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

Today allow the stresses of our environment to force us to go deeper into the soil of our lives, may we do that through prayer and good works that start here at this table. The Bread of Life; the Water of Life that feeds us; that makes our vines grow naturally according to Christ’s law. Here is my homily for the Thirty Third Sunday of Ordinary Time. I hope you enjoy this and please feel free to sh...

Sometimes, we seek to be right in these arguments or discussions and instead what we need to do is to seek what is beautiful; what is true; and what is holy. What does all that mean for us? Here is my homily for the Thirty Second Sunday of Ordinary Time. For part of this homily, I spoke directly to the children who were dressed up in Saints costumes. I hope you enjoy this and please feel free to s...

Let us not be one of the nine lepers who were cleansed and did not go back to say thank you. And let’s not be too hard on these other nine because we are probably more like the nine than the one most of the time. They did have faith. They asked Jesus to heal them. They believed that they were going to be healed; and in fact they were healed. This is one more extra homily. It is my homily for the T...

Today, let’s not just settle to see Jesus today; let’s receive him and take Jesus home. That’s our role today. And let’s be Jesus to others: Kind, gentle, understanding, forgiving. We take Jesus home. Here is my homily for the Thirty First Sunday of Ordinary Time . I hope you enjoy this and please feel free to share it with others. (Read more…)

 We can make discipleship so complicated. And it doesn’t need to be. It is doing the simple, little things well. Mother Theresa would have said this “God doesn’t expect extraordinary things of us.” What he wants and expects of us is to do the ordinary things and he is the one who will make them extraordinary. This is an extra homily. It is my homily for the Twenty Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time t...

It is not because of merit that we are here. It is because of grace. It is a joy to be able to come; to be able to be here. Not out of merit but out of grace and mercy; and from here, we share the joy by being humble, listening to each other’s stories, most of all listening to God in the silence of our heart. Here is the my homily for the Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time. Please feel free to shar...

Ron Rolheiser, the great Catholic theologian and priest says our lives are a bit like packing a suitcase; we have it full with every possibility of our lives; we have squeezed in everything into the suitcase of our life. But there is no room or very little room for God. Here is the my homily for the Twenty Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time. Please feel free to share it with others. (Read more…)

In today’s reading, this is the only parable where Jesus gives a name, Lazarus, the poor man. That should not be lost on us. I don’t know what the Pharisees were like in their time but they seem to have an indifference to the poor; they seem to not recognize their humanity. I suppose we have that in common. I suppose that we have become indifferent to the poor; that we do not even call them by a n...

That is the creativity that Jesus is looking for creativity and ingenuity. We, who have so much, need to be more creative. We need to look at ways of how we could do things to help and serve more people not because they have a need but because we have a need to give; that we have the need because we have the surplus. We have the mammon to do more. Here is the my homily for the Twenty Fifth Sunday...

When we come to our senses like the lost son and when we do make our way back, he showers us with his mercy, grace, and blessings; showering us like his only Son. That is the message we are meant to hear over and over again. Here is the my homily for the Twenty Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time. We also remember the victims of the September 11 attack and pray for peace in the world. Please feel free...

Discipleship is not a Sunday thing. It is an every-day thing. We are not called to be fans of Jesus. We are called to be followers of Jesus and that is an all-in commitment. The singular command: Love God. Love your neighbor. Let’s commit to be all-in. Let’s eat, drink and live Jesus. That is our commitment. Here is the my homily for the Twenty Third Sunday of Ordinary Time. Please feel free to sh...

Today, we might be grateful for all the behind the scenes workers and we might be grateful to our parents; we might be grateful to our teachers. All these people we now consider essential workers; they are important and today we want to recognize them. And make a point to say thank you to one of these today! Here is the my homily for the Twenty Second Sunday of Ordinary Time. We began our Faith Fo...

Some people are wine snobs. And this little story illustrates it. A group of supposed wine connoisseurs were wine tasting along with another person who was completely blind. In the vintner's opinion, she had the best sense of wine. To prove his point, he put out completely black glasses. That way they could not see what was in it. He poured a white and a red wine. Only 50% of wine connoisseur...

Every single one of us is going to get a different challenge. Whatever darkness comes into our life this week, or whatever darkness we hear, we are going to promise to turn on the light. We are going to be good and kind. We are going to be forgiving. We are going to be generous. We are going to promise to shine the love of God. And thus, we will overcome any darkness of any alley way we walk. That...

In my experience, the most generous people I know are those who are most often the poorest. they have so little and yet are so generous with what little they have. It is greatly humbling. And it is because they are so close; Here is the my homily for the Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time. Please feel free to share it with others. (Read more…)

Jesus sends out his disciples not as tourists. He sends them out as missionary disciples; he sends them out as travelers. That is the closest understanding we would have as a traveler is one to explore and experienced the newness. (Read More…) Here is the my homily for the Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time. Please feel free to share it with others. I will be on vacation for the rest of July, retu...

Clearly, our destination is eternal life; and clearly the Way that Jesus introduces is a simple way. It is the way of love. He constantly challenges those who understood older ways, the law, as that way was far more rigid. And Jesus comes along and just simply says the law is completely fulfilled in the law of love. Here is the my homily for the Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time. Please feel free...

Memory is a powerful faculty of the mind. Memory was considered in the ancient times as one of the four faculties of the human body that was considered foundational for the human being.   (Read more…) Here is the my homily for the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. Please feel free to share it with others.0

There is so much ink spilled on trying to explain the doctrine of the Trinity and it is unfortunate because I think explaining it is less important than experiencing it. And how we experience the Trinity is to do what Jesus did. It is when we love one another, we experience the Trinity.  (Read more…) Here is the my homily for the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity. Please feel free to share it with ot...

It is not us as human beings that keep the church afloat. It is the Holy Spirit that keeps it alive and flying through the centuries. We have to be humble enough to recognize there is something magnificent here and that it is the Holy Spirit that animates the church.  Here is the my homily for Pentecost Sunday. Please feel free to share it with others.

When we are beginning something new, we are also letting go of something old. Right? We have grown and hopefully become a better version of ourselves. But now that is coming to an end, there is a newness. We are called to grow, to step out of that comfort and grow into something new. Here is the my homily for Ascension Sunday. Please feel free to share it with others.  ( Read more…)

It is so important not to name the persons by their illness but rather that they have an illness. They are more than their illness; they are to be treated as persons.  Here is the my homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter. Please feel free to share it with others.

We are called to return love for hate; to include the excluded; and to always admit when we are wrong. The road to heaven is very wide and it is wide enough for everyone. May we remain on it with food for the journey for all.   (Read more…)

We need nourishment from this table every week. We need to see each other and be strengthened with others that are on the same journey, the same path, of listening and attuning our hearing and then following the Lord.  (Read more…) Here is the my homily for the Fourth Sunday of Easter. I am sorry this is a little late but I am away on our Diocesan Clergy Study Week. I will return to the parish for...

You are not only a sign, not only are you a symbol, you are the Sacrament of Jesus that points the way to God’s love in our world. And we promise to be the first to be kind; first to be gentle; first to be forgiving; and first to be loving. Here is the my homily for the Third Sunday of Easter and we celebrated First Communion this weekend. This homily was directed at the children, but also for us....