A Homily for the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C “Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.” –Luke 13:24– If you have heard this story from me prior to 2022, you are probably
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A homily on the Annunciation Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” –Luke 1:38– We Catholics hear the Gospel account of the Annunciation so often that I think we fail to appreciate fully at least one
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(A Not-So-Nice Homily for Christmas) Delivered Christmas 2019 Relations, sparing no expense’llSend some useless old utensil,Or a matching pen and pencil.“just the thing I need! how nice!”It doesn’t matter how sincere itIs, nor how heartfelt the spirit,Sentiment will not endear it,What’s important is the price. “A Christmas Carol” –Tom Lehrer–
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A Homily for Pentecost My friend Rose bakes one awesome blueberry pie. It’s her mother-in-law’s recipe, and she follows it to the “T.” This is, no doubt, because the pie is quite delicious, but it is also, in no small measure, because Rose has a great deal of love
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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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Let both grow together until the harvest. –Matthew 13:30– In his famous experiments of the 1960s, Yale University’s social psychologist discovered that his subjects were, in obedience to authority, surprisingly willing to administer what they thought were high voltage electric shocks to poor learners. As a teacher who is
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During my twenty-four-year stay in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, I came to know a woman named Anne who, in many ways, was like a second mother to me. Anne was full of maternal wisdom. About her own children, she’d say, “You can give birth to ‘m, but you can’t explain ‘m.” She
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In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he has first loved us… –1 John 4:10– Once upon a time, a strong magnet fell in love with a slender nail. The magnet confided to the nail: “I love you. If you love me, become magnetized.”
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