Homilies

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Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Year B

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 50:4-7; Letter to the Philippians 2:6-11; Gospel According to Saint Mark 14:1 - 15:47 Each year on the Sunday before Easter, Christians around the world celebrate and commemorate what is traditionally called Palm or Passion Sunday, when we...

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Fifth Sunday in Lent, Year B

Scripture Readings: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 5:7-9; John 12:20-33 This is the final Sunday before Holy Week, which begins next Sunday with Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. Today we focus our attention on the nearness and coming of the hour of Jesus’ glorification....

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Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year B

Scripture Readings: Second Book of Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23; Ephesians 2:4-10; John 3:14-21 This Sunday’s Gospel passage is part of the dialogue of Jesus with Nicodemus, a Jewish Pharisee and religious leader, who had come to Jesus expressing a sincere, though...

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Third Sunday of Lent, Year B

Scripture Readings: Exodus 20:1-17; First Corinthians 1:22-25; Matthew 2:13-25 This Sunday's Gospel recounts Jesus “cleansing the Jerusalem Temple,” as it is often called. This event took place at the approach of the annual Passover celebration, which recounts God's...

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Second Sunday of Lent, Year B

Scripture Readings: Genesis 22:1-18; Romans 8:31-34; Mark 9:2-10 I like to call the first Sunday of Lent, “Christ in the Desert Sunday,” for its emphasis on the mystery of our Lord’s temptations in the solitude of the Judean desert. The second Sunday of Lent I call...

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First Sunday of Lent, Year B

Scripture Readings: Genesis 9: 8-15; First Letter of Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:12-15] Last Wednesday we began the season of Lent, a favorable or opportune time, inspired by Scriptural references that speak of returning to God as something completely desirable and...

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Ash Wednesday and Holy Lent

Scripture Readings: Book of the Prophet Joel 2:12-18; Second Corinthians 5:20-6:2; Gospel According to Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18. The readings for Mass today set the tone for the entire season of Lent which we now begin. Keep in mind the word “Lent” comes from the same...

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Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Scripture Readings: Book of Leviticus 13:1-2; 45-46; First Corinthians 10:31-11:1; Gospel According to Saint Luke 1:40-45 This Sunday’s Gospel describes the miraculous cure of a man afflicted with the dread disease of leprosy. An outcast of society is brought back to...

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Fifth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B

Scripture Readings: Job 7:1-4; 6-7; First Corinthians 9: 16-19, 22-23; Gospel According to Saint Mark 1:29-39 The Gospel passage for this Sunday presents us again with the first stages of the public ministry of Jesus. Having cast out evil spirits and preached in the...

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Fourth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B

Scripture Readings: Book of Deuteronomy 18:15-20; First Corinthians 7:32-35; Gospel According to Mark 1:21-28 The three Scripture readings assigned for this Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time speak about being attentive and listening to the prophet whom God will send (the...

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Third Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B

Scripture Readings: Book of Jonah 3:1-5,10; First Corinthians 7: 29-31; Gospel According to Saint Mark 1:14-20 The Christmas Season has ended and the Season of Lent is still some weeks off. We are once again in “Ordinary Time,” as it’s called, and the focus of the...

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Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Scripture Readings: First Samuel 3:3-10.19; First Corinthians 6:13-20; John 1:35-42 One of my favorite Old Testament stories is the calling of Samuel, an event which took place some one thousand years before the coming of Christ. Samuel’s call is the story of the...

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Solemnity of the Epiphany

Scripture Readings: Book of the Prophet Isaiah 60:1-6; Letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6; Gospel According to Saint Matthew 2:1-12 The Solemnity of the Epiphany, literally the “manifestation” or “showing” of the Lord Jesus Christ to the nations, is...

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January 1st: Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God

Scripture Readings: Numbers 6:22-27; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21 The shepherds who “went in haste to Bethlehem,” as directed by the angel, can be understood as the whole human race seeking Jesus. The quick response of the shepherds to seek the new-born Lord is the...

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Sunday Within the Christmas Octave: Holy Family Sunday

Readings: Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14; Colossians 3:12-21; Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23 In our Catholic Liturgical Calendar, the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas is always dedicated to the mystery of the Holy Family of Nazareth, Jesus, Mary and Joseph. This year “on the fifth...

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Christmas Day Mass

Readings: Isaiah 52:7-10; Letter to the Hebrews 1:1-6; Gospel of Saint John 1:1-18 The scripture readings assigned for the Mass of Christmas day emphasize an attitude of child-like wonder at all that is taking place. In the text from the prophet Isaiah, the city of...

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Christmas Mass at Midnight

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 9:2-7; Letter to Titus 2:11-14; Gospel According to Luke 2:1-14 First, a blessed and Merry Christmas to all! The celebrations have just begun, and continue in earnest for nearly two weeks, for what are traditionally called the “Twelve Days...

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Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year B

Second Book of Samuel 7:1-5, 8-11, 11:16; Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38 We could think of this Fourth Sunday of Advent as the “final lap” in the Advent journey of 2023. In fact, we’ve reached the final day of Advent, as this Sunday evening at First Vespers we begin...

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Third Sunday of Advent, Year B

Scripture Readings: Prophet Isaiah 61:1-2, 10-11; First Letter to the Thessalonians 5:16-24; Gospel According to Saint John 1:6-8, 19-28 The Church’s Old Testament “prophet of choice” for the Advent season is Isaiah, from the eigth century before Christ. And the...

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Second Sunday of Advent, Year B

Readings: Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11; Second Letter of Peter 3:8-14; Mark 8:1-8 Every year on the second Sunday of Advent, the Church has us ponder the words and deeds of Saint John the Baptist, who prepared the way for the coming of the Lord. Our own monastery church is...

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