4th Sunday of Lent, Year B

Last week we hear God giving the Ten Commandments to his people (Exodus 20:1-17).  God made it clear to his people how He expected them to live.  It’s not just what He wanted.  God knows that the Ten Commandments are good for us. While God knew that the Ten Commandments are good for his people, it …

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New Video – Why Go to Confession?

Last night I offered a new presentation, Why Should I Go to Confession?. The recording of the video and the slides are now available on my website at http://www.renewaloffaith.org/whyconfession. If you view the video in the next few days, you can complete an online evaluation at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfbK1iUzZZyaWRclzdeu_ocoU0Lowo9aBvbusvStjLLdDQ2yA/viewform?usp=sf_link. My next presentation Why Should I Go to …

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6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Jesus had been healing many people.  In today’s gospel, “A leper came to Jesus.”  Given the number of people that were coming to Jesus one might think of the man with leprosy as one of many.  He knelt before Jesus and begged him “If you wish, you can make me clean.”  No surprise, right? Well…, …

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What Does It Mean to be Saved?

Some Christians will ask, “when were you saved?”.  Generally, the people who ask this question have experienced a time in their lives when they felt a profound conversion in their lives and gave their lives over to Christ.  This is when they believe they were saved. The terminology of “being saved” has solid roots in …

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16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – Homily

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year AWisdom 12:13, 16-19Psalm 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16 (5a)Romans 8:26-27Matthew 13:24-43July 23, 2023 “Where have the weeds come from?” The man had sowed only good seed.  Why were weeds growing in the field? His enemy had come during the night when everyone was asleep and sowed the weeds. There is evil …

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Divine Mercy

We are all in need of God’s Divine Mercy. Following the revelation of the Divine Mercy devotion by Jesus to Sr. Faustina, Pope John Paul II declared the Second Sunday of Easter to be Divine Mercy Sunday (cf. my article “God’s Gift of Mercy”). Jesus is our Savior. Jesus reveals Divine Mercy to us as …

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Maybe You Heard (or Maybe Not)

You may have heard there are changes coming to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The changes will be mandatory as of Divine Mercy Sunday, which falls on April 16th this year (2023). (The changes were optional as of Ash Wednesday this year so some of you may have already experienced the changes). When one hears of …

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St. Francis De Sales on the Battle Against Temptation

This is the tenth and final article in my series based on my reading of the Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis De Sales. Written 400 years ago, it is available in various translations. I am reading the 2015 version published by Ignatius Press (San Francisco) and the Augustine Institute (Greenwood Village, CO) The first …

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Purification in the Devout Life

Last week I began a series of articles inspired by my present reading of St. Francis De Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life. The first article was “What Does It Mean to be Devout?”. I ended that article with a brief mention of “pruning and cutting” by St. Francis De Sales (8). Jesus says, “I …

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Our Loving God

Many people tend to see the portrayal of God in the Old Testament as of a God is punishing, bestowing his wrath upon all who break his commandments. Our first reading today from Exodus begins with a God who is anger and punishing. He had been speaking with Moses on the mountain. What do the …

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