Homily – February 16th, 2025 – 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily – February 16th, 2025 – 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

You’ve probably heard about the “Sermon on the Mount” in the Gospel of Matthew.  Well, this version is from the Gospel of Luke and doesn’t happen on a mountain. It happens after Jesus comes down the mountain and stood on a level place, a plateau perhaps. That’s the opening line of today’s gospel reading, “Jesus came down the mountain with the twelve and stood on a level place.” Luke tells us that Jesus spent the entire night on a mountain ...

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Fr Phil

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Homily – February 9th, 2025 – 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily – February 9th, 2025 – 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

I don’t know if you guys know this, but my late mother wrote the entire Bible. That’s not true, but when I read the Word of God, it often feels like it’s absolutely true. It’s programmed into mothers all over the world and from the beginning of time to say, “If I told you once, I told you a thousand times.” Similarly, Scripture repeats itself in the hopes that if we didn’t get it the first 99 times, maybe a ...

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Fr Phil

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Reflection – February 9th, 2025 – 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Reflection – February 9th, 2025 – 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Ordinary Miracles

A scant four weeks ago the Church returned to Ordinary Time, by far its longest liturgical season, making up two thirds of the Church year.  Ordinary Time … one would think nothing significant happens when we are in the midst of the ordinary.  We think of ordinary as drab, boring, mundane. Yet most of us live in primarily ordinary, humdrum ways. And too often, we waste those days anticipating our next big adventure.  Have we missed something, I wonder? 

After ...

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Ellen Bennett

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Homily – February 2nd, 2025 – Presentation of the Lord

Homily – February 2nd, 2025 – Presentation of the Lord

On the last Sunday of the Christmas Season we had a story about the adult Jesus being baptized. Today, three weeks after the Christmas Season, we are back to the baby Jesus. Go figure.

Today’s feast, traditionally called the Feast of the Presentation was also called the Feast of the Encounter. Simeon and Anna, in their old age, have a powerful encounter with Jesus, a baby who is anything but powerful. Yet, isn’t that what everyone of us wants, not an ...

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Fr Phil

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Reflection – February 2nd, 2025 – The Presentation of the Lord

Reflection – February 2nd, 2025 – The Presentation of the Lord

Presenting Jesus

How do I present Jesus to other?  This is a difficult question because my own biases obstruct my view. I am inclined to exaggerate how well I do this while glossing over or completely ignoring the parts of myself where Christ may be…less obvious.

Having said that, 51 years of being a practicing Roman Catholic have shown me many stellar examples of people who embody Christ in a way that makes me want to know more about where that comes ...

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Trevor Droesbeck

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Homily – January 26th, 2025 – 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily – January 26th, 2025 – 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Six years ago, in 2019, Pope Francis estabished this Sunday, the third Sunday in Ordinary Time, as “Word of God Sunday.” By doing so, he invites us to devote more time in our lives to the celebration, the study and the spreading of the Word of God. He feels that the Word of God is a word of hope. I agree. If Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, then naturally he is also a word of hope for ...

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Fr Phil

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Homily – January 19th, 2025 – Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily – January 19th, 2025 – Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

We can spend a lot of time surmising about how the universe was created, about how old the cosmos is, and about the sheer awesomeness of God’s creative love. To think of creation, from our little perspective, is mind-blowing and humbling at the same time.  What I’m trying to spend more time with lately is “re-creation,” how God’s creative power—which is nothing less than the power of love—is still at work in the world. I don’t believe creation was a ...

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Fr Phil

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Homily – January 12th – Baptism of the Lord

Homily – January 12th – Baptism of the Lord

The gospel we just heard begs the questions: “Who is this Jesus being baptized?” And if he is the sinless one, then why is he undergoing a baptism that we traditionally believe was for the forgiveness of sins?” I think if we can answer the first question—who this Jesus is—we’ll also have the answer as to why he’s in these baptismal waters at all. Who Jesus is and why he’s being baptized have implications for our lives, otherwise, it’s just ...

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Fr Phil

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Homily – January 5th, 2025 – The Feast of the Epiphany

Homily – January 5th, 2025 – The Feast of the Epiphany

For the longest time I would get confused between the terms “astronomy” and “astrology.” I knew they both had to do with the stars, but after that the confusion set in. Astronomy is the scientific study of space, the universe, the cosmos. It’s based on math and science, and it’s goal is to help explain phenomena. Astrology, on the other hand, is not a science, but a pseudoscience that tries to explain human behavior based on the position of celestial ...

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Fr Phil

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Reflection – January 5th, 2025 – Feast of the Epiphany

Reflection – January 5th, 2025 – Feast of the Epiphany

Is It All About the Gifts?

On a social media post, I once read that if it had been three wise women instead of three wise men, the gifts offered at the birth of Jesus would have been far more practical.  Every year when we celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord, I think of that, and chuckle.  This year, however, I have been reflecting a lot on gifts in general: what they represent, how they are given, how they are received ...

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Ellen Bennett

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