All Saints Homilies

Fr. Pat provides brief reflections on three parables from Matthew 24:36-26:2; the Parable of the Faithful and Evil Servants, the Parable of the Ten Virgins, and the Parable of the Talents.

Building on his homily from last week, Fr. Pat discusses an example of the authority of darkness, and encourages us with reminders of both Christ’s prayer for us, and of our fellowship with each other.

In this homily from the Sunday of the Man Born Blind, Fr. Pat considers with us light and darkness, both in this story and in our lives.

Father Pat looks at the encounter with the Samaritan woman through the lens of Jesus' statement “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)

In this homily given on Great and Holy Thursday, we meditate with Fr. Pat both on the encounters that Moses, Job, and Isaiah had with God, and on Jesus’ agony in the garden, and the significance of these various events as they pertain to our daily practice.

On St. Thomas Sunday Fr. Pat considers the theological meaning of memory, the quality of the event of the Church, and the challenge of that event.

In this homily from Palm Sunday, Fr. Pat fortifies us on our journey with three points about the Cross: two negative and one positive.

In Mark 9, just after the Transfiguration, Jesus addresses the faith of the crowds surrounding the disciples as well as that of a man whose son He then heals. As we look toward the last weeks of Lent, Fr. Pat helps us think about our own faith.

To follow Christ is first to be understood in a literal and existential way. It is not a diminishing of observance, it’s the augmentation of observance. We profess our allegiance to Christ, and our commitment to His Lordship.

In the encounter in Mark 2, the paralytic encounters the One in whom the presence and power of God is revealed; the One from Whom no secrets are hid, Who pardons all our iniquities and heals all our diseases.

What does Biblical repentance look like? Is it saying, "I made a mistake" or "I take full responsibility"? Is it looking at one's moral failure and being disgusted? Fr. Pat gives us a third response, as exemplified by the Prodigal Son.

"The religious impulse is as natural to human beings as the intake of oxygen." In this homily based on the story of the Publican and the Pharisee in Luke 18, Fr. Pat reflects upon the soul's innate attraction to God.

Father Pat looks at what we can learn about prayer from the story of the Syrophoenician woman found in Matthew 15. This is part one of a two-part series.

Because in creation man was modeled on the deliberating mind of God, he has a capacity for conscience. The Samaritan Woman escaped the condemnation of her conscience because she permitted her heart to receive the mercy of God in Christ.

Fr. Pat preaches on putting to death our passions, as St. Paul admonishes us to do in Colossians 3:4-11.

By considering the ancestors of Jesus found in Matthew 1, we can discern qualities of the Divine Initiative in our lives. Fr. Pat looks at three of these.

Three Second-Temple Prophets who were among those who prepared the world for the coming of the Messiah have much to teach us about how to keep the Lord uppermost in our hearts and lives.

To put on Christ necessarily involves a great deal of studious application; indeed, we are obliged to study Him. Fr. Pat looks at the account of the healing of the crippled woman in Luke 13 and gives us three ways we can endeavor to look like Christ.

The Christian lives an upright moral life not because of conformity with some commandment, and not by way of modeling himself on some external model, but because he does not want to depart from Christ.

Fr. Pat offers three reflections on the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee.

Fr. Pat reflects upon the theme of revelatory light, particularly as Holy Scripture contrasts it with darkness.

Each of us is the servant of the Lord, which means that we do not belong to ourselves. And if we do not belong to ourselves, we certainly do not belong to the world, we belong to God.

By giving Paul so dominant a place in the sacred Canon, the Fathers surely intended us to learn from his example how to examine the circumstances of our lives in order to attain wisdom in Christ.

Using Luke 8:26-27 as a starting point of his reflections, Fr. Pat encourages us to live our lives with an awareness of death as an important part of our mental composition.

In this homily based upon the Parable of the Sower in Luke 8, Fr. Pat teaches us about the qualities of the heart, its enemies, and our example of one with a patient heart.