Homily for the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord / Purification of the BVM

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Candlemas brings us to the end of the Christmas and Epiphany seasons. This feast—the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple/ the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary—stands as a solemn and beautiful threshold: the close of one sacred season, and the beginning of the Church’s steady march toward Lent.

All of us know the importance of the seven Sacraments.
They are necessary for our eternal salvation. They accompany us through every stage and season of life—birth, growth, healing, vocation, perseverance, and finally death. Truly, they are a magnificent gift of our loving and merciful Lord.

Yet on this feast, the Church reminds us of something else in her maternal care: the power and value of sacramentals.

Sacramentals are reminders of the loving presence of God in every aspect of life. They do not confer grace in the way the Sacraments do, yet when they are used with reverence, faith, and love, they dispose the soul to grace. They awaken devotion, strengthen faith, and help carry the awareness of God into the ordinary “highways and byways” of daily life.

The Church has always understood this. The Rituale Romanum contains blessings for nearly every good thing and place imaginable—
from the blessing of homes to the blessing of bees;
from fields and hospitals to airplanes and railroads.
And for those things not explicitly named, the Church even provides a universal formula: the “Blessing of All Things.”

Tonight we had the blessing of candles. These blessed candles remind us of the Light of Christ—
He who scatters the darkness of Satan, sin, and death.
And tomorrow, those very candles will be used again as the Church imparts the Blessing of Throats on the feast of St. Blaise.

So let us give thanks for these gifts of Holy Mother Church—and take full advantage of their availability.
Holy water reminds us of our baptism, and puts devils to flight—not by superstition, but by faith in the power of the living Lord Jesus Christ.

Fill your homes with these holy reminders. Adorn your bodies with them. Place them upon your possessions—so that everything you do in life will turn your heart back to Him, who is truly the Light of our lives.

Homily for Septuagesima Sunday

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The words of today’s Introit are the cry of fallen man—man wounded by sin and surrounded by death: “The groans of death surrounded me, the sorrows of hell encompassed me.” The Church places this cry on our lips as we begin the solemn descent toward Lent, because she wants us to face a hard truth: without God, we are lost. And yet at the same time, she wants us to hear an even greater truth: with God, we can still be saved.

The state of fallen human nature—due to original sin and our personal sins—is hopeless when man is left to himself. It is the life of despair, a despair that mirrors eternal damnation. The souls in hell are without even the smallest sliver of hope, because their punishment is not simply fire—it is the eternal absence of God. To be forever shut out from His light, His love, His presence… this is the true terror of hell. Oh, what a horror. The very thought should make us tremble.

Imagine, if you will, the first moments of a soul condemned to hell. What must it be like to know—with full clarity—what one has done to merit such a punishment? To see the justice of God and the ugliness of one’s own sin without any escape? That despair quickly turns into hatred. And because a soul in hell will never accept personal responsibility, that hatred will not be directed inward in repentance, but outward in rebellion—blaming God for the consequences of its own choices. This is the dreadful truth: in hell there is no sorrow for sin—only rage at being punished for it.

But the Introit does not leave us trapped in despair. It is also filled with hope. The Church makes us hear the words: “In my affliction, I called upon the Lord, and He heard my voice.” He heard my voice. God does not abandon the repentant soul. He is always near to those who call upon Him in this life. As long as we have life and breath, there is hope—there is still time—there is still the possibility of reconciliation. He waits at every door. He stands beside every soul, waiting for an invitation to enter.

And that is why the Church urges us today to “run so as to win.” We must do our part in this journey. We must cooperate with grace. Septuagesima is a great opportunity; it is the portal to Lent. It is the Church’s way of shaking us awake and saying: now is the time to prepare. Now is the time to begin turning away from sin. Now is the time to train for the season of repentance. We are only about two and a half weeks away from the beginning of Lent, so take time now to make a battle plan. How will you use Lent? What will you do to grow closer to the Lord in the spiritual desert? What will you give up, what will you take on, what must be confessed and brought into the light? Because the desert is coming—and the Church, like a loving Mother, is giving us time to prepare.

Homily for the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time – A

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“He went up the mountain.” In today’s Gospel, Our Lord ascends what tradition calls the Mount of Beatitudes—not a towering mountain, but a hill above Capernaum overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Yet what matters is not the height of the place, but the meaning of it. In Sacred Scripture, the mountain is a place of encounter with God, a place where God reveals Himself and forms His people.

Again and again the great moments of salvation history unfold on mountains. Moses goes up the mountain and encounters God, who calls him and sends him. Elijah meets God on the mountain, not in noise or display, but in the “still small voice.” Abraham takes Isaac up a mountain, preparing to offer sacrifice to God. And Our Lord Himself goes up different mountains throughout His ministry, and His divinity is affirmed for all to see. Here, as He sits and teaches, the mountain becomes His pulpit. He goes up not merely as a teacher among many, but as the new Lawgiver, the new Prophet, the perfect Priest, and the perfect Sacrifice. He does not simply repeat the old law; He reveals the interior law of grace, the law of the Kingdom.

And His teaching begins with a striking word. In the Latin it is beati—“Blessed are…” These are not pious slogans or sentimental sayings. They are the marks of a soul living in grace, the fruit of the Christian life, a picture of what holiness looks like when the heart truly belongs to God. Each Beatitude builds upon the other. Taken together they form a single path, a spiritual program, a pattern of life in the Holy Spirit.

The Beatitudes are not primarily a set of social directives or a list of worldly reforms. They are something deeper and more demanding: an interior conversion, a new way of seeing, a new way of desiring, the mind and heart of one who lives in union with Jesus Christ. “Blessed are the poor…” This poverty is not a call to theatrical misery, as though holiness meant dressing in rags. It is the poverty of spirit: complete dependence on God. It is the surrender of self-reliance and self-importance. It means that the most important value in my life is not comfort, control, or reputation, but spiritual sonship. I am a child of God, and everything else must be secondary to that.

“Blessed are those who mourn…” The children of God mourn their sins. They are saddened when they fail to live up to their higher calling and appear less than the sons and daughters of God that they truly are. They grieve not because they are hopeless, but because they love God, and therefore they feel the weight of anything that distances them from Him. This mourning is not despair; it is repentance, and repentance becomes the doorway to comfort.

“Blessed are the meek…” Meekness flows from poverty of spirit and humility. It is not weakness, but quiet strength. It is resignation to God’s will and trust in His providence. It is the willingness to endure adversity without bitterness, especially the adversity that fidelity often brings. The meek do not need to win every argument or defend their pride. They remain steady because they know that God will vindicate His own in His time.

Then the Lord speaks of desire: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…” Like the saints, we are meant to hunger and thirst for what is right, for what is holy, for what reflects God. Our true desire in life should be the good, the true, and the beautiful—because these are not abstract ideals, but rays of the light of God Himself. The holy soul is not satisfied with merely “getting by.” It wants God, it seeks Him, it longs to live according to His truth.

“Blessed are the merciful…” As God has been merciful to us, so we are called to be signs of His mercy to others. Mercy is not indifference toward sin, and it is not weakness. Mercy is love that stoops down to lift another up. It is patience, forgiveness, compassion, and the refusal to treat others as beyond redemption. The merciful reflect the heart of the Father, and so the Lord can say to us, “Be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful.”

“Blessed are the pure of heart…” Purity of heart means more than chastity, though it certainly includes it. Purity is a heart undivided, a heart that is not double-minded, a heart that seeks God without hidden compromise. The pure of heart want God for God’s sake. And the promise given to them is astonishing: “They shall see God.” That is the goal of the Christian life—vision of God, union with God, heaven itself.

“Blessed are the peacemakers…” Christian peace is not merely being polite, avoiding conflict, or keeping things superficially calm. True peace is reconciliation with God. It is the peace that comes when sin is forgiven, when the soul is restored, when hearts are converted. The peacemaker therefore works for the salvation of souls. He helps others return to God, and when God is first, we begin to see one another as brothers and sisters. That is the peace the world cannot give.

And then the Lord speaks plainly of the cost: “Blessed are those who are persecuted…” The persecuted share in Christ’s own sufferings. They stand in union with Him, offering trials and rejection for the salvation of souls. The world has always resisted the Gospel because it resisted Christ first. But persecution is not a sign that the Christian has failed. Very often it is a sign that the Christian is faithful. And the promise is great: “Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

To be truly blessed, then, is not to chase earthly comfort, but to allow Christ to form His life within us. The Beatitudes are not merely ideals to admire; they are the shape of sanctity, the pattern of the saints, and the normal path of the Christian who lives in grace. And when this life of the Beatitudes begins to take root, we discover what St. Paul meant when he said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me.”

Homily for the 3rd Sunday After Epiphany

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Last Sunday, we saw an Epiphany of Our Lord at Cana in Galilee. Now, we begin to see Him acting. This is indeed the Son of the Living God.

Today’s gospel presents us with two miracles
- the first is a leper who approaches Jesus
- Leprosy was more than an illness, it was a social stigma
 – Anyone who contracted the dreaded disease was cast out from society
 – They were forbidden to enter any town
 – They were to wear bells and call out as they approached: Leper, I am a leper
The social rejection was probably much worse than the disease, and that was horrible

The leper approached Jesus with faith
- “Lord, if You will, You can make me clean.”
 – first we see, He recognized our Lord’s divinity – he did not say, master or teacher but Lord
Jesus acts immediately “I will; be made clean.”
- Jesus doesn’t pray, He doesn’t call upon the Father or God
 – Jesus is the healer and He acts immediately

The second miracle is just as amazing, or even more so
- A Roman Centurion approached Jesus to ask healing of his son who is at home
- Jesus promises to visit the man’s home and cure the child
 – but the Centurion feels unworthy, so he said “only say the word”
- Jesus promises that the boy would be healed
 – And at that very hour, he was healed
 – Jesus didn’t even need to go

Both the leper and the centurion had faith
- In fact, Jesus speaking of the centurion said He had never found such faith in all of Israel
These men are an example to us all
- Both had faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
 – and because of their faith and trust, Jesus acted, He acted immediately

We have more than the leper, we have more than the centurion. You and I receive the Living Lord Jesus in Holy Communion. He is fully present in our body and in our soul. We are closer to Him than they ever were on this earth. If He is so close, what more will He not do for you and me? if only we come to Him with that same faith: “Lord, I am not worth that You should enter under my roof, but only say the word…”

Homily for the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – A

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There is a continuity between St. John the Baptist and Our Lord. It all fits into what John said: “He must increase, I must decrease.”

John has been arrested. His central and constant message is repentance: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” John is preparing the way for the Lord. “Get ready,” he is saying, because the kingdom is close; it won’t be long—the day is dawning.

Now that John is no longer preaching, Jesus begins his public ministry. Again, in John’s words: “He must increase, I must decrease.” And it begins in the most unlikely way: Jesus departs Nazareth, and went to live in Capernaum by the sea. He doesn’t go to the big city, Jerusalem, the center of the Jewish religion, but He goes down to Galilee. It is there that this great faith of our’s is born.

His message, similar to John’s—repentance, but with a twist. The kingdom is not only at hand—it also takes a turn. Our Lord’s message is: “The kingdom of God is among you. Repent and believe.”

For both St. John the Baptist and Our Lord Jesus Christ the central message is the same: repent—and the reason is the same, for the kingdom. This message is not only for those of our Lord’s time and place. This message is not only for unbelievers, or those of other faiths.

The call to repentance—conversion, is for each one of us. We above all are to heed the Lord’s command to repent, for the kingdom is here and now. Wherever God is, the Kingdom of heaven is present. And to partake of the kingdom demands holiness, purity, faith, hope, and love.

We ought repent daily through examination of conscience. We ought repent frequently through sacramental confession. For every time we consume the body & blood of the Lord, the kingdom of heaven is here and now, and for that to bear good fruit, and for that to continue into eternity, we must repent and believe and be converted. Of course it doesn’t happen over night.

If we are to take the Lord seriously, we will make repentance a daily part of our lives, frequent the Sacrament of Penance, and rejoice in His love during Holy Communion, for the Kingdom of God is within us.

Homily for the 2nd Sunday After Epiphany

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On this Sunday, the Church continues the Epiphany of the Lord — the gradual manifestation of who Jesus truly is. Today He reveals His glory not in a palace or a temple, but at a wedding feast.

The Gospel places us in Cana of Galilee. A wedding is taking place, and Jesus, Mary, and the Apostles are present. This is not accidental. Our Lord chooses a wedding as the setting for His first public miracle because He has come to reveal the mystery of divine love and covenant.

This wedding would have been very different from those we attend today. For us, it is a ceremony, a brief reception, and then it is over. In the time of our Lord, weddings lasted for days. They were true community celebrations, involving the entire village. This explains why the wine ran out. One had to be well stocked with food and drink, and to run out of wine was not merely inconvenient — it was a real humiliation for the young couple.

We are told there were six stone water jars. We should not imagine small decorative pitchers like those often seen in paintings. These were enormous vessels, roughly four feet high and three feet wide, carved from solid stone and so heavy that it took several men to move them. They were used for ritual purification — for washing, not for drinking. Yet Christ transforms what was meant for external cleansing into wine that brings joy. This is already a sign. He comes not merely to wash the outside, but to transform the heart.

We never learn the names of the bride and groom. Only Jesus, Mary, and the Apostles are mentioned. This is because this wedding points beyond itself. It is a sign of another marriage — the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. Christ is the true Bridegroom. The Church is His Bride. Our Lady stands between them, giving the Bride to her Son. The Apostles stand as the first ministers of the Church.

Through Baptism, we ourselves have been wedded to Christ and to His Church. This sacred covenant is sealed in His Blood. When we ran out of wine — when humanity exhausted its strength and hope — Christ poured out the new wine of His Precious Blood.

This covenant is renewed at every Holy Mass. Holy Communion is our participation in this sacred bond. In receiving Him, the union is strengthened and deepened. We become more and more like Him, the Beloved of our souls.

As we renew this sacred covenant today, let us remember: we belong to Christ, and He is ours in return. In this Holy Sacrifice, we are reminded that our destiny is not merely this world, but eternal life with Him forever.

Homily for the 2nd Sunday In Ordinary Time – A

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In the Traditional Roman Rite, the time between Christmas and Lent is called the Season after Epiphany. Though the Christmas festivities have ended, the Church continues to unfold the great mystery of who Jesus truly is.

The word Epiphany comes from the Greek epiphaneia, meaning “manifestation” or “divine appearing.” The Church is still proclaiming the revelation of Christ — not merely that He was born, but who He is. This is the mystery of God revealing Himself to the world.

Once again in today’s Gospel we meet St. John the Baptist, whose testimony expresses the early Church’s clear faith in the person of Jesus Christ. John points to Him and declares, “Behold the Lamb of God.” Every Jew of that time would immediately understand the meaning. Jesus is the Lamb of sacrifice — chosen by God and offered for sin. Yet He is not merely one sacrifice among many. He is the Lamb who “takes away the sin of the world.”

In the Old Testament, the priest symbolically placed the sins of the people upon the scapegoat and sent it into the wilderness, carrying away their guilt. Jesus now fulfills and surpasses that figure. He does not symbolically remove sin — He truly destroys it by His own Blood.

John then reveals Christ’s divine rank. Although John was born first, Jesus existed before him. He comes from God, is sent by God, and is God. Here we glimpse the mystery of the hypostatic union: Jesus is fully God and fully man. Only a man can suffer and die — therefore He takes our nature. Only God can offer a sacrifice of infinite value — therefore His offering redeems the world. In Christ, the perfect sacrifice is made.

John recognizes the Messiah because God had revealed Him: “On whomever you see the Spirit descend and remain, He is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.”

At every Mass, the priest repeats John’s words: “Behold the Lamb of God.” The sacrifice of Calvary is not repeated, but re-presented — made present again upon this altar. The same Lamb who died once for our salvation now comes sacramentally to feed His people.

Let us place our hope and trust in the Lamb of God who came to rescue us. We are His people, purchased not with silver or gold, but with His Precious Blood.

Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family

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The School of Holiness at Nazareth

Today’s Collect sets both the tone and the purpose of this feast. In a few carefully chosen words, the Church teaches us that family life itself has been sanctified—made holy— by the obedience of the Son of God within the household of Nazareth.

Our Lord Jesus Christ consecrated family life by His obedience to Mary and Joseph. We rightly proclaim that Christ was obedient to the Father,
but we must not overlook the astonishing truth that the eternal Son of God was also obedient to His human parents. Pause for a moment and consider what this means: God made Himself obedient to His own creatures. He did this not out of necessity, but to give us an example to follow. In the plan of God, obedience is not humiliation—it is the very road to holiness.

By His obedience, Jesus teaches us humility. This obedience was not momentary or symbolic; it was constant and enduring. From Nazareth to Calvary, He submits His will in love. In the Garden of Olives, He cried out: “Not My will, but Your will be done.” And, He teaches us the same in the prayer He Himself gave us: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.”

This obedience is not merely an action—it is a virtue, rooted in humility. Humility lowers the self so that God may be exalted. As Saint Paul reminds us: “He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death.” When we practice humility, something within us must die. Pride is weakened. Self-will is surrendered. And in that dying, grace begins to live more fully within us.

The Collect tells us that Christ “consecrated family life with ineffable virtues.” That is the true ideal of the family—not perfection, but holiness.   The family becomes a garden where God plants virtue, nurtures it through sacrifice, and brings forth fruit in due season.

When Jesus is truly at the center of family life, the virtues—and all the workings of the Holy Ghost—begin to flourish. As Fr. Patrick Peyton so often preached, “The family that prays together stays together.” Prayer should mark the ordinary rhythm of the home: before meals, in the morning, and at night before rest. Families should be encouraged to foster the daily Rosary together, and, when possible, a family Holy Hour before the Most Blessed Sacrament. It is also fitting that our homes visibly reflect this faith, with crucifixes and images of Our Lord, Our Lady, and the saints, reminding us daily of whom we belong to and whom we serve.

Let us follow the example of our Lord, who humbled Himself in obedience to Mary and Joseph, so that we too may grow in virtue and holiness, and allow our families to become places where God is truly at home.

Homily for the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord

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The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord is not about Christ being set free from sin, for He is sinless, but about Him setting us free. This moment reveals Him as the promised Messiah of God and marks the beginning of His saving mission.

The prophet Isaiah announces to the people of Israel that the Messiah is coming to liberate them. He is the Chosen One, the Anointed, sent from heaven by the Father. He is the Messiah. “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son.” The Spirit of the Lord rests upon Him because He is the anointed One. It is a confirmation from heaven that Jesus is the Messiah and the beloved Son of the Father. This is the inauguration of His public ministry. All who witnessed this event knew that Jesus was the fulfillment of all of God’s promises through the prophets – “Behold the Lamb of God” related John the Baptist. What has been true from all eternity is now revealed in time: Jesus is the Anointed One, sent for the salvation of the world.

Because Christ’s baptism is not about the forgiveness of His own sins, it points instead to the Cross. Our Lord submits to a baptism of suffering. His public mission begins here, and that mission leads Him to Calvary. He Himself makes this clear when James and John ask to share in His glory. “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” The baptism in the Jordan already foreshadows the baptism of blood He will undergo on the Cross.

The Gospel reveals why Christ embraces this suffering. He does so in order to undo the devastation caused by the sin of our first parents. Their disobedience closed the gates of heaven, but Christ’s obedience opens them once again. This is prefigured in His baptism, for when He comes up out of the water, the heavens are opened. The Spirit descends upon the Lord, and the Father speaks in solemn confirmation: “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” The Father is pleased with the perfect obedience and sacrifice of His Son, for Christ alone offers the acceptable sacrifice that reconciles the human race to God.

Our Lord submits to baptism as a sign of His total obedience to the Father’s will. Soon He will be baptized in the blood of the Cross. By His baptism in the waters of the Jordan, He sanctifies the waters so that we might be freed from the ancient curse of sin and given the hope of eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

Homily for the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus – 2026

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Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. The Gospel appointed for this feast is the same as that of the Feast of the Circumcision. It is the shortest Gospel of the entire year, yet it loses nothing by its brevity, for it makes its point swiftly and unmistakably: the Child is named Jesus.

We are blessed to live in a time when this feast is firmly established in the life of the Church, for this was not always the case. There was a time when no Feast of the Holy Name existed at all. St. Bernardine of Siena, the great champion of devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus, was summoned to Rome and accused of heresy—not once, but on several occasions—for promoting this devotion. His opponents considered it a dangerous innovation. Imagine such opposition to devotion to the very Name that the Archangel Gabriel commanded both the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph to give to the Christ Child.

We do not celebrate just any name today; we celebrate the Most Holy Name of Jesus. This Name is holy because it belongs to the Son of God, the Eternal Word made flesh. It is holy because Gabriel did not speak in his own authority, but as the messenger of the Eternal Father who sent him. It is holy because it is the Name above every other name, for, as Scripture declares, “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” This is a Name that must be honored, reverenced, and boldly proclaimed. As St. Bernardine wrote, “The Name of Jesus is the glory of the Church militant, the joy of the Church triumphant, and the hope of the Church suffering.”

Throughout history, countless preachers have proclaimed this Name, saints have died with it upon their lips, and Christians have been tortured and martyred for the Name of Jesus. Yet the Holy Name must be restored anew to every corner of the Church. Too often homilies have become generic, religious instruction has been stripped bare, and even sacred edifices have been scrubbed clean of the Holy Name. St. Bernardine warned us plainly: “Remove the Name of Jesus from preaching, and it loses its fire; remove it from prayer, and it loses its power.”

Let us therefore resolve to call frequently upon the Holy Name of Jesus throughout our days. We must purify our tongues, lest we ever take that Holy Name in vain. Many are rightly offended by vulgar words, yet they should tremble at the misuse of the Name of our dear Savior. As St. Bernardine so beautifully teaches, “Nothing more sweet can be sung, nothing more joyful can be heard, nothing more powerful can be invoked than the Name of Jesus.”

May the Holy Name of Jesus—terror of demons and sweetness to the angels—be praised, adored, and loved by all peoples, in every nation, age, and place. May His most holy Name ever flow from our lips like a sweet fragrance, driving away all evil and drawing down grace upon grace into our souls.