Homilies
Commitment to the Team
At the first gathering of the high school football team the coach gathered the squad around and said, “Now if you are not willing to live, eat, sleep and breathe football for the next season day and night, you may as well go home. I’m not interested in having you on the team.” One would not want to take the coach literally would one? After all we cannot actually eat football. We cannot breathe football, even though some have tried. This is hyperbole; it is a well-known rhetorical device or a use of language to state something on a very extreme way to make a point. [1]
In today’s gospel we hear Semitic hyperbole from Jesus which was very common in that time among Rabbis Jesus does not literally want us to hate our mother, brother, sisters; or to leave everything to follow him, nor does he want us to denounce everything to be his disciples.More...
Soar Like An Eagle
A farmer discovered an eagle egg and he brought back and put it in with the hen. The hen kept it warm until it hatched and the eagle hatched and lived with the rest of the little chickens. He did what all the chickens did: he plucked for worms, he ran around the backyard of the farm and he would flutter his wings just like the chickens would but he came crashing down to the ground.
When the eagle got old, one day he looked up into the sky and he saw a beautiful bird, flying, soaring above. He asked “What’s that?” The chickens said, “That’s the king of the sky called the eagle. It soars on the currents of the wind and can go anywhere it wants.More...
Passkey to Heaven
Years ago when we travel around the country and stay in a hotel,
we used to get a physical key;
remember the big ole’ keys you would get!
With it we had access to get in to whatever room we were staying.
Sometimes, we would get a second key
to get into the outside of the building.
In some older hotels or motels, it is still that way today.
Until you check out, you have those keys.
Today they have a new system called the passkey;
it is a little plastic card key much like a credit card.
Wipe it through the lock and it opens up our door
and it even opens up the outside perimeter doors as well;
it opens up anything that we need to have access to
while you are staying in that hotel.
More...
Eternal Life
One of the great privileges for priests is to celebrate funeral Masses; it may not seem like a privilege or a grace but it really is. In those very fragile and vulnerable moments, we can celebrate the gift of a person’s life and bring our faith and hope to a crystallized reality in our lives.More...
Fr. Tom Hagan – Missionary Coop Weekend
Fr. Tom Hagan’s Homily August 8, 2010 – Missionary Coop Weekend
More...
Prayer - the Art of Choosing to Face God
Whatever way one is facing is typically the way one will walk.
It’s not that we can’t walk with our head turned sideways
but we typically do not so easily.
We walk whichever way our head is turned.
It’s kind of hard to walk with our head turned sideways
or to walk backwards with our face front.
It’s just the nature of the way;
our head is sort of positioned so we can move that way.
Life is very much like that.
Whatever way we are facing, we tend to go.
If for example we are facing always our work
then we can typically spend all our time and energy in that.
If we are facing our goal of having
more money, bigger homes, bigger cars,
then typically that is where we’ll go.
Where our energy and our time will go
is to whatever we are facing for good or for bad.
More...
Hospitality to Strangers
“Let’s do lunch sometime;
Let’s get together and catch up;
Drop by any time; I’d love to see you.”
We’ve heard all of those comments at some point in time
and we also know they don’t really mean very much!
Unfortunately they don’t mean much at all!
It is not that we intend anything insincere or disingenuous
or even that we are really not willing to get together for lunch
but we never really take the next step.
We never really reach out and actually call that person and say,
“Hey, I’d really like to get together for lunch.”
“I’d really like to have you over for dinner.”
I am not sure whether it is because we are all so busy
or whether it is the way we have become in society today.
Bu it is seems much harder than it used to be;
it seems so hard to just get together and chat.
Hospitality seems to be a lost art in our modern society.
We never seem to quite have the time to just sit and visit.
More...
Our Work is Mercy and Compassion
I recently had the opportunity to watch the movie “Invictus”.
Its stars Morgan Freeman, playing the role of Nelson Mandela,
the first black leader of South Africa
after years and years of apartheid
and oppressive white regimens as the minority of the country.
It is a brilliant movie and I highly suggest watching it.
It is a powerfully-told story about how Nelson Mandela
used the white people’s love of the game of rugby,
to have them rally behind his government
and to help to have a unified government.
More...
Celebrate the Beginning And the End
On this Fourth of July as we celebrate
the independence of our great nation so many years ago;
we recognize the beginning of our great nation as a separate nation
and we acknowledge the beginning of a very different reality.
It was the end of one thing and
the beginning of something very different.
This month and these last few weeks especially,
has been somewhat of an ending and beginning
for our community in lots of different ways.
Many of you have children
who have graduated from elementary school;
it’s the end of elementary school and the beginning of high school.
For some others, it’s the end of high school
and the beginning of college.
And for still others, it’s the end of college
and the beginning of postgraduate school
or working in the real world.
More...
Come Follow Me on The Road to Perfection
At the beginning of a New Year we might have heard it said,
“I’ll go on a diet tomorrow.
But just after this meal, then I’ll go on a diet.”
Or, “I’ll stop drinking after this last drink; I’ll stop then.”
Or, “I won’t eat any more chocolates after this last one.”
And of course, they have another chocolate;
they have another drink;
or they’ll have some more food.
It is something about us—we’ll say,
“Oh, just this last one; let me just have this last one.”
It is also evident when we deal with children.
Children say, “Oh, Mum, just one more; just one more.”
And they get it and then they’ll say, “Oh, just one more.”
And they keep going and of course,
there is no such thing as enough.
More...
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