• Resist No One

      Farewell Mass St. Francis H.S.; May 14, 2018 Deacon Jim McFadden         Well, here we are again wrapping up another fruitful, intense, and challenging school year. As people of faith, we know it is not all our doing. As the Psalmist reminds us that If the Lord does not build the house, in…

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  • “He Was Lifted Up”

    Ascension of the Lord (B); May 12, 2018 Acts 1:1-11; Ps 47; Eph 1:17-23; Mk 16:15-20 Deacon Jim McFadden               “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and to all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the Earth” (Acts…

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  • Being Chosen

    6th Sunday of Easter (B); May 6, 2018 Acts 10   Ps 98   1 Jn 4:7-10 Jn 15:9-17 Deacon Jim McFadden; (New) Folsom Prison; SJB         Today’s Gospel—John Chapter 15—brings us back to the Last Supper, which contains Jesus’ final, lengthy discourses, which give us a richly textured, sustained account of Christian spirituality.   There is a…

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  • Being Intimately United to Jesus

    Fifth Sunday of Easter (B); April 29, 2018 Acts 9-26:41   Ps 22   1 Jn 3:18-24   Jn 15:1-8 Deacon Jim McFadden         Today’s Gospel shows us Jesus during the Last Supper, in the moment He knows that his death is close at hand. His ‘hour’ has come and this will be the last…

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  • “I Lay It Down on My Own”

    4th Sunday of Easter (B); April 22, 1018 Acts 4:8-12   Ps 118   1 Jn 3:1-2   Jn 10:11-18 Deacon Jim McFadden; (New) Folsom Prison, SJB   Two lovers look at one another and say without any reservation: “I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I…

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  • Witness

    3rd Sunday of Easter (B); April 15, 2018 Acts 3:13-15,17-19   Ps 42   1 Jn 2:1-5   Lk 24:35-48 Deacon Jim McFadden; St. John the Baptist C.C.          In the mid-‘80s the Australian director Peter Weir (Mosquito Coast, The Truman Show) did his first American film, a successful thriller Witness (1985), which starred Harrison…

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  • The Risen Christ is Still Wounded

    2nd Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy)/B; 4-8-18 Acts 4:32-35   Ps 118   1 Jn 5:1-6   Jn 20:19-31 Deacon Jim McFadden; (New) Folsom Prison; SJB           The seven weeks between Easter Sunday and Pentecost constitutes the Easter season. While lest well known than Advent or Lent—people will give you strange looks when you…

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  • The Empty Tomb

    The Resurrection of Our Lord Easter Sunday, 2018 Acts 10:34,37-43; Ps 118; Col. 3:1-4; Jn 20:1-9 Deacon Jim McFadden   Today we are celebrating the apex of the liturgical calendar: The Resurrection of the Lord is the be-all and end-all of our Christian faith. It really comes down to this: if Jesus was not raised…

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  • The Messiah Has Finally Come

    Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord (B) Mark 11:1-10 (procession) Is 50:4-7   Ps 22   Phil 2:6-11   Mk 14:1-15:47 Deacon Jim McFadden; (New) Folsom Prison, SJB Palm Sunday is the great doorway leading into Holy Week—the week in which the Lord Jesus makes his way to the culmination of his earthly existence. He goes…

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  • Don’t Be Afraid to Build a Better Tomorrow

    4th Sunday of Lent (B); March 11, 2018 2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23; Ps 137; Eph 2:4-10; Jn 3:14-21 Deacon Jim McFadden   “God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16). These words should fill us with joy…

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homilies

The cross is the way home

The Cross is the Way Home 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (A); August 30, 2026 Jer 20:7-9.  Ps 63.  Rom 12:1-2.  Mt 16:21-27 Deacon Jim McFadden After establishing Peter as the rock of his Church, Jesus then begins to speak…

“Who Do You say that i am?”

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (A); August 23, 2026 Is 22:19-23.  Ps 138.  Rom 11:33-36.  Mt 16:13-20 Deacon Jim McFadden Midway through his public ministry, Jesus ventured with his disciples to the northern reaches of the Promised Land, to the…

“Lord, Help Me”

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A); August 16, 2026 Is 56:1,6-7.  Ps 67.  Rom 11:13-15,29-32.  Mt 15:21-28 Deacon Jim McFadden          Today’s Gospel (Mt 15:21-28) presents us with a unique example of faith in Jesus’s encounter with a Canaanite woman,…