Homilies

If you like, we can send these to your email address as they’re made available.

Twenty-eighth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B

Scripture: Book of Wisdom 7:7-11; Letter to the Hebrews 4:12-13; Gospel According to Saint Mark 10:17-31 In the Gospel passage this Sunday, an unnamed man meets Jesus and asks what he must do to possess everlasting life. Jesus replies with emphasis on the true meaning...

read more

Twenty-seventh Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B

Scripture Readings: Book of Genesis 2:18-24; Letter to the Hebrews 2:9-11; Gospel According to Saint Mark 10:2-16 A sad reality of modern society is the high rate of divorce. We hear about it frequently and often it is even glamorized with fascination by how often...

read more

Twenty-sixth Sunday In Ordinary Time

Scripture Readings: Book of Numbers 11:25-29; Letter of James 5:1-6; Gospel According to Saint Mark 9:38-48 In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus advocates a spirit of humility and gentleness in a concrete case of someone expelling demons in Jesus’ name. Though not an...

read more

Twenty-fifth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B

Scripture Readings: Book of Wisdom 2:12, 17-20; Letter of Saint James 3:16-4:3; Gospel According to Saint Mark 9:30-37 A very human trait that often leads to problems is comparing oneself to others. We may wish to be more like others or maybe less like them. We may...

read more

Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Isaiah 50:4-9; James 2:14-18, Mark 8:27-35 A moment came in the public ministry of Jesus when he asked his disciples what others were saying about him, and who they thought he was. Jesus asked not because he did not know the answer, but to elicit a stance from his...

read more

Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Scripture readings: Isaiah 35:4-7; Letter of James 2:1-5; Gospel According to Saint Mark 7:31-37 In the Gospel today, Jesus cures a deaf man who also has a speech impediment. Freedom from bondage of various kinds is an important sign of the Messianic age which Jesus...

read more

Twenty-Second Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B

Scripture Readings: Book of Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8; Letter of Saint James 1:17-18, 21-22, 27; Gospel According to Saint Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-22 Jesus and his followers are chided today for not observing the Jewish ritual customs of cleanliness and etiquette. Jesus...

read more

Twenty-first Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B

Scripture Readings: Joshua 24:1-2, 15-17, 18; Ephesians 5:21-32; Gospel of John 6:60-69 Life is filled with choices, to say the least. It’s part of life in the present, but the matter of facing choices each day stretches back over millennia. In the Gospel today,...

read more

Twentieth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B

Scripture Readings: Book of Proverbs 9:1-6; Ephesians 5:15-20; Gospel According to Saint John 6:51-58 This Sunday we hear in the Gospel the concluding section of the Bread of Life discourse. Christ’s proclamation that the new bread from heaven is his own flesh results...

read more

Nineteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B

First Book of Kings 19:4-8; Letter to the Ephesians 4:30-5:2; Gospel According to Saint John 6:41-51 Today’s Gospel passage continues the discourse on the Bread of Life from last Sunday. Who is the Bread of Life? Jesus himself, of course. The fact that Jesus claimed...

read more

Eighteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B

Scripture Readings: Book of Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15; Ephesians 4:17, 20-24; Gospel According to Saint John 6:24-35 The essence of the Gospel message, the heart of what Jesus is trying to say to us, might be put in the form of a question. Jesus often used questions in his...

read more

Seventeenth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B

We are told in the Gospel today that Jesus “went up the mountain.” Which mountain, we do not actually know, but in any case, the crowds followed him on foot. The setting is outside Jerusalem, on the other side of the so-called Sea of Galilee, that is, the enormous...

read more

Sixteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B

Scripture Readings: Prophet Jeremiah 23:1-6; Ephesians 2:13-18; Gospel According to Saint Mark 6:30-34 The emphasis in the Gospel text this Sunday on Jesus and his disciples going by themselves to an out-of-way place for prayer and rest. It is something that...

read more

Fifteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B

Scripture Readings: Prophet Amos 7:12-15, Ephesians 1:3-14, Gospel According to Saint Mark 6:7-13 Behind every good sports team or individual athletic competitor there is usually a competent trainer or coach. That person indicates and even insists on what must be done...

read more

Fourteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B

Scripture Readings:  Ezekiel 2:2-5; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Gospel According to Saint Mark 6:1-6 The first reading for Mass this Sunday is from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, who addressed the people of Israel while they were in forced exile, far from home, around...

read more

Thirteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B

Scripture Readings: Book of Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24; Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians 8:7,9,13-15; Gospel According to Saint Mark 5:21-43 The first reading for this Sunday, from the Book of Wisdom, was written about 100 years before the birth of Christ and...

read more

Twelfth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B

Scripture Texts: Job 38: 1, 8-11; 2 Corinthians 5:14-17; Gospel According to Saint Mark 4:35-41 We might all agree that in daily life there are circumstances, events and realities that make us feel happy or joyful: getting a vacation, for example, or seeing old...

read more

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Scripture Readings: Ezekiel 17:22-24; Second Corinthians 5:6-10; Mark 4:21-34 Of late we have been celebrating a number of festive Sundays: Pentecost, Holy Trinity, Corpus Christi, as well as “non-Sunday” ones, such as the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate...

read more

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Year B, May 26th, 2024

Scripture Readings: Book of Deuteronomy 4:32-34,39-40; Romans 8:22-31; Gospel According to Saint Matthew 28:16-20 Each year on the Sunday following Pentecost, the Church celebrates the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, our belief that God is One and yet Three Persons:...

read more
DID YOU KNOW you can search over 10 years of Christ Desert homilies and reflections by typing key words, phrases, scriptural citations, or dates into this search box?

"Let everyone that comes be received as Christ."

— The Rule of St. Benedict

If you have two minutes to fill in our website feedback form, we would love to hear what you think...