Life on the Chrism Trail

Homily for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

June 28, 2020
Saint Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16a
Psalm 89:2-3, 16-19
Romans 6:3-4, 8-11
Matthew 10:37-42

When I was in college, we had the option of attending Sunday Mass outside of the seminary. Twice a month, three or four of my friends and I would go to a local parish for Sunday Mass and then stop for a late breakfast. There were two priests assigned to the parish, the old priest, and the young priest. We would talk about the homily at breakfast and consider and, I must confess, at times criticize the substance and styles of their homilies. One of my friends summed it up perfectly, the young priest preached about what Jesus said and the old priest preached about what Jesus meant.

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Homily for the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

June 21, 2020
Saint Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Jeremiah 20:10-13
Psalm 69:8-10, 14, 17, 33-35
Romans 5:12-15
Matthew 10:26-33

I would like to begin by expressing my best wishes and pledge of prayers for all of those here today who are entrusted with the gift and responsibility of Christian fatherhood on this national celebration of Fathers’ Day. I thank God for the gift of my own father and I also ask each of us to remember our own fathers in our prayers today — both living and dead.

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Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

June 14, 2020
Saint Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a
Psalm 147:12-15, 19-20
1 Corinthians 10:16-17
John 6:51-58

The famous Catholic novelist Flannery O’Connor was once asked why so many of her stories were grotesque and even violent. She responded, “The novelist with Christian concerns will find in modern life distortions which are repugnant to him, and his problem will be to make these appear as distortions to an audience which is used to seeing them as natural; and he may well be forced to take ever more violent means to get his vision across to this hostile audience. When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax a little and use more normal ways of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock — to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost blind you draw large and startling figures.”

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Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

June 7, 2020
Saint Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Exodus 34:4B-6,8-9
Psalm: Deuteronomy 3:52-56
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
John 3:16-18

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. How many times do we say that? It is one of the first things that our parents teach us when they are teaching us our prayers. We are frequently able to say and to do it without thinking much about what we are saying and what we are doing. Yet, we know somehow, as Catholics, that we are supposed to do it and that there is something important about praying with it and repeating it. We can either do it redundantly or repetitively.

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Pentecost Sunday: Homily for the First Mass of Thanksgiving of Father Mark Garrett

Pentecost Sunday
Homily for the First Solemn Mass of Father Mark Garrett

May 31, 2020
Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church Rockwall, Texas

Acts 2:1-11
Psalm 104: 1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34 1
Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13
John 20:19-23

Today is a day of thanksgiving to God for answered prayers. The Holy Spirit has answered many different prayers, each through the grace of this priestly ordination of Father Mark Garrett and here at his first Solemn Mass of thanksgiving.

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