to those who do good to you, and to give expecting reward. How many of us have people over for dinner because we know those same people will return the favor to…
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Saint Peter Claver, Priest
Today’s gospel reading urges us to think outside the box, religiously speaking. We are urged to reach out in love to those in need, to bind up their wounds and cooperate in God’s healing mission, no matter what day it is, because love is what’s most important. This was a call that Saint Peter Claver…
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The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Today our parish celebrated our Patronal Feast Day: the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This superseded the celebration of the Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time for us. Reading the genealogies isn’t my favorite thing to do, and often because there is a choice, I choose not to proclaim them at Mass. I chose to proclaim it…
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