The Goal of Prayer — Sermon for the XVII Sunday through the Year, A.D. MMXXVI

The past three weeks, our Lord has been explaining the Kingdom of Heaven using different images or parables, and we have been exploring what each of these representations of the Kingdom can teach us about prayer, since it is through prayer that the Kingdom begins growing in our hearts. Today we arrive at the […]

“Real Patience” — Sermon for the XVI Sunday through the Year, A.D. MMXXVI

Our Lord continues today explaining the Kingdom of Heaven in parables. Last Sunday, we saw a prodigiously generous sower who scatters seed even where it doesn’t seem likely to grow. We saw how the different kinds of soil represent different responses to receiving the Word of God – Christ Himself – through prayer. […]

“How the Seed Grows in Prayer” — Sermon for the XV Sunday through the Year, A.D. MMXXVI

Today’s parable about the sower and the seed is quite familiar. We are used to hearing about the different kinds of soil, and how we can be the good soil that enables us to grow spiritually. But in focusing on the soil, we can lose track of what is actually doing the growing – […]

“Buried So We Might Live” — Sermon for the XIII Sunday through the Year, A.D. MMXXVI

At the beginning of the Rite of Baptism, the priest asks an important question: “What do you desire?” The traditional rite directs the godparents to respond on the part of the child, “Faith.” The priest then asks a second question, “What does faith give you?” And the godparents reply, “Eternal life.” The modern rite […]

“The Gifts of the Sacred Heart” — Sermon for the XII Sunday through the Year, A.D. MMXXVI

“How much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many.” We’ve been talking a lot lately about the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Just over a week ago, we joined Catholics around the United States in consecrating ourselves and our country to the […]

“A More Difficult Sacrifice” — Sermon for the XXI Sunday through the Year, A.D. MMXVI

“Perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” In 1941, in the hellish concentration camp of Auschwitz, a prisoner escaped. In retaliation, the guards lined up the men of his barrack and […]

“Catholics in America” — Sermon for the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, A.D. MMXXVI

A lot has changed in 250 years. The cultural assumptions that grounded American civic life in 1776 are largely gone. As the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia, the representatives of the Second Continental Congress could assume that the citizens of this new country would be raised by intact, two parent families; that […]

“The Eucharist and the Sacred Heart” — Sermon for Corpus Christi, A.D. MMXXVI

In 1263 A.D., a German priest named Peter of Prague was afflicted with terrible doubts about Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist. Determined to combat these temptations, he set out on a pilgrimage to Rome. Along the way, in the small town of Bolsena in Italy, as he celebrated Mass, the consecrated Host began […]

“Our Country Needs God” — Sermon for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, A.D. MMXXVI

After celebrating the Lord’s Resurrection, His Ascension to the right hand of the Father, and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Church, we celebrate the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, “so that, in the confessing of the true and eternal Godhead, [these three divine Persons] might be adored in what is proper […]

“The Soul of the Church” — Sermon for Pentecost Sunday, A.D. MMXXVI

Celebrating the Lord’s Ascension last Sunday, we saw that Christ, seated at the Father’s right hand, is the head of His mystical body, the Church. This taught us that the Church is not another charitable organization or social club, and no human person is Her “head.” Rather, the Lord established the office of Bishop […]

Father Gregerson

my homilies and other musings