Homily for the Solemnity of Christ the King, Year A. By a show of hands, how many of you want 2020 to be over? Well, I have good news for you: This is the last week of 2020. This Sunday is the Feast of Christ the King, the last Sunday of the liturgical year. Next …
Tag: Year A
More than a Souvenir Penny
Homily for the Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A. Growing up, one of my favorite things to do was to go to the Zoo. And besides seeing the animals themselves, there were two other things which I loved to do there. The first was to ride the train, and the second was to make …
Choose Life, That You and Your Offspring Shall Live
Homily for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A. In January 2010, I visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. I remember it being one of the most emotionally draining days of my life. It took me several hours to make my way through the museum, and by the end I was spent. …
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John Wayne and Five Obstacles to Conversion
Homily for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A. Two days before he died, John Wayne was received into the Catholic Church. When asked why he took so long to convert, his grandson explained that Wayne regretted not doing it sooner and blamed the busyness of his life. To have been received into the …
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Gratitude, the Antidote to Envy
Homily for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A. In 1994, on one of the coldest days on record in Wisconsin history, my younger brother Andy was born. He was born with a rare chromosomal abnormality called Mosaic Trisomy 8. People often ask what this means. The best way to explain it is to …
Inconceivable!
Homily for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A. When I was in grade school, if you would have asked me what the longest word in the English language was, or the biggest number that had a name, I would have rattled them off quite easily. I was a big nerd, so I knew …
The Value of a Single Soul
Homily for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A. Would I be a good priest? Would I be an effective priest? Would I be able to win souls for Jesus Christ? These were some of the questions that haunted me in my early years in seminary. And I was afraid that the answer to …
Be Weird: Go to Mass
Homily for the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A. Growing up I used to collect things. Most of what I collected were the usual “boy” things like baseball cards, rocks, and keychains. But I also collected something which wasn’t typical for boys my age: chemical formulas. I kept a three-page Word document with all …
Be Brave and Bold
Homily for the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A. In 42 B.C., two years after he died, Julius Caesar was declared a god by the Roman Senate. It was a brilliant piece of political and religious propaganda. It allowed Julius’ adopted son and heir, Caesar Augustus, to take on a new and exalted title: …
Two Women and Two Virtues
Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A. Mother Teresa was once living in a small orphanage in Calcutta. One day there was nothing for the orphans to eat. So, Mother called them together and said to them, “Children, we having nothing to eat today. But if we pray to God He will …
Isaiah Forty-Three 