St. Paul Tells Us to Put on the Armor of God: Why and When Should We Do That? Just as St. Paul spoke directly to the early Christians; he addresses the profound inner and outer battles in living the Christian faith.It’s not merely a struggle to live a good life, though that is part of it; rather, it’s a struggle against forces and influences beyond…

Entering Through the Narrow Gate: Jesus Shows Us The Path to Salvation! Today’s gospel recounts a moment when someone approaches Jesus with an important question: “Will only a few be saved?”Jesus responds, urging, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate. Many will try, but only a few will be strong enough to succeed.” This gate, Jesus explains, is…

The Four Last Things – Death, Judgment, Heaven, and HellThe conference opens with the recitation of the Hail Mary.The closing words of this familiar prayer, “now and at the hour of our death,” provide a meaningful starting point for reflecting on The Four Last Things. In these simple words, we speak a profound truth: by praying for the hour of our …

Embracing Inclusive Love: Jesus’ Call to Selfless Giving Every good deed receives an award.But the question is, where does this reward come from? Blessed are we if we expect the reward to come from God! In the beginning of the Homily, we hear a story of a specific practice in a distant land. The practice is called “Secret” and is a very good illust…

Jesus tells us to Love your Lord God with all Your Heart, Soul and Mind . . . and Love Your Neighbor. What Does That Really Mean for Us? As you may know, many of the Shrine’s Masses are outdoors.After a bit of humor, the priest tells a story when he was based in Rome, he would hear a priest at a parish near his lodging always sing a Latin verse. It…

Eucharistic Revival Conference #4: Hearing the Word: Why the Gospel Matters in the Liturgy In our last three conferences, we began by exploring the principles of the liturgy.In our first week, we explored the church’s teachings on these principles, focusing on the idea of liturgical participation. This participation, we emphasized, must be active a…

What is God Telling Me During My Hardships? This week in the Gospel, Jesus tells us to prepare and to remain awake.We do not know the hour when the Son of Man will come. Today’s Gospel Jesus tells us to interpret the signs of the times. The Homily explains further.In the Homily we also hear of the destructive power of nature that impacted Africa. D…

What Are You Doing With the Time You are Given? Jesus Gives A Lesson for Our Spiritual Journey! The opening of the Homily talks about a gesture that is performed each time the Gospel is proclaimed at Mass.It is important to understand this for our own Spiritual Journey because the Word of God is given to us in love. Regardless of whether the Gospel…

Jesus Does Not Immediately Respond to a Prayer for a Reason. He Wants Us to Pray in Confidence!As we move through the last several weeks of ordinary time, there will be a shift in the overall tone of scripture.There will be a note of ultimacy. We hear that in today’s readings of scripture. In today’s Gospel we hear of a blind man on the side of the…

St. Luke: A Friend in Faith Today the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Luke, evangelist.Luke wrote his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. Together, they represent approximately twenty-five percent of the New Testament’s scripture. Interesting, Luke begins his Gospel.Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been …

Eucharistic Revival Conference #3: The Importance of the Eucharistic Prayer Last week we began looking at the Mass and the prayers of the Mass through the centuries.Ultimately the journey will take us through examining the Mass in the Past, the Present and Potentially the Future.We started the journey by examining the prayer of the consecration or …

History Remembers His Greatness: Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and MartyrThe Saint we honor today, Saint Ignatius of Antioch, is one of the most remarkable men that history has ever produced.Tradition holds that when the disciples were arguing among themselves about who was the greatest, Jesus sat down and placed a child on His lap. Unless you …

St. Paul Prays for All to have the Spirit that Allows You to Appreciate the Glorious Goodness of What God has Done . . . For You! There is a beautiful wisdom that underlines the words Jesus gives us in today’s Gospel.Today’s Gospel tells us about acknowledging Him. Jesus also says that one is not to be worried or troubled if dragged before hostile …

Eucharistic Revival Conference #2: The History and Potential Future of the Mass: A Journey Through Eucharistic Worship In Eucharistic Revival Conference #1, we explored the reasons behind the need for this revival and clarified its purpose.We focused on reintroducing the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ and examined the inspiration for the…

The Essence of Christian Life is the Continual Receiving of the Gift From God In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us a parable about a friend knocking on the door in the middle of the night asking for bread.The owner of the house was already in bed. He tells the visitor to go away. Jesus tells us that if the man does not get up and give the visitor what…

Remembering Saint Pope John 23rd: The Good Pope on His Feast Day Saint Pope John 23rd was born in the Northern Italy town of Sotto il Monte in 1881.Upon becoming a priest in 1904, he was made the secretary to a bishop. A few years later he was appointed to go to Rome. He was appointed to be a Cardinal in 1953, and was elected Pope in 1958 at the ag…

St. Paul, and Jesus, Tell Us We All Have A Common Life That We Are All Called to Live. What Does That Really Mean? As St. Paul writes to the Church, he answers a question that is normally asked of Church leaders.The question? Are you saved? St. Paul gives an answer to the Church in his writing. He doesn’t answer, Yes, I am! He answers, Yes, WE are!…

Jesus Tells the Man that Earthly Life Can Prevent You From Obtaining Eternal LifeIn the second reading, we hear there is a cutting sharpness of the Word of God.The Word can uncover what is in a person’s heart all along. It is in sharp contrast to the gentler words within the first reading. To fully understand today’s Gospel, it is important to unde…

Eucharistic Revival Conference #1: What Is and Why Do We Need a Eucharistic Revival?So, why is there a need for the Eucharistic Revival?The Eucharist is where Worship begins and ends as a Catholic. So, why is there a need for a revival? A recent survey taken on April 12th of this year shows that people who come to weekly and / or daily Mass represe…

Conference on Angels: Conf. #2: How We Are United With The Angels in Heaven!When we speak of the angels, it is important to attend to one of the most important ways where the church is most sensitive to the presence of the angels.And that is during the act of our collective divine worship, which we call the liturgy. Um, And again, this is something…

Conference on Angels: Conf. #1: The Role Of Our Guardian Angels is More Than A Protector When we hear that expression, Guardian Angels, we imagine those angels who individually have been assigned to watch over us. And that’s a half truth. Rather, when the church celebrates the guardian angels, it celebrates that, but it also celebrates the way that…

Receive What Jesus Gives You! Be Dependent upon the Lord! Intoday’s first reading from Proverbs we hear about something that all humans have struggled with since Adam and Eve. We hear about the Word of the Lord. We need to be content with what we have. Hmmm! Hear more within the Homily!We hear from scripture of the danger of abundance. In our wealt…

You Are Invited to Participate In the Plan of God! St. Augustine was asked what is time?Time of planting, a time for harvesting, a time for dying, a time for birth and more. When asked what time is, St. Augustine has a thought. When someone doesn’t ask him about time, he says, he knows what time is. He continues, however, when ultimately asked what…

The Book of Ecclesiastes Offers Us the Meaning of Life The most important thing to know about time, is that it ends!It runs out for everyone and everything. It’s not infinite. It is measured. Time comes to an end. This is a fact of our faith. Time indeed comes to an end.Our first reading makes this point to us! When we are young, the possibilities …

St. Paul Asks the Church of Corinth: Are You Conscious of Living in Such a Way that You Know You Are Moving Toward Another World . . . the Kingdom of God in Heaven?St. Paul wrote the letter to the Church in Corinth 2000 years ago.He wrote to the people, and he may have written it to us in today’s world. While Christians do not deny Jesus’ Resurrect…

By Saint Matthew’s Example: How Much Do I Follow Jesus? Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Matthew (September 21st).We all know the Gospel story. Jesus walks over to Matthew’s table, saying nothing but Follow Me!One has to understand the profession of Matthew. He was a tax collector. How the tax collector worked in collecting money is de…

Jesus Tells Us …. Go In Peace, Your Sins are Forgiven Among the contribution of Pope Benedict 16th ‘s papacy was a rekindling in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.The Pope wrote several series / books on Jesus Christ. In one of the Pope’s writings, he speaks of the Gospel. He explains when many read the Gospel, they look at it as ordinary words … as th…

Jesus Tells His Disciples and Us: If You Want to Be Great . . . Often in our discussions, we talk about the greatest.The greatest athlete in a specific sport, like soccer, basketball or football. There is even a greatest hot dog eater as per the July 4th competition!If we are honest with ourselves, we all want to be great! It is the reason we work …

Pray So That You May Do the Will of God! What This Means for Us Spiritually! We are known not only by what we say . . . but what we do.In today’s Gospel, Jesus presents us with several things. Jesus is coming from the synagogue. He goes to Simon Peter’s house where He lays his healing hands on Peter’s mother-in-law. Later, many of the sick come to …

Hail, Full of Grace! The Lord Is With You!Today the Church celebrates The Most Holy Name of Mary (September 12th). Have you ever imagined what the world would be like if we did not have names? Silly, perhaps, but an interesting image. Names brings order. Names gives us an identity. And names also carry for us a history.In another country, people ar…

Christians Walk With One Step on Earth and the Other Touched by Heaven There is a marvelous oddness in the way God speaks to us today through the readings!On one hand God speaks to us in a way that stirs our heart with expectations. Even as that happens, the Lord will defeat those expectations that rise within us! It is not to disappoint us. It’s t…

Conference #2: The Beauty Jesus and Christianity Sees in Suffering When We Embrace the Mystery and Exaltation of the CrossAfter reciting a hymn that is at least 1400 years old about The Cross, the Homily tells us of the fate of The Cross. The Persians in conquering Rome, also conquered Jerusalem. In doing so, they carried away numerous icons. They …

Audio #3: A 30 Second Audio Outlining Montfort’s View of The CrossOf all the media sets on our website / Podcast, this is likely the shortest of them all! The words come from St. Louis de Montfort and represent an excerpt from the video Jesus Living In Mary (Montfort Productions: 1997)..In Conference #1 we hear about the words St. Louis de Montfort…

The Mystery of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross! There is Only One Key to Truly Knowing Jesus! We celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14th).It is important we take the word Exaltation seriously! Why? Because in today’s world, the cross appears seemingly everywhere. It appears on buildings, we begin our prayers by maki…

Jesus Watches You Use Your Special Gifts to Build Up His Church: Parable of the Talents In the liturgy, we hear words of finality.Today we hear the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel during weekday Masses. During Ordinary Time throughout the year, we engage the public ministry of Our Lord. We do so in three ways. The Church begins by hearing about His pub…

We Must Examine Our Hearts to See What Is There that God Does Not Like! How Do We Do This? Jesus’ language is very strong within the Gospel.He talks about the inside and outside. Yesterday, we focused on cleaning the outside of the dish and cup. But the inside is important too! In today’s Gospel, Jesus describes those like whitewashed tombs. Beauti…

Jesus Tells Us About Cleanliness Before God. Implications for Our Spiritual Life Everywhere we go we are presented with rules, regulations and laws.We must follow these rules or risk getting kicked out or banned. This is true in many circumstances, including sports. There are many rules and regulations.In each of the readings (not included within t…

Rejoice! Jesus Knows You! Implications for Our Spiritual Journey! We humans, living within time, experience things with a beginning, a middle and an end.However, God does not work that way. With regard to salvation, the end always comes first. That may sound a little strange when we first hear it. The end is always before the beginning.When we thin…

Our Lord Outlines How to Achieve Happiness and Holiness Within Today’s Gospel The one desire which gives all humans unity and meaning, force and decision to all desires is happiness.It is the goal of all human activity, the perfect good which satisfies all human desires. The search for happiness is the common ground on which all human yearnings, al…

Jesus Tells Us: The First Will Be Last and the Last Will be First. What this Means for Our Own Spirituality!In the Homily, the priest stated he went to Philadelphia, PA for the first time.Being from Africa, and residing on Long Island, it was an opportunity to visit another state. One of the activities of sight-seeing was to take in his first live …

Jesus Tells Us to Be Detached from Wealth. What Does He Mean by That? Today’s Gospel follows yesterday’s Gospel when a young rich man goes to Jesus and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life.Jesus answers him plainly. Obey the commandments. The young man tells Jesus he has indeed followed the commandments. The young man continues and asks Jes…

Our Life Must Constantly Move Toward God in Repentance and Seeking His Mercy In the first reading we hear from scripture that exiled Israelites believe they are suffering and in exile because of the sins of their parents.They believed they are suffering because of their parents. The blame game is an old game that continues today. Others are the cau…

Jesus Makes Known His Commandment For Us: Love One Another As I Have Love You There are two components in this commandment.As I Have Love You . . . .Love One Another. After experiencing My Love for you, go and Love One Another.When we hear this commandment, the question is not whether God loves us or even how much God loves us. We know He loves us!…

Blessing the New Altar and Understanding the Relics: Shrine of Our Lady of the Island During the Blessing of the new altar at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Island, we hear about three relics.The relics include the founder of the Company of Mary, as well as the first martyr, and the first American born saint. Three relics in total placed in the alta…

Jesus Gives Us a Command: What Is the Implication for Our Spiritual Life?“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”During the Last Supper, Jesus issues a command to His disciples. That command impa…

Jesus Tells Us What We Must Do to Obtain Eternal Life In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us what we must do to obtain eternal life.“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”For many, this Gospel is beautiful…

Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr: A Model of Self-GivingToday the Church celebrates St Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr.St. Lawrence is a model for us all! He is a model of self-giving and approaches life the way we all should!Hear the story of St. Lawrence. Listen to this Meditation Media.Listen to:Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr: A Model of Self-Gi…

Why Did Jesus Elect to Come to Us Through the Mystery of the Eucharist? Food is important for all humans. Jesus tells us in the Gospel He is the Bread of Life.Why did Jesus elect to come to us through the Eucharist?Listen to this Meditation Media: Listen to:Why Did Jesus Elect to Come to Us Through the Mystery of the Eucharist?---------------------…

Jesus Tells Us What We Feed Will Flourish Within You In the First Reading we hear from Jeremiah lamenting for the sins of Israel. Jeremiah talks about three themes. In the Homily, we hear about these themes.God did much good for the people of Israel. But, Israel repays God with evil. Why should the good live among the evil?Parable of the Sowing of …

Finding Your Own Treasure and Field. A Spiritual Lesson For All of Us! In the process of Beatification and the process of Canonization there are factors for one to be called Blessed or called a Saint.One of the factors is Joy. If a Blessed or Saint candidate does not have the virtue of Joy, the candidacy is abandoned. Why? Because, within Holiness,…