Catholic Preaching

By Father Roger LandryReligion & Spirituality Christianity

Catholic Preaching episodes

June 23, 2024 Learning from the Holy Family How To Draw Our Life from the Eucharistic Jesus, Holy Family Parish, Steubenville, Ohio, June 22, 2024
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Holy Family Parish, Steubenville, Ohio
Eucharistic Holy Hour
June 22, 2024

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48 min
June 22, 2024 Serving Our True Master with Trust in His Providence, 11th Saturday (II), June 22, 2024
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Triumph of the Cross/Holy Rosary Parish, Steubenville, Ohio
Saturday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
Memorial of St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher, Martyrs
June 22, 2024
2 Chron 24:17-25, Ps 89, Mt 6: 24-34

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
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The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1
2 Chr 24:17-25
After the death of Jehoiada,
the princes of Judah came and paid homage to King Joash,
and the king then listened to them.
They forsook the temple of the LORD, the God of their fathers,
and began to serve the sacred poles and the idols;
and because of this crime of theirs,
wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem.
Although prophets were sent to them to convert them to the LORD,
the people would not listen to their warnings.
Then the Spirit of God possessed Zechariah,
son of Jehoiada the priest.
He took his stand above the people and said to them:
“God says, ‘Why are you transgressing the LORD’s commands,
so that you cannot prosper?
Because you have abandoned the LORD, he has abandoned you.'”
But they conspired against him,
and at the king’s order they stoned him to death
in the court of the LORD’s temple.
Thus King Joash was unmindful of the devotion shown him
by Jehoiada, Zechariah’s father, and slew his son.
And as Zechariah was dying, he said, “May the LORD see and avenge.”
At the turn of the year a force of Arameans came up against Joash.
They invaded Judah and Jerusalem,
did away with all the princes of the people,
and sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus.
Though the Aramean force came with few men,
the LORD surrendered a very large force into their power,
because Judah had abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers.
So punishment was meted out to Joash.
After the Arameans had departed from him,
leaving him in grievous suffering,
his servants conspired against him
because of the murder of the son of Jehoiada the priest.
He was buried in the City of David,
but not in the tombs of the kings.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 89:4-5, 29-30, 31-32, 33-34
R. (29a) For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.
“I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to David my servant:
Forever will I confirm your posterity
and establish your throne for all generations.”
R. For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.
“Forever I will maintain my kindness toward him,
and my covenant with him stands firm.
I will make his posterity endure forever
and his throne as the days of heaven.”
R. For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.
“If his sons forsake my law
and walk not according to my ordinances,
If they violate my statutes
and keep not my commands.”
R. For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.
“I will punish their crime with a rod
and their guilt with stripes.
Yet my mercy I will not take from him,
nor will I belie my faithfulness.”
R. For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.
Alleluia
2 Cor 8:9
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Jesus Christ became poor although he was rich,
so that by his poverty you might become rich.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Mt 6:24-34
Jesus said to his disciples:
“No one can serve two masters.
He will either hate one and love the other,
or be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or drink,
or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds in the sky;
they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are not you more important than they?
Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?
Why are you anxious about clothes?
Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.
They do not work or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass of the field,
which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow,
will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’
or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’
All these things the pagans seek.
Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.
Sufficient for a day is its own evil.”
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34 min
June 22, 2024Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), Conversations with Consequences Podcast, June 22, 2024
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Conversations with Consequences Podcast
Homily for the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, B, Vigil
June 22, 2024

To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below:
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The text that guided the homily was:
This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a privilege for me to be with you as we enter into the consequential conversation the Risen Lord Jesus wants to have with each of us this Sunday. Last week, we recall, Jesus gave us two parables about the growth of faith. This Sunday he puts the disciples in a boot camp experience on the Sea of Galilee to test their faith and help it to grow.
The Gospel of Jesus’ calming of the winds and the seas is much more than a demonstration of the Lord’s power over the forces of nature. He who with a word created the heavens and the earth, the seas and all they contain, with a word could calm them. And, as we see in this Sunday’s Gospel, he did. Neither is this scene a manifestation of the failure of the apostles to believe in this power of Jesus. They knew that he had the power, which is why they woke him in the first place. In the days immediately preceding this miracle, they had already seen him cast out demons, cure Simon Peter’s mother-in-law and others who were ill, heal lepers, forgive the sins and paralysis of a crippled man, and straighten a man’s withered hand. There were no doubts about Jesus’ omnipotence.
The point of Sunday’s Gospel is that, even though they knew Jesus had the power to calm the seas and the wind, they began to doubt whether he would do so. It is a display of their failure to believe in Jesus’ love for them. We see this in the question they asked as soon as they startled Jesus from what must have been a very deep and long-overdue sleep on an uncomfortable and rocky boat: “Master, do you not care that we are perishing?” They had begun to doubt whether Jesus gave a hoot whether they drowned in the lake. They had begun to question whether he was indifferent to their plight. “Teacher, do you not care that we are about to die?”
Jesus’ whole life, of course, is an answer to that question. He did care that we were about to die and that was the reason why the Son of God, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, took our human nature and was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He cared enough that he spent himself to the point of exhaustion, teaching, healing the sick and comforting the afflicted. He cared enough ultimately to take our place on death row, giving his life so that we might survive. Yes, he did care! Like the prophet Jonah was tossed into the sea in order to calm the ferocious maritime storm, so Jesus tossed himself overboard to quell the tempests that were causing us to die. As he hurled himself into the abyss from the Cross, he calmed the storm of sin so that we might reach the eternal shore. He did care!
The problem was that the apostles doubted in his loving concern. In this the twelve were like the twelve tribes of Israel 1300 years before. After they had witnessed God’s hand in the ten plagues of Egypt, seen him part the Red Sea, watched Pharoah’s horsemen and chariots perish in the sea, witnessed Moses’ strike the rock to provide them water, been fed miraculously with manna in the morning and then quails at night, seen the thunder and lightning of Moses’ conversations with God on the top of Mt. Sinai, the Jews continued to doubt in God’s love for them. They obviously knew that God had the power — he had already shown them this power on all these occasions — but they doubted whether he would continue to use that power to help them. “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt,” they complained to Moses, “that you have taken us away to die in the desert?” (Ex 14:11). Whenever anything got difficult, they grumbled. They doubted. They began to question whether God’s solicitude had an expiration date. All of his past actions didn’t factor into their equation.
The same thing was happening with their descendants in the boat. They had witnessed Jesus’ power and his goodness on so many occasions, but they began to wonder whether his love — not his power — had a limit. They began to question whether he was indifferent to their present plight. It was, simply put, a lack of faith in who he was, based on a failure to grasp the meaning of all he had done up until then. That’s why Jesus, as soon as he had awakened and calmed the seas and the wind, turned to these soaked followers and said, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
The same lack of faith that happened to the Jews in the desert and to the apostles on the Sea of Galilee can happen to all of us. Generally, few of us who believe in God question whether the Almighty has the power to work a miracle, but very often we begin to wonder whether he has the will. We, too, can start to think that he is indifferent to our plight. When we’re assailed by the storms of sorrow, the downpours of doubt, the twisters of uncertainty, the hail of anxiety, and the drought of loneliness, we can start to imagine that he is having sweet dreams while we’re experiencing nightmares. We can reckon that he’s snoring while we’re screaming for help. This happens when we, like the twelve tribes and the twelve apostles, begin to forget all that the Lord has done for us up until now and what that shows about who he is and how loved we are by him. This is what Pope Francis reminded us of on March 27, 2020, when he prayed for the world suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic from an empty St. Peter’s Square. He preached on this Sunday’s Gospel and said, “Like the disciples in the Gospel, we were caught off guard by an unexpected, turbulent storm. We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented.” He said that we needed to learn from the disciples’ lack of faith and to grasp that, more than anyone, Jesus cares about us and that “with him on board there will be no shipwreck.” The apostles were anxious because they were paying more attention to the waves and to the winds around them than to the presence of Jesus with them. We, like them, need to focus more on Christ than on our problems. To believe in him means not just to trust in his power, but to have faith in his ever-present goodness and love.
I’d like to make two applications of these truths. The first is to the Eucharist. This morning I am in Steubenville, Ohio, on day 37 of the 65-day National Eucharistic Pilgrimage’s Seton Route on our way to Indianapolis for next month’s National Eucharistic Congress. The Eucharist is the greatest reminder of God’s perpetual love and care. The early Christians, as soon as they started to build churches, used to call the body of the Church the “nave,” from the Latin word navisfor “ship.” And in the bow of that ship we place the tabernacle where Jesus abides. This illustrates that just like 2,000 years ago, Jesus is in the boat, symbolic of the Church, even if at times he is quiet and seemingly asleep. Every day he wishes to do more for us than he did even for his disciples on the Sea of Galilee. He not only speaks a word to calm the seas around us, but says, “This is my body… This is the chalice of my blood… Take and eat … Take and drink,” so that from the inside he can feed us to calm the storms within. During this Eucharistic Revival, we’re all called to grow in our awareness not just of Jesus’ presence with us, but to grasp how that witnesses to his everlasting merciful love. To paraphrase St. Paul, if God the Father didn’t spare his own Son, if he didn’t just hand him over for us all on Calvary, but gives him to us every day as our spiritual food, will he not give us everything else besides?
The second application is to the priesthood, and, more personally, to me, as this Wednesday, June 26th, I will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of my priestly ordination. Though I am a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, because of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, I will be celebrating my silver Jubilee in North Pickerington, Ohio, at the Parish of St. Elizabeth Seton, at 6 pm. If you happen to live in the Diocese of Columbus and would like to come, you’re most welcome. Throughout these last two and a half decades, God has shown me time and again his faithfulness and care as he’s summoned me, like he does every priest, to be an image of God’s solicitude as we help the Church, Jesus’ Mystical Body and Bride, care for all those weathering storms as well as to strengthen those experiencing favorable winds. I ask you to please pray for me and for the 404,000 brother priests across the globe that we may be men of great faith, not little faith, trusting in the Lord full-time and helping all of Christ’s beloved trust in him more.rrrrr
As we prepare to receive Jesus this Sunday in Holy Communion, Jesus who is the fullest response to our prayer to the Father to give us what we really need, we ask him to take away all our fears and to increase our faith, so that we may rejoice in the gift of his abiding presence in the boat of the Church, believe in his power, trust in his love, and with the other members of the Church be strengthened to continue his rescue mission as his spiritual coast guard all the way until we land triumphant and joyful at the eternal dock. God bless you!

The Gospel passage on which the homily was based was:
Mk 4:35-41
On that day, as evening drew on, Jesus said to his disciples:
“Let us cross to the other side.”
Leaving the crowd, they took Jesus with them in the boat just as he was.
And other boats were with him.
A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat,
so that it was already filling up.
Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.
They woke him and said to him,
“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
He woke up,
rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!”
The wind ceased and there was great calm.
Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified?
Do you not yet have faith?”
They were filled with great awe and said to one another,
“Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”

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9 min
June 21, 2024 Imitating St. Paul’s Eucharistic Life, St. Paul Church, Weirton, WV, June 20, 2024
Fr. Roger J. Landry
St. Paul Church, Weirton, West Virginia
Holy Hour for the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage
June 20, 2024

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29 min
June 15, 2024 Remembering Jesus in the Way He Wants, Vespers at St. Bernard’s Church, Mt. Lebanon, PA, June 14, 2024
Fr. Roger J. Landry
St. Bernard’s Church of St. Michael the Archangel Parish
Mount Lebanon, Pennyslvania
Vespers of the Most Holy Eucharist
June 14, 2024
Reading: 1 Cor 11:23-26

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36 min
June 15, 2024Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), Conversations with Consequences Podcast, June 15, 2024
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Conversations with Consequences Podcast
Homily for the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, B, Vigil
June 15, 2024

To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below:
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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 the Risen Lord Jesus wants to have with each of us this Sunday as he gives us two parables on the Kingdom of God by which he speaks to us about the way the Church grows and have a chance to apply the lessons we learn to two important celebrations we are marking during these days.
The first image Jesus gives us is of a farmer who scatters seed on his farmland. Without his knowing how and without effort on his part, day and night, the seed begins to grow, yielding the blade, the ear, and the grain until harvest time. The seed does this, Jesus notes, “of its own accord.” This teaches us that the growth of the kingdom, the growth of the Church as a spiritual reality, is not fundamentally our work, but God’s. Imperceptibly, patiently, constantly, it grows. The second image is the more well-known one of the mustard seed, which is very tiny as it is sown in the ground, but through that process of growth, springs up and can become one of the largest of plants where the birds can come to dwell. The kingdom can seem and be at times very small, apparently insignificant, but, Jesus says, it contains within the power of God to grow to be enormous.
Taken together these images convey to us a sense of the wonder we should have with regard to the Church as a spiritual reality and God’s role in its growth. We’re tempted to look at the Church sometimes too much as an institution, as a human organization, that we must build, like entrepreneurs build a business. We sing songs like, “Let us build the City of God,” which, materially, is similar to the ancients’ saying, “Let us build the Tower of Babel.” Jesus is saying by these images that we don’t build it; God does. The farmer certainly does some of the occasionally arduous work, sowing the seed and tilling the soil, but most of the work happens by what is contained in the seed, what is contained in the soil, and the water and sunshine that God provides. So it is with growth in the Church. God gives the seed of faith, he provides the water of the sacraments, the sunshine of various blessings, the nutrients in the soil like teaching and formation necessary. And because God is involved, we should have confidence in every age.
For me, the Parable of the Mustard Seed is a great source of hope. Even though the kingdom begins very small, in the heart of one faithful person, over time, it can grow huge. This is, of course, what we see in how the Kingdom began in the Annunciation, when out of Mary’s yes, the Seed (with a capital S) conceived within her by the power of the Holy Spirit, began to grow and eventually all nations would be embraced in the branches of his arms on the Cross. We saw that this is what happened on Pentecost, when out of this small band of apostles, the Church began and soon experienced extraordinary growth. We’ve seen this happen in the founding of parishes out of a few committed families, of religious movements and orders that began only with the founder, and in families when one person’s conversion led to the conversion of so many other generations. We witness it in what is now occurring in so many African countries and even in the South and Southwest of the United States. We see it in the history of the Benedictines, the Franciscans, the Dominicans, Jesuits, Daughters of Charity, the Missionaries of Charity, the Sisters of Life, the Dominicans of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, the CFRs and so many others. We see it in the explosive growth of FOCCUS on college campuses, the expansion of ministries like Word on Fire, the Augustine Institute, Dynamic Catholic, Ascension Press and others. What starts small, but with faith, grows. There’s, therefore, always reason for hope.
But at the same time, we have to confront the question as to whether what Jesus said about the growth of the seed has an expiration date. Even though we can point to success stories, many religious orders today, many parishes, even whole dioceses, are experiencing not continued growth but shrinkage. Just look at what is happening in many European countries where once the faith was strong but now there are few priests, few religious and few practicing faithful. Many U.S. dioceses are closing Churches and schools rather than building new ones. How are we to understand this? I believe that if the Church has shrunk in some places, the Lord has permitted it — not wanted it! — so that he could somehow bring greater good out of it, including giving us all the opportunity to experience anew the full meaning of this parable, through beginning again, beginning smaller, like the new mustard seed planted from the tall tree.
The truth is that when the Church has become as big as a Middle Eastern mustard tree, many of us can forget the lessons that God teaches us through these parables. When the Church is like a tree, an enormous institution, many people can stay on the peripheries and neither share in nor contribute much if anything to the growth God wants to bring about, convincing themselves that “others” will do the work of planting, tilling and harvesting. At a parish level, they can defer the responsibility to others to help pay the bills, maintain the programs, welcome newcomers, spread the faith. When we become closer to the size of a mustard seed, however, we can’t pass the spiritual and apostolic buck in the same way. We need to step to the plate. This is a grace. It’s a challenge. It’s also a promise and image of hope. If we’re in areas that by human indices are in decline, the Lord Jesus wants us to become the living 21st century illustration of these parables. He wants us to have the opportunity to experience the exhilarating growth of the mustard seed. As we root ourselves in him, we have every hope that, just like thousands of times before us in the history of the Church, we’ll get bigger again and many others will be able to nest in the branches that will come from this union. Christian influence, rather than waning, will wax. But we must trust in him like the first Christians. We need to believe in him like the founders of religious orders. We need to hope in him like the pioneer generations of lay faithful in parishes who sacrificed so much to build Churches on firm foundations.
We are now in the midst of the three-year plus National Eucharistic Revival, in which the Church turns with confident faith to the Lord Jesus in the Eucharist as he seeks to help the Church grow. Ecclesia de Eucharistia, the Church has proclaimed from its earliest days: the Church grows from the Eucharist. The Eucharistic Jesus wants to help the Church to grow. I have been privileged, over the course of the last 29 days, to see some of the growth that’s happening. I am on the Seton or Easter Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, journeying from New Haven to Indianapolis. Throughout the northeast, we have passed through Catholic areas that were once teeming with thriving parishes, but that, over time, has had to deal with closing parishes and Catholic schools, shortages of priests, dire shortages of religious. But in the midst of that, we have become witnesses not only to the Real Presence of Jesus in our midst, but also to the loving receptivity and response of people to the work he’s trying to do in his Church right now. We’ve heard many times from faithful in particular parishes that it’s been a long time since they’ve seen their Church that full, on a weekday morning, afternoon, or evening to boot. We’ve seen the enthusiasm of people, especially families and young people, to participate in 15-, 17- or 19-mile Eucharistic processions, rolling kids in strollers, dragging them in little wagons. The young kids who, when passersby, having never seen a Eucharistic procession, ask what we’re protesting, shout out, “We’re with Jesus!” We’ve heard the stories of teenage boys and girls and younger who come up to me or the other pilgrims to say they think God is calling them to be a priest or a woman religious. Right now in our midst the Lord is trying to give us growth and to help the Church, rather than decline, grow anew.
Much of that growth is meant to happen in the domestic Church, the family, what the early saints used to call an “ecclesiola,” the Church in miniature. In the love of a husband and wife, they can conceive and give birth not only to sons and daughters, but to disciples, to saints, to those who can do for the Church in their lifetime what John Paul II, Teresa of Calcutta, Thomas More, Gianna Molla, Francis of Assisi, Dominic of Guzman, Teresa of Avila and Catherine of Siena did in theirs. The Christian family is a place where these parables are meant to flourish, and it’s from that growth that the Church as a whole can grow, one faithful family at a time. As we celebrate Father’s Day this weekend, we thank the Lord for our dads and especially for the ways that they, in exercising their paternal love, their providing and protecting, their giving advice and correction, have helped us to grow as human beings and as Christians, and we ask God to reward and bless them in this world and the next and to help their relationship with God grow, too, now and forever.
We return to Jesus in the Eucharist. The whole mystery of starting small and growing big is summarized in the Mass, as Jesus seeks to plant himself within us as a seed, as a “grain of wheat” (Jn 12:24) on good soil that together with him can bear abundant growth. If we receive even a little piece of the Host within us, we receive God and all his power. He wants to grow in us from that seemingly small start to transform us in such a way that with him living in us we might transform the world. Entering into communion with Jesus, most especially in the Mass, is where all growth in the Church begins. This is where all growth in the Church is directed. As we prepare to receive Jesus this Sunday, let us do so with faith in the parables he will announce, and cooperate with him as he seeks to grow within us and others patiently, imperceptibly, constantly and through our yes — like that of the nascent Church on Pentecost — grow the kingdom.

The Gospel passage on which this homily was based was:
Gospel
Mk 4:26-34
Jesus said to the crowds:
“This is how it is with the kingdom of God;
it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land
and would sleep and rise night and day
and through it all the seed would sprout and grow,
he knows not how.
Of its own accord the land yields fruit,
first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once,
for the harvest has come.”He said,
“To what shall we compare the kingdom of God,
or what parable can we use for it?
It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground,
is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.
But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants
and puts forth large branches,
so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.”
With many such parables
he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.
Without parables he did not speak to them,
but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.
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10 min
June 13, 2024 Christ’s Surpassing Standards of Eucharistic Love and Mercy, Memorial of St. Anthony of Padua, St. Patrick’s Church, Pittsburgh, PA, June 13, 2024
Fr. Roger J. Landry
St. Patrick’s Church of Mary, Mother of God Parish
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Thursday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
Memorial of St. Anthony of Padua, Doctor
June 13, 2024
1 Kings 18:41-46, Ps 65, Mt 5:20-26

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
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To watch the Mass or view the homily, please click below:

The readings for Mass were:
Reading 1
1 Kgs 18:41-46
Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink,
for there is the sound of a heavy rain.”
So Ahab went up to eat and drink,
while Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel,
crouched down to the earth,
and put his head between his knees.
“Climb up and look out to sea,” he directed his servant,
who went up and looked, but reported, “There is nothing.”
Seven times he said, “Go, look again!”
And the seventh time the youth reported,
“There is a cloud as small as a man’s hand rising from the sea.”
Elijah said, “Go and say to Ahab,
‘Harness up and leave the mountain before the rain stops you.'”
In a trice the sky grew dark with clouds and wind,
and a heavy rain fell.
Ahab mounted his chariot and made for Jezreel.
But the hand of the LORD was on Elijah,
who girded up his clothing and ran before Ahab
as far as the approaches to Jezreel.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 65:10, 11, 12-13
R. (2a) It is right to praise you in Zion, O God.
You have visited the land and watered it;
greatly have you enriched it.
God’s watercourses are filled;
you have prepared the grain.
R. It is right to praise you in Zion, O God.
Thus have you prepared the land:
drenching its furrows, breaking up its clods,
Softening it with showers,
blessing its yield.
R. It is right to praise you in Zion, O God.
You have crowned the year with your bounty,
and your paths overflow with a rich harvest;
The untilled meadows overflow with it,
and rejoicing clothes the hills.
R. It is right to praise you in Zion, O God.
Alleluia
Jn 13:34
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I give you a new commandment:
love one another as I have loved you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Mt 5:20-26
Jesus said to his disciples:
“I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that
of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.
“You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,
You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.
But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother
will be liable to judgment,
and whoever says to his brother, Raqa,
will be answerable to the Sanhedrin,
and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna.
Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar,
and there recall that your brother
has anything against you,
leave your gift there at the altar,
go first and be reconciled with your brother,
and then come and offer your gift.
Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him.
Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge,
and the judge will hand you over to the guard,
and you will be thrown into prison.
Amen, I say to you,
you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.”
The post Christ’s Surpassing Standards of Eucharistic Love and Mercy, Memorial of St. Anthony of Padua, St. Patrick’s Church, Pittsburgh, PA, June 13, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
35 min
June 12, 2024 Christ’s, Barnabas’ and Our Eucharistic Salt and Light, Our Lady of Grace Church, Greensburg, PA, June 11, 2024
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Our Lady of Grace Church
Greensburg, Pennsylvania
June 11, 2024
Acts 11:21-26.13:1-3, Ps 98, Mt 5:13-16

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Reading 1
ACTS 11:21B-26; 13:1-3
In those days a great number who believed turned to the Lord.
The news about them reached the ears of the Church in Jerusalem,
and they sent Barnabas to go to Antioch.
When he arrived and saw the grace of God,
he rejoiced and encouraged them all
to remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart,
for he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith.
And a large number of people was added to the Lord.
Then he went to Tarsus to look for Saul,
and when he had found him he brought him to Antioch.
For a whole year they met with the Church
and taught a large number of people,
and it was in Antioch that the disciples
were first called Christians.Now there were in the Church at Antioch prophets and teachers:
Barnabas, Symeon who was called Niger,
Lucius of Cyrene,
Manaen who was a close friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said,
“Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul
for the work to which I have called them.”
Then, completing their fasting and prayer,
they laid hands on them and sent them off.
Responsorial Psalm
PS 98:1, 2-3AB, 3CD-4, 5-6
R. (see 2b) The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
The LORD has made his salvation known:
in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
Sing praise to the LORD with the harp,
with the harp and melodious song.
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
sing joyfully before the King, the LORD.
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
Alleluia
Mt 5:16
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Let your light shine before others
That they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
MT 5:13-16
Jesus said to his disciples:
“You are the salt of the earth.
But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?
It is no longer good for anything
but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
You are the light of the world.
A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.
Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket;
it is set on a lampstand,
where it gives light to all in the house.
Just so, your light must shine before others,
that they may see your good deeds
and glorify your heavenly Father.”
The post Christ’s, Barnabas’ and Our Eucharistic Salt and Light, Our Lady of Grace Church, Greensburg, PA, June 11, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
34 min
June 11, 2024 Imitating St. Barnabas’ Encouragement and Eucharistic Mission, Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Altoona, PA, June 11, 2024
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament
Altoona, Pennsylvania
June 11, 2024
1 Kings 19:4-8, 1 Peter 1:17-21, Mark 14:12-16.22-26

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27 min
June 10, 2024 Drawing Our Life from the Eucharistic Jesus, like Father Demetrius Gallitzin, Shrine of Our Lady of the Alleghenies, Loreto, PA, June 9, 2024
Fr. Roger J. Landry
Shrine of Our Lady of the Alleghenies, Loreto, Pennyslvania
Votive Mass of the Holy Eucharist (Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time)
June 9, 2024
Deut 8:2-3.14.16, 1 Cor 11:23-26, Jn 6:51-58

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The post Drawing Our Life from the Eucharistic Jesus, like Father Demetrius Gallitzin, Shrine of Our Lady of the Alleghenies, Loreto, PA, June 9, 2024 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
30 min

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Father Roger J. Landry is a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, who works for the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations in New York.