Homilies

Scripture Readings: Zechariah 9:9-10; Romans 8:9,11-13; Matthew 11:25-30 How can we possibly know the mind and heart of God? Undoubtedly the best way is to listen to our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we hear in the Gospel today thanking his Father in heaven for revealing to...

Every year on June 24th the Church remembers in a special way the birth of the great prophet, John the Baptist. This is also the day of our yearly recalling the beginning of the Monastery of Christ in the Desert, on June 24th, 1964. On that day our three founders,...

Scripture Readings: Jeremiah 20:10-13; Romans 5:12-15; Matthew 10:26-33 The New Testament, including today’s Gospel text, is clear that those who obey God are capable of giving witness or testimony to Christ. The first Christian community gave testimony to Christ...

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: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, equal in majesty and glory, One in Three and Three in One. This is something so...

Readings: Acts of the Apostles 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:3-7,12-13; John 20:19-23 The Solemnity of Pentecost is a splendid reminder of the universality of the love God has for us. At Pentecost, fifty days after Easter, the Church celebrates the powerful presence of God...

Scripture Readings: Acts of the Apostles 1:1-11; Saint Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians 1:17-23; Gospel According to Saint Luke 24:46-53 We celebrate the Lord’s Ascension, taking place forty days after the Resurrection. We recount with joy the day Christ completed His...

Readings: Acts 8:5-8, 14-17; First Letter of Peter 3:15-18; John 14:15-21 The readings for this Sunday are taken from the final days of Jesus' earthly sojourn as well as the first steps of the infant Church after the death, resurrection and ascension of the Lord. The...

Readings: Acts 6:1-7; First Peter 2:4-9; John 14:1-12 We are drawing near to the Solemnity of the Lord's Ascension, forty days after Easter, just two weeks from now. Where does the time go? Like it or not, time tends to fly by quickly, even when we try to live it...

Scripture Readings: Acts of the Apostles 2:14a, 36-41; First Letter of Saint Peter 2:20b-25; Gospel According to Saint John 10:1-10 This Sunday is usually called “Good Shepherd Sunday,” because of the focus of the Mass readings, especially the Gospel, where Jesus...

Scripture Readings: Acts of the Apostles 2:14, 22-28; First Letter of Peter 1:17-21; Luke 24:13-35 Perhaps the first question we want to ask after hearing this Sunday’s Gospel text is: why did the disciples not immediately recognize the risen Lord? Had they not known...

Readings: Acts of the Apostles 2:42-47; First Letter of Peter 1:3-9; Gospel of John 20:19-31 We are celebrating the Passover of Christ, his resurrection from the dead, and today the Gospel shows us Christ in the midst of His disciples, not bound by time or space, but...

Scripture Readings: Acts of the Apostles 10:34, 37-43; Colossians 3:1-4; Gospel of Saint John 20:1-9 In the Gospel text for the Easter Day Mass, we hear of Mary Magdalene arriving “early in the morning on the first day of the week” at the tomb of Jesus and finding the...

Each Holy Thursday the Church recounts the evening when Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with his closest disciples. At that meal Jesus inaugurated the Passover of the New Covenant, when the supreme sacrifice would be offered for the salvation of the human race, by...

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11; 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 recount the events leading up to the...

Readings: Ezekiel 37:12-14; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:14-45 It is nearly Palm Sunday and Holy Week, but not quite yet! There is still a week until Palm Sunday. We are entering the Fifth Sunday and Week of Lent and the Gospel passage assigned for this Sunday brings us...

Readings: First Book of Samuel 16:1-13; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41 The color of the vestments worn today is rose, a reminder for us to rejoice, for we are half way through the Lenten journey and our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The traditional...

Readings: Exodus 17:3-7; Romans 5:1- 8; John 4:5-42 A precious commodity anywhere, and certainly in New Mexico, is water, something many of us perhaps take for granted. For the gift of water we are always grateful. Saint Francis of Assisi went so far as to call it...

Scripture Readings: Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18; First Corinthians 3:16-23; Matthew 5: 38-48 When preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation as a seventh-grader in a Catholic school many moons ago, we adolescents were reminded by the nuns teaching that we were temples of...

Mass Readings: Isaiah 8:23 – 9:3; 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17; Matthew 4:12-23 The beginning of our Lord’s public ministry, after His Baptism in the River Jordan, is still on our minds. Just two weeks ago we celebrated the Baptism of the Lord. We hear today about the...

Readings: Isaiah 49: 3,5-6; 1 Corinthians 1:1-3; John 1:29-34   Probably many or maybe even most of us like to have someone travel with us when we make a long journey. It helps to lighten the burden of all the time, energy and stress entailed in getting from...