Sunday, March 31, 2013

Easter Faith, Easter Reasons (2013)

Usually, my first year in a parish, this is the approach I take on Easter. We can spend lots of time talking about sin and redemption, joy and new life, baptism and holiness, but if we haven't yet discussed what happened in the days after Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, then the rest is kind of irrelevant.

The argument is nothing new. It really probably dates to Justin Martyr in the second century. And the key phrase "nobody dies for something they know they made up" I heard turned perfectly by a minister on the radio. Heck, anymore, I can't even remember if I borrowed the "Holy Saturday huddle up" from someone else. Point is, other people said this; I'm just trying to get it out to my people.




(If you'd like to download it rather than stream it, click here, and right-click on the "3.6 MB" under "Apple Lossless Audio" in the bottom right corner.)

Friday, March 29, 2013

Holy Thursday/Good Friday

Triduum moves too quickly. 

Even my five-minute Holy Thursday homily didn't get put up last night because I was too tired at midnight to do so. So here's the audio.


(If you'd like to download it rather than stream it, click here, and right-click on the "1.9 MB" under "Apple Lossless Audio" in the bottom right corner.)



And for your meditations this Good Friday, I'm attaching links to the three excerpts I put up last year from John W. Lynch's masterwork, A Woman Wrapped in Silence

Good Friday I

Good Friday II
Good Friday III

Monday, March 11, 2013

True Mercy Requires Real Remorse

Lately, I have been a bit underwhelmed by the preaching here at St. Ann's and Sacred Heart (ahem), but since at least half of this weekend's homily was lifted directly from Jennifer Fulwiler's article in The National Catholic Register, it actually seemed worth sharing.

The story of the Prodigal Son shows us mercy, but mercy requires honesty and remorse. Fulwiler gives a great illustration of how only Confession aloud really gets us past our rationalizations to real remorse. 



(If you'd like to download it rather than stream it, click here, and right-click on the "1.9 MB" under "Apple Lossless Audio" in the bottom right corner.)