Easter 3 Readings:  Acts 2:14, 22-33; 1 Pt 1:17-21; Lk 24:13-35 “Breaking bread” is one of those biblical phrases, like “putting words in someone’s m...

This weekend's homily on breaking bread, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the nature of politics, and the role of the Papacy. You know, the usual stuff.

Holy Thursday Reading:  Ex 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Jn 13:1-15 Most of us like our religion clear and orderly. We seek clear answers to our question...

Tonight's homily :
"It's a journey out of clarity & order,
in which we remember & enact
lambs slain & feet washed,
bloody sacrifice & disturbing intimacy,
glory cast aside & glory taken up again.
It's a journey mysterious & messy
& it is really the only journey worth taking."

Lent 5 Readings: Ez 37:12-14; Rom 8:8-11; Jn 11:1-45 We don’t know what became of Lazarus after Jesus called him forth from his tomb. John’s Gospel...

Sunday's homily at the Cathedral, on what Lazarus did with the days that had been given back to him:
"How do you spend the days
that have been pulled
free from the tomb
and given back to you as a gift?"

Dust Called to Glory Bishop Erik Varden is a Catholic who desires to be catholic: to root himself in the soil of the tradition while at the same time journeying to alien lands.

New from me in Commonweal, on Erik Varden:

First Sunday of Lent 2-21-26 YouTube video by Cathedral of Mary Our Queen

Homily video:

Lent 1 Readings: Gen 2:7-9; 3:1-7; Rom 5:12-19; Mt 4:1-11 We know that the devil is a liar, and that when he tempts us he does so by lying. Sometim...

This weekend's homily:
"Our first parents reached out their hands
to grasp the fruit of the forbidden tree;
Jesus Christ embraced the tree of the Cross
to become himself the fruit that hung upon it,
the fruit upon which we feed in the Eucharist,
the bread of immortality that makes us godlike."

In France, even the atheists are Pascallians. It’s in their blood.

Ash Wednesday Readings: Joel 2:1–2, 12–17; 2 Cor 5:20-6:10; Mt 6:1-6, 16-21 “As having nothing  and yet possessing everything.” This is how Paul concludes...

This Ash Wednesday I am preaching at the ecumenical service in Bolton Hill (Catholics, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians--what would John Knox and Thomas Cranmer think?). It's my usual pessimistic Augustinian rant.

Video of this evening's homily, on Lenten mediocrity: www.youtube.com/live/jd8TP8K...

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings: Sirach 15:15-20; 1 Cor 2:6-10; Mt 5:17-37 Here we are, once again, poised on the brink of Lent and I find myself, once again, unpr...

Tonight's homily at Corpus Christi, in which I talk to myself about stumbling into Lent:
"Self, maybe you ought
to stop making things so much about yourself
and the steps that you take.
You know, if you let God be the one who leads,
then even your stumbling steps can become
part of God’s dance."

Video of this weekend's homily:

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings: Zeph 2:3; 3:12-13; 1 Cor. 1:26-31; Matt 5:1-12a This past week saw the launch of Moltbook, which is a social media platform  on wh...

This weekend's homily:
"The choice is before us.
We can continue to chatter
like bots on Moltbook,
or we can speak the truth
that can only be seen
from the height of the cross:
the truth of simplicity and sorrow,
the truth of gentleness and justice,
the truth of mercy and peace."

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Reading:  Is 49:3, 5-6; 1 Cor 1:1-3; Jn 1:29-34 Millions look at the same viral videos but they see radically different things: some say the...

This weekend's homily at the Cathedral:
"Jesus Christ lays claim to the whole of our lives
and calls us to see everything in his light,
to view all reality through the lens of the Gospel."

Christmas Day Readings: Is 52:7-10; Heb 1:1-6; Jn 1:1-18 The four Gospel-writers are traditionally associated  with the four creatures seen in a vision  ...

Homily for Xmas Day, on John's eagle eye:
"[John] stares into the blinding sun of infinite love
and sees that the story of the birth of Jesus
is a story rooted in eternity,
a story that stretches back
before any creature ever was,
before Mary or Joseph,
before the shepherds or even the angels."

Fourth Sunday of Advent 12-20-25 YouTube video by Cathedral of Mary Our Queen

Video of this weekend's homily: www.youtube.com/live/EYUhi1v...

Advent 4 Readings: Is 7:10-14; Rom 1:1-7; Mt 1:18-24 King Ahaz had a problem, but he also had a plan to solve it. Ahaz was the young ruler of Judea, ...

This Sunday's homily at the Cathedral:
"Ahaz had a problem and a plan,
but it was not God’s plan.
Joseph had a problem and a plan,
but it was not God’s plan.
We have problems and plans,
but are they God’s plans?"

Video of this weekend's homily, on Paul and POTUS: www.youtube.com/live/g0vCzjO...

Advent 2 Readings: Is 11:1-10; Rm 15:4-9; Mt 3:1-12 I heard two different things this past week. I heard, “We’re going to go the wrong way  if we kee...

Homily for this evening at Corpus Christi on Paul & the POTUS:
"Perhaps the best way to prepare ourselves
to welcome Christ this Advent
it to reflect on how we
have been welcomed by Christ
and to ask ourselves how we
can extend that welcome to others."

Video of Sunday's homily:

Advent 1 Readings: Is 2:1-5; Rom 13:11-14; Mt 24:37-44 St. Paul gives what seems like reasonable advice: if you believe a day of judgment is coming, ...

"Respectability tells you
to get a good night’s sleep;
Jesus tells you to stay up late
awaiting his arrival."
homileticdiakonia.blogspot.com/2025/11/adve...

Happy to oblige.

The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe 11-22-25 YouTube video by Cathedral of Mary Our Queen

Video of this weekend's homily: www.youtube.com/live/tXpgaea...

Christ the King Readings:  2 Sam 5:1-3; Col 1:12-20; Luke 23:35-43 Each of us who is baptized, whether we remember it or not, was marked with the sign of th...

A homily for Christ the King, on bearing the sign of the cross and being a good thief:
"Death seeks to dissolve me
but in you all things hold together.
And if you remember me,
if you hold me in your heart,
then I will live eternally in you."
homileticdiakonia.blogspot.com/2025/11/chri...

Here's video of this evening's homily. We had a sizeble contingent of somewhat noisy homeless angelic messengers, to remind us of that it's all really about. www.youtube.com/live/1Kl3TeG...

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings: Mal 3:19-20a; 2 Thess 3:7-12; Lk 21:5-19 The words of the prophet Malachi presents a striking,  and perhaps terrifying, picture of...

Hey, John. Both you and the bishops featured in my homily for this Sunday. Also, keep praying that rosary; the world needs it.

I don't often have occasion to discuss Gospel non-violence, so I'm grateful to the folks at Forging Ploughshares for taking the time to talk with me.

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings: Hab 1:2-3; 2:2-4; 2 Tim 1:6-8, 13-14; Lk 17:5-10 “Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and clamorous discord.”...

"Even our efforts are given us by God
so that we might be caught up
in the great work of God,
so that God might labor
in us & through us—
we who on our own
are mere unprofitable servants,
but who through faith
can shine with the fire of the Spirit."
homileticdiakonia.blogspot.com/2025/10/27th...

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings:  Amos 6:1a, 4-7; 1 Tim 6:11-16; Lk 16:19-31 Where did the rich man go wrong? How did he end up in torment? It doesn’t seem to be s...

Lazarus & Dives, w/assist from Murdoch:
"the parable is not a prediction,
but a warning and an invitation—
an invitation to imagine...
what it might be like to be someone else,
to break out of the confines of our ego,
to be saved from our separation."
homileticdiakonia.blogspot.com/2025/09/26th...

Exaltation of the Holy Cross Readings:  Num 21:4b-9; Phil 2:6-11; Jn 3:13-17 I don’t think couples  generally get married because they want to suffer. They get married b...

The unique occasion of preaching at the convalidation of the marriage of close friends on the Feast the the Exaltation of the Cross provides me the opportunity to reflect on what the Cross tells us about marriage and what marriage tells us about the Cross.

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings:  Wisdom 9:13-18b; Philemon 9-10, 12-17; Lk 14:25-33 What should we make of the words of our Lord in today’s Gospel? His examples o...

This weekend's homily (with 10% more math!):
"being Jesus’s disciple... is an invitation to live a life
that hurls us beyond the limited horizon
that the world offers us....
It is an invitation that makes us ask,
'what would happen if we kept going?'”