The Friar Podcasts - preaching prayer and spiritual reflections

Given at Saint Dominic Priory, Saint Louis, Missouri. There are a not insignificant number of people who believe, I think, in what is sometimes called the "prosperity gospel." That is, the belief that our faith in God will be rewarded by material goods. Yet that runs opposed to most, if not all, of the Scriptures. In his letter to Saint Timothy, Saint Paul warns against seeing faith in Jesus as a...

I judge others. I do it a lot. Yet, I am a sinner. I have no right to judge others, because Jesus has given to me something I do not deserve. Salvation. Mercy. Forgiveness. I hope that I may be able to love much, fully forgiven by Jesus. Readings for Today

Given at Christian Brothers College High School, Town and Country, Missouri. I judge others. I do it a lot. Yet, I am a sinner. I have no right to judge others, because Jesus has given to me something I do not deserve. Salvation. Mercy. Forgiveness. I hope that I may be able to love much, fully forgiven by Jesus. Readings for Today

Homily given at Christian Brothers College High School, Town and Country, Missouri. What image do we desire to present to the public? If social media is any clue, we wish to present the perfect image of ourselves. We are always having a good time, we are never lonely, we are surrounded by lots of happy faces. The reality, of course, for all of us, is that we are not perfect, we are sometimes lonel...

Given at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, University City, Missouri. We know the answer to the question. But do we really answer the question by how we live. There is the rub. Peter gets the right answer, but does not live the answer. We can be like that too. We wish the poor well, but we do nothing to help them. Readings for Today

Homily given at Christian Brothers College High School, Town and Country, Missouri. It is not always easy to help the poor. It is not always easy to treat our enemies with respect. It is not always something we choose, lending to those who may not repay. Put simply, it is not always easy to be a Christian. But today's gospel helps us to see that the size of our heart, the ability to receive the lo...

Given at Christian Brothers College High School, Town and Country, Missouri. Are you too "busy" for prayer? In today's gospel we see the importance of prayer in the life of Jesus. We see this at other times too. When things have gotten really busy, he invites the disciples to come away for a while. When he has fed the multitudes, and he knows they will make him king, he retreats to prayer. Time an...

Homily given at Christian Brothers College High School, Town and Country, Missouri. How often do we reduce the Christian life to our effort alone? It can be easy to think that the priority of growth in faith life is more effort on our part. We need to do this. We need to put more work into doing this. It can feel sometimes like all spiritual growth is something we accomplish in ourselves. But the...

Homily given at Christian Brothers College High School, Town and Country, Missouri. Be prepared. There is certainly a value in being prepared. We know when a hurricane approaches, people prepare. Those who do well on a presentation have taken the time to prepare. Athletes prepare. Those in business prepare. Musicians prepare. But what does it mean for Christians to prepare? Readings for Today

Homily given at Christian Brothers College High School, Town and Country, Missouri. We can all have the desire to make an impact. We can all want to be heroic, or holy. We want to be the one who stands out because of all of our success. But how does this happen? How is it Saint Louis, King of France became a saint? How is it the first Christian Brothers to arrive in Saint Louis built a legacy that...

Homily given at Christian Brothers College High School, Town and Country, Missouri. Just what was Bartholomew (Nathaniel) doing under that fig tree? Was he praying? Did you go to the fig tree because of a revelation? Or was it a chance encounter that lead to the movement in his heart to acknowledge and accept Jesus as his savior? Whatever, it was a faith that was strong enough for him to offer his...

Homily given at Christian Brothers College High School, Town and Country, Missouri. I cannot do it. How often do we say something like this when facing a challenge. The challenge can be getting along with someone we do not like, it can be dealing with the suffering in the world, it can be watching someone we love die from a terminal illness. Or, the challenges we face may be more "ordinary" like b...

Please take a moment to  subscribe to the website  so that you do not miss a post. You can also subscribe to The Friar podcast wherever you get your podcasts, by clicking a provider over on the right of the page. And pray without ceasing on behalf of other men. For there is in them hope of repentance that they may attain to God. See, then, that they be instructed by your works, if in no...

Augustine-Confessions-Chapters-3-5 Background As we look to these next chapters, Augustine is pondering the very nature of God. And what he discovers is that there is much about God that to his mind seems to be a paradox. God fills the earth, yet does not contain it. God is in all things, but is not all things. We owe God a debt, but God never loses anything. Even though we cannot pay the debt, Go...

Augustine-Confessions-Chapters-1-2 Download Background At the beginning of Augustine's Confessions is a reference to Pelagius, who shares a belief that is probably common to many even though it is heresy. Namely, Pelagius believed that we were able to achieve our salvation by our own efforts, that we were not wounded by Adam's sin. On some level it can be seen as a popular image of God holding a s...

Given at Saint Dominic Priory, Saint Louis, Missouri. Please take a moment to subscribe to the website so that you do not miss a post. You can also subscribe to The Friar podcast wherever you get your podcasts, by clicking a provider over on the right of the page. For worship to be authentic, the way we live our life, especially concerning the poor and the vulnerable must be authentic. We need to...

Please take a moment to  subscribe to the website  so that you do not miss a post. You can also subscribe to The Friar podcast wherever you get your podcasts, by clicking a provider over on the right of the page. Why should we care at all about the Church Fathers? Put simply, almost universally during the first half of Christianity, and by many still today, they are seen as the authoriti...

Please take a moment to  subscribe to the website  so that you do not miss a post. You can also subscribe to The Friar podcast wherever you get your podcasts, by clicking a provider over on the right of the page. The readings for today . In both readings today the life of faith is not seen as only something we do on Sundays, but rather forms a way of seeing the world and informing all of...

Please take a moment to subscribe to the website so that you do not miss a post. You can also subscribe to The Friar podcast wherever you get your podcasts, by clicking a provider over on the right of the page. “ Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us exercise them. ” We have gifts. Have you ever prayed on the gifts God has given you? Have you asked God to help...

Background For the purpose of clarity, it seemed helpful to provide some definitions and explanations for some of the things mentioned in this introduction. Note that understanding these ideas is not essential to understand Augustine's confessions. You can read about these by going to https://thefriar.org/2021/05/25/ augustine-confessions----introduction / .

This is the start of our new feature, The Friar Book Club. We start with the reading of the Confessions by Saint Augustine. It is both a story of his conversion and his summary of Christian belief. This first introduction comes from the book in the public domain we are using translated by ALBERT C. OUTLER, Ph. D., D.D. Professor of Theology Perkins School of Theology Southern Methodist University...

Given at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, University City, Missouri. Please take a moment to subscribe to the website so that you do not miss a post. You can also subscribe to The Friar podcast wherever you get your podcasts, by clicking a provider over on the right of the page. It is a fool's errand to try to explain the Trinity, since it simply cannot be done. In fact, I think the deeper we go in our...

Please take a moment to subscribe to the website so that you do not miss a post. You can also subscribe to The Friar podcast wherever you get your podcasts, by clicking a provider over on the right of the page. A document for the entire list of daily intentions . The Liturgical Guide for the Celebrations. To pray the rosary live (11am central, 17h00 GMT). Look for the Upcoming Events Column on the...

Please take a moment to subscribe to the website so that you do not miss a post. You can also subscribe to The Friar podcast wherever you get your podcasts, by clicking a provider over on the right of the page. A document for the entire list of daily intentions . The Liturgical Guide for the Celebrations. To pray the rosary live (11am central, 17h00 GMT). Look for the Upcoming Events Column on the...

Please take a moment to subscribe to the website so that you do not miss a post. You can also subscribe to The Friar podcast wherever you get your podcasts, by clicking a provider over on the right of the page. A document for the entire list of daily intentions . The Liturgical Guide for the Celebrations. To pray the rosary live (11am central, 17h00 GMT). Look for the Upcoming Events Column on the...