Fr. Joe Dailey

Send us Fan Mail This Epiphany at the Jordan River is deep water; you can't stand on the shore and dip your toes in.  You must take a breath and plunge.   I have Mass on Sunday, January 11 at St. Isidore @ 9:30/11:30 am. frjoedailey@gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail In the last line of the Gospel, Matthew gives us a spiritual path to follow “And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.” In some ways, this was a dangerous move. In the verses following today’s Gospel, Matthew writes: “When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. I have Mass on Sunday,...

Send us Fan Mail One year at the Christmas Eve Children’s Mass, I was walking the children through Luke’s nativity. I had some cloth figures that I was using to illustrate the Gospel story. Mary and Joseph were making their way to Bethlehem. This particular set of characters included a donkey, so the donkey came with Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. Next, I brought out a manger, and then I placed the...

Send us Fan Mail At Christmas, Jesus, who is close to the Father’s heart, comes to embrace us and welcome us home. I have Mass on Christmas Day at St. Isidore @ 8:30 am. frjoedailey@gmail.com May the blessings of Christmas be yours in abundance this day and throughout the New Year.

Send us Fan Mail Matthew’s telling of Joseph’s story empowers us all to take our place on that crowded pageant stage. The rest of us play only supporting roles in the cast. We are not “Gospel leads.” In God’s holy dream, we are accepted as we are: partners in God’s labor. The Savior is of our own lineage. "Unto us" —all of us— "a child is born." I have Mass on December 21 at St...

Send us Fan Mail There is a principal for interpreting scripture that goes like this, “If something is repeated, it must be important.” Did you notice that Matthew keeps repeating the number 14?

Send us Fan Mail John the Baptist was sent as a messenger to prepare the way of the Lord. And now, awaiting execution, John's death at Herod's hands will foreshadow Jesus' own death on the cross. On the cross, Jesus prayed the opening line of Psalm 22, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" Inside his cell, John faces his own experience of abandonment and doubt. I ha...

Send us Fan Mail At the heart of Christmas is the Christ child who is born among us. Imagine you are the child, sleep in the manger, awakening to the vision of God’s kingdom. I have Mass on Sunday, December 7 at St. Isidore @ 7:30/9:30 am. The 7:30 am Mass will be live-streamed.  https://stisidore.church/worship-online/ frjoedailey@gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail About a month ago, King Abdullah II of Jordan, and his wife, Queen Rania visited Pope Leo at the Vatican. During their photo-op, Rania brought up the Pope’s upcoming visit to Lebanon, and wondered whether it was safe for him to go there. Pope Leo responded, “Well, we’re going.” I have Mass on Sunday, November 30th at St. Isidore @ 7:30/9:30 am. livestream https://stisidore.church/...

Send us Fan Mail We don't "see" the light itself; we see things because of the light. In the light of Christ, we are being given a glimpse of the very being of God’s own self. We are made in God’s image, so our lives can reflect the way God thinks and loves. I have Mass on Sunday, November 23 at St. Isidore @ 9:30/11:30 am frjoedailey@gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail Jesus, and the crowd around him, are standing in front of the Temple, but they are not seeing the same thing. The crowd are marveling at the costly stones, while Jesus sees that not one stone will be left upon another stone. This weekend at all the Masses, Archbishop Weisenburger is announcing the start of a multi-year reorganization process in the Archdiocese of Detroit.  I have...

Send us Fan Mail We are called and sent from within these walls, like a river that flows out into the desert, allowing God's Spirit to flow through us, not to block it, but to let it flow through us, so that all who hunger and thirst for God may be satisfied. And all those who are wounded may find their way back home. I have Mass on Saturday, November 8 at Holy Name Church in Birmingham @ 4 p...

Send us Fan Mail There is a local cemetery in Lake Orion, right around the corner from the parish where I had been pastor for 31 years. I buried a lot of people in that cemetery, so I know a lot of the neighbors. We bought graves there for our whole family. When people found out that a priest was going to buried in the cemetery, all the graves around us sold. I have Mass on Sunday, November 2nd at...

Send us Fan Mail Luke tells a familiar story in chapter 19 about a wealthy tax collector who kept his distance. “Zacchaeus kept trying to see who Jesus was, but he was too short and could not see him for the crowd; so he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus who was to pass that way.” I have Mass at St. Isidore on Sunday, October 26 @ 9:30/11:30 am. frjoedailey@gmail.co...

Send us Fan Mail “There are moments in the history of humanity,” Tomáš Halík writes, “as well as in the history of the church and in our own lives, when we are confronted more than at other times with God’s hiddenness, God’s silence.” I have Mass on Sunday, October 19 at St. Isidore @ 7:30/9:30 am. The 7:30 am Mass will be live-streamed. https://stisidore.church/worship-online/ frjoedailey@gmail.c...

Send us Fan Mail The lone Samaritan has a dilemma: to which temple should he report? Jesus surely means the Jerusalem Temple, but as a Samaritan he recognizes Mount Gerizim as the true place to worship God, and his priests are, of course, the Samaritan priests at Gerizim. I have Mass on Sunday, October 12 at St. Isidore @ 7:30/9:30 am.  The 7:30 am Mass is live-streamed https://stisidore.church/vi...

Send us Fan Mail I am preaching this homily on our pilgrimage in Poland. We visited Auschwitz/Brirkenau camp this morning; we are celebrating Mass in Sanktuarium Pasyjno-Maryjne, where Karol Wojtyra (St. John Paul II) came on pilgrimage as a boy. When I visited Krakow in 2001, we toured the Wawel Cathedral. There's a great bell in the tower, like Big Ben in London. It weighs 11 tons and it ta...

Send us Fan Mail I think the key to this parable is the gate. The rich man is on one side; Lazarus is on the other. In the story, the gate never opens. In fact, its role as a barrier eventually translates into an uncrossable chasm in eternity. I am away this weekend. frjoedailey@gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail The steward realizes that generosity is the best investment. He gets himself out of a hole by building social capital. It is irrelevant, apparently, that he gives away what does not belong to him. I have Mass at St. Isidore on Sunday, September 21 @ 7:30/9:30 am The 7:30 am Mass will be live-streamed.  https://stisidore.church/worship-online/ frjoedailey@gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail Christ is the word that went forth from the mouth of God, achieving the saving purpose for which he was sent, and then returned to take his place with God in glory. I have Mass at St. Isidore on Sunday, September 14 @ 9:30/11:30 am frjoedailey@gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail In 2020, I saw the Sundance Documentary Film, “Crip Camp.” The title comes from a 1970’s summer camp for handicapped teens, which in those days were called crippled children, hence the name, "Crip Camp." (The movie is showing on Netflix.) I have Mass on Sunday, September 7  at St. Isidore @ 7:30/9:30 am. at St. Andrew @ 5:00 pm The 7:30 am Mass will be live-streamed http...

Send us Fan Mail A few years later I visited the St. Egidio community in Rome. On Christmas morning, after the last mass, all the chairs in the church are rearranged, tables are set up, and a banquet is served to the poor in the neighborhood. I have Mass on Sunday, August 31 at St. Isidore @ 9:30/11:30 am frjoedailey@gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail At the opportune time, the caterpillar spins itself inside the narrow space of the chrysalis, to emerge, transformed, into a butterfly.  I have Mass on Sunday, August 24 at St. Isidore @ 7:30/9:30 am frjoedailey@gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail Jeremiah was thrown into a cistern, where he would have died if Ebed Meloch hadn’t pulled him out. Jeremiah’s sin was being faithful to the word of God, which left him odd man out. Four against one. Jeremiah had to be gotten rid of. I have Mass at St. Isidore on Sunday, August 17 @ 9:30/11:30 am frjoedailey@gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail Shifting from a scarcity outlook to one of abundance takes time. We’ve believed the lie of scarcity for so long that we may find it hard to believe it’s not true.  I have Mass on Sunday, August 10 at St. Isidore @ 7:30/9:30 am The 7:30 am Mass will be live-streamed.  https://stisidore.church/worship-online/ frjoedailey@gmail.com