In our Gospel today, Jesus places before us a great challenge, to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, to seek what is seemingly impossible by loving not just those who love us back, but those who might very well hate us.

In the Middle East, during the time of Jesus, refined salt, like that in most of our salt shakers, had great value, in fact, it was only the truly wealthy that could own refined salt, so much so, that it came to be known as “white gold” and, it is said, that the Roman soldiers would be paid in salt,

When Jesus entered our world, everyone was expecting the long-awaited Messiah, a man who would rule with an iron fist, a man who would be both king and warrior, a man who would conquer by the sword and be victorious by his military expertise.

Traditionally, the time from December 25th, the Solemnity of Christmas and January 5th, was seen as the 12 days of Christmas.

When I was younger, I always felt something different about Christmas, but, especially, Christmas Eve, yet, it wasn’t the anticipation of presents, nor was it the gathering of family, as great as all of that was, it was something else, it was something more.

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Every week of Advent is dedicated to a particular theme, so that the first week is dedicated to The Second Coming, the second week, to St.

Today, is a turning point in the season of Advent, it is the halfway mark, as it were, between this two-fold preparation that we have begun, for whereas our preparation has been for the Second Coming of Christ, today and for the rest of the weeks to come, we now direct our preparation to His birth.

It is not uncommon for a king, queen, prince, president, pope or dignitary to send an envoy to prepare for their arrival, making sure that everything is in order, making sure that the safety of the one to come is guarded.

Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. A day that marks the end of Ordinary Time, which means that, liturgically, that is, within Mass, time itself is changing, so that next weekend we will move into another season, the Season of Advent, the new liturgical year of the Church.

At around this time, every year, our readings drastically change, they go from being focused on the life of Jesus to the time when He will come again.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus presents a parable about righteousness and humility, and a question about both.

10 lepers come before Jesus, desperate, with nowhere else to go, they stand from afar, and yell out to Him for Him to have pity on them, to heal them, and He does. And, yet, when they are healed, only one person returns, a Samaritan, not even one of God’s own people, but a foreigner and an outcast.

In today’s Gospel, the Apostles make a request of Jesus: “Increase our faith.” And Jesus responds by explaining that the faith they seek, they already have, that it is only a matter of fostering that faith, drawing upon it, and recognizing it.

Every single one of us, if we are truly honest, fears death in some way. Yet, it is not so much the transition from this life to the next as much as it is the question as to whether we have truly fulfilled the Will of God in our lives, if we have lived the vocation He has called us to live.

In our Gospel today, we have what is known as the parable of the dishonest steward.

All three of our readings can be simply summarized in what St. Paul says in our second reading today: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

To be a true disciple and to truly live a Christian life, is, as our Gospel reminds, to embrace the cross.

In today’s Gospel, someone poses a question, which more or less is asking how many people will be saved, yet, Jesus, rather than answering the question directly, instead, explains how one is to be saved.

Today Jesus uses a very strong image to convey the way in which He wanted His message to be spread, He begins with fire, one of the most uncontrolled and hottest, for lack of a better word, substances, we have here on earth.

Today’s three readings can all be summarized in what Jesus says in our Gospel today: “one’s life does not consist of possessions.”



And while, to us, that may sound strange, because our entire lives are made up of possessions, things we have, things we need and things we want, in the end, none of

In today’s Gospel, we learn the value of persistence, and we see what can happen with a lot of perseverance, with an unrelenting desire to never give up; knocking, asking, seeking, until something happens, until a resolution is, at last, reached.

With God’s love, the seemingly impossible becomes possible, because, with His love, a complete stranger becomes a neighbor and a choice that can have dire consequences is made with ease.

By our Baptism, we are claimed for Christ, made Christians to prepare ourselves to be sealed by the Gift of the Holy Spirit at Confirmation. And, by our Confirmation we are made disciples, we are sent forth, like those in our Gospel today, in order to bring the message of Christ far and wide.

Today, we are called to contemplate one of the greatest, most profound, and, some would even say, most difficult mysteries of our faith. Because, today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, when we are called to contemplate God Himself.

Today is the feast of the Holy Spirit, the Birthday of the Church, the end of Easter, the great Solemnity of Pentecost.

This past Thursday, we celebrated Christ’s return to heaven, His Ascension to glory, where, we believe, that He now sits at the right hand of the Father.

In the year 70 A.D. something tragic happened that changed the course of history, Christianity and Judaism forever, because in that year, the holy city of Jerusalem fell and the great Temple that stood there was destroyed.

One of the most difficult and challenging books in the Bible, is The Book of Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse, which based on a Greek word, is simply translated, as “unveiling.”

The challenge with this book, however, is that it is cited as a prediction of the end of the world, which is only

Every single one of us here shares a common vocation, a universal call from God to fulfill His Will, a universal call to holiness, to become a saint.

At the most important part of Jesus’ Passion, the time when he needed someone by His side, Simon Peter, the same fisherman who left everything behind when Jesus called him, one of the original 12 Apostles, the man who promised he would never abandon Jesus, denies Him three times.

Today not only embodies Jesus’ request for a day of mercy, it marks the depths of His love and His desire that all of us turn, as He put it, towards the Fount of His mercy.

Today, is Easter Sunday, the day of the Resurrection, the Sunday of all Sundays, 50 days to celebrate, 10 days longer than Lent as if to show that it is worth it, 50 individual days that are to be celebrated as one perpetual Sunday.

Tonight, is very unique, because everything we do, every single Mass we celebrate, every single liturgical celebration we partake in, looks and points to this night, from Lent, to Advent, to even Christmas, they have all prepared us for this holy night, because tonight we celebrate the very culminat

When someone is dying, more often than not, they are careful, they are cautious and deliberate with their final words here on earth. And, in the case of Jesus, each word He spoke was even more important because each word He uttered became more difficult than the one before it.

Love, it is said, is more than a mere word; it is more than an emotion or a feeling, love, it is said, is an action. A giving of oneself so completely and so fully that nothing can truly express the depth of sacrifice, of humility, and, indeed, self-giving that that word truly demands.

We have before us today the bloody footsteps that were tread for our salvation and our redemption. Steps that were taken so that we could be saved, steps that are not just a symbol of sacrifice, but, indeed, the very epitome of love.

In our Gospel, we hear about a woman who was caught breaking the sixth commandment, now if you have ever been caught doing something you weren’t supposed to be doing, no matter what it was, sinful or not, then you know exactly how this woman in our Gospel felt today.

I think it is safe to assume that most, if not everyone here, is familiar with this famous story of the Prodigal Son. That is why I want to give you a different perspective, and that begins with a demonstration.

To know someone’s name is to know, at the very least, a way in which to identify a person, and if we speak that name more than once, it usually means that there is a greater familiarity with that person.

Jesus is led into the desert to be tempted by the Devil.

Perhaps, because we hear it so often during Lent it doesn’t have the same impact that it should, but, if we were to look at what is being said it almost seems like an outlandish thing to say.

If we had only 40 days to live, how would we live? What would we do different? How would we act? What type of relationship would we truly have with God?

At its very heart, these are the questions we seek to answer during this Lenten season.

If we were to make an honest assessment of ourselves, it seems one of our most common sins is that of judging others, of convincing ourselves that we know what is better, what is needed and, in some cases, even what God wants for another person.

In the year 400 A.D. a man by the name of St. Augustine wrote one of his most monumental works, it was a recounting from his youth of his journey from paganism to Catholicism and it was simply entitled Confessions.

In our readings today, both Isaiah and St. Peter found themselves in the very presence of God. And their immediate response was the same, they fell upon their knees, overwhelmed by a feeling of unworthiness.

St.

When I was in the college seminary, at, more or less, the beginning of my journey to the priesthood, I started to experience a lot of doubts, which caused me to question my vocation.

So, every night before I went to bed, I would read our second reading today.

Lord, if you will
Lord, if you will
Lord, if you will
The Will of God
The Will of God
I have had multiple requests to find a means of making my homilies accessible for others, so this is my first attempt at doing just that. I don't quite know how long I will keep this going nor if I will enjoy "blogging," but here goes.

I chose the title based on that beautiful Scripture passage where a leper approaches Jesus and says quite simply and humbly: "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean." A full abandonment to the Will of God, and in it, there is a combination of confidence and humility, of "self-emptying" and of filling up, as it were.

I believe that our life hinges on God's Will and the more perfectly conformed we are to His Will, the more ours and His become one, so that, in essence, we truly say "my will is His Will and His Will is mine."

That is the heart of what it means, in my opinion, to follow Christ, and since I believe God has gifted me with an ability to preach whether for better or worse, I will use this site to post those homilies.
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