Homily for the Mass of Christian Burial for Reverend Cruz Manuel Holguin Ogaz
September 25, 2025
St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church
White Settlement, Texas
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Psalm 23
Philippians 3:7-14
John 17:1-11
Bishop’s homily in English begins at paragraph 5.
Yo no tengo las palabras de quitar su tristeza sobre la muerte del Padre Manuel. Si las tuviera, las proclamaría. Pero tantas palabras no existen. En lugar de estas, tenemos las palabras del evangelio y de la esperanza en la resurrección de Cristo. Las que proclaman que nuestro hogar verdadero es en el cielo.
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Homily for Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Memorial Mass for Deceased Basselin Alumni and Professors at the School of Philosophy of the Catholic University of America
February 28, 2025
Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
Washington, D.C.
Wisdom 3:1-9
Romans 5:17-21
Matthew 5:1-12
We are summoned by God in His compassion here today as a family to offer this Eucharist in memory of Theodore Basselin and of our departed professors, colleagues, friends, and brothers who like so many of us received so much through the gift of the Basselin scholarship. Whenever God summons the Church to worship Him at Mass, He offers each and all of us a sign of hope and invites us to offer an act of hope. This is most clearly true when the Eucharist is offered for the repose of the souls of the faithful departed.
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Homily for the Memorial of Saint John Paul II
October 22, 2024
Saint John Paul II Catholic Church
Denton, Texas
Isaiah 52:7-10
Psalm 96:1-2a, 2b-3, 7-8a, 10
John 21:15-17
We celebrate the Memorial of Saint John Paul II, the patron saint of your parish, who was a friend to young adults throughout his ministry as a priest and particularly during his pontificate. He was the pope who inaugurated World Youth Day to bring young people together from around the world that they might know that they are not alone and that they should have courage to be proud of their faith so much as to share it always. So often, Saint John Paul II repeated the words of Jesus in many places in the Gospel, “Be not afraid!” It is in seeking this saint’s intercession that I come to you as a friend and as your bishop.
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Homily for the Memorial of Saint Thomas Becket, Bishop and Martyr
December 29, 2023
Montserrat Jesuit Retreat House
Lake Dallas, Texas
2 Timothy 2:8-13; 3:10-12
Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Matthew 16:24-27
“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life my sake will save it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?”
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Homily for the Memorial of Saint Peter Claver
Mass for Saint Andrew Breakfast
September 9, 2023
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Isaiah 58:6-11
Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4, 6
Matthew 25:31-40
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who suffered imprisonment in the unjust Soviet system, wrote in his book entitled The Gulag Archipelago, “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either – but right through every human heart…even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained.” That small bridgehead is our free will and our hope, but only if free will and hope are reborn, redeemed, and nurtured by prayer.
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Life on the Chrism Trail 