Category: Weekday Homilies

Homily, 8-12-24; Monday of the 19th Week in Ordinary Time: In his book, Rome Sweet Home, Scott Hahn discusses his struggle with accepting the doctrine of Purgatory during his conversion process to Catholicism. But finally he was able to come to grips with the differences between the destructive power of fire in Hell, the purifying… Continue reading Evidence of God’s Existence

Homily, 8-5-24; Monday of the 18th Week of Ordinary Time: In our first reading today, we heard about the prophet Jeremiah and the prophet Hananiah. Jeremiah was a true prophet. Hananiah was a false prophet. People didn’t want to hear what Jeremiah had to say; they preferred listening to Hananiah’s message. God speaks through whom… Continue reading False Prophets

Homily, 7-29-24: Monday of the 17th Week in Ordinary Time: Each year, Michigan State holds a viticulture field day at their experimental vineyard in Benton Harbor. At the field day they give tips on growing and caring for grapes. We heard about it last year and made the drive out to attend for the first… Continue reading Tighty Whitey

Homily, 7-15-24; Memorial of St. Bonaventure: Today we celebrate the memorial of St. Bonaventure, and so I asked Mary Kay to read the optional readings for his feast day. She had the challenge of reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians. It was a challenge because today’s passage was one long run-on… Continue reading Live Rightly to Discern God’s Will

Homily 7-8-24; Monday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time: The Pharisees were filled with pride. They also had a lot of strict rules to follow with regard to cleanliness. Coming in contact with a woman who was bleeding or touching a corpse, made one ritually unclean. In today’s gospel passage, Jesus disregards both of… Continue reading Faith in Jesus, not our Actions

Homily, 7-1-24; Monday of the 13th Week in Ordinary Time: Our reading from the Prophet Amos begins: “Thus says the LORD: For three crimes of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke my word.” Previous to our passage, Amos uses the same language to say that God has condemned six of Israel’s enemy nations… Continue reading For Three Crimes, and for Four

Homily, 6-17-24; Monday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time: In our first reading, it is tempting to focus on the behavior of the evil king, Ahab, and on his cunning and evil wife, Jezebel. But we can also look at Naboth and the importance he puts on his ancestral heritage. When my father passed… Continue reading Ancestral Heritage

Homily, 6-10-24: Monday of the 10th Week in Ordinary Time: At the time of Elijah, Israel had seen a succession of very bad kings. But Ahab was the worse. In the previous chapter of the 2nd Book of Kings it is written: “Ahab did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger… Continue reading God will Protect us and Guide us

Homily, 6-3-24: Monday of the 9th Week in Ordinary Time: In yesterday’s Office of the Readings for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, there was an excerpt from a work by Thomas Aquinas. The excerpt began with these words: “Since it was the will of God’s only-begotten Son that men should share in his divinity, he… Continue reading Sharing in the Divine Nature

Homily, 5-13-24; Monday of the 7thh Week of Easter: We are in the week between the Ascension and Pentecost. It was a time when the Apostles felt very much alone. They were afraid. They spent nine days locked away in prayer. It was the very first novena. They were scattered when Jesus was arrested, but… Continue reading Jesus has Conquered the World