Homilies

Let us begin by calling on the Holy Spirit to enliven us: Come, Holy Spirit!  Come, Holy Spirit! As you know, last week we had a visiting priest, Father Elias, who came from Columbus to celebrate the Eucharist for us in Father Tom’s absence.  Unfortunately, I was unable to be here Saturday evening to assist […]

Being a priest in my mid 30’s, one of the fun things in this season of my life is getting to enjoy the ‘uncle life.’ Besides my brother’s toddler and kindergartener, two of my sisters currently have babies just a few months old, so I have had a good amount of time around assorted little

We are still a long way from Christmas, but the parable that Jesus tells us in the Gospel today has me thinking of my favorite Christmas movie of all time, It’s a Wonderful Life. The movie follows the life of a man named George Bailey, who finds himself in a desperate financial situation and thinks

Let us begin by invoking the Holy Spirit: Come, Holy Spirit!  Come, Holy Spirit! As we have made our way though the Gospel of Luke during this liturgical year, there has been a particular theme that has come up again and again.  Mercy and forgiveness.  Last week Father Tom reminded us in his homily that

Let’s invite the Holy Spirit to work in us: + Come, Holy Spirit. + One particular scene has always stuck with me from the fantastic made-for-TV movie, Karol: A Man Who Became Pope. As you may have guessed from its title, the movie focuses on the life of Karol Wojtyla, from his time as a

Mother Teresa once said, “Take the time to do humble works, to wash and clean, to show your love for Jesus in real, loving action.” Her sisters, the Missionaries of Charity, do this every day in their work with the poorest of the poor all over the world. One time, some of the sisters went

Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts today. + Come, Holy Spirit. + Let me tell you a story about Bob and Burt. Bob and Burt were buddies and loved spending time out on the ocean together. Bob had a large, sturdy yacht and loved having Burt join him for long voyages.

Come, Holy Spirit! Come, Holy Spirit! A couple weeks ago, Father Tom asked that we begin our liturgies and homilies by invoking the Holy Spirit to be present to us as we worship God, to animate us and draw us closer to Him. And that is so appropriate with the Gospel reading for this Mass

If you weren’t here last weekend, I began my homily with a prayer to the Holy Spirit and invited everybody to join me in that prayer. This will be a regular thing with homilies going forward. So let’s all pray together, inviting the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts through my preaching this weekend.

When we were in Dallas for the Divine Renovation Conference just a few weeks ago, we heard a lot about the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit is kind of the forgotten person of the Trinity, especially in Catholic circles. They referred to a survey in which a lot of Catholics were asked, “Do