Homily for the Memorial of Saint Peter Claver
September 9, 2024
Theological College of the Catholic University of America
Washington, D.C.
Isaiah 58:6-11
Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4, 6
Matthew 25:31-40
Saint Peter Claver was born in Spain and began life with a very shy disposition. One day, while he was praying, Peter Claver had a spiritual experience of being called by Christ, a vocation. At the encouragement of Saint Alfonso Rodriguez, he joined the Jesuits and received his assignment to serve in the missions of the Spanish colony of Colombia where he was ordained a priest in 1615. In that sense he was very much part of a system of colonization by a European power that included human trafficking and slavery.
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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 