Catholic Schools – Life on the Chrism Trail

Homily for the Mass for the Convocation of Teachers of the Schools of the Diocese of Fort Worth

Memorial of Saint John Vianney

August 4, 2025
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church
Keller, Texas

Numbers 11:4b-15
Psalm 81:12-13, 14-15, 16-17
Matthew 14:13-21

Sing with joy to God our help!

In our Gospel reading, we see the disciples come to Jesus with what they surmise to be a problem. The disciples tell Jesus, “This is a deserted place, and it is already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.”

Homily for the Memorial of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Mass for the Convocation of Teachers of the Catholic Schools of the Diocese of Fort Worth

August 9, 2024
St. Mark Catholic Church
Argyle, Texas

Hosea 2:16bc, 17cd, 21-22
Psalm 45:11-12, 14-15, 16-17
Matthew 25:1-13

In today’s first reading from Hosea we hear, “I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart. She shall respond there as in the days of her youth, when she came up from the land of Egypt.” These words of the prophet Hosea refer to God’s Chosen People of Israel, calling them to return to fidelity to the covenant that was struck by God with them through the chosen leadership of Moses. The characteristic of the “desert” is not that it is arid and hot, but rather that it is an uncharted wilderness and requires trust on the part of the traveler to navigate the journey.

Homily for the Memorial of Saint Dominic – Mass for the Convocation of Teachers of the Schools of the Diocese of Fort Worth

August 8, 2022
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church
Keller, Texas

1 Corinthians 2:1-10a
Psalm 96:1-2a, 2b-3, 7-8a,10
Luke 9:57-62

In our first reading today, Saint Paul writes to the Church in Corinth, “Yet we do speak a wisdom to those who are mature, but not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away.” In a recent editorial published in the Los Angeles Times, the author puts forth the position that there “is an inverse relationship between a society’s religiosity and its measurable well-being.” The author continued, “Places like Japan (with no history of Christianity) and Scandinavia (historically Christian but predominantly nonreligious today) take better care of their elderly and have lower murder and poverty rates than the United States of America.”