The Friar Podcasts - preaching prayer and spiritual reflections

Given at Our Lady of Lourdes , University City, Missouri. Readings for Today . Listen to our other homilies . You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. There are those who do not like to be noticed. They like to hide in the background, hopin...

They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed. Oh my. Today's gospel continues where we left off. The apostles are excited for all the...

I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of Spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God. I do not like group work. When I was in school, taking classes, I preferred to work by myself. Relying on what I did and did not do seemed better t...

Southwest Airlines, a number of years ago had a tag line that was a question: "Wanna get away?" The situation usually involved someone in a difficult or embarrassing situation that needed to get away fast, and the implication was that Southwest Airlines could get you somewhere nicer. After a couple of cold days, the thought of getting away for a few days in a nice warm climate seems pretty nice. B...

King Herod heard about Jesus, for his fame had become widespread ... This question is at the heart of the faith. Who is Jesus? How we answer this question tells us so much about what we need to know about our faith. It tells us whether or not we are going to take it seriously. This question has also been asked often. It has been asked in terms of whether we admire the Christ, or whether we follow...

Usually, shortly after I pray the Collect, or opening prayer at Mass, I forget it. Which, quite honestly, is unfortunate. But there was a phrase in the last line of today's opening prayer that caught my attention. " by your grace, we may be presented to you with minds made pure. " The spiritual life is all about a synergistic dynamic. God initiates, we respond. God promises, Simeon and Anna wait....

The gospel today, recounting the meeting between Mary and Joseph, and Simeon and Anna is one of my favorites. It makes me think of those people with long lives who were faithful to the gospel and their baptism. They are people of wisdom. People like a woman from Hungary who escaped with her children to safety. I used to remark that I could see the wisdom etched in her face. The strength and resolv...

Do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines . At the heart of the word discipline is the verb to teach. Real discipline is to be taught be God. While it may seem similar to punishment, there is a critical difference. To be disciplined is to be taught. To be punished is to hurt. I can punish someone if I am bigger, stronger o...

Over and over again in the gospels, when we read about Jesus healing someone, or performing some other kind of miracle, the recipient is lauded for their faith. And it seems clear the message is that if we have faith in Jesus, wonderful things will result. The woman with hemorrhages believed. Jairus believed. But this is not simply a message to believe if the outcome is as we want it to be. No, th...

" Brothers and sisters: Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith. " I know there are Christian faiths that do not hold much stock in prayers we ask the saints to make for us. I have never under...

Today's gospel sets forth the types of goals Christians need to open themselves to accomplishing with God's grace. As we think of our own lives, the beatitudes can form a nice examination of conscience for us to evaluate our Christian journey.

“Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.” Then the man went off and began to  proclaim in the Decapolis what Jesus had done for him; and all were amazed. When I first started teaching, I thought if people just knew enough about God, then they would come to believe in God. Give them the facts, and the love of Jesus would soon follow. But I le...

Consider your own calling, brothers and sisters. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so tha...

Given at Saint Dominic Priory, Saint Louis, Missouri. Readings for the Day taken from the Dominican Lectionary. Readings for Today . Listen to our other homilies . When I first encountered the work of Saint Thomas Aquinas, I did not at all appreciate him. His writings seemed little more to me than a logic game which did not have much connection to the real world. I liked philosophy. I liked theolo...

Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. Faith, Hope and Love. These are known as the theological virtues. And in today's first reading, faith is highlighted as something quite tremendous. Abraham " went out, not knowing where he was to go. " Consider that. He knows God tells him to go out, but he is not sure where he is going. I cannot imagine myself doing th...

Readings for Today This is how it is with the Kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. I remember being at a religious conference once and hearing the speaker mock the idea that when it came to something we could not fully explain, it was a cop out to suggest that was because it w...

Given at Christian Brothers College High School , Town and Country, Missouri. Readings for Today . Listen to our other homilies . For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God . . . How is the flame of your gift from God? Today we celebrate the great companions of Paul, Saints Timothy and Titus. At first glance, they might not have appeared to be the bold proclaimers of the word...

Readings for Today For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control. So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord, nor of me, a prisoner for his sake; but bear your share of hardship for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God....

On that day, there broke out a severe persecution of the church in Jerusalem, and all were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lament over him. Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the church; entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment. (Acts 8:1-3)...

Given at Christian Brothers College High School , Town and Country, Missouri. Readings for Today . Listen to our other homilies . At first glance, the reaction of Jesus to the news that his family is outside can seem a little rude. After all, his mother is outside. Mary, the one who never sinned. Would not Jesus want to make time for her, and his other relatives? Yes, unless there is a bigger poin...

Readings for Today Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of them, it can never make perfect those who come to worship by the same sacrifices that they offer continually each year. Otherwise, would not the sacrifices have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, once cleansed, would no longer have had any consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices...

Readings for Today   The LORD called me from birth, from my mother's womb he gave me my name. I absolutely understand the topic of the unborn, the question of abortion, and discussions around it are rarely civil. That is most unfortunate. Because the right to be born is the fundamental right from which all other rights are derived. That said, no progress can be made if we focus only on the ri...

Follow Me? This is a question where the person asking makes a big difference. If, of course, as in today's gospel, it is Jesus who asks, then it means that if we say yes, we will go wherever he leads. But, if we are the ones who ask the question, then indeed it may be we expect Jesus to follow us. When was the last time you discerned in your heart that Jesus wanted you to do something you did not...

For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers and sisters, by Chloe’s people, that there are rivalries among you. I mean that each of you is saying, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” Is Christ divided? It is as if the apostle Paul was writing his letter to us today, and not to the Corinthians centuries ago. Increasingly we are d...

Jesus came with his disciples into the house. Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, "He is out of his mind." Oh my. What interesting days Jesus is having. He is the talk of the town but is also the center of controversy. The scribes and the Pharisees, perhaps moved by jealousy, are questioning...