
Domine, da mihi hanc aquam!
235 FOLLOWERS
Dominican friar's homilies from New Orleans. Social-political commentary from a Catholic priest.
Domine, da mihi hanc aquam!
1M ago
2nd Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP
St. Albert the Great, Irving
Jesus transforms what we need to live into what we need to live well. Water into wine. Why? He does this to announce – in word and deed – the beginning of his public ministry. He lays claim to his divine Sonship. He shows the wedding guests and all of us that he comes to change survival into celebration, to change “just getting by” into thriving on God's abundance. In the next three years, Jesus transforms the Law of stone into the Law of love; he transforms the sacrifices of the temple into the one sacrifice of the cross; h ..read more
Domine, da mihi hanc aquam!
1M ago
St Anthony, abbot
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
St. Albert the Great, Irving
I'm one of those “bottom-line” types of people. Just tell me straight up what I need to know. Save the polite preface, skip the weasel words, and just Say It, whatever It is. When I'm teaching, I like discussion and what-if's and not really knowing exactly where we're going. But in everything else, especially things like practical problems to be solved and questions to be answered, I want concision, clarity, and precision. I appreciate the RYM for asking the question he wants answered, “Teacher, what good must ..read more
Domine, da mihi hanc aquam!
1M ago
Epiphany of the Lord
Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP
OLR, NOLA
What has been made known? That's what an epiphany is – the event, the moment when the unknown is made known. When the obscured is clarified. The Magi find the Christ Child in Bethlehem; pay him homage as their King; and gift him with treasures proper to his station. What do their visit and their gifts make known to us? Paul shares the Magi's revelation with the Ephesians: “...the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” He adds, “[This mystery]&nbs ..read more
Domine, da mihi hanc aquam!
2M ago
4th Sunday of Advent
Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP
St. Albert the Great, Irving
Just three days from now, we will celebrate the 2,024th anniversary of the coming of the Son of God into human history as a child. Just three days to finish up our preparations. Just three more days of waiting. Are you ready? I don't mean here: are you ready for all the Christmas events you've got on your calendar? I don't mean: have all the gifts been bought, wrapped, and put under the tree? I don't mean: have you purchased your Honey Baked Ham and soaked your Christmas pudding? I mean: are you ready for the coming ..read more
Domine, da mihi hanc aquam!
2M ago
3rd Week of Advent (W)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP
St. Albert the Great, Irving
During our monthly lector's meeting last night, the friars discussed two articles about the physical and spiritual effects of social media on the brain. To boil it down: social media leaves us reactive and isolated. “Reactive” in that we come to expect a “frictionless achievement of gratification” by sacrificing depth of knowledge for superficial information. And “isolated” in that we sacrifice real person-to-person relationships with “transitory and stylized transactions severed from...belonging.” IOW, social medi ..read more
Domine, da mihi hanc aquam!
2M ago
34th Week OT (W)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP
St. Albert the Great, Irving
Jesus is an excellent teacher. But he's a terrible salesman. Instead of playing up the advantages and rewards of following him, he says, “They will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons...You will be hated by all because of my name...they will put some of you to death.” WooHoo! Sign me up! NB. he says all this to the crowd, not just to his close knit circle of disciples. IOW, he's publicly telling everyone who's listening that joining him might land you in jail or the grave. He ..read more
Domine, da mihi hanc aquam!
2M ago
34th Week OT (Th)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP
St. Albert the Great, Irving
One utopia after another has fallen to pride, greed, and violence. Robespierre's France. Stalinist Russia. Maoist China. Pol Pot's Cambodia. Castro's Cuba. Hitler's Germany. The human impulse to establish the perfect society seems deeply embedded in our DNA. What these murderous regimes really are is nothing less than perversions of our supernatural desire for the Kingdom of God. But we are impatient. So, we reach for the Kingdom of God w/o God. And we get Kingdoms of Men w/o godly rule. Pope Benedict XVI warned us not ..read more
Domine, da mihi hanc aquam!
2M ago
St. John Chrysostom
Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP
St. Albert the Great, Irving
Jesus is heaping hot coals on the hypocrites again! This time his target is the disciples. And by extension, us. So, it might be a good idea to figure out what hypocrisy is. Aquinas, quoting St. Isidore of Seville, tells us that the hypocrite is one “who come[s] on to the stage with a disguised face...so as to deceive the people in their acting” (ST II-II.111.2). He goes on to say that the hypocrite is “a sinner [who] simulates the person of a just man.” Hypocrisy then is essentially a form of lying, a dissimulation (A ..read more
Domine, da mihi hanc aquam!
3M ago
St. Albert the Great
Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP
St. Albert the Great, Irving
Albertus Magus is in trouble with the Prior. In a fit of experimental zeal, he's taken some of the brothers' beer and fed it to a snake. The inebriated serpent escapes Albert's cell and is terrorizing the less scientifically curious friars by flopping around like a...well...like a drunken snake. For the sake of weak hearts and a calmer convent, the Prior forbids any future experiments with alcohol and snakes. We don't know what hypothesis Albert was testing empirically, but it was not done merely for the sake of curio ..read more
Domine, da mihi hanc aquam!
4M ago
29th Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP
St. Albert the Great, Irving
The Sons of Thunder ask Jesus for a favor. He listens to their request and says, “You do not know what you are asking.” Hearing this quiet rebuke, do the Sons blush, shamefaced? Do they withdraw their impertinent request? Maybe they bristle and double-down by insisting that they deserve this honor. Or make the argument that – practically speaking – they are the best men for the job. Mark doesn't record their reaction, so we are left to speculate. Had they been paying attention to their Teacher, they would've never made th ..read more