02/26/12 Purification & Enlightenment

Homily from the First Sunday of Lent.

"I invite you, my brothers and sisters, to enter into this Lent with a spirit of meekness but a spirit of courage, with a spirit of humility but a spirit of boldness, with a spirit not of fear, as St. Peter says, to not be afraid or terrified with fear, but a spirit of hope."

Mass Readings from February 26, 2012:
Genesis 9:8-15
1 Peter 3:18-22
Mark 1:12-15

02/22/12 For Love of You

Homily from Ash Wednesday.

"The ashes mean I am a sinner. The Cross means I have a Savior. The ashes mean I need to turn away from something. The Cross is what I turn towards. The ashes mean that I have fallen short of God's glory. And the Cross means that you and I are all made for glory."

Mass Readings from February 22, 2012:
Joel 2:12-18
2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

02/19/12 What Have We Got to Lose?

Homily from the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time.

"Here is the deal. When it comes to you, God has given his final answer. He has said, 'Yes. I want YOU.' 'Yeah, but God I've done this kind of stuff...' 'I don't care. I want you.' 'But you don't know what I'm going through...' 'No, I actually do. And I want you.' God has given his definitive answer. He has DEFINITIVELY chosen you when Paul says, 'He has spoken His 'Yes' over all of you.' And so the question is this: what is my response?"

Mass Readings from February 19, 2012:
Isaiah 43:18-19, 21-22, 24-25
2 Corinthians 1:18-22
Mark 2:1-12

02/12/12 Willing Our Good

02/12/12 Willing Our Good

Homily from the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

"The point of life is not to accomplish. The point of life is to become a certain kind of person. And that certain kind of person can only be fashioned in the crucible of suffering. ...What kind of person can be fashioned through the crucible of suffering? A certain kind of person that knows how to love when that person doesn't feel like loving; a certain kind of person who knows how to be selfless when the temptation is to turn in on one's self; a certain kind of person that you are meant to be."

Mass Readings from February 12, 2012:
Leviticus 13:1-2,44-46
1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1
Mark 1:40-45

02/05/12 In the Silence of the Heart

Homily from the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

"Here's Jesus and He gets up and He goes off to a deserted place, and He prays in silence. That kind of idea can scare us. But we have to understand this. St. John of the Cross says this about silence, he says, 'God's first language is silence.' And if you and I are going to become the kind of people who know what God is really like, it means this, it means at some point in my day, I need to be silent. I need to, at some point in my day, I need to go to a place where there's not the interruptions, where there's not the music, where there's not the distractions. ...I invite us all to do what Jesus did: to go away, to find silence, because when we do that and embrace the Lord, we become changed. "

Mass Readings from February 05, 2012:
Job 7:1-4,6-7
1 Corinthians 9:16-19,22-23
Mark 1:29-39