The Passover and Giving Thanks — Sermon for the XVII Sunday through the Year, A.D. MMXXIV

Amidst the powerful yet familiar story of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes are two easily overlooked but very important details that St. John includes. The first is when the miracle takes place: “The Jewish feast of Passover was near.” John’s Gospel particularly takes account of time. It is John, for example, who […]

“Christian Docility” — Sermon for the XVI Sunday through the Year, MMXXIV

“His heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” The people coming in search of our Lord today were probably not primarily interested in learning. Most likely, they are sick and hungry. They have heard about the miracles worked […]

Forming a True Culture

The Lord sends out twelve men today, men each with his own complicated history, his own trials and ways the Lord still needs him to grow. One particularly comes to mind, the ex-tax collector Matthew. When the tax collectors went out to John the Baptist and asked what they needed to do to truly […]

Power Made Perfect in Weakness: Sermon for the 14th Sunday through the Year, July 7, 2024

“Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” There is a very popular quote that you likely have seen on Catholic t-shirts or alluded to in names of Catholic apostolates or […]

What is lacking in Christ’s sufferings?

St. Paul makes a spectacular claim in this Sunday’s second reading: There is something lacking in Christ’s sufferings. How could this be? How could Christ’s suffering on the Cross be lacking anything? Where could we possibly find a better example of a complete gift of self, a total outpouring of love? What more perfect suffering […]

The Habit of Eucharistic Faith

Last month, I gave a sermon on Good Shepherd Sunday on how to raise good future priests – future good shepherds. You might recall that one of the points I offered on how to encourage our sons to consider a priestly vocation was raising them to have reverence for the Eucharist. Since today is Corpus […]

The Spirit Will Teach You Everything

One of the great things about our Catholic faith is that each Sunday, rather than the preacher picking a topic that he feels like it would be best to address, Holy Mother Church sets out a programmatic approach to the Sacred Scriptures and the mysteries of our faith. This is not just the selection of […]

Heaven and True Love

“I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13). Heaven is all about love. St. Paul tells us, “So faith, hope, love abide, […]

Do you love me?

What does it mean to love someone? It is hard to capture in English what Christ is asking Peter in the Gospel today. Greek, the language in which St. John composed his Gospel, has many words for love, two of which John employs here – “agape” and “philia.” “Philia” is a love of deep friendship, […]

Entering the Silence of True Prayer

“For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” St. Paul writes today about a radical transformation of the human person. God allowed his Son to “become sin” for us – taking on the greatest effect of sin, that […]

Father Gregerson

my homilies and other musings

Homily