Ransomed by the Blood of Christ

When the Hebrew people were preparing to leave Egypt, the Lord instructed them to slaughter the best lamb from their flocks and to paint their doorways with its blood, so that the angel of death would pass over their houses as he went through the cities of the Egyptians, striking the first born son of […]

Whose sins you forgive

Audio from this week’s sermon is available here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-RU6C0rf1rPbUJ1MlJxOVFvTkE

Finding the Resurrected Christ

“He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said.” When pilgrims to the Holy Land approach the most holy of all sites in the world – the Lord’s tomb, the place of His Resurrection – they are greeted ironically by these words spoken today by the angel: “Non est hic – […]

Perfection in Suffering

“When [Christ] was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” When we look at Christ crucified, my brothers and sisters, perfection is not usually what comes to mind. Tragedy, sorrow, suffering, guilt – these are the thoughts and emotions that normally occur to believers when we see Christ […]

To Reign Victorious

“Eli, eli, lema sabachthani.” These are, perhaps, the most haunting words in the entire Sacred Scriptures. Jesus Christ, God made man, hangs upon the Cross and cries out from amidst His torture, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” These words have vexed theologians and believers for centuries. Why does the Son of […]

“Let us also go to die with Him.”

Around the familiar story of the raising of Lazarus is an often-overlooked frame of our Lord’s travels around the countryside of Palestine and the building tension surrounding Him. The selections from the Gospel of St. John these past few weeks have all had a brooding undercurrent, a darkening cloud settling around the public ministry of […]

That I may believe in Him

Today is Laetare Sunday, the 4th Sunday of Lent. On this day, Holy Mother Church invites us to relax our Lenten discipline. The traditional words of today’s entrance antiphon – what would traditionally be sung at the beginning of Mass instead of an opening hymn – sound out with the words of the prophet Isaiah: […]

Worshiping in Spirit and in Truth

There is a strong focus in the readings today on the living water that Christ wants to give us. It is greater than the water Moses obtains for the Israelites in the desert because this water is Christ Himself. The second part of the Gospel seems, though, to veer off onto another topic when our […]

Our Heavenly Goal

What does our Lord’s Transfiguration have to do with Lent? It seems, at first, to be a strange story to choose, and yet, for centuries, the Church has read this Gospel on the second Sunday of Lent. Why? We can understand the events of the life of our Lord better if we understand them in […]

Temptation and Baseball

My family’s big sport was baseball. We spent so many hours playing, watching, or thinking about playing baseball. Dad was the coach for our coach’s pitch team. We would spend what seemed like endless hours throwing, catching, and fielding the balls the Dad would hit to us. But what we really wanted, what I think […]

Father Gregerson

my homilies and other musings