Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world
Today’s gospel begins with an encounter between Christ and a blind beggar. So I want to start off with a story of another beggar – a story, in fact, involving Pope John Paul. Several years ago, a priest from the Archdiocese of New York was visiting Rome. As he was walking into a church to [...]
Today’s gospel poses this intriguing challenge: What would happen if we met Jesus in the middle of an ordinary day? How would we react? Well, consider the story of a young Japanese woman named Satoko Kitahara. Last week the new Archbishop of Los Angeles, Jose Gomez, used one of his homilies to tell her story. [...]
Last night, I was invited to preside at Evening Prayer at a neighboring parish in Queens. The good folks over at the Catholic portal at Patheos have posted the homily, which offers a few thoughts about Lent, one week on, and building something out of the ashes: More than ever before, it seems, we live [...]
Friday morning, when I clicked on my computer at home, I was stunned, like a lot of people, to see the images and video from Japan. Within hours after it happened, almost instantaneously, hundreds if not thousands of pictures and videos had been loaded onto the Internet, many from cell phone cameras, capturing this disaster [...]
Some of us of a certain age here tonight can remember a song that was popular exactly 40 years ago. In 1971, a group from Canada called the Five Man Electrical Band had a hit called “Signs.” The song is about how signs are always telling us what to do, and the chorus says, “Do [...]
Three years ago, my in-laws celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. They decided to have a special mass for family and friends, to mark the occasion, and they asked me to pick the readings and preach. And I selected this gospel reading that we just heard, about building a house on rock. It is a beautiful [...]
This arrived late Sunday, from a parishioner who took issue with my homily that morning: I really feel you were misguided in you presentation of today’s sermon at the 11:30 AM Mass. Loving people and reaching out with love to those that have hurt us, (individually) is one thing. And has to be done on [...]
That’s one blogger’s response to this post about a priest who used one of my homilies, verbatim and without attribution, last weekend. From Quantum Theology, here’s Michelle M. Francl-Donnay: The deacon isn’t particularly perturbed, “As far as I’m concerned, the Holy Spirit owns the copyright to my work, not me, and I’m glad others can [...]
This past week, we’ve heard a lot about words, and the power of words, all surrounding last week’s horrific events in Tucson. We’ve heard about words that incite, or inflame, as well as ones that inspire and console. Now, in a kind of divine irony, we find ourselves face to face with a gospel, the [...]
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