Category: Homilies

  • The Definitive Encounter with God

    33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B); 11-17-2024 Dn 12:1-3.  Ps 16.  Heb 10:11-14,18.  Mk 13:24-32 Deacon Jim McFadden          Many decades ago as a graduate student at Tulane University in New Orleans, I was out for an evening jog in the grassy area near the dorms.  Behind me, I hear this abrupt command: “Stop where

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  • The Poor Widow Gave Everything She Has

    32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) November 10, 2024 1 Kgs 17:10-16.  Ps 146.  Heb 9:24-28.  Mk 12:38-44 Deacon Jim McFadden             The scene in today’s Gospel takes place inside the Temple of Jerusalem, where Jesus is looking at what’s happening in this most sacred place in Judaism, where heaven and earth are supposed to

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  • The Word of the Lord Must Resonate within Us

    31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (B); November 3, 2024 Dt 6:2-6.  Ps 18.  Heb 7:23-28.  Mk 12:28-34 Deacon Jim McFadden        Mark’s gospel, the first written  in the mid-60s,  is the shortest of the four gospels consisting of only 16 chapters and is one of breath-taking action after another.   As such, not a word, sentence,

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  • A Cry that Touches God’s Heart

    30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B); 10-27-2024 Jer 31:7-9.  Ps 126.  Heb 5:1-6.  Mk 10:46-52 Deacon Jim McFadden             Today, we have the familiar story in the 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time, of Jesus healing the blind man, Bartimaeus.  The eye is the organ of sight and this man simply can’t see, which causes him

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  • Is Life about Jesus or about Ourselves?

    29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B); October 20, 2024 Is 53:10-11.  Ps 33.  Heb 9:14-16.  Mk 10:35-45 Deacon Jim McFadden             The Gospel for today’s Holy Mass (Mk 10:35-45) narrates that two disciples, James and John, ask the Lord to one day sit beside him in glory as if they were key figures of his

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  • Faith arises from a gaze of love

    28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B); October 13, 2024 Wis 7:7-11.  Ps 90.  Heb 4:12-13.  Mk 10:17-30 Deacon Jim McFadden        Today’s Holy Mass offers us the encounter of Jesus and the man who “had many possessions” (Mk 10:22) and he goes down in history as “the rich young man.”  Interestingly, we do not know

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  • A Family Affair

    27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B); October 6, 2024 Gn 2:18-24.  Ps 128.  Heb 2:9-11.  Mk 10:2-16 Deacon Jim McFadden        Today’s readings offer reflections on humanity’s unitive  relationship with God, one another, and the created order—all of which obtain in the Holy Mass:  we are meant to be together!  The readings also show an

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  • What’s at Stake?

    26th Sunday of O.T. (B); September 29, 2024 Wis 2:12,17-20.  Ps 54.  Jas 3:16-4:3.  Mk 9:30-37 Deacon Jim McFadden             Last Sunday we reflected upon the  basic  question of ‘whom do we serve?—which entails the   spiritual struggle of making the transition from the Ego-Drama (self-worship) to the Theo-Drama (worship of the one true God).  This

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  • We Are All Called to Metanoia

    Eccl 11:9-12:8  Ps 90.  Lk 9:43b-45 Deacon Jim McFadden During the ‘60s, folk-singer Jim Croce, who unfortunately died a premature death in a plane crash, sang a song, Time in a Bottle, in which he intoned, “I’ve looked around enough to know that you are the one I want to journey through time with.”  Though

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  • Do you have faith in Jesus? Then serve!

    25th Sunday in Ordinary Time; September 22, 2024 Wis 2:12,17-20.  Ps 54.  Jas 3:16-4:3.  Mk 9:30-37 Deacon Jim McFadden        Sometimes during the public ministry of Jesus, the Apostles come across as clueless.  The Gospel account from Mark begins with the Second Prediction of the Passion in which Jesus teaches and tells his disciples that

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homilies

The Holy Family Were Refugees

The  Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph; 12-28-2025 Sir 3:2-6.  Ps 128.  Col 3:12-21.  Mt 2:13-15, 19-21 Deacon Jim McFadden        On this first Sunday after Christmas, the Liturgy invites us to celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family…

a God who gathers

Christmas (A)  ; 12-25-2025 Is 52:1-7.  Ps 97.  Heb 1:1-6 .  Jn 1:1-18 Deacon Jim McFadden          Christmas celebrates God’s overwhelming desire to be united with us.  Sometimes we wonder, why does he bother?  He’s perfect—he doesn’t need anything since…

History is Going Somewhere and it rhymes

4th Sunday of Advent (A); December 21, 2025 Is 7:10-14.  Ps 24.  Rom 1:1-7.  Mt 1:18-24 Deacon Jim McFadden             As we enter into the 4th Sunday of Advent, let us remember that salvation history has a trajectory which comes…