Homily   Third Sunday of Easter   April 13, 2024   St Austin Church, TX   We have another post-resurrection appearance of the Risen Lord in our Gospel today.   But I’d rather talk about the ever popular topic of GUILT.   Anyone here ever feel guilty?   Good, because I am going to preach about GUILT.   I am against it.            At the conclusion of today’s Gospel we heard: “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.  And he said to them, “Thus i ..read more

 Palm (Passion) Sunday Gospel of Mark     March 24, 2024 Clothes.  You probably wear them every day.  Clothes are important, giving us protection, modesty in most cases, and comfort.   Clothes are important.  Indeed, an ancient saying, going back at least to Erasmus in the 1500’s, and probably much longer before that, in Latin, is “vestis virum facit”.   Or, “Clothes make the man.” That is true.  Any stranger walking into this service can, pretty quickly, determine who is the priest and presider of this service.  The vestmen ..read more

 HOMILY    FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT   CYCLE “B”                                  March 10, 2024   We have a very beautiful Gospel today, from John.  We also have a very interesting reading about how God has dealt in history with His chosen people in our first reading.   Both provide good material for a homily.  But, as a Paulist, I am fond of St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians beca ..read more

 HOMILY    Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time   Cycle B                                February 11, 2024             LEPROSY held special terror and horror for people in the ancient world.  Not only was this disease disfiguring and fatal, worse, it cut its victims off from community, from family support and human interaction.  As we heard in the first reading from Leviticu ..read more

 Homily    Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time      February 4, 2024   I’m sorry if you came to Mass today in a rather good mood, and feeling kind of up, because our first reading is sure to bring you down.  It is really a bummer.  It starts: “Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery?  Are not his days those of hirelings?”  Notice that verse 5 has been left out, skipped over.  It is pretty gross.  It says: “My skin is clothed with worms and scabs; my skin cracks and festers;”  Ugggh!   And the reading ends on ..read more

Epiphany   January 7, 2024   St Austin Church “Where is the newborn King of the Jews?  We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.”  Thus inquire the Magi; who were sort of a mix of astronomers and astrologers.  They were the men of science of their day, and today we give them their due.  Through their study of the stars these Magi came to seek for the Christ Child.  Well, people today are still studying the stars, and some are still being moved to ask deeper questions, just like the Magi did some two millennia ago.  Have any ..read more

 Homily   THANKSGIVING    Nov 22, 2023   When I was a child, which was a long time ago, we did not have AI, nor cell phones, nor the internet, nor computers, not even color TV!   But we did have something that seems less prevalent now, and that is “magic words.”   Anyone here old enough to remember the magic words?     PLEASE and THANK YOU.  This evening we anticipate the celebration of THANKSGIVING.  And part of what we are celebrating is the attitude of gratitude and consideration that lies behind those magi ..read more

 HOMILY for Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time.  Nov 12, 2023   Last Sunday I had the pleasure of attending the Court of Honor for Tyler Giesler   EAGLE badge. Any Eagle Scouts with us today??     I never made it that far.   I was a little too anti-establishment back in those days.  In any case,    ..   Boy Scout motto????:  BE PREPARED! I mention all this because that brief motto could be the motto for our Gospel today.  BE PREPARED! Jesus tells us a rather odd story about ten young ladies w ..read more

 HOMILY   Thirty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time   CYCLE A   November 5, 2023 I have found these readings for this Sunday difficult to preach on.  In the first reading from the Prophet Malachi, God lambasts the priests for failing to do their duty.   God addresses the priests: “I, therefore, have made you contemptible and base before all the people, since you do not keep my ways…”   And in the Gospel today we hear Jesus criticize the Pharisees: “For they preach but they do not practice.  They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and ..read more

 HOMILY    Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time  Cycle A     October 15, 2023   My homily today is a bit like something you buy from IKEA.  That is to say, it comes in parts.  Some assembly on your part is required.           “Thin Soup” A long time ago in the Far East there was a king of a small kingdom, who like most such kings, was a tyrant.  He had two counselors, one who always bent his opinion to what the king wanted to hear, and the other who told the king the truth, whether he ..read more