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26 Jan 2025 - Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

It was my sixth or seventh surgical treatment, I lost count, one every three or four months. It always ends with an ultrasound assuring everything is working before being sent home. I was lying there looking at the nurse administering it to me. She had a very prominent baby bump. Always the comedian, I remarked that she must have had similar tests the past few months. She responded affirmatively and then added it wasn’t in the same place I was having mine. We both laughed. She checked the results with the doctor and secured my release. When she returned to dismiss me, I told her I was a Catholic priest and that if she would allow me to, I would like to bless the baby she was carrying. She started to cry. She was Catholic and welcomed the blessing. Four months passed and I was there again. The nurse performing the ultrasound was wearing a mask. I told her about what happened at my last surgery. She stopped and took off her mask. She was that nurse, now the proud mother of a three-month-old son. This time it was my turn to shed a tear. We all have our role in the Body of Christ. I shared mine and she in turn shared hers. In a simple way we had graced each other. I had shared my priesthood and when I returned, she shared her joy.

Authors Father Dominic Grassi

Grace body of christ

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God doesn’t mind the mess

Funeral, Sacrament-based, Holy Day, Holiday, Special Occasion - Sample homilies to be adapted for your use

Holy days/feasts: Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas) IT'S HARD TO RESIST the urge to put up Christmas decorations before the “official” season begins with the Vigil Mass on the night of December 24. Popular culture in the United States would have us decorating with boughs of holly as soon as the Thanksgiving turkey leftovers have been put away. And once all the presents have been opened, it’s open season for prepping for New Year's celebrations and aspirational resolutions. There is such little time to dwell in the amazing happening of God—infinite and incomprehensible—drawing close to us by becoming human like us through the birth of an infant baby. Indeed, it is no less than miraculous! A woman is visited by an angel of God and breathed upon by the Holy Spirit. She goes through the pangs of pregnancy and likely quite a bit of anxiety about what this all means and what will come of her son who is to be the savior of the world (Luke 1:26-28). A man, pledged to be married to the woman and rather anxious himself, receives his own visit from an angel and prepares himself for a most unusual little family (Matthew 1:18-21)! It's no wonder the church in its wisdom gives us a solid 12 days to celebrate Christmas and another extra week of the Christmas season to enter into this mystery. From Christmas to the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, our one job is to allow this extraordinary moment to begin to unfold in our lives. Year after year, the unfolding continues as we deepen our inner knowing of and experience with God, wholly infinite and wholly intimate. But what of the decorations, the shopping, the presents, and the eggnog? What about the holiday cheer? And for many of us, what about the holiday anxiety and difficult moments? Sure, it would be great to abandon all of these things and have a pure, spiritually enlightening time to contemplate the mystery of the Incarnation. However, were we to abandon all the extras, would we end up missing the deepest meaning of Christmas: God Incarnate, dwelling in our midst? Think about it. Jesus was not born in a pure, spiritually enlightening setting. God Incarnate spilled out into the world in a dark cave and was placed in a trough where feed for the animals was kept. Think about it. Jesus was not born in a pure, spiritually enlightening setting. God Incarnate spilled out into the world in a dark cave and was placed in a trough where feed for the animals was kept. As romantic as nativity scenes can be portrayed, being born in a dark stable after a long journey by foot and no room at the inn is not all it’s cracked up to be. Imagine cradling your new baby while a cow stomps around and a goat bleats incessantly. Yet this IS the Incarnation. It is God drawing close to us in the everyday reality of our lives. It is God not just uttering an inspiring word to us, but God giving Godself to us in an eternal word that lasts not just in this moment but through the entire arc of human history, indeed of all time and space. It happens that in our time and space today, we live with a Christmas season that is multivalent. It cuts across the many dimensions of human life: cultural, economic, familial, culinary, political, ecclesial, spiritual, and likely more. God Incarnate is not confined to any one of these dimensions; rather, God is in the holy and chaotic mess of it all. Take heart, God has entered fully into our world and our lives. So do not abandon the world for a pure, spiritually enlightening space set aside from everything else. Deck the halls, wrap the gifts or rap to Run-DMC’s Christmas song, eat the gumdrop buttons on the gingerbread cookie. Be joyful, be anxious, be tired, be excited. Our one job throughout all of this is to allow God Incarnate in on the action with us. Allow God to be part of the world and our lives before, during, and after the Christmas season.

Authors Sister Julie Vieira I.H.M.

holy day/feast Christmas christmas season Incarnation

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God doesn’t mind the mess

Funeral, Sacrament-based, Holy Day, Holiday, Special Occasion - Sample homilies to be adapted for your use

Holy days/feasts: Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas) IT'S HARD TO RESIST the urge to put up Christmas decorations before the “official” season begins with the Vigil Mass on the night of December 24. Popular culture in the United States would have us decorating with boughs of holly as soon as the Thanksgiving turkey leftovers have been put away. And once all the presents have been opened, it’s open season for prepping for New Year's celebrations and aspirational resolutions. There is such little time to dwell in the amazing happening of God—infinite and incomprehensible—drawing close to us by becoming human like us through the birth of an infant baby. Indeed, it is no less than miraculous! A woman is visited by an angel of God and breathed upon by the Holy Spirit. She goes through the pangs of pregnancy and likely quite a bit of anxiety about what this all means and what will come of her son who is to be the savior of the world (Luke 1:26-28). A man, pledged to be married to the woman and rather anxious himself, receives his own visit from an angel and prepares himself for a most unusual little family (Matthew 1:18-21)! It's no wonder the church in its wisdom gives us a solid 12 days to celebrate Christmas and another extra week of the Christmas season to enter into this mystery. From Christmas to the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, our one job is to allow this extraordinary moment to begin to unfold in our lives. Year after year, the unfolding continues as we deepen our inner knowing of and experience with God, wholly infinite and wholly intimate. But what of the decorations, the shopping, the presents, and the eggnog? What about the holiday cheer? And for many of us, what about the holiday anxiety and difficult moments? Sure, it would be great to abandon all of these things and have a pure, spiritually enlightening time to contemplate the mystery of the Incarnation. However, were we to abandon all the extras, would we end up missing the deepest meaning of Christmas: God Incarnate, dwelling in our midst? Think about it. Jesus was not born in a pure, spiritually enlightening setting. God Incarnate spilled out into the world in a dark cave and was placed in a trough where feed for the animals was kept. Think about it. Jesus was not born in a pure, spiritually enlightening setting. God Incarnate spilled out into the world in a dark cave and was placed in a trough where feed for the animals was kept. As romantic as nativity scenes can be portrayed, being born in a dark stable after a long journey by foot and no room at the inn is not all it’s cracked up to be. Imagine cradling your new baby while a cow stomps around and a goat bleats incessantly. Yet this IS the Incarnation. It is God drawing close to us in the everyday reality of our lives. It is God not just uttering an inspiring word to us, but God giving Godself to us in an eternal word that lasts not just in this moment but through the entire arc of human history, indeed of all time and space. It happens that in our time and space today, we live with a Christmas season that is multivalent. It cuts across the many dimensions of human life: cultural, economic, familial, culinary, political, ecclesial, spiritual, and likely more. God Incarnate is not confined to any one of these dimensions; rather, God is in the holy and chaotic mess of it all. Take heart, God has entered fully into our world and our lives. So do not abandon the world for a pure, spiritually enlightening space set aside from everything else. Deck the halls, wrap the gifts or rap to Run-DMC’s Christmas song, eat the gumdrop buttons on the gingerbread cookie. Be joyful, be anxious, be tired, be excited. Our one job throughout all of this is to allow God Incarnate in on the action with us. Allow God to be part of the world and our lives before, during, and after the Christmas season.

Authors Sister Julie Vieira I.H.M.

holy day/feast Christmas christmas season Incarnation

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Homily stories

30 Mar 2025 - Fourth Sunday of Lent, Cycle C

When my daughter was a few months old, my sister and I had a falling out. Nothing too serious, but just enough to make us want to keep our distance for a while. The problem was that with the first grandchild of our generation, all the siblings were on call for babysitting and relished the opportunity to spend time with their niece. I know my sister was worried that our strained relationship would affect her access to my daughter. The situation brought to mind a friend of mine who had gone through a painful divorce when her children were young. Despite the tension between her and her ex-husband, she always made sure the children had an independent relationship with their father—one that wasn’t tainted by her own hurt and bitterness. Even when he skipped visits or neglected support, she kept her grievances to herself. I admired her maturity and self-restraint, and I remember thinking how generous she was in doing this for the sake of her children. Though my relationship with my sister was simply strained, not severed, I admit to feeling temped to withhold my child’s affections from her. But luckily, I had the example of my friend, a person who worked to foster mercy and grace amid her own pain—one who Saint Paul might call an “ambassador of Christ.” I realized that I, too, needed to keep an open heart even as I worked through the frustrations and disappointments that come with any human relationship. These many years later, my family is the richer for it.

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

open mind parable of the prodigal son ambassador of Christ

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Homily stories

25 May 2025 - Sixth Sunday of Easter, Cycle C

At our house Sunday lunch was pasta. It always had been and I guess that I always expected that it would be. When I left home and went off to college, after the Sunday community Mass, the entire seminary population would gather in the dining hall for a big banquet meal. But it never was pasta, so I found that I was never satisfied. It might have been ham or roast beef or fried chicken. It didn’t matter. I was used to and needed my pasta on Sunday. Decades have passed. But give me a choice, and on Sundays I would most like to be with my family sharing heaping, steaming bowls of pasta like we used to. It doesn’t happen as often now. But when we do gather it remains a very special time for me. It is funny how something like a pasta meal can become so much a part of my identity, of who I am. So, too, our identity as Christians can be traced to our Baptism and our Confirmation and our reception of the Eucharist in what we called the sacraments of Initiation that give to us the gift of the Holy Spirit, God’s loving presence with us. Just as I learned to take my familial identity with me and have it be part of who I am even on those pasta-less Sundays, the days I am not with my family, so, too, my identity as a Christian rests in the realization of the Spirit, by virtue of all the sacraments, walks with me wherever my life’s journey takes me.

Authors Father Dominic Grassi

pasta sacraments christian identity

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Featured Exploring the Word

20 Jul 2025 - Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

The quest for ultimate answers continues. Just visit the spirituality section of a bookstore, the self-help quadrant of Amazon, or the political blog of your choice. Fundamentalism, always the primary dispenser of definitive answers, is on the rise worldwide: in Christianity as well as Islam, in Buddhism and Judaism, too, and even—gasp!—in Roman Catholicism. Many of us want to know the secret to living a good life, that's all. We want to know how to be happy and avoid suffering. If there's a formula that's eluding us, we'd be glad to hear it. Paul has such a formula, which many have heard and most dismiss: "It is Christ in you." Got it? That's it. Now just live it. But ay, there's the problem. Christ-in-you sounds great on paper. But how does that work at the supper table or in the work place—or in the unemployment line, as the case may be? Bringing Christ or being Christ everywhere we go isn't easy, considering how hugely incompatible many places are with what we imagine Christ-life to be. So let's back up. Christ-in-you resembles another phrase we've heard before: God-with-us. And salvation history assures us God's been with us from the beginning. Consider Abraham under the terebinth of Mamre. Someday I'm going to open a retreat center called Terebinth: It will be a happy sheltering place where God shows up when you least expect it. The most vital lesson Abraham learns is that we don't have to go looking for God in exotic spiritual locations. God is content to show up at our place, wherever that is. You got a shack in the desert? God will be there around dinnertime. Be prepared to offer a spread, because we know how God feels about supper. In a seemingly unrelated story, Jesus shows up in Bethany—also conveniently around mealtime. Like Father, like Son. And Martha pretty much does what Abraham did when she realizes the Holy Presence is here for dinner. She pulls out the stops, goes totally Martha Stewart in the kitchen. And Jesus doesn't criticize her for that. Chances are he can smell some pretty nice aromas coming from out back, and if the gospels are clear on anything, it's that Jesus likes to eat. Martha makes her mistake when she criticizes her sister for not putting on an apron. Martha's a fan of even-steven. She sees Mary's decision to plant herself at the feet of Jesus as an inferior choice. Assuming the posture of a disciple can never be a lesser choice to the service (diakonia) Martha finds most natural. How we arrive into the Holy Presence may find a different expression in each of us. As long as we all make it to the table, the Mystery of the Ages will be waiting for us. Related scripture links Hospitality code: Exod. 23:9; Lev. 19:33-34; Deut. 10:17-19; Isa. 58:7; Job 31:31-32 Luke, Jesus, and meal time: Luke 5:27-32, 33-35, 6:1-5, 7:33-34, 36-50, 9:10-17, 11:37-52, 12:37-48, 14:1-6, 7-14, 15-24, 15:23-24, 16:19-30, 17:7-10, 22:7-20, 24:29-32, 41-43 David and the temple: 2 Sam. 7:1-7 Another Martha story: John 11:1-12 Catechism links Hospitality: CCC 2571 Incarnation: CCC 464-470 Indwelling Spirit: CCC 797-798 Adapted from a previously published Exploring the word.

Authors Alice Camille

Christ-in-you god-with-us quest for ultimate answers

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Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Cycle C

23 Nov 2025

SUNDAY SUMMARY 2 Samuel 5:1-3 The tribes of Israel pledge their allegiance to their new king in Hebron. Psalm 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5 Arrival in Jerusalem is cause for rejoicing, because God’s house is there. Colossians 1:12-20 No power is greater than that of the divine Son, beloved of the God of all things. Luke 23:35-43 A lowly man makes the 11th-hour acquaintance of the most valuable ally of all. More resources for the month available in Seasonal notes.

2 Samuel 5:1-3 Psalm 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5 Colossians 1:12-20 Luke 23:35-43 Christ the King

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Homily stories

29 Mar 2026 - Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Cycle A

The whole point of being a Christian is so that we will never have to stand on the side of Jesus’ torturers. If we are true to our faith, such depravity and inhumanity should be impossible for us. If we follow Jesus’ way of love, we will never be in Pilate’s camp, washing our hands of one we know to be innocent. Caiaphas and the high priests, with their cowardice and lust for power, will not be part of our coterie either. No good people will be sold down the river by us—if we choose to follow Christ. That’s a big if, of course. Without vigilance, we could become those very dealers in death. We are all capable of such extreme acts of sin—think of the persecutions, torments, and brutal cruelty we witness every day, both online and in our streets, at the hands of “bad guys” and “good guys” alike. We are fast becoming our own worst enemies. As Christians, we strive to keep our loving God before us and to take up our cross each day. By following Jesus, we must be willing to bear ridicule, go against the status quo, fight social injustice, show radical mercy, and—above all—do what does not come easily to us. But the good news is this: We will save our souls in the process. Better that than losing our souls, which, as Jesus showed us, is a fate worse than death—even death on a cross.

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

torture persecution christian discipleship

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Homily stories

14 Jun 2026 - Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Jesus called ordinary people to follow him. Then he commissioned them to heal and cleanse those who were suffering in their midst, and eventually he sent them to spread the message of forgiveness, love, and redemption to all. Though the mission was clear, Jesus’ apostles and disciples did not live out their vocations in the same way. Some stayed close to home, preaching and healing in nearby towns and villages. Others traveled thousands of miles through Europe, Asia, and Africa to spread the Good News. Each vocation is unique, and it takes time to discern the right path. Consider the young woman who thought she wanted to be a school teacher. That would be a worthwhile and fulfilling vocation, she believed. But after student teaching, she realized that teaching might not be her calling. She then looked into law school and interned at a law office representing asbestos workers. She loved meeting the workers and hearing their stories. Defending them against large corporations that had hidden the dangers of their products for years seemed like a noble pursuit. But, alas, the daily grind of the law did not make her heart sing. Frustrated, she applied for a job at a bookstore while she continued to discern her path. During her interview, the HR director said, “You seem like you’d make a great editor. We just happen to need one for a Catholic magazine we publish.” That proved to be the job that gave her a sense of purpose and allowed her to live out her Christian vocation in her own unique way.

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

christian vocation

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