Homilies

For the past week or so in the daily Mass Readings, the Church has been reading from the first Book of Kings, and we’ve been hearing about the rise of Solomon to the kingship of Israel.  Solomon was the son of King David, of whom God promised “I will raise up your offspring after you, […]

I recently had the privilege of watching on YouTube the testimony of a woman named Kaitlin who is converting from atheism to Catholicism. Her story touched me deeply, not only because I am so grateful she is joining our Catholic family, but also because her story reminded me how God moves in our lives and

We have all lived through a lot of strange things in the last two years. Right when COVID was beginning to spread throughout the U.S., I was on a trip to San Diego. When I left, things were basically normal; when I returned, the Bishop recommended self-quarantining with my parents instead of immediately returning back

A young Native American boy was listening to his dad, the chief, talk about how to read the skies in order to know how much wood to gather for the winter. Being the younger of the sons, the boy figured his older brother would be the next chief, so he saw no point in learning

The changing of water into wine by Jesus at the wedding feast at Cana is the first “sign” or “miracle” that is performed by Jesus; we’ve all heard the story time and time again, and we should be very familiar with it.  But it’s unfortunate (at least in my opinion) that the lectionary omits the

I have had the pleasure of going on several wilderness retreats with my friend, John Bradford. John is a man of God who felt called to start a men’s retreat ministry called Wilderness Outreach. On these retreat “expeditions,” you spend a week out in wilderness areas working on trails and sleeping in tents. In the

There is a very special place in my heart for adoptive mothers. As you might remember, my brother and sister-in-law are adoptive parents to two beautiful little girls. I will never forget seeing the first pictures of my sister-in-law, Maura, holding her new baby daughter, Chiara in the hospital in California. God had brought Chiara

Long time, no see! It is great to be together again during this Christmas weekend to celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. As I pondered the passage about Mary and Joseph searching for Jesus and finding Him in the temple, I couldn’t help but think of the movie, Home Alone. As we continue in

One of my all-time favorite movies is It’s a Wonderful Life. I watch it every year around Christmas and it never ceases to warm my heart and remind me of the true meaning of this great Feast that we celebrate in the Church today. In the movie, a businessman and father named George Bailey starts

Do you have boxes full of old letters and notes from people you love? I think most of us have at least a few of these in our closets. In my saved letters, there are a healthy number of notes from my friend Dudley. I met Dudley when I was a young seminarian. As part