Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time — Year A Geography can have theological significance. Caesarea Philippi is not a Jewish town. It’s intriguing that this is where Jesus asks the apostles who people say that he is. The city sits at the foot of Mount Hermon at the northern end of modern Israel. Water flows from … Continue reading Who do You Say That I Am?
Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) Isaiah 56:1, 6–7 | Psalm 67 | Romans 11:13–15, 29–32 | Matthew 15:21–28 A few years ago, a bishop in Missouri looked at one of the most popular hymns in American Catholicism and decided it had to go. The hymn was “All Are Welcome.” Actually, the hymn … Continue reading Welcome to What?
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Wis 12:13, 16–19 · Ps 86 · Rom 8:26–27 · Matt 13:24–43 I can vividly recall, from the hazy recollection of my youth, the bike race of '76. Back then, a bicycle came with exactly one safety feature: your mother yelling, “Be careful!” as you disappeared around the … Continue reading Leave the Weeds, They May Be Saints
Homily: Fifteenth Sunday Ordinary Time. Rom 8:18-23 I can still vividly remember from the hazy recollection of my youth a particular Sunday morning in the summer of 1975. The sunlight pouring through the stained-glass windows, the water cascading off of Mr. Wallacavage. He had no choice but to march all the way to the front … Continue reading Diagnosing the Wrong Patient
“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” These words are another option for the priest’s greeting at the beginning of Mass. This greeting comes straight from Paul in 2 Cor13:13. The Eastern churches had been using it for some … Continue reading A Hello That Hands You God’s Own Life
Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time — June 14, 2026 (Year A) Ex 19:2-6a; Ps 100:1-2, 3, 5; Rom 5:6-11; Matt 9:36—10:8 Some years ago psychologists ran a famous experiment. They showed people a video of students passing basketballs and asked them to count the passes. Halfway through, a man in a gorilla suit walks straight … Continue reading Counting Passes
May 24, 2026: Acts 2:1-11; Ps 104; 1Cor12:3b-7, 12-13; Jn 20:19-23 Note an interesting feature in Luke’s writing. Of all the people in the room, only one other person besides the apostles is named. Mary. He writes: "All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus." What … Continue reading Mary at Pentecost
As a credentialed amateur greetologist — a field I invented roughly fifteen minutes ago in preparation for writing this — I can confirm that humanity has developed approximately four billion ways to acknowledge another person’s existence, and my family, through sheer determination and a complete absence of self-awareness, has attempted every last one of them. … Continue reading Headaches and the Theology of ‘The Lord Be With You’
Every Mass begins with the sign of the cross: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Less than four seconds. Yet in that most foundational of prayers, usually somewhere between finding the hymn page and wondering if the mic is on, we are doing more than starting … Continue reading The Sign of the Cross: Four Seconds That Witness Everything
The goal of every Catholic parish is to create missionary disciples. Which sounds inspiring... until you try to do it. Then it feels like you were handed a shovel and told to redirect the Atlantic Ocean—ideally before the 10:30 Mass lets out, the coffee runs out, and someone corners you about why we don’t sing … Continue reading Transforming Faith Through Genuflection
The Joy of the Gospel 