Homilies and Stuff

Homily for the Third Sunday in Easter

Does your heart burn when you read the Scriptures? Do you see Jesus in the breaking of the bread? Do you know the power of His mercy and forgiveness from the sacrament of confession?

You are a witness of these things.

Oh ya, and by the way, ghosts don't eat fish.

Call to Action to Protect Conscience Rights

The federal government passed Bill C-14 on June 17, 2016. This legalized physician-assisted suicide across Canada. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario has enacted a policy that requires physicians to provide an effective referral for euthanasia. Forcing healthcare providers to violate their conscience rights is a direct attack against their constitutional right to freedom of conscience and religion, both of which are guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Section 2). The bishops of Ontario are urging us to take action. To do so, head on over HERE. You simply fill in a form with your address, and it generates a letter that you can submit to your MPP to express your concerns and to respectfully demand that the government of Ontario enact legislation to protect physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and all health care providers from being needlessly required to participate in euthanasia. I’ve done it, and it only takes about 3 or 4 minutes. I am encouraging you to do it as well.

This is scary stuff. If physicians can be forced to violate their own conscience and religious freedom, what makes you think it couldn't happen in other fields, or to you?

To get more information, click HERE.

To write the email to your MPP, click HERE.

Conscience and Why it Matters in the Question of Assisted Suicide: Reflections by the Catholic Organization for Life and Family.

Memo sent to all Ontario Bishops by Deacon Larry Worthen on the issue. If you're on Facebook, you can watch him HERE.

Homily for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Bible Sunday)

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Just read the Bible, even five minutes a day, but the more the better.

What Is Lectio Divina? (includes video clips of Cardinal Collins)

Catholic translations of the Bible:

  • New American Bible (my preferred version) (NAB)
  • New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)
  • Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (RSVCE)
  • Good News Bible (good for children)
  • Jerusalem Bible (language is a bit poetic for my tastes)

Homily for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

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The Church was founded for the purpose of spreading the kingdom of Christ throughout the earth for the glory of God the Father, to enable all men to share in His saving redemption, and that through them the whole world might enter into a relationship with Christ. All activity of the Mystical Body directed to the attainment of this goal is called the apostolate, which the Church carries on in various ways through all her members. For the Christian vocation by its very nature is also a vocation to the apostolate. No part of the structure of a living body is merely passive but has a share in the functions as well as life of the body: so, too, in the body of Christ, which is the Church, "the whole body . . . in keeping with the proper activity of each part, derives its increase from its own internal development" (Eph. 4:16).

Indeed, the organic union in this body and the structure of the members are so compact that the member who fails to make his proper contribution to the development of the Church must be said to be useful neither to the Church nor to himself (Vatican II, Apostalicam Actuositatem, 2).