Making Gifts for Jesus – Homily for Christmas Eve Mass with Children
Here is the audio of my homily from the Christmas Eve children’s Mass. http://traffic.libsyn.com/stpeter/SP-2014-12-24a-461.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS
Category: Homily
Donkeys and Moonwalking Bears: Homily for the First Sunday of Advent – Year B 2014
There’s a video that’s been online for about five years now, that I like to show to my students. It starts in a big parking garage with two street basketball teams, one wearing white t-shirts and sweats, the other wearing black. As they stand there in one line, each team with its own basketball, the announcer’s voice begins, “This is an Awareness Test.” “How many passes does the team in white make?” A voice yells, “GO!” and suddenly the teams start running around, weaving in and out, passing...
Fear, Trust, and the Worthy Wife: Homily for the Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
The first reading and the gospel can be summarized like this: “Do not be afraid to use what has been entrusted to you.” In both readings something precious is entrusted to someone, and in both readings fear plays an important role. The master entrusts his possessions to his three servants. And the husband entrusts his heart to his wife. The third servant is afraid of the master. And the worthy wife has the Fear of the Lord. To entrust is to put something precious into another’s care. The...
Redwoods, Oceans, and Big Skies: Homily for the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
If you drive to northern California through central Oregon, you cross the state line on US 199, also known as the Redwood Highway. As you continue into California, you reach a certain point where it feels like you’ve entered a fairytale. It feels like your car has shrunk, and now you’re driving a Hot Wheel, because there are these massive, massive trees stretching above you, over your head, these ancient redwoods. And if you get out of your car and walk around the groves of redwoods you feel...
Why Teach in a Catholic School? – Homily for Catechetical Sunday
Today is Catechetical Sunday, a day we pray for and bless those who instruct our children in the faith. Some of them do this for a living, as teachers at our parish school. Some of them do this as volunteers in the religious education program, giving up hours of their personal time each week. We might ask ourselves, why would someone choose to do this? Why do the school teachers work for less than they could make in a public school? Why do the volunteers spend their own...
The Last Case of Henri Latour – Homily for the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Some of you might remember radio personality Paul Harvey who used to come on in the evenings and tell The Rest of the Story. He once told the story of the last case of the great French detective Henri Latour. Latour was the Sherlock Holmes of France, but unlike the famous English detective, Latour was a real person, an actual police detective. And he was a living legend when it came to tracking down criminals. In his last case, a terrible crime had been committed: an elderly couple...
Boxed and Labeled: Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A
This summer Brenda and I did a lot of cleaning and reorganizing around the house. Our two older boys have moved out, we’ve done a shuffle of the girls’ bedrooms, and we’re trying to get rid of all the unnecessary stuff that we’ve accumulated over the years. One thing that helps us to organize is to put things into boxes and label them. It makes it easier to remember where you’ve put things. We’ve got boxes with the boys’ names on them, we’ve got boxes labeled “Christmas,” and...
Stinkweeds and Thistles: Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today we’re asked to use our imaginations and picture ourselves as wheat. “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field.” Imagine us first as good seed, held in the hand of the Farmer. As he runs us through his fingers, he feels the potential for growth we carry within us. Just at the right time of the year, he carries us into the field, then scoops us up with his hands and scatters us onto the ground. We lay...
Solid and Liquid: Homily for the Solemnity of Saint Peter and Saint Paul
We have kind of an unusual circumstance this year. Instead of celebrating the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, we’re celebrating the Solemnity of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, which always occurs on June 29. Usually when a feast falls on a Sunday, the feast gets skipped. It’s rare that a saint’s feast would take precedence over a Sunday. And when a feast does supersede a Sunday it’s usually a feast of Jesus, or Mary, or Joseph. But today the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time gives way to our...
The Lure of the Will-O’-The-Wisp: Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter – Year A
In Scottish and English folklore, people tell of the will-o’-the-wisp, mischievous lights in the bogs and swamps carried by fairies and goblins that lead lost travelers to their doom. As the travelers follow those elusive and fickle lights, they leave the path behind, and when the lights are extinguished the travelers are even more lost than when they began. On our journey of faith we sometimes lose our way, following will-o’-the-wisps. We get lost, like those travelers in the woods who wander off the path, following the goblin...
To Dance in our Woundedness: Homily for the Second Sunday of Easter – Year A
“These signs have been written that you may believe.” In today’s gospel, Thomas needs help in order to believe. He needs a sign. Who can blame him? His friends were making a pretty far-fetched claim. Jesus is risen from the dead? Thomas had seen Jesus crucified. “Prove it to me,” he says. “Show me the wounds.” And Jesus does prove it to Thomas. In his mercy, Jesus appears a week later. Thomas sees the wounds. He also sees the living Christ. And he responds, “My Lord and my...
My Feet, Lord? – Homily for Holy Thursday
Jesus asks, “Do you realize what I have done for you?” As we begin these holiest days of the year, it would be good for us to do just that: to realize what Jesus has done for us at the Last Supper. The opening lines of the gospel set the scene. First, Jesus knew that his hour had come, and second, he loved his own to the end. He knew his hour had come, and he loved his own to the end. In his darkest hour he did...
