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

There is something inside of us that we have to let go for something new to grow within us. We have to surrender to it for new growth to happen. In fact, we believe in it so much that we have a whole season dedicated called Lent. We must die to so much of ourselves and let something new grow, but it is cooperation with the grace of God that we can move forward.  (Read more…) Here is my homily from...

Every action needs to ooze and come forward from that very sight that we want peace. Because peace is the loving relationship and right relationship with God. Because we know that is so hard to do, we come to receive the peace here with the body and blood of Christ. We come here to receive what we promise to become out in the world. (Read more…) Here is my homily from the FourthSunday of Lent. Ple...

Sabbath became a way to understand and treasure people's time and leisure.   It enhanced the people's relationship with God   while intensifying their shared identity.  Keeping the Sabbath holy was another way that  Israel better appreciated the sacredness surrounding them  and highlighted places and practices  that sharpened their awareness of the presence of God  and indeed the meaning...

Sometimes we underestimate the power of the faith of the disciples as they go up the mountain with Jesus because they already believed in Jesus. They did not go up the mountain to see and believe. It was the other way around. They already believed. They went up the mountain believing in Jesus. And when they saw, they were confirmed in their faith. (Read more…) Here is my homily from the Second Sun...

What is the purpose of a test to evaluate your ability? A teacher gives you a test to validate that you already know something. It is not to teach you something. A test only evaluates or confirms what you already know. Jesus was driven into the desert by the Spirit to be tested, to confirm what he already knew. (Read more…) Here is my homily for the First Sunday of Lent. Please feel free to share...

Lent is the time for us to turn back and to come home and follow the way back to the Lord. How are we going to find our way? Every year the church gives us three bright lights to take us home. The first light is prayer. The second one is fasting. And the third one is almsgiving. They may not seem obvious as lights, but once we start to understand what they are, they are bright lights that show us...

We need to see, again, with eyes of faith and to act on what we see, which requires some discipline; that is what the root word of discipleship is. What does that discipline look like for us? For Lent, we do it for 40 days. And we talk about extra prayer, we talk about fasting, and we talk about alms giving. That all integrates into the same thing, which is a metanoia, a conversion of our heart to...

Contagious! Contagious! Good behavior is actually neurologically contagious in our brains! This is very good news!  We need more of this and we need to be around more of this for it to stick. That is why community is so important because when we witness morally good behavior, we tend to want more of it and replicate more of it. (Read more…) Here is my homily for the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time....

We are called to be men and women of love, of gentleness, of kindness, of forgiveness, of healing, of truth and beauty. It requires of us to light a lamp of goodness, of love in people's lives. May we seek to be lamplighters that leave a legacy and a trail of love behind us for all to see. (Read more…) Here is my homily for the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time. Please feel free to share with ot...

What makes a Catholic parish and a Catholic school is the involvement of the parents and the community. That is what binds us together. It is a testimony not just of our faith, but it is who we believe in. We believe and follow Jesus. We are not just fans but we follow him. (Read more…) Here is my homily for the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time. Please feel free to share with others.

We need to do some work learning to steady and slow our soul down. To just be with the Lord and to learn to listen for his voice. To be able to say what Samuel says, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.” We have got some work to do, my friends, because the busyness of our lives with the number of inputs that we are getting, it is hard to sort it all out. (Read more…)

We can learn a lot from the Magi, and we can learn a lot from this particular passage from Matthew's gospel. It is very rich with meaning and symbols. Let us listen to this challenge that we are called to follow the light that brings us to Christ. We are called to offer our gifts to Christ and the world in service to his kingdom. And we are called to allow ourselves to be converted, and then...

Your love matters in this world, and we want it not just for our nuclear family, but for the whole human family. It is important that we love one another because love matters to our last day, to our last breath from child to parent, from parent to child. (Read more…) Here is my homily for the Feast of the Holy Family. Please feel free to share with others. Happy New Year to all!

The Jewish people were in the desert for 40 years. So they lived in tents. Pitching your tent was a common phrase and the idea that Jesus pitched his tent with us was the way that he became vulnerable alongside us as a human being. That he was all in, if you would, with humanity. And then the question we have is why is that so important? Why did God have to become one of us in Jesus Christ? (Read...

The first reading tonight was dramatic, deliberately dramatic to get our attention to ensure that we are called to be the light of Christ. The ultimate message of Christmas is that we will be judged, not on how well we have lived, but on how well we have loved. This Christmas, let us love well and let us let our light shine for all to see. (Read more...) Here is my homily for the Christmas Eve. Pl...

Awe is an under spoken response to life because we know that which is beautiful but it is often a projection of what we want, what we desire, what we like. But awe is something we do not expect. For example, when we even just think about the idea that no two snowflakes are the same, no two snowflakes are the same. Just even thinking about that is awe, because it is so mind blowing. (Read more…) He...

The advent season is all about seeing with eyes of faith, to see deeper and to see and to recognize the Christ who is among us. The temptation is to allow our eyes of our faith to get dirty. They get dirty with busyness and tiredness and the hustle and the bustle of the season. It is very easy just to get carried away with it all and lose the reason for the season. (Read more…) Here is my homily f...

Repentance is the way to the joy of the gospel. Because once we let go of the stuff that is in our way, once we let go of that, which we know we have made mistakes and those who have hurt us, we might have reacted to, then we are set free. Then we can accept the joy of God. (Read more…) Here is my homily for last weekend. Please feel free to share with others. If you are looking to deepen your pra...

So what are we waiting for? In our rich theology, there are three comings of Christ. The first one is that Christ came once in history as a baby born in time in the year. Then we look forward to Christ's second coming in glory. But then there is this, what theologically we say, the in-between times where we come to recognize the Christ who is already among us, within you and I. This is where...

We show the face of Christ not only to each other, but to the whole world around us. That is what we are called to do. That is who we are as the body of Christ. We are the image of Christ We become what we receive, the body of Christ to others. (Read more…) Here is my homily for last weekend. Please feel free to share with others.

This is your opportunity to be part of God's mission, to be reckless with your love without abandon and to not worry about the logic of math, to just shower your love on them without regard.does with us. The way to inspire us to do that is to be in a little bit of awe, the fear of the Lord, of how blessed we are, what we have now, and understand how blessed we are with what we already have. (...

None of us ever want to be “ready to go,”but if we live our lives actively following the Lord and believing, then we will be more than ready for the Lord. We are believers, yes, but we are called to be believers and followers, to be the wise virgins who are ready for whatever the day or the hour the Lord calls us. (Read more…) Here is my homily for last weekend. Please feel free to share with othe...

The Pharisees and the leaders are on the chair of Moses. Jesus tells the people you can do everything they say, but just do not do what they do because they are not practicing. That temptation is our temptation, to have this overconfidence that we know exactly what God wants us to do at any one moment, and that we have the corner on the truth especially for others. And that is dangerous! Jesus bas...

A lot of us are hard on ourselves. We set expectations that are way too high and we get down on ourselves. It is very hard if we are down on ourselves to not be down on others and it starts to snowball and roll downhill. We start to change this by accepting God's love for us, accepting that love for ourselves, then loving others and loving Jesus. (Read more…) Here is my homily for last weeken...

When we have a certain sense of humility before God, then we do not get into the sort of the political or religious arguments that the Herodians or Pharisees do in today's Gospel. Because we recognize that God is in charge of all of us and what we are called to do is to love one another. (Read more…) Here is my homily for last weekend. Please feel free to share with others. See you at Mass ne...