Posts Tagged 'Easter'

HomeTag: Easter

Reflection – June 1st, 2025 – Ascension Sunday

Reflection – June 1st, 2025 – Ascension Sunday

How Hopeful are We About Heaven?

As we enter the month of June, many things in church world are slowing down, getting ready for the summer break.  Parish councils are having their last meetings, diocesan committees are wrapping up another pastoral year and even faith development gatherings such as catechism and R.C.I.A. are taking a break.  I am blessed to serve as part of the team that are facilitating the sessions entitled “Dying With Christ, Living With Hope”, and we are ...

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Mark Mahoney

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Homily – May 25th, 2025 – 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily – May 25th, 2025 – 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

I realize that, for you people in the pews, it’s more difficult to recall anything you heard in the first or second reading. What’s a lot easier to remember is the Gospel reading only because it was the last reading you heard, and the “Jesus stories” seem to be simpler to get into. Personally, I’ve always preferred the gospel stories about Jesus over the stories in the Book of Revelation about dragons with seven heads and ten horns.

Having said that, ...

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Fr Phil

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Reflection – May 25th, 2025 – 6th Sunday of Easter

Reflection – May 25th, 2025 – 6th Sunday of Easter

Rules, Rules, Everywhere a Rule

We are a world of rules: we can’t enter another country without a passport; when driving, motorcycling or biking, we must stop at a red light; should we desire something, we must provide compensation before we can take ownership of it. We are a country of rules: we are expected to file our income tax on time each year; we need to register the births of our children and the deaths of our loved ones; one ...

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Ellen Bennett

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Homily – May 11th, 2025 – 4th Sunday of Easter

Homily – May 11th, 2025 – 4th Sunday of Easter

If you were ever having a bad day, a bad week, a bad month, or even a bad year, read this gospel passage that we just heard, and meditate on it. It’s not long, but it offers one of the most comforting messages in the entire Bible. Jesus says that we, the sheep, will never perish. Nor will we, the sheep, ever be snatched out of his hand. And if that isn’t comforting enough, the very next line goes even ...

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Fr Phil

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Reflection – May 11th, 2025 – 4th Sunday of Easter

Reflection – May 11th, 2025 – 4th Sunday of Easter

…in the breaking of the bread

The Resurrection of Jesus is the central event in the life of the Church. It’s so important that we must spend 50 days celebrating it, right up until the Feast of Pentecost (June 8th this year). One of the classic “Resurrection stories” is the stories we’ve tentatively titled: The Disciples on the Road to Emmaus (Lk. 24: 13-35). In this story the resurrected Lord appeared to two dejected disciples who were on the way to ...

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Fr Phil

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Homily – May 4th, 2025 – 3rd Sunday of Easter

Homily – May 4th, 2025 – 3rd Sunday of Easter

In the resurrection stories—and there’s a lot of them–the Risen Jesus is never recognized straight out. Something has to happen, and then the people finally get it that it’s the Risen Jesus in their midst. I doubt I would have fared any better than those people did back in Biblical times. Underneath candle sticks, incense, fancy vestments and ornate church buildings, what people are hungering for today is the same thing they were hungering for 2000 years ago—an experience of ...

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Fr Phil

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Reflection – May 4th, 2025 – 3rd Sunday of Easter

Reflection – May 4th, 2025 – 3rd Sunday of Easter

The 3rd Sunday of Easter, also known as Good Shepherd Sunday, emphasizes the call to serve and shepherd God’s flock. The gospel reading focuses on Jesus’ restoration of Peter and his subsequent mission to tend to the sheep. This Sunday encourages reflection on how we, too, are called to be shepherds of God’s people, offering love, care, and the word of life, just as Jesus does. By serving others, we tend and feed as Jesus instructed Peter.

 I found an interesting fact: ...

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Cathy Keirstead

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Homily – April 27th, 2025 – 2nd Sunday of Easter

Homily – April 27th, 2025 – 2nd Sunday of Easter

History hasn’t always been kind to Thomas even though he brought the gospel to India, was martyred for that stubborn faith of his, and became a saint. We tend to still call him “Doubting Thomas.” Other people’s reputations get rehabilitated in ways that Thomas’ didn’t. For instance, Peter, denied knowing Jesus not once, not twice, but three times, yet we don’t call him “Denying Peter.” We call him Prince of the Apostles. Likewise, Paul persecuted Christians and was present and ...

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Fr Phil

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Homily – April 20th, 2025 – Easter Sunday

Homily – April 20th, 2025 – Easter Sunday

As I get older, my appreciation for Mary Magdalene grows as well. She is the first to encounter the Risen Lord. I guess somebody had to be the first; somebody had to have that honour. It’s her struggle with faith and how she stays in the game that really impresses me. She is so genuine. I can relate to her on so many levels. My own faith journey, on a good day, is three steps forward and two steps back. ...

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Fr Phil

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Homily – April 18th, 2025 – Good Friday

Homily – April 18th, 2025 – Good Friday

Today’s passion reading is full of contrasts. I suppose if the name Good Friday is to point us ultimately to something good, there’s going to have to be a lot of contrasts to the lies, violence, betrayal, whipping, cruelty, and even murder that dominate today’s gospel reading. I have to believe that a fundamental goodness must still live in contrast to endless shouts to “Crucify him.” I have to believe that truth, as inconvenient as it is at times, is ...

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Fr Phil

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