Fr. Brendan McGuire - Podcasts that Break open the Word of God

Today as we celebrate the Divine Mercy Sunday, this Sunday we celebrate the love of God that shines light in the midst of our darkness that dispels the fear and the frustration, we celebrate it by being that to others; gentle and kind; loving and forgiving so that all will find the new door to new life. (Read more…) Here is the my homily for this past Sunday. Please feel free to share it with othe...

Love casts out darkness. Love heals every wound. Love overcomes every kind of evil. Love is victorious. That is the message of Easter. Love has the power to change everything. That is the great ah-ha! Love changes everything! (Read more…) Here is the my homily for Sunday. Earlier, I tested positive for COVID and was unable to celebrate the Triduum and Easter Sunday this year. I had prepared my hom...

May we know that God’s silence can be trusted. May we trust his silence and know that he is there in the midst of our suffering. He does not abandon us. He suffers with us. He will resurrect us from our deepest and darkest moments and we can trust his silence. Maybe we can be there for someone’s else silence and be the healing presence of Christ. (Read more…) Here is the my homily for Good Friday....

Christ gave us the model. Wash each other’s feet. A symbol to serve one another. Symbol to love one another and allow others to love you. Here is the my homily for Holy Thursday. Earlier this week, I tested positive for COVID and am unable to celebrate the Triduum and Easter Sunday this year. I had prepared my homilies for these celebrations and share them with you in this forum. Please feel free...

The power of the cross can have many different forms in our life. Maybe this week what we can do is to look in our own lives and see if there is someone in our own life who’s cross we can carry with them and be aware of the privileged moment; or can we allow somebody else to carry our cross if it is too much to bear. The power of the cross is in sharing it. Here is the my homily for the Sixth Sund...

Today's Gospel is the story of the women caught in adultery. The lesson for today is about mercy and forgiveness. We need to understand what forgiveness is not: Forgiveness is not condoning the behavior; it is not agreeing that it was okay; and it is certainly not saying that it is okay to continue to do this behavior. Even Jesus says to the woman: “No one has condemned you and neither do I....

We always called it the Prodigal Son reading but really, we are better off calling it the Prodigal Father because he does the same thing for both sons. He goes out of the house to greet both sons because both sons need to come to their senses. Both are wrong. (Read More…) Here is the my homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent. Please feel free to share it with others. And please join us again this ev...

God tells us through this Transfiguration today that he wants us to listen to his chosen Son. Let us find some stillness somewhere and slow down enough to study the language of God in nature; in the Word of God; most especially in the poor and the broken; the wounded and then above all else within our own hearts. Here is the my homily for the Second Sunday of Lent. Please feel free to share it wit...

There is something called a false dilemma or false dichotomy. It is a rhetorical tool to win an argument. It is not a tool that seeks truth. It puts two apparent opposites as a contrast to force somebody to choose one or the other when the truth lies somewhere in between. It is the false idea of either/or versus both/and. (Read more…) And please join us again this evening March 22 for the second s...

The devil is known by many different names in scripture: The evil one; Satan; the ancient serpent or as we will hear later in today’s liturgy, the ancient tempter. The Holy Father, Pope Francis, refers to the devil calls him the Father of All Lies! Here is the my homily for the First Sunday of Lent and as you will hear in this homily, I am at St. Monica Parish giving a Lenten Parish Mission called...

Lent begins this Wednesday, March 2. I don't know what will work for you but maybe this year try something new for Lent. Try to go deeper into God’s Word and to listen to Christ in your own life. I promise you the growth will come. ( Read More…)

Today may we become what we receive: the Body and Blood of Christ. May we follow Jesus, who tells us how to be in the world; to be kind; to be gentle; to be forgiving; to be loving at all times. If we continue to do that, over and over again, we will create a new neural pathway of the heart. (Read More…)

There is a great deal of difference between optimism and hope. Optimism says “Everything is going to turn out all right. Don’t worry.” Whereas hope or in particular Christian hope says, “No matter how things turn out, God is going to be with you at all times. Don’t worry.” (Read more…)

This week's Gospel describes how Jesus climbs into Peter's boat and just sits down and says, “Pull out a little bit from shore.” How incredibly intimate that must have been. Here he was preaching to thousands of people on the shore and Jesus chose his boat and sat down right next to him. (Read more…) Here is the my homily for the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time. This was the second week o...

We are all called to follow Jesus but unless we move in close, we are not really going to be able to fully follow him; because from a distance what Jesus says and asks us to do is crazy. (Read more…)

What can we do as we celebrate Christian Unity Week? We can certainly pray for those who are not part of our own Christian circle but are part of the wider Christian circle. We can look for the weak and the broken in our own community. And seek to serve them so that we can be that Body of Christ that God calls us to be today and every day. (Read more…)

When Mary says to the servers: “Do whatever he tells you.” She is saying that to us. “Do whatever the Lord tells us to do.” Use your gifts for the greater good of the community and today, let our joy increase because it is abundant. (Read more…)  

Let’s cooperate with God’s grace and become what we receive. Let us become the gentler and the kinder version of ourselves because the Divinization process lasts a lifetime and today, we can recommit to what we committed on our Baptism day and that is what the Baptism of the Lord promises today and every day. Here is the my homily for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. This feast marks the end...

My mother taught me that the real Christmas message was about the hidden face of Christ in others and that when Christ became one of us, he did not come in the grandeur of a palace as some first-born king. (Read more…)

Mary and Elizabeth give us a great example to follow. They hold on. They hold on to faith. They hold on to believing. When they do not understand, they hold on. And what do they hold onto? They hold onto hope; that they know there will be something here . I will do the Lord’s Will even though I do not understand it. (Read more…)

Sometimes the beauty of a moment or of something we are looking at or experiencing, forces us to pause and sort of take it in. The beauty is at another level. It is not on the surface. It is beneath the surface. One has to work a little harder to experience the beauty not just see the beauty. ( Read more…) Thank you again for the incredible outpouring of love and support these past few weeks. Whil...

God is the destination. Jesus is the way. As long as we keep on asking what would Jesus have us do, and keep choosing Jesus then that will keep us on the right road. That is the main highway. Jesus is the highway. As long as we choose Jesus, we keep on choosing the right road. That is what this whole Advent time is all about. Here is the my homily from this past weekend. Please feel free to share...

Let’s focus on the presence and the grace of God here and now. So be vigilant at all times but to what? To God’s grace. To God’s beauty right here, right now in the midst of all of this. God is among us here. Let’s notice with wonder and look with fresh eyes and celebrate the gift of God’s presence today. Here is the my homily from this past weekend. Please feel free to share it with others. (Read...

Today, I am asking us to celebrate, yes we want to celebrate the gift of Christ in our life but we also need to choose Christ day after day: I will choose to be kind. I will choose to be gentle. I will choose to be forgiving. I will choose to love. I will choose to serve. (Read More…)

There is so much to be grateful for; so much to really see God’s presence here and now, not in some future time or generation. But we must be awake and we must be prepared to see it and then we must be prepared to become it for others. That is our role; to become the living presence for others today. Stay awake. We never know the time or the hour he will appear.