Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter
Sacrament of Confirmation
April 28, 2023
St. Mary’s Catholic Church
Windthorst, Texas
Acts 9:26-31
Psalm 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32
I John 3:18-24
John 15:1-8
The Acts of the Apostles tells us today about Saint Paul’s entry into the Church. Three years after the Lord had appeared to him on the road to Damascus, Paul presented himself to the disciples in Jerusalem. But his reputation as Saul the enemy of the Church had preceded him, and the leaders had trouble believing that he had changed from persecuting the Church to being its defender.
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Feast of Saint Mark, Evangelist
Eighth Grade Vocations Mass
April 25, 2024
Saint Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
1 Peter 5:5b-14
Psalm 89:2-3, 6-7, 16-17
Mark 16:15-20
Today is a great day in your lives and in the life of the Diocese of Fort Worth because this is the only time when all of you, the eighth graders of each school in the Diocese of Fort Worth, will come together for Mass, for lunch, and for some reflection and discussion about discerning your vocation: what Christ is inviting you to do with the time God has given you in your lives. I am certain that as eighth graders you are thinking a lot about time these days — the ever-shortening amount of time that you have with your teachers and with each other as junior high students, the end of your time spent at your schools and the time of transition into high school and from childhood into adolescence. In His generosity, God has given us this time together and on this wonderful Feast of Saint Mark the Evangelist.
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Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter
Sacrament of Confirmation
April 14, 2024
Holy Family Catholic Church
Fort Worth, Texas
Acts 3:13-15, 17-19
Psalm 4:2, 4, 7-8, 9
I John 2:1-5a
Luke 24:35-48
The disciples had returned to the Apostles after encountering Jesus while they were on the road to Emmaus. They were describing to the Apostles how they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread, when Jesus suddenly appears among them and speaks to them the words, “Peace be with you.” The disciples thought they were seeing a ghost, but Jesus showed them His wounds and told them to touch Him to prove He was not a ghost. He even asked them for something to eat.
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Homily for the Mass of Dedication and Consecration of the Church of St. Mark
April 13, 2024
St. Mark Church
Argyle, Texas
Nehemiah 8:1-4a, 5-6, 8-10
Psalm 19b:8-9, 10-15
Revelation 21:1-5a
Matthew 16:13-20
Faith has brought us to this building, not simply our values. Faith tells us that Christ will transform this building to become a church. In our first reading from Nehemiah, we hear of how the Chosen People of the Old Covenant wept when hearing for the first time in seventy years the words of the Law as read by Ezra and Nehemiah. They wept for two reasons. First, they wept because during their time in captivity they had grown accustomed to a life lived without attention to the Covenant and their faith prompted them now to grieve for their sins. Secondly, they wept because of the beauty of the Covenant that had remained in their hearts where God had placed it and they again recognized it through faith in Him.
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Homily for the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
April 8, 2024
Assumption Seminary
San Antonio, Texas
Isaiah 7:10-14; 8:10
Psalm 40:7-8a, 8b-9, 10, 11
Hebrews 10:4-10
Luke 1:26-38
The section of Luke’s Gospel that immediately precedes the Gospel reading that we have just proclaimed is the annunciation to Zachariah that his wife Elizabeth is to conceive in her advanced age and bear a son, whom he is to name John and who will be known as John the Baptist. Zachariah was unable to speak for the entire time of Elizabeth’s pregnancy after he had experienced the vision of the Archangel Gabriel. The silence of Zachariah was not just a gift that the Lord gave to his wife Elizabeth to assist her in what would undoubtedly be a difficult pregnancy at her advanced age.
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2024 Mass of Reparation for Victims and Survivors of Abuse
Saturday in the Octave of Easter
April 6, 2024
Saint Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Acts 4:13-21
Psalm 118:14-21
Mark 16:9-15
“Though the Lord has indeed chastised me, yet He has not delivered me to death. Open to me the gates of justice and I will enter them and give thanks to the Lord.” These words of Psalm 118 which we have prayed are exemplified in a particular way in the person of Saint Mary Magdalene who is the first to experience the risen Lord Jesus. The Gospels and Tradition of the Church tell us that Mary Magdalene did not recognize the risen Lord to be Jesus until He speaks her name. Her name, like all human names, carries with it a character of the uniqueness of her person, her dignity, that is the most intimate part of her humanity — even more so than the aggregate of human nature. Her name is what identifies her as being unique as a person in the eyes of Christ — uniquely created and uniquely redeemed. Her name is so much more than a pronoun that cloaks the person in anonymity and isolation. She was denied her name when she was dominated by the seven demons that the Lord cast out from her — the demons that not only included her own sin but even more dramatically the effects of the sins of others perpetrated against her with its resulting anonymity and isolation.
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Homily for Easter Vigil
March 30, 2024
Saint Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Genesis 1:1-2:2
Psalm 104:1-2, 5-6, 10, 12, 13-14, 24, 35
Exodus 14:15-15:1
Exodus 15:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 17-18
Isaiah 54:5-14
Psalm 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-12, 13
Romans 6:3-11
Mark 16:1-7
When the Sabbath was over, three women gathered the ingredients necessary to bury the body of Jesus. They went to the tomb early and thought of a few practical points they had overlooked. What about the heavy stone sealing the tomb? What about the guards? What about the official seals that had been put on the tomb?
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Homily for Good Friday: Celebration of the Passion of the Lord
March 29, 2024
Saint Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Psalm 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25
Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9
John 18:1-19:42
The heart of the mystery of the Cross that we enter together as the Church of disciples and believers in Christ is the singlehearted love of Jesus Christ. His singleheartedness is seen in the unity of His human will with His Divine will in loving obedience to the Father, an obedience unto death. We see His singlehearted love as He stands silent before the duplicity of the Sanhedrin and the craftiness of Pontius Pilate and the other friends of Caesar. We see His singlehearted love in answering the high priest about the truthfulness of His Gospel and the transparent integrity of His life for which He is slapped and mocked. We see His single-hearted love as He entrusts His Mother, who possesses single-hearted devotion to Him, to the beloved Apostle and vice versa. Finally, we see His single-hearted love as He hands over His Spirit for the salvation of all and for each and every human being — universal and particular love.
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Life on the Chrism Trail 
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