Catholic Preaching

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Retreat for the Carmelite Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy and Saint Joseph

Alexandria, South Dakota

March 1-8, 2022

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/3.6.22_Conference_11_2.mp3

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Retreat for the Carmelite Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy and Saint Joseph

Alexandria, South Dakota

March 1-8, 2022

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/3.6.22_Confeence_10_Elisha_1.mp3

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Carmelite Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy and Saint Joseph

Alexandria, South Dakota

First Sunday of Lent, Extraordinary Form

March 6, 2022

2 Cor 6:1-10, Mt 4:1-11

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/3.6.22_EF_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* Most people have no desire at all to go to the desert, certainly for no more than a brief visit. At a spiritual level, however, we should always have a great love for the desert, because the desert is what helps us to understand the 40-day pilgrimage of Lent, in which we join and imitate Jesus in the desert and ponder the fruits of what he learned and experienced there upon his return. Every Lent, the same Holy Spirit whom St. Luke tells us led Jesus into the desert wants to guide us into the desert with him. Lent is meant to help us recapitulate Christ’s 40 days away from everything so that we, apart from ordinary distractions, can focus on who we are, on our relationship with God and others and, with Christ’s help, can confront and overcome the way that the devil seeks to distort those relations and that image. It’s a time for us to make sure, as St. Paul reminds us today in the Epistle, that we’re not receiving the grace of God in vain. It’s an opportunity for us, like St. Paul, to examine whether any “fault may be found with our ministry” or life, whether we’re commending ourselves as believers and ministers of God through endurance, afflictions, hardships, labors, vigils, fasts, in purity, patience, knowledge, unfeigned love, truthful speech and the power of God, or whether we’re causing others to stumble. It’s an occasion for us to recognize, as he reminds us, that “Now is the day of salvation,” now is the much awaited and joyful time of our rescue and liberation. The first temptation we face each Lent is to refuse to go into the state of the desert with Christ, to think that our Lent can be complete if, for example, all we do is give up certain things or pray the Stations of the Cross on Friday. The first big hurdle is for us to hear Christ’s voice from the desert saying, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while” (Mk 6:31).

* Today’s Gospel scene is particularly special, because the only way St. Matthew and St. Luke and we would have known about it would have been if Christ had told it to his disciples himself. No one else was there. The Lord must have opened up his heart to them about this seminal moment in his hidden life, which occurred immediately after he was baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist (Mk 1:12). The Holy Spirit led him into the huge fifteen-by-thirty-five mile expanse between the mountain of Jerusalem and the Dead Sea so that he could pray to the Father about the public ministry that he was about to commence. He prayed and fasted for forty days, which obviously would have left him physically weakened. It was at this moment of fatigue that the Devil came to him to tempt him. Much like God the Father had once allowed Job to be tested, the same Father allowed his Son to be tempted. In the temptations Jesus suffered and later described to his disciples, the devil brought out in a pristine form the types of temptation that Christ would undergo in his public ministry and that each of us undergoes in our lives. By focusing on how Christ responded, we, too, can learn how to receive his mercy and help so that we might be able to react as Jesus did.

* The first temptation was aimed right at Jesus’ tremendous hunger after 40 days of eating nothing or barely anything: “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of Bread.” When the Israelites were in the desert,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Retreat for the Carmelite Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy and Saint Joseph

Alexandria, South Dakota

March 1-8, 2022

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/3.5.22_Conference_9_Elijah_1.mp3

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Retreat for the Carmelite Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy and Saint Joseph

Alexandria, South Dakota

March 1-8, 2022

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/3.5.22_Conference_8_Todah_1.mp3

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Carmelite Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy and Saint Joseph

Alexandria, South Dakota

Saturday after Ash Wednesday, Extraordinary Form

March 5, 2022

Is 58:9-14, Ps 27:4, Mk 6:47-56

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/3.5.22_EF_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* “One thing I ask of the Lord; this I seek,” we pray in today’s gradual with insistence for the second day in a row: “To dwell in the Lord’s house all the days of my life, To gaze on the Lord’s beauty, to visit his temple.” The deepest desire God has implanted within us is to be with him. Not just to know him. Not just to pay him a visit. But to live together with him in him, to abide in a deep communion of love and life with him, all the days of our life, to gaze on his beauty, to bask in the beauty of his own gaze.

* This prayer comes in the midst of Psalm 27, in which the context is evildoers coming at us to devour flesh, armies encamping against us, wars being waged against us, malicious and lying witnesses rising all around us, family members turning on us, with enemies on every side. In response to it all, we cry out that the Lord is our light, our salvation, and our life’s refuge. We proclaim we don’t have to fear anyone or anything. In the midst of it all, we say, we recognize we can be dwelling with the Lord, not as a means of escape, but precisely to help us in the midst of it all to be courageous and stouthearted, full of trust, in God our Savior. We seek to abide in him, we seek his face, we seek the goodness of the Lord not just later but in the land of the living now, because we know that when we are with him, who is our light, salvation and refuge, we are already experiencing that goodness. We know that even in the midst of darkness, his light shines; even in the midst of danger, his salvation extended and refuge bestowed.

* But this is a truth that God fortifies by experience, because even though we can pray and mean the words of the Psalm, when we are in difficult circumstances our trust can wane and our fears can grow. That’s why God often puts us in circumstances where we cannot but confront our fears and be given the chance to entrust ourselves to him. That’s what happens in the dramatic scene in today’s Gospel, the main elements of which are recapitulated in some way or another in the life of every disciple. Immediately before this scene was the multiplication of the loaves and fish and St. Mark tells us that Jesus had everyone sit down on the green grass, which means that it must have taken place in mid-March to mid-April in the Holy Land, because the grass begins to get scorched by the sun by the end of April. That would mean sunset would have happened about 6 pm, which is the time the apostles got into the boat to begin the journey across the top of the Sea of Galilee, a 5-6 mile trek that should have taken a few hours. The storm began to rage when they were in the middle of the Sea, so about an hour or two along their trek. Jesus came to them in the “fourth watch of the night” — the period stretching from 3-6 am — which meant that by that point, they had been in the boat 9-12 hours, battling a ferocious storm, fatigued, soaking wet and fearing for their life. Jesus was placidly praying on the mountain as they were struggling for hours not to drown to death. Why did Jesus wait so long as his friends were in peril? This scene recalls the other time that they were afraid for their life on the Sea, when Jesus was asleep in the bow of the boat as they thought they were about to perish. In both cases, it was to increase their faith. Jesus was introducing them to a central truth of the spiritual life: that in order to be able to abandon...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Conversations with Consequences Podcast

Homily for the First Sunday of Lent, C, Vigil

March 5, 2022

 

To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/3.5.22_Landry_ConCon_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a privilege for me to be with you as we enter into the consequential conversation Jesus wants to have with us in this Sunday’s Gospel, as we journey with Jesus into the desert at the beginning of the Lenten Season.

* Most people have no desire at all to go to the desert, certainly for no more than a brief visit. At a spiritual level, however, we should always have a great love for the desert, because the desert is what helps us to understand the 40-day pilgrimage of Lent, in which we join and imitate Jesus there and ponder the fruits of what he did. Every Lent, the same Holy Spirit whom St. Luke tells us led Jesus into the desert wants to guide us into the desert with him. Lent is meant to help us recapitulate Christ’s 40 days away from everything so that we, apart from distractions, can focus on who we are, on our relationship with God and others and, with Christ’s help, can confront and overcome the way that the devil seeks to distort those relations and that image.

* To go into the desert, however, is increasingly difficult for people today. We’re so connected that if we are out of cell phone range we can easily feel totally lost. While the Lord is not calling us all physically to go to the Arabah, he is calling us to the state of the desert, removing ourselves as much as we can from distractions, from the television, computer, radio, newspaper, and the various things that may be fine in themselves but crowd our lives with noise so that we can’t hear God and with clutter so that we can’t see God. The first temptation we face each Lent is to refuse to go into the desert with Christ, to think that our Lent can be complete if, for example, all we do is give up booze and sweets. The first big hurdle is for us to hear Christ’s voice from the desert saying, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while” (Mk 6:31).

* The next lesson we need to grasp is what is supposed to be the fruit of that time in the desert, and that leads us to this Sunday’s Gospel. It’s a particularly special scene, because the only way St. Luke and St. Matthew would have known about it would have been if Christ had told it to his disciples himself. No one else was there. The Lord must have opened up his heart to them about this seminal moment in his hidden life, which occurred immediately after he was baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist (Mk 1:12). The Holy Spirit led him into the huge fifteen-by-thirty-five mile desert between the mountain of Jerusalem and the Dead Sea so that he could pray to the Father about the public ministry that he was about to commence. He prayed and fasted for an incredible forty days, which obviously would have left him physically weak and famished. It was at this moment of physical weakness that the Devil came to him to tempt him. Much like God the Father had once allowed Job to be tested, the same Father allowed Jesus his Son to be tempted. In the temptations Jesus suffered and later described to his disciples, the devil brought out in a pristine form the types of temptation that Christ would undergo in his public ministry and that each of us undergoes in our lives. By focusing on how Christ responded, we, too, can learn how to receive his mercy so that we might be able to react as Jesus did.

* The first temptation was aimed right at Jesus’ tremendous hunger after 40 days of eating not...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Retreat for the Carmelite Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy and Saint Joseph

Alexandria, South Dakota

March 1-8, 2022

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/3.4.22_Conference_7_Burning_Bush_Rock_1.mp3

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Retreat for the Carmelite Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy and Saint Joseph

Alexandria, South Dakota

March 1-8, 2022

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/3.4.22_Conference_6_Temple_Bread_of_Presence_1.mp3

 

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Carmelite Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy and Saint Joseph

Alexandria, South Dakota

Friday after Ash Wednesday, Extraordinary Form

March 4, 2022

Is 58:1-9, Ps 127:4, Mt 5:43-48.6:1-4

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/3.4.22_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* On Ash Wednesday, Jesus spoke to us about fasting, telling us to not to neglect our appearance to gain the attention of others but to anoint our head and wash our face and fast in a hidden way for our Father. It was meant to communicate that the purpose of our fasting is to come into greater communion with God the Father, to learn how to hunger for what God hungers, so that every cell of our body desires what he desires. Our fasting is meant fundamentally not to tame our appetite for food and drink, but to stoke all the appetites of our soul to God’s desires.

* That’s the type of fasting God speaks about in the first reading through the Prophet Isaiah. The Israelites were fasting but God wasn’t pleased because they thought that their going without food during daylight hours alone was somehow enough to please the Lord and get him to listen to their prayers. God sent the Prophet Isaiah to sound his call to conversion so that they would grasp that the fasting the Lord desires is to change their hungers to align with his.

* “Cry out full-throated and unsparingly,” the Lord instructs Isaiah. “Tell my people of their wickedness. … They ask me to declare what is due them, pleased to gain access to God [by their bodily prayers]. Why do we fast, [they ask], and you do not see it? Why do we afflict ourselves and you take not of it?” The Lord then responds to their questions. He says, because “on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, [not mine], and drive all your laborers [rather than treat them with charity and mercy]. Your fast ends [not in holiness, not in communion and love but] in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw,” an image that brings to mind the way bears would attack each other to death. “Would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high!” God obviously loved them and wanted to answer their prayers but not when they thought all they needed to do was to abstain from food while continuing with unjust and evil practices contrary to his will.

* God then tells them what he hungers for, and instructs them about the type of fast that will get them to hunger for the same things. It’s all about charity, especially for those in most need of it. “This is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, … setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless, clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.” God wants us to be starving for what he starves, for us to release his sons and daughters imprisoned unjustly, breaking the yokes that bind them to slavery and servitude, feeding his hungry children, clothing the naked ones, and in a particular way caring for our own, for our family members, natural or spiritual. Jesus himself would say that he had come to set the captives free. As we will hear in the Gospel on Monday, he personally identifies with all of those in such circumstances, reminding us we would be judged on how we responded to him in disguise when he was hungry, thirst, naked, on the move, imprisoned or sick.

* In the Gospel, Jesus gets even more specific about the type of hunger he wants to distinguish us, the type of appetite for charity he wants our fasting to lead to. In a context in which he speaks about almsgiving, not to win the praise of others but to please God,