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October 4th is the feast day for St. Francis of Assisi. He is one of the most popular saints and is known as the patron saint of animals. So, it is a custom for some parishes to offer a pet…
Read More27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year AIsaiah 5:1-7Psalm 80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20 (Isaiah 5:7a)Philippians 4:6-9Matthew 21:33-43October 4, 2020 Is the Lord with us in our struggles? The Lord is always with us. Everything that is good comes from the…
Read MoreThe Eighth Commandment is “You Shall Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor.” How is society to function if we cannot trust others to tell the truth? Likewise, we need to be able to trust others not to steal, commit…
Read MoreI find myself doing something I have never done before. I am “re-posting” a homily I posted here on this blog from the Feast of the Archangels on September 29th in 2017. Why am I “re-posting” an old post? There…
Read More26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year AEzekiel 18:25-28Psalm 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9 (6a)Philippians 2:1-11Matthew 21:28-32September 27, 2020 Today Jesus poses a question to the chief priests and the elders. They have been asking him questions. They often asked Jesus questions to…
Read MoreAs I have begun to write articles explicitly on morality, I acknowledge that discussion on the morality of specific behaviors can be difficult. I pray that nothing I will write be interpreted as judgment on anyone. My goal is always…
Read MoreI started my new series of webinars, Uncovering the Treasures of the Mass, last night. You are view the recording of the webinar on my website at www.renewaloffaith.org/masspart1. Peace, Fr. Jeff
Read MoreLast week I wrote an article here, “The Easy Path or the Hard Path”, discussing morality. I said that I plan to offer more on morality but that I am unsure what form it will take or when. I remain…
Read MoreIf you are reading this, then you are probably trying to live a Christian life. What does that entail? It includes prayer. It means that we believe that Jesus was crucified on the Cross and rose on the third day,…
Read MoreRecently I was watching the news about the wildfires on the West Coast. They say that over 4 million acres have burned this year. California has already passed their record for the number of acres burned in a single year…
Read More24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year ASirach 27:30-28:7Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12 (8)Romans 14:7-9Matthew 18:21-35September 13, 2020 It can be hard to forgive. It can be even harder to forgive the same person over and over for the same thing. …
Read MoreI remember back in my school days hearing about utopian societies. Such groups are the attempts of the members to form a perfect society. In my limited knowledge of them, they were small, insular societies. To me, the world didn’t…
Read MoreOne of the topics I have covered a few times during the Coronavirus is prayer (see https://blog.renewaloffaith.org/?cat=12 for those articles & homilies). Today I would like to cover a particular form of prayer required of clergy and religious but an…
Read More23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year AEzekiel 33:7-9Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9 (8)Romans 13:8-10Matthew 18:15-20September 6, 2020 Today we hear about how God calls us to respond to sin. The first reading is sometimes known as the Parable of the Watchman. …
Read MoreAt Baptism, we are asked six questions as our “baptismal promises.” (When we are baptized as infants, our parents answer for us.) At Confirmation we renew our baptismal promises ourselves. Each year at Easter time, we renew them. We respond,…
Read More22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year AJeremiah 20:7-9Psalm 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9 (2b)Romans 12:1-2Matthew 16:21-27August 30, 2020 Last week Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”. Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the…
Read MoreI recently read a book about Franciscan Spirituality relating to our care for the environment. I am not going to focus on that topic today but I mention the book (Care for Creation by Delio, Warner, and Word, Cincinnati: St.…
Read MoreHow Well Do You Know God? What does it even mean to know God? Is it a matter of how much we know about God? We need to learn about God but knowing God is not just a matter of…
Read More21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year AIsaiah 22:19-23Psalm 138:1-2, 2-3, 6, 8 (8bc)Romans 11:33-36Matthew 16:13-20August 23, 2020 Jesus asks the question, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” I pose a slightly different question, why do you…
Read MoreIt’s hard to know but it seems like I have heard of increasing numbers of acts of violence (mainly shootings). I currently serve in a parish about thirty minutes outside of Rochester, NY. Last weekend, Rochester had three separate shootings…
Read MoreThe question for this article is how do we experience Church? As we explore this question, please note that I capitalized the word “Church”. This is because, ultimately, it is a transcendent “Church” that we are called to belong to.…
Read More20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year AIsaiah 56:1, 6-7Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8 (4)Romans 11:13-15, 29-32Matthew 15:21-28August 16, 2020 A Canaanite woman came to Jesus seeking help for her daughter who was “tormented by a demon.” Many people came to…
Read MoreDoes God change? God is eternal, without beginning or end. Does He ever change? I ask the question because recently I was asked about God’s vengeance. There is some tendency to see God in the Old Testament as a punishing…
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