Today’s Gospel passage speaks of the importance of forgiveness. When Peter suggests that we should forgive our brother seven times, he is suggesting that we should forgive many times. However, our Lord has even bigger plans. When He says that we should forgive seventy times seven times, the meaning is that we should always forgive […]
Read more "God Always Forgives"When someone does something that offends you, how do you react? Do you give in to gossiping and complaining about that person, or do you go directly to him and try to work through the problem. In today’s Gospel, our Lord tells us that if someone sins against us we should give to him and […]
Read more "How to Forgive"In the first reading today, St. Paul talks about the importance of fulfilling our state in life. He writes, “Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” This term, “state in life,” refers first to our vocations as married, single, or religious and then also to the […]
Read more "Fulfilling Our State in Life"What does it mean to become childlike? Traditionally, we have juxtaposed the virtue of being childlike with the vice of childishness. Childishness is when we give a greater priority to what is less important, when we stubbornly insist on having our own way, and when we refuse to put others’ good before our own. This […]
Read more "Childlike Humility"There is an old saying that goes, “familiarity breeds contempt.” As human beings with limited attention spans we tend to grow tired of the things we have and desire the new and improved. New ideas are more interesting than traditional wisdom, new toys are better than old ones, and a new acquaintance seems more interesting […]
Read more "Familiarity and Indifference"“Do not work for food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life.” In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. [Amen.] Work for the food that endures for eternal life. The food that endures for eternal life, the bread of life promised by our […]
Read more "The Eucharist is Worth It: Working for the food that endures for eternal life"Our Lord’s public ministry is about to come a crucial turning point. There is a “large crowd” following Him because they have seen the miraculous signs he has performed in curing the sick and casting out demons, but many people in the crowd still see Him as a miracle worker, an extraordinary man who has […]
Read more "Witness and Mediocrity"Homily for the XV Sunday Through the Year Parish Church of St. John the Baptist 12 July 2015 God is able to bring light out of even the darkest of situations, and we saw an example of that recently in the church shooting tragedy in South Carolina. At a court hearing a few days after […]
Read more "Repentance: The heart of the Gospel"Homily for the XIV Sunday Through the YEar 5 July 2015 Parish Church of St. John the Baptist, New Haven “I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” Thus St. Paul speaks to us in today’s epistle. Persecutions. (PAUSE) […]
Read more "Suffering Persecution with Love: A response to the Supreme Court decision on “same-sex marriage”"Rev. Royce V. Gregerson 12th Sunday Through the Year 21 June 2015 The sea of Galilee, upon which the scene from this Sunday’s Gospel takes place, is really a lake, much smaller even than the Great Lakes of the Midwestern United States. However, it is prone to quickly developing storms that would have caught the […]
Read more "Sin Is Not Inevitable: The battle against temptation"
Father Gregerson 