Sermons by Father Alfonse at Mary Immaculate

Good people make us jealous. They challenge us. They raise the bar just by walking into the room — and honestly, it can be maddening. But Father Alfonse says that irritation is hiding something holy: the people who annoy you may be God's way of growing you. And by the end, a mother's funeral reveals what that really means. ✝️ Why the good people in your life get under your skin — and what God is d...

Going through a hard time? When you've done everything right and still feel like you got slapped in the face, Father Alfonse Nazzaro gives the one shift in perspective that turns despair into endurance. "No good deed goes unpunished" — we've all felt it. But there's a key that changes how you carry it. In this short, powerful Friday homily, Father Alfonse points to the lives of the martyrs — inclu...

Are you afraid to fail? Afraid to take the step, say the words, or admit you were wrong? In this Father's Day homily, Father Alfonse Nazzaro takes three readings that sound like bad news — "terror on every side," sin, death, things hidden in the dark — and shows that every one of them is secretly saying the same thing: Be not afraid. God has your back. Using a Jane Austen film about love almost lo...

My dad made me spend an entire summer building a patio I never wanted. He's gone now. The patio is overgrown. And I finally understand what he was trying to teach me — and what I missed. We live in a world that has learned to reduce people to what they're worth. Politicians see voters. Corporations see customers. Governments see taxpayers. And if we're honest — sometimes, parents see cheap labor....

God doesn't quit on you. Father Alfonse Nazzaro reveals why the Eucharist is the feast of everyone who has ever wanted to give up. Before Christ could give His Body and Blood, He had to endure everything — betrayal, hunger, mockery, death. This Corpus Christi homily is for anyone fighting a battle that feels like it's breaking them.✝️ Why the Body and Blood of Christ is the gift at the end...

Why do the most powerful words in the Bible also sound the loneliest? On the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Father Alfonse reveals why "I AM WHO I AM" is not a declaration of isolation — and why the person sitting right next to you may be the greatest mystery you will ever know. God is not solitary. He is a communion of love — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — and you were made in that...

Every gift God gives you comes with one condition most people miss. In this Pentecost homily, Father Alfonse reveals what every gift from God has in common — and the responsibility that begins the moment you receive it. ✝️ Why the apostles immediately gave away the gift they received at Pentecost ✝️ Father's Italian-American confession on hiding his heritage to fit in ✝️ The $500 question that...

When his father died, he began going through everything the man had kept. Tucked in with the saved papers and old photographs was a diary — his own, started at twelve, the year his parents' marriage came apart. The pages were thick with anger, the worst words blacked out by a child's hand. And he realized his father had found it years earlier, read every line, and said nothing. This episod...

There is a mother in your life right now who is waiting for you to call. Or there was. And you didn't. And now the calling is no longer possible, and the grief sits in the seat next to you when you drive past her old house. Or she is still here, and the relationship is complicated, and you have spent years quietly asking her — without ever saying it out loud — to please stay out of your life. To s...

If you've ever asked, honestly, whether one Christian tradition is more grounded than another — or wondered why anyone would belong to a 2,000-year-old institution in 2026 — this is twelve minutes of an answer.  Bishop Edward Burns of Dallas delivers a guest homily at a Confirmation Mass at Mary Immaculate Catholic Church in Farmers Branch, Texas. He doesn't soft-pedal. He doesn't apologize for th...

What if the thing you keep asking God to take away is the only thing making you a better person?  In this 12-minute reflection, Father Alfonse Nazzaro names something most of us feel but rarely say: we are kinder when we are weakest. More patient when we are scared. More honest when we have nothing left to protect. And the moment comfort returns, so does the version of ourselves we don't want to b...

The moment it happened, he was alone. Late evening. Empty house. A bowl of lentils he'd cooked days before. One bite, and suddenly nothing was moving — not the food, not the air, not the next ninety seconds of his life. He pushed open the door looking for anyone, anyone at all, and there was nobody on the street. Just his face going pale and the quiet certainty that this was the end. He was wrong...

The Secret You've Never Told Anyone — And Why It's Killing You You know the one. The thing that keeps you up at 2 AM. The memory you've buried so deep you almost forget it's there — until something triggers it and the shame floods back. The mistake you've never spoken aloud because you're terrified of what it would mean if anyone really knew. In this episode, Father Alfonse Navarro does something...

You've done everything right — or tried to. You showed up. You pushed through. You held it together when things fell apart. And still, there's this voice that whispers: maybe you're being punished. Maybe this suffering means something's wrong with you.  This episode dismantles that lie. Father Alfonse Navarro — a Catholic priest known for raw, unscripted reflections — shares what h...

What would it feel like to go to bed tonight completely at peace? Not the exhausted collapse after a long day. Not the anxious replay of everything you said wrong. But actual stillness — a clean conscience, nothing unresolved, nothing gnawing at you in the dark. Most of us don't know. We've never experienced it. In this episode, Father Alfonse shares a moment that surprised even him. While...

After six weeks recovering from surgery and a serious infection, Father Alfonse Nazzaro returned to his parish and delivered the rawest talk of his career - - not about theology, but about lying alone in a room, listening to life continue without him, and confronting the question nobody wants to face: who are you when you can't do anything for anyone?  He had a confession. He admitted he didn&...

"Never get married, Alfonse. Never."  That's what Father Alfonse heard from his own father after his parents' divorce. It was meant as protection. It landed as prophecy. And it's the same kind of bitter wisdom we've all inherited in one form or another.  Maybe yours sounded like "never trust anyone" or "all men are terrible" or "love is a lie.&quo...

He was rushing to see his dying father. He got to the airport and realized his wallet was gone. Then he reached for his phone — left in the Uber. No money, no contacts, no way home. Standing in a terminal full of strangers, he felt like a six-year-old who couldn't remember his mother's phone number. That's where this episode begins. Father Alfonse Navarro is a Catholic priest in Texas,...

What happens when a shy teenage girl gets invited to a sleepover by the most popular girl in school—and it turns into public humiliation? She's forced to stare at herself in the mirror. "Say it. Say you're ugly." She says it. The other girls laugh. What she did next wasn't revenge. It wasn't therapy. It wasn't even confrontation. She prayed. Ten years later, her bully sent a letter. "There isn't a...

What if the things that tempt you most aren't weaknesses—but windows into who you're actually meant to become? In this episode, Fr. Alfonse Nazzaro explores a question most of us avoid: Why do we keep asking to be rescued from our mistakes while secretly planning to make them again? It's a pattern that shows up everywhere—in our relationships, our careers, our quiet 2 a.m. thoughts. And it's exhau...

What if everything we've been told matters… doesn't? In this raw, vulnerable conversation, a Catholic priest shares the career advice he wishes someone had given him at 20—and why he's now "begging parents" to stop teaching their kids that success, money, and possessions lead to happiness. Drawing from decades of pastoral work and his own honest regrets, Father Alfonse breaks down the two ancient...

What if the thing you've been calling "self-protection" is actually the cage you built around yourself? In this episode, Father Alfonse Nazzaro shares something he's never fully unpacked before: a moment of public humiliation in high school that changed the trajectory of his life. He was asked to act out the word "communism" in a game of charades. The whole class laughe...

"Did I make the right decision?" If you've ever laid awake replaying a choice—wondering if you took the wrong job, married the wrong person, moved to the wrong city, said the wrong thing—you're not alone. That question is one of the most universal sources of anxiety we carry. And most of us have no idea how to put it down. In this episode, Father Alfonse explores what might be th...

What if the comfortable life you're building—the retirement dream, the stress-free existence, the achievement payoff—would actually destroy you? In this episode, Father Alfonse Navarro delivers an unflinching homily that tackles our cultural addiction to ease and asks the question no one wants to hear:  What if we weren't made for comfort? Using the Gospel story of the widow who gave her l...

A young couple sits across from me at breakfast. They're expecting their first child. They're terrified.  "Father, we live in a small apartment. We're worried about finances. Other people have it so much better than us."  I've heard this before. The comparison spiral. The measuring of your life against someone else's highlight reel. The quiet panic that you're falling behind in a race you never si...