By Reverend Katherine Elsner As I mentioned at the beginning of mass today, these weeks in the Catholic church are known as Ordinary Time. The word “ordinary” can convey a negative meaning, such as “she or he is just ordinary”, as if that person has nothing noteworthy about him or her. Another comment: “I’m just […]
Homily for Second Week of Ordinary Time, Year A Read More »
By Reverend Deacon Jerry Bauman And so it begins “The Greatest Story Ever Told”, the birth of Jesus as recorded in the Holy Gospels. As we’ve just heard, Matthew’s account starts with, “This is how the birth of Jesus the Christ came about.” But Luke’s Gospel begins “Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything
Homily for Fourth Week of Advent, Year A Read More »
By Mary Bretscher 12/13/25 A few weeks back, I was talking with Mary Keldermans about the sequence of events which led up to us choosing our Advent Angels. What seemed to be a series of unrelated, ordinary events was starting to look like maybe there was a plan to them all. Mary asked me if
A humble little story about how Holy Family came to find our Advent Angels. Read More »
By Reverend Katherine Elsner Our readings today don’t mince words. It’s no wonder with these strong people in our heritage from many years ago: Isaiah, Paul and John the Baptist. In our day and age we are surrounded by would-be prophets; I guess we could even say “false prophets”, those who speak to us in
Homily for Second Week of Advent, Year A Read More »
By Reverend Katherine Elsner Today’s first & third readings convey stark warnings for those who live their lives with integrity and justice. This warning became a reality 36 years ago this week, in 1989 in El Salvador, when six Jesuits, their house keeper & her daughter were murdered by Salvadoran government forces. These Jesuits were
Homily for Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time, Year C Read More »
By Reverend Katherine Elsner The Tax Collector and the Pharisee (Luke 18: 9-14) In the last two weeks, Mary Keldermans and Jerry Bauman have each preached wonderful homilies about prayer. Again, today’s gospel relates a well-known story about prayer. For those of us who were raised in the Catholic faith or probably in any Christian
Homily for Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time, Year C Read More »
By Reverend Deacon Jerry Bauman God’s people never had it easy. There was always some reason to shout out, to-or-at God for something. Whether they were crying out in distress, expressing gratitude, celebrating God’s goodness, needing practical instruction, or calling for divine judgment, the Israelites were always crying out! Today’s first reading was from the
Homily for Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time, Year C Read More »
by Bishop Mary Keldermans I usually focus on the gospel for my homilies but today I am going to focus on the first reading from the prophet Amos. Who was Amos? Amos was a shepherd and a farmer who lived near the city of Jerusalem. He would go to towns and villages to sell his
Homily for Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, Year C Read More »
By Reverend Deacon Jerry Bauman Our reading from Genesis today (Genesis 1:11,12, 20-22, 24-30) is an allegory. It is a symbolic story of How God gave us everything and called us to share in the creative process. Rather than to provide a scientific or historical timetable of the universe’s origins, this story aims to show
Homily for Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time, Year C Read More »
By Reverend Katherine Elsner Once again this week the readings provide multiple ideas that we can use in our daily lives. The readings share with us some things we need to do and some things to avoid. In the first reading from the ancient book written by Sirach around 150 yrs BCE, we heard words
Homily for Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time, Year C Read More »
