We Are Not Made For This World
Dear Brothers and Sisters, I was wondering what story could illustrate the main points of the readings on the start of this new liturgical year (the First Sunday of Advent) and then I went to the wake of a three-year-old boy in Queens last night. It gave me more material than I could have imagined. …
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Lord, Take Me Up
Dear Brothers and Sisters, This time of year reminds me of the holy death of my father who was only 64 years old. He had been going to daily Mass for about the last ten years of his life and this helped him a lot. He was surrounded by his five sons; we said the…
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He Will Build You A New Temple
Dear Friends, Many might interpret the gospel to be the end of the world and be screaming in church repent, repent, the end is coming!! But we know that God is love and prepares everything for us so that we turn to him. One of the saints said: the most important thing in life is…
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I Will Receive These Hands Again
Dear Brothers and Sisters, The liturgy of this Sunday’s Mass brings our attention to one of the truths of faith that we say in the Creed: the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. In the first reading we find the mother of seven sons who preferred death to betraying God’s Law by eating swine’s…
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I Am A Pretender
Dear Brothers and Sisters, There is a story about three pious Jewish men who wanted to travel to a distant city to spend a few days with a famous rabbi. Halfway on their journey they realized that their calculations for endurance were greatly flawed. They were very tired and without food, so they came up…
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He Will Help The Little One
Dear Brothers and Sisters, There is a story about a man who had a very bad headache and there was nothing he could do to relieve the pain. Finally, he went to see the doctor who said is it ok to ask you some personal questions. The man said, sure no problem. The doctor asked…
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What Isolates Us From The Others?
Dear Brothers and Sisters, If we have faith the size of a mustard seed it will be strong enough to uproot this tree and throw it into the sea, Jesus said, in the gospel last week. This tiny seed is Christ himself who was given to us in Baptism and will grow in us if…
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Fan The Flame Of Faith Given To You
Dear Brothers and Sisters, I hope you saw that there is a Lazarus in your life as we heard in the gospel last week. A Lazarus is a person you ignore, or you are indifferent to. It may be your spouse or one of your kids or a sibling or friend. You see them, but…
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Is There A Lazarus Close To You, In Your House?
Dear Brothers and Sisters, God is the rich one who became poor for us, so we could be rich. The rich one is the one who believes. The one who thinks of the future as we saw last week with the dishonest steward. Who are we in this gospel, the rich man or Lazarus? It…
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Calculate the Cost!
Dear Brothers and Sisters, The gospel is very serious: Jesus is saying renounce all your possessions if you want to be my disciple. He is not speaking just to a certain group of people: priests, deacons, religious sisters or brothers; he is speaking to people like you and me. We know that a disciple has…
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