“I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent
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Follow the Leader; Follow Your Heart
A Homily for Ascension Thursday [Christ] ascended, not to distance himself from our lowly state but that we, his members, might be confident of following where he, our Head and Founder, has gone before. –Preface I of the Ascension of the Lord– When I was in college, years before
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They Feed Us
In loving gratitude to the devoted members of the Serra Club Summer 1990 Without the Sacrament of Holy Orders, we would not have the Lord. Who put Him there in that Tabernacle? The Priest. Who welcomed your soul at the beginning of your life? The priest. Who feeds your soul
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“Failure Is Not Final”
A Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter, Year C How many jokes do you know that begin with someone walking into a bar? Here is one, for example: A termite walks into a bar and asks, “Is the bar tender here?” Just as there are a lot
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I Look Forward to the Resurrection of the Dead
A Homily for Easter As you may know, the Church teaches that Jesus’ death on the Cross means that the souls He has redeemed can at last enter paradise. From the time of Adam’s fall until Good Friday, the gates of heaven were closed to the soul of every
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Wounds of Love
A Homily for Good Friday ”Nay!” answered the child; “but these are the wounds of Love.” –Oscar Wilde, The Selfish Giant— When I was in the seventh grade, my father noticed the peach fuzz sprouting on my upper lip and called me into the bathroom. After handing me a razor,
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Yes, Sir, I’ll Stay
During the time I studied at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary, we seminarians would be bussed every Palm Sunday to the Cathedral in center city Philadelphia. There we took part in the beautiful liturgy and, of course, we heard the chanting of the Passion. The chant, both measured and solemn, usually
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Bad Apples
A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not pick figs from thornbushes, nor do they gather grapes from brambles. –Luke 6:43-44– What’s worse than finding a worm in
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A Bit about Grit
“Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves payment. Do not move about from one house to another.” –Luke 10:7– Here’s a story you may have heard before. It is a variant of a tale originally told by Aesop—that
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A Letter from Hitler
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you –Isaiah 1:5– Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. –Edmund Burke– In January 2004, American Orthodox rabbi, author, and radio talk show host Daniel Lapin published a letter purporting to have been written by Adolf Hitler from
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