St. Mary of Egypt (Written Text)
Here, I’m sharing what I believe to be the greatest ancient account of God’s forgiveness and transformative mercy. It is about a female sex-addict become a canonized saint, St. Mary of Egypt, and it is my favorite short biography of any saint outside the Bible. The following events are promised to be true by its author, St. Zosima. His account takes place in the 4th century, in the deserts of both Egypt and Jordan... The Life of Our Holy Mother, St Mary of Egypt By St Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, 4th century "It is good to hide the secret of a king, but it is glorious to reveal and preach the works of God." (Tobit 12:7) So said the Archangel Raphael to Tobit when he performed the wonderful healing of his blindness. Actually, not to keep the secret of a king [...]
Free to Worship Him Without Fear
This sermon was given on the 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany in 2018. It compares liberation theology to the liberation of the soul that happens in worshipping God as He wants (and finishes with a bit on extreme unction.)
Wedding Feast of Cana in the Old Testament
This sermon was given on the Second Sunday after Epiphany, 2018. The featured picture on the blog for this sermon is from a stained glass window at my basilica of residence downtown. A continued thanks for the music-bumpers of my sermons to the holy nuns of Ephesus.
Doctrine: Why We Can’t Crack
A young priest with whom I was once a seminarian is now on Facebook like me. About a year ago, he posted the account of how he asked an old priest if young priests would save the Church. The old priest said “No, Jesus will save His Church,” or something like that. Of course, this post had a ton of “likes.” For one, it seemed so humble for a young priest to admit that we young priests would not “save” the Church. Secondly, it tapped our modern Catholic desire to prove to Protestants that we only look to for Jesus for salvation. Both are true, and I have no problem with either motivating factor for a lot of “likes” for that. But it diverts readers from the fact that God always sends real saints in the flesh like St. Catherine [...]
The Priest and Our Lady
I was staring at the Eucharist in my private chapel, and I marvelled at how the Eucharist came from me. And the Eucharist is Jesus. And Jesus is God. So...God came from me? I immediately knew there was something wrong about in my thinking. It was this: The Eucharist did not come from me. The best preposition is probably “through.” That is, the Eucharist came through me. The Catholic Church uses the verb to confect as seen in Canon Law: "Can. 900 §1. The minister who is able to confect the sacrament of the Eucharist in the person of Christ is a validly ordained priest alone.” This verb comes from the Latin conficere, meaning to produce or to effect. It’s a variant-stem of con-facere, meaning “to make with.” Combine these two roots, and we have something like “to effect with.” [...]
The Holy Family for Gender Dysphoria
The first half of this Sunday sermon is truth and the second half is compassion for those struggling with gender-identity disorders. I referenced this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7lxdWxTFyw
Epiphany Sermon
"For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord."—Ephesians 5:8
Christmas Octave Sermon
This sermon was taken from the Christmas "Puer Natus" propers, but it is released today on the Christmas Octave.
Christmas Vigil Mass Sermon
In the old calendar, when Christmas falls on a Monday, the fourth Sunday of Advent is subsumed into the Christmas Vigil Mass, meaning the priest in purple. This will probably be my only sermon posted for Christmas, due to a short one in tomorrow's Missa Cantata. VENI veni, Emmanuel captivum solve Israel, qui gemit in exsilio, privatus Dei Filio. R: Gaude! Gaude! Emmanuel, nascetur pro te Israel! O COME, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that morns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear. R: Rejoice! Rejoice! O Israel, to thee shall come Emmanuel! Veni, O Sapientia, quae hic disponis omnia, veni, viam prudentiae ut doceas et gloriae. R. O come, Thou Wisdom, from on high, and order all things far and nigh; to us the path of knowledge show, and teach us in her ways [...]
The Last Jedi and the Priesthood
The Prequels Towards the end of our first year in seminary, we were required to take a 30-day silent-retreat based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. It was the summer of 2005, and we seminarians arrived in Omaha for a month off the grid. We were taken about 45 miles northeast of Omaha to a forest in Iowa, where we would pray along the Nishnabotna River for 30 days in silence. Every day would include four to five hours of meditation on the Gospels (Ignatian mental prayer) as well as daily Mass, Rosary, Divine Office and manual labor. The Spiritual Exercises are truly that: Exercises, not a sleepy retreat. However, because of the intensity of our retreat, they gave us weekends to talk with each other and go to town. One weekend, we went to Omaha to [...]