Homily for the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
World Mission Sunday
October 19, 2025
St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church
Prosper, Texas
Exodus 17:8-13
Psalm 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
Luke 18:1-8
In 1926 Pope Pius XI decreed that each year on the penultimate Sunday of October, the Church would keep a day dedicated to World Missions to remind all Catholics of our shared responsibility to promote the spread of the authentic Gospel in every conceivable way. We can and should support missionary work with our financial gifts, but even more we must seek to live as faithful disciples and loving friends of the Lord Jesus and so bear witness to everyone we meet that Jesus Christ is Lord.
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Homily for the 2025 Red Mass for the Diocese of Fort Worth
September 25, 2025
St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church
Fort Worth, Texas
Micah 6:1-4, 6-8
Psalm 104:1-2, 24, 35, 27-28, 29, 30
Romans 13:1-7
Luke 7:1-10
The passage from the Gospel of Luke which we have just proclaimed describes a story of the Roman centurion who sends some of the local religious leaders to Jesus to ask Him if He will come to the centurion’s home to heal his slave who is suffering and near death. When the religious leaders approach Jesus, they put their own spin on matters. They strongly recommend that Jesus do this for the centurion as they emphasize that he deserves this miracle from Jesus because, unlike a lot of the Roman military force of occupation, this centurion likes them so much that he has paid for the building of their synagogue. It is in their interest that Jesus heal the centurion’s servant.
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Homily for the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Celebration of the 130th anniversary of St. Joseph Parish
August 31, 2025
St. Joseph Catholic Church
Rhineland, Texas
Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29
Psalm 68:4-5, 6-7, 10-11
Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24a
Luke 14:1, 7-14
“God in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.” Our responsorial psalm for today’s Mass, taken from Psalm 68, describes the essence of the prayer life of Father Reisdorf’s vision and labor in the foundation of this parish and the community of Rhineland that this parish has served for one hundred and thirty years.
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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.”
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Homily for the Ordination of Permanent Deacons
Feast of Saint Dominic
August 8, 2025
St. Mark Catholic Church
Argyle, Texas
Jeremiah 1:4-9
Psalm 100:1b-2, 3,4, 5
Acts 6:1-7b
John 12:24-26
Today, the Church gathers us together to celebrate the ordination of these seven men, whom with the support and encouragement of their wives and families, have presented themselves and been called by the Church to serve as permanent deacons. We do so today on the Feast of Saint Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers, who is honored and recognized by the Church as a saint who dedicated his entire life as a mendicant priest to charity and to preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ. He is certainly an example and friend for our new deacons who today are ordained as ministers of the Word, ministers of the Altar, and ministers of Charity.
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Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time
February 15, 2025
St. Bartholomew Catholic Church
Fort Worth, Texas
Jeremiah 17:5-8
Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4, 6
1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20
Luke 6:17, 20-26
Jesus cautions us that prestige, power, and complacency can prompt us to lose our way with Him. To be a disciple of Jesus involves our dying to these selfish preoccupations so that the life of Christ can exist in us that we might raise with Him from the dead on the last day. His teaching on the Beatitudes in today’s Gospel requires us to invert the sense of values and purposes that our contemporary world espouses for meaning and happiness — power, financial success, and pleasure. These values only seem to promise freedom and to bring security to the individual. This teaching of Jesus in His Sermon on the Plain invites His disciples to risk estrangement from this world by trusting Him and by following Him in the way that He lives and loves. This way of life and love that involves surrender and trust is most clearly manifested and made present in the sacramental vocation of marriage with its graced and promised intentions of permanence, fidelity, and openness to God’s gift of children.
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Homily for the Vigil of the Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time
February 9, 2025
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Isaiah 6:1-2a, 3-8
Psalm 138:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Luke 5:1-11
The readings from today’s liturgy offer us three examples of three distinct examples of vocation from God: Isaiah, Saint Peter, and Saint Paul. Each of these readings depict the following aspects of vocation: a sense of unworthiness in being called by God; a decision to care enough to respond to the call amidst the indifference of other bystanders; and a fresh sense of confidence that accompanies the decision to trust God and to place the response trusting God and putting one’s response into words and action.
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Homily for the Optional Memorial of Saint Ansgar
Mass for the Institution of Ministries of Lector and Acolyte
February 3, 2025
Theological College
Washington, DC
Isaiah 52:7-10
Psalm 96:1-2, 2-3, 7-8, 9-10
Hebrews 10:19-25
Mark 1:14-20
To consider the lay ministries of lector and acolyte in the life of the Church and in their role in seminary formation requires us to review two Papal documents: the Motu Proprio, Ministeria Quaedam of 1972 by Pope Saint Paul VI and the Motu Proprio, Spiritus Domini of 2021 by Pope Francis. Ministeria Quaedam identified the character of Lector and Acolyte not as minor orders inherently within the clerical state but as being “closely linked to liturgical actions that in practice were being exercised by the laity.” This shift in focus led to the development in doctrine within the Latin Church that these ministries while distinct from ordained ministry are open to all the baptized. This Magisterial recognition has graciously spared the Church from clericalizing male and female members of the laity.
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Life on the Chrism Trail 
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