Homilies

Scripture Readings: Book of Proverbs 31:10-13,19-20,30-31; First Thessalonians 5:1-6; Gospel According to Saint Matthew 25:14-30 As we draw near to the end of the Liturgical Year 2022-23, the Scripture readings this Sunday revolve around the familiar basic virtues of...

Scripture Readings: Wisdom 6:12-16; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; Matthew 25: 1 –13 The wedding customs being described in the Gospel today may strike us as very different from what we are used to, even strange. The familiar enough point of the parable, though, is “be...

Scripture Readings: Book of Exodus 22:20-26; First Thessalonians 1:5-10; Gospel According to Saint Matthew 22:34-40 In today’s Gospel, a Scribe, who would be considered a teacher of God’s Law and a moral guide of the people, wants to hear what Jesus believes to be the...

Scripture Readings: Book of the Prophet Ezekiel 18:25-28; Letter to the Philippians 2:1-11; Gospel According to Saint Matthew 21:28-32 Here at the Monastery Autumn is definitely “in the air.” Such is the case as well in many other parts of the Northern Hemisphere. The...

Scripture readings: Book of the Prophet Isaiah 55:6-9; Letter to the Philippians 1:20-24, 27; Gospel According to Saint Matthew 20:1-16 This Sunday’s Gospel passage is taken from a section in the Gospel according to Saint Matthew where Jesus spells out some of the...

Scripture Readings: Book of Sirach 27:30-28:7; Romans 14:7-8; Gospel According to Matthew 18:2121-35 This Sunday’s Scripture readings are focused on the topic of forgiveness. It is something we probably regularly think about and actually do, when we forgive family or...

Scripture Readings: Ezekiel 33:7-9; Romans 13:8-10; Gospel According to Saint Matthew 18:15-20 This Sunday’s first reading from the Prophet Ezekiel and the Gospel passage both consider the difficult topic of “fraternal correction,” as it is often called; that is,...

Scripture Readings: Prophet Jeremiah 20:7-9; Letter to the Romans 12:1-2; Gospel According to Saint Matthew 16:21-27 Today’s Gospel passage gives us more insight into who Jesus truly is and what he had to undergo for the salvation of all people. Important to keep in...

Scripture Readings: Prophet Isaiah 22:15,19-23; Letter to the Romans 11:33-36; Gospel According to Saint Matthew 16:13-20 In the Gospel passage for this Sunday, Jesus poses a crucial question to his disciples: “Who do you say that I am?” The question implies that...

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 56:1, 6-7; Romans 11:13-15, 29-32; Gospel According to Saint Matthew 15:21-28 It should be safe to say and not a heresy to conclude that Jesus was at least mildly bothered by the persistent Canaanite woman in the Gospel passage for this...

Mass Readings: First Book of Kings 19:9,11-13; Romans 9:1-5; Gospel According to Saint Matthew 14:22-33 Both the first reading and the Gospel passage for this Sunday are “weather-related,” a common enough phrase today relating to events outside of one’s control and...

Mass Readings: Isaiah 55:1-3; Romans 8:35,37-39; Matthew 14:13-21 The three readings for Mass this Sunday contain some of the most consoling words in all of the Bible. The first reading for the Prophet Isaiah, who was active about 550 years before the birth of Christ,...

Readings: First Kings 3:5, 7-12; Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans 8:28-30; Gospel of Saint Matthew 13:44-52 As we probably can all attest, our contemporary culture teaches us to seek the good life, at whatever the cost, literally. More often than not, today...

Readings: Book of Wisdom 12:13.16-19; Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans 8:26-27; Gospel of Saint Matthew 13:24-43 This Sunday we have more parables from Jesus about God’s good earth, dealing with weeds growing in the midst of wheat and a mustard seed planted in a...

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...

Scripture Readings: Second Book of Kings 4:8-11, 14-16; Romans 6:3-4, 8-11; Gospel According to Saint Matthew 10:37-42 Hospitality—the art of receiving others well—is a strong focus of today’s Scripture Readings. In the first reading for Mass this Sunday, we hear...

Scripture Readings: Book of Exodus 24:3-8; Letter to the Hebrews 9:11-15; Gospel According to Saint Mark 14:12-16, 22-26 On the night before giving His life on the cross, Jesus instituted the Eucharist, the gift of his Body and Blood, in the form of bread and wine, as...

Scripture Readings: Book of Exodus 34:4b-6, 2 Corinthians 13:11-13, Gospel According to Saint John 3:16-18 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:...

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 Matthew 28:16-20 We celebrate our Lord’s Ascension, which took place forty days after his Resurrection. We recount with joy the day when Christ...