Catholic Preaching

By Father Roger LandryReligion & Spirituality Christianity

Catholic Preaching episodes

May 15Funeral Homily for Valerie Tellier, St. Michael’s Parish, Lowell, MA, May 15, 2026
Msgr. Roger J. Landry
St. Michael’s Parish, Lowell, Massachusetts
Funeral Mass of Valerie Tellier
May 15, 2026
Eccl 3:1-8, Ps 27, Rom 8:14-23, Jn 11:17-45

To listen to the homily, please click below:
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The following points were attempted in the homily:
Believing in Jesus as the Resurrection and the Life. Believing in what St. Paul teaches about our divine filiation through baptism and how all of creation is groaning in labor pains for birth into the new heavens and new earth. Believing in what Ecclesiastes says that there is a time for everything, a time to live and to die, and that God has placed the eternal in our hearts.
The connection to Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich on May 8 — a 26 year old girl now with God, who died 99 years to the day before 26-year-old Valerie. Her great teaching was that the road to sanctity was simple: to do the will of God, but to do it with all one’s heart. To say “thy will be done!” in everything. She’s doubtless interceding.
It’s so hard for parents to bury a child. Sometimes people can be tempted to wonder if they did anything wrong. But there are so many saints who have had to entrust their children back to the Lord before the Lord had come for the parents. The parents of St. Therese, SS. Louis and Zelie Martin, had to do it for four of their nine children. St. Elizabeth Seton needed to do it for her oldest and youngest of her five. Blessed Frederick Ozanam, the founder of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, likewise needed to do it. This is a situation that many married saints have encountered. Dealing with this loss is something that helped make them saints.
Valerie’s name comes from the Latin word “Valere,” which means “Be strong.” It was used by the ancient Romans to say good bye. As they were parting, they’d wish each other, “Vale!” or “Be strong.” When the Christians came, they started to wish each other “Adios” or “Adieu,” “Adeus,” and “Addio,” literally “to God.” In Old English it was translated as “good bye,” or “God be with ye.” For Christians, when we part, we entrusted each other to God, we wish that God be with them, God who is our strength. That’s what we say to Valerie today as we entrust her back to God and that’s what she says to us, that God be with us and that in him we will be strong.
One of the great days of her life was when she made her first Holy Communion. Jesus promised that if we eat his flesh and drink his blood worthily, he will raise us up on the last day. This is the means by which we have a chance to affirm our faith in him as the resurrection and the life as he enters us in Holy Communion and accompanies us to the eternal banquet where we pray Valerie has now taken her seat, and awaits us, in that place where Jesus has gone to prepare.

The readings for the Mass were:
A Reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes
There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant. A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build. A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them; a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces. A time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away. A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to be silent, and a time to speak. A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
I will walk in the presence of the Lord
The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom do I fear? The LORD is my life’s refuge; of whom am I afraid? When evildoers come at me to devour my flesh, These my enemies and foes themselves stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart does not fear; Though war be waged against me, even then do I trust. One thing I ask of the LORD; this I seek: To dwell in the LORD’s house all the days of my life, To gaze on the LORD’s beauty, to visit his temple. For God will hide me in his shelter in time of trouble, Will conceal me in the cover of his tent; and set me high upon a rock. Even now my head is held high above my enemies on every side! I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and chant praise to the LORD. Hear my voice, LORD, when I call; have mercy on me and answer me. “Come,” says my heart, “seek God’s face”; your face, LORD, do I seek! Do not hide your face from me; do not repel your servant in anger. You are my help; do not cast me off; do not forsake me, God my savior! Even if my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will take me in. LORD, show me your way; lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Do not abandon me to the will of my foes; malicious and lying witnesses have risen against me. But I believe I shall enjoy the LORD’s goodness in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD, take courage; be stouthearted, wait for the LORD!
A Reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, “ Abba, Father!” The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us. For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to John
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away. And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. [But] even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.” When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, “The teacher is here and is asking for you.” As soon as she heard this, she rose quickly and went to him. For Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still where Martha had met him. So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her saw Mary get up quickly and go out, they followed her, presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.” And Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.” But some of them said, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?” So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.” Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him.
Valerie Tellier’s obituary was:
Valerie M. Tellier
January 22, 2000 — May 8, 2026
Dracut
Valerie M. Tellier, beloved daughter of Mark and Angie (Roberge) Tellier, passed away unexpectedly following a brief illness at Lowell General Hospital on Friday, May 8, 2026. She was 26 years old. Born in Lowell on January 22, 2000, Valerie was a lifelong resident of Dracut. She attended Dracut schools and graduated from Dracut High School with the Class of 2018. Valerie enjoyed music, going for rides in the car, and spending time with her friends at Encompass in Chelmsford. She especially loved her dogs, Bianca, Peanut, and Fluff. In addition to her parents, Mark and Angie, Valerie is survived by her paternal grandparents, Gerald and Mary Tellier, and her maternal grandparents, Roland and Patricia Roberge, all of Dracut, as well as several aunts, uncles, and cousins.
The post Funeral Homily for Valerie Tellier, St. Michael’s Parish, Lowell, MA, May 15, 2026 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
30 min
May 14Desiring Heaven and Proclaiming, with the Holy Spirit, Its Path, Ascension Thursday (A), May 14, 2026
Fr. Roger J. Landry
IESE Business School
Leonine Forum NYC Chapter
Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, Year A
May 14, 2026
Acts 1:1-11, Ps 47, Eph 1:17-23, Mt 28:16-20

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
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The text that guided the homily was:
Today on the Solemnity of the Lord’s Ascension into heaven, we can look at the three principal things that the Church normally marks on this feast, the three chief aspects of this mystery we ponder when we meditate on the second glorious mystery of the Rosary: the reality of heaven and Christ’s ascent there; his great commission to the apostles and the Church to continue his work; and the parting gift, the perpetual blessing he gives us to help us complete that mission and one day join him in heaven with many others, the Holy Spirit.
The first reality we celebrate today is heaven. Today we celebrate the day Jesus returned home, to the place from which he came to earth to save us. He returned differently than he left, taking our human nature with him across the threshold of death into life. 43 days before his Ascension, during the Last Supper, Jesus told his closest followers about this connection between his ascension and our resurrection and assumption. He said, “I am going to the Father, … the one who sent me” (Jn 14:17, 16:5). But he also said, “You have faith in God, have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.” Heaven is the place where Christ has prepared for us so that we might rejoice with him forever. “He mounts his throne to shouts of joy” and he wants us to be able to experience one day with him that joy.
Jesus often spoke about the great joy of heaven. He took his contemporaries’ most popular celebration — an eight-day sumptuous wedding banquet — and used it time and again to describe the unending joy of the eternal wedding banquet (Mt 22, Mt 25, Lk 12, Rev 19, Rev 21). St. Paul and Isaiah affirm that “eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor the human heart conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9; Is 64:4). This is what St. Paul prayed that the Ephesians realize in today’s second reading, “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints.” Heaven is our hope. Heaven is our glorious inheritance. But it’s a hope and an inheritance to which we’re “called.” To obtain it, we have to respond to that call, by following Christ the Lord all the way, through a life of faith in him, in imitation of the love with which he loved us.
And that begins with our desire. Our focus on Jesus’ Ascension, not just today but every few days when we pray the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary, is meant to stoke our desire. We heard St. Paul tell us on Easter Sunday: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col 3:1-2). We are called to strive for the things that are above, to hunger for heaven, for God, for eternity. The Solemnity of the Ascension is meant to stoke our appetite for Christ’s face, to see him with the eyes of our heart enlightened. We prayed in the opening prayer today that Christ’s Ascension may give us hope to follow him all the way: “For the Ascension of Christ your Son is our exaltation, and, where the Head has gone before us in glory, the Body is called to follow in hope.” We know that in heaven, Jesus is not just awaiting us. He’s interceding for us. God the Father, as St. Paul tells us in the second reading, “rais[ed] him from the dead and seat[ed] him at his right hand in the heavens, far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion” and “put all things beneath his feet.” He’s praying for us so that we may know “the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.”
The second reality we mark today is the mission Jesus gives us as he ascends: to be witnesses to him, to his message, to his work. He has all power in heaven, as we see in the Ephesians, but in gives that power to us in the Church to fulfill his mission. He tells us in St. Matthew’s version of Jesus’ last words today, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.” Jesus loved us enough, and he trusted us so much, that he placed his own mission and authority into our hands. And he wants us to go out to help others become his followers, to be set free by his truth, to live in his presence in this world so that we may live with him ascended forever. As I like to say, especially in my work trying to help all American Catholics live out the missionary consequences of their baptism, Jesus could have stayed on earth until the end of time saving everyone himself, one-by-one, so that our frailties wouldn’t get in the way of this most important mission of all time. Instead, he ascended, taking the training wheels off of our discipleship, removing from us any excuse to pass the buck. He wants us to help draw others to the throne of grace in this world and forever. That’s the great commission. But he hasn’t left us on our own to do so. In his last words on earth, he reminds us, “I am with you always until the end of time.” And St. Luke tells us in his version of the Ascension that Jesus “led them out as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them. As he was blessing them, he parted from them and was taken up to heaven.” Jesus departed as he was blessing us. Pope Benedict commented once that the Risen Jesus is blessing us perpetually in heaven: “Jesus departs in the act of blessing. He goes while blessing, and he remains in that gesture of blessing. His hands remain, stretched out over this world. … The gesture of hands outstretched in blessing expresses Jesus’ continuing relationship to his disciples, to the world. In departing, he comes to us, in order to raise us up above ourselves and to open up the world to God. That is why the disciples could return home from Bethany rejoicing. In faith we know that Jesus holds his hands stretched out in blessing over us. That is the lasting motive of Christian joy.” Jesus is continually blessing us. He is blessing us when we wake up in the morning. He’s blessing us as live out the Gospel and Catholic Social Teaching in the work place. He’s blessing us in our homes and in our family and communal life. He’s blessing us when we eat. He’s blessing us in hard times. He’s blessing us right now. He’s blessing us always. And through his hands raised in blessing, he’s seeking to transforms us into his enfleshed benediction of the world.
The third reality we mark is perhaps his greatest blessing of all, the help he gives us to complete that mission. He sends us the Holy Spirit. In the valedictory address St. Luke records in the Acts of the Apostles, today’s first reading, Jesus says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” And that’s the power that came down upon them on Pentecost, what St. Paul in today’s second reading called the “Spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him.” During the Last Supper, Jesus had said something startling, which we pondered two days ago at daily Mass: “I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (Jn 16:7). He was describing the incredible gift of the Holy Spirit’s presence as something even greater than his own presence. Today as we begin the decenarium or ten days of prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we huddle around Mary like the apostles praying for greater docility and openness to the Holy Spirit’s fire.
Jesus’ act of continual blessing happens here at Mass, as he continues to speak to us and more importantly continues to be with us blessing us from the inside with his own life, allowing us to receive his risen and ascended Body and Blood, which is our participation here on earth in his ascension even now. Jesus pointed to the Ascension when he was describing his continued presence in the Eucharist until the end of time. When his disciples were mumbling in Capernaum about how he could give us his flesh to eat and blood to drink, he said, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending to where he was before?” Living a truly Eucharistic life, entering into Jesus’ consecration in the Mass, is the path of our Ascension. “Amen, amen I say to you,” Jesus told us, “he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him on the last day,” because “he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.… He who eats me will live because of me.” Eternal life is knowing Christ Jesus, and we know him in a Biblical way through the consummation of the one-flesh spousal union between Christ the Bridegroom and his Bride the Church here at Mass, effected by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is also the means in which we stoke our desire to see the High Priest who reigns in heaven and bids us approach the throne of grace to receive mercy. This is the means by which, united with Christ, we are sent out by him with his blessing at the end of the liturgy, to “go and announce the Gospel of the Lord!,” with the power of the Holy Spirit, that the world so much needs. God has indeed mounted his throne to shouts of joy and wants to transform us by his blessing and the power of the Holy Spirit to become a “blare of trumpets for the Lord!” helping others, with us, to seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1
Acts 1:1-11
In the first book, Theophilus,
I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught
until the day he was taken up,
after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit
to the apostles whom he had chosen.
He presented himself alive to them
by many proofs after he had suffered,
appearing to them during forty days
and speaking about the kingdom of God.
While meeting with them,
he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for “the promise of the Father
about which you have heard me speak;
for John baptized with water,
but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
When they had gathered together they asked him,
“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons
that the Father has established by his own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
throughout Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth.”
When he had said this, as they were looking on,
he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.
While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going,
suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.
They said, “Men of Galilee,
why are you standing there looking at the sky?
This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven
will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9
R. (6) God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
All you peoples, clap your hands,
shout to God with cries of gladness,
For the LORD, the Most High, the awesome,
is the great king over all the earth.
R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy;
the LORD, amid trumpet blasts.
Sing praise to God, sing praise;
sing praise to our king, sing praise.
R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
For king of all the earth is God;
sing hymns of praise.
God reigns over the nations,
God sits upon his holy throne.
R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2
Ephesians 1:17-23
Brothers and sisters:
May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation
resulting in knowledge of him.
May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened,
that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call,
what are the riches of glory
in his inheritance among the holy ones,
and what is the surpassing greatness of his power
for us who believe,
in accord with the exercise of his great might,
which he worked in Christ,
raising him from the dead
and seating him at his right hand in the heavens,
far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion,
and every name that is named
not only in this age but also in the one to come.
And he put all things beneath his feet
and gave him as head over all things to the church,
which is his body,
the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.
Alleluia
Matthew 28:19a, 20b
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Go and teach all nations, says the Lord;
I am with you always, until the end of the world.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Matthew 28:16-20
The eleven disciples went to Galilee,
to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.
When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.
Then Jesus approached and said to them,
“All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
The post Desiring Heaven and Proclaiming, with the Holy Spirit, Its Path, Ascension Thursday (A), May 14, 2026 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
17 min
May 14 The Four Pontifical Mission Societies as Instruments of Missionary Animation and Formation in the Local Churches for a New Missionary Movement in the Church, Pontifical Missionary Union Refresher Course in Missiology, May 14, 2026
Msgr. Roger J. Landry
Pontifical Missionary Union Webinar
May 14, 2026

To watch a recording of today’s webinar, please click below:

To listen to an audio recording of the webinar, please click below:
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To download a copy of the slides of the presentation, please click below:
5.14.26 PUM MIssiology Lecture on the Four Societies
The post The Four Pontifical Mission Societies as Instruments of Missionary Animation and Formation in the Local Churches for a New Missionary Movement in the Church, Pontifical Missionary Union Refresher Course in Missiology, May 14, 2026 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
1 hr 29 min
May 13The Holy Spirit’s Guiding Us to All Truth, Sixth Wednesday of Easter, May 13, 2026
Msgr. Roger J. Landry
St. Brendan the Navigator Church, Los Angeles, California
Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima
May 13, 2026
Acts 17:15.22-18:1, Ps 148, Jn 16:12-15

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/5.13.26_Homily_1.mp3

The following points were attempted in the homily:
Jesus speaks about the gift of the Holy Spirit leading us to all truth. He doesn’t teach us new truths but reminds us of everything Jesus taught us, taking from what the Father has revealed to Jesus and Jesus to us. He makes explicit what was implicit in what Jesus taught and helps us not to forget what Jesus said. We need to continue to grow in the faith in docile cooperation with the Holy Spirit, who continuously wants to lead us to know, love, live and share our faith.
We see St. Paul in today’s first reading leading the Athenians to greater truth. Some scoffed at it, others procrastinated, a few accepted.
On this Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima, we see how she led the three shepherd children to a greater knowledge of her Son’s call to repent and believe, to pray, to go after the lost sheep, in her calling them to pray and sacrifice for the conversion of sinners. We see her encourage them to consecrated themselves to her Immaculate Heart, which is a heart that truly is the abode of the Holy Spirit and allows Him to guide her. Today is a day in which we see our level of cooperation with the Holy Spirit by asking whether we’re willing to respond to Mary’s summons to the pastorinhos 109 years ago the way Saints Francisco and Jacinta and Sr. Lucia did.

The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1 ACTS 17:15, 22—18:1
After Paul’s escorts had taken him to Athens,
they came away with instructions for Silas and Timothy
to join him as soon as possible.
Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said:
“You Athenians, I see that in every respect
you are very religious.
For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines,
I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’
What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.
The God who made the world and all that is in it,
the Lord of heaven and earth,
does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands,
nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything.
Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything.
He made from one the whole human race
to dwell on the entire surface of the earth,
and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions,
so that people might seek God,
even perhaps grope for him and find him,
though indeed he is not far from any one of us.
For ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’
as even some of your poets have said,
‘For we too are his offspring.’
Since therefore we are the offspring of God,
we ought not to think that the divinity is like an image
fashioned from gold, silver, or stone by human art and imagination.
God has overlooked the times of ignorance,
but now he demands that all people everywhere repent
because he has established a day on which he will ‘judge the world
with justice’ through a man he has appointed,
and he has provided confirmation for all
by raising him from the dead.”
When they heard about resurrection of the dead,
some began to scoff, but others said,
“We should like to hear you on this some other time.”
And so Paul left them.
But some did join him, and became believers.
Among them were Dionysius,
a member of the Court of the Areopagus,
a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
After this he left Athens and went to Corinth.
Responsorial Psalm PS 148:1-2, 11-12, 13, 14
R. Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the LORD from the heavens;
praise him in the heights.
Praise him, all you his angels;
praise him, all you his hosts.
R. Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Let the kings of the earth and all peoples,
the princes and all the judges of the earth,
Young men too, and maidens,
old men and boys.
R. Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the name of the LORD,
for his name alone is exalted;
His majesty is above earth and heaven.
R. Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He has lifted up the horn of his people;
Be this his praise from all his faithful ones,
from the children of Israel, the people close to him.
Alleluia.
R. Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia JN 14:16
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I will ask the Father
and he will give you another Advocate
to be with you always.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel JN 16:12-15
Jesus said to his disciples:
“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.
But when he comes, the Spirit of truth,
he will guide you to all truth.
He will not speak on his own,
but he will speak what he hears,
and will declare to you the things that are coming.
He will glorify me,
because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.
Everything that the Father has is mine;
for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine
and declare it to you.”
The post The Holy Spirit’s Guiding Us to All Truth, Sixth Wednesday of Easter, May 13, 2026 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
11 min
May 12 The Missionary Spirituality, Mind and Heart of the Priest, Presentation to Young Priests of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Part III, May 12, 2026
Msgr. Roger J. Landry
Archdiocese of Los Angeles Pastoral Center
May 12, 2026
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42 min
May 12 The Missionary Spirituality, Mind and Heart of the Priest, Presentation to Young Priests of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Part II, May 12, 2026
Msgr. Roger J. Landry
Archdiocese of Los Angeles Pastoral Center
May 12, 2026
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50 min
May 12 The Missionary Spirituality, Mind and Heart of the Priest, Presentation to Young Priests of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Part I, May 12, 2026
Msgr. Roger J. Landry
Archdiocese of Los Angeles Pastoral Center
May 12, 2026
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54 min
May 10Giving the Reason Always For the Hope Within Us, Sixth Sunday of Easter (A), May 10, 2026
Msgr. Roger J. Landry
Convent of the Missionaries of Charity, Bronx, New York
Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year A
May 10, 2026
Acts 8:5-8.14-17, Ps 66, 1 Pet 3:15-18, Jn 14:15-21

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The following text guided the homily:
As we move more deeply into the Easter Season during which we’re being renewed as witnesses to the Risen Jesus together with the Holy Spirit, St. Peter tells us in the epistle something we had the chance to ponder at length throughout 2025 during the Jubilee Year: “Always be ready to give an explanation to any one who asks you for a reason for your hope.” The first Pope’s statement implies three things: that because the Risen Lord is with us, because the Holy Spirit has been sent to us, Catholics are supposed to be persons of hope; that we’re supposed to know the reasons for our hope; and that God wants us to be ready and willing to give those reasons always to anyone who asks us — at home, Church, work, school, on the streets, in hospitals and nursing homes, in prisons, even, in concentration camps and Gulags. This proclamation of hope that is credible yet towering is an essential part of the Good News each of us is called as missionary disciples to experience and proclaim.
Peter’s testimony calling us always to be ready to give the explanation of the reason of our hope is particularly compelling because in his lifetime he himself faced many challenges to hope. His first words to Jesus were that he was a “sinful man” (Lk 5:8) prone to weakness (as he showed in the high priest’s courtyard [Mt 26:48]). He was surrounded by a bunch of other very ordinary men, sinners all, one of whom accounted Jesus less valuable than 30 silver pieces, and all of whom abandoned the Lord when he was arrested. Yet Jesus made them, respectively, the Rock (Mt 16:18) and the living stones (1 Pet 2:5) on whom he was to build his Church. When Jesus gave them the mission to change world history, they easily could have despaired because that task far exceeded their human abilities, but they didn’t. They counted on the Lord to give them what they needed. That’s why Peter’s words to us today in his first letter are so important. The challenges we face are not greater than the challenges he faced. After Pentecost, he became a witness to hope and was always ready to give the explanation of his hope to others, doing it so powerfully that 3,000 people converted the first day he preached. Today we ourselves need to focus within on those reasons for Christian hope, so that we might likewise be able to take this Gospel to every corner.
The fundamental reason for our hope has nothing to do with our individual talents, cheery personalities, upbeat ideas, past accomplishments, supportive friends or helpful connections. The essential reason of our hope is GOD. Hope is based on the deep conviction that God is with us, that he is faithful to his promises, and that he will always give us what we need and what is best for us. He who is the omnipotent Lord of the universe loves us with an everlasting love, from which no human situation, no matter how seemingly desperate, can separate us (cf. Rom 8:39). During this Easter Season, we celebrate the fact that not even public execution on a Cross can extinguish hope! God the Father loved us so much that he sent his own Son to die for us and our sins, so that we might live with Him forever. As St. Paul asked the Romans, “If God did not even spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all, will he not give us, with Him, everything else besides?” (Rom 8:32). That’s why he was able to say, “We know that everything always works out for the good for those who love God” (Rom 8:28). That’s another way of saying that in every circumstance we should have hope because God is at work and wants to bring good even out of evil, victory out of seeming defeat, resurrection even out of crucifixion.
We can further specify some of the fundamental ways that our hope comes from God.
Our hope is based first on God the Father’s providential love. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus takes aim at our worrying, which can cause us to lose hope, and tells us instead to trust in the loving care of His Father and ours: “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. … Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? … Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Mt 6:25-34). The heavenly Father knows all that we truly need and will give us everything we truly need. That fills us with hope!
Our hope is also based on God the Father’s Mercy. No matter what we’ve done, he loves us with the love of the Father in the parable of the Prodigal Son (cf. Lk 15:11-32). There’s nothing we’ve done that will cause him to withhold his loving mercy. So often the source of our despair comes from the fact we cannot forgive ourselves for what we’ve done. The guilt eats us alive. But if God the Father can forgive us for the sins that lead to Jesus’ crucifixion, nothing we could do could ever be as wicked as that. The only thing that can prevent us from receiving this gift of his mercy is our refusal to seek it in the sacrament his Son established to take the guilt and despair away (cf. Jn 20:19-23). His mercy is part of the reason for hope we’re called to give to everyone who asks.
That leads to the third reason for our hope: Christ Jesus’ own love and friendship. Twice during the Last Supper, Jesus said, “I love you.” He said first, “Just as the Father has loved me, so I love you” (Jn 15:9). Later he added, “As I love you, love one another” (Jn 15:12). One of the great causes of sadness and despair is when a person begins to think that no one else cares, when one imagines that he or she is alone in facing all of life’s daunting challenges, when one lives without love. St. John Paul II wrote in his first encylical, Redemptor Hominis, in 1979: “Man cannot live without love. He remains a being who is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it.” The great antidote is to remember how madly Jesus loves us — a madness that made him willing to be tortured and killed so that we might never be alone but live forever with him. Jesus is the solution to, and the light and salvation for, the greatest problems we face, and his love for us is our great hope. Alone we can do nothing. But with him as our Good Shepherd, we really do have it all (cf. Psalm 23:1) and can do it all (Mt 17:20; Lk 1:37; Phil 4:13).
The final reason for our hope I’ll mention is the Holy Spirit. This Thursday we will celebrate the Lord’s Ascension into heaven and immediately afterward, like Jesus’ first followers, the whole Church will begin a decenarium — or 10 days of prayer — to the Holy Spirit. In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that when he goes the Father will give us “another Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth, who will be with us forever.” The word Paraclete means an advocate, a helper, a defender, a coach. He says the Holy Spirit will be “another Paraclete,” because Jesus is our first advocate, helper, defender and strong-right arm. Later on during the Last Supper, Jesus tells us that it is better for us that he go, because unless he go, the Holy Spirit will not come (Jn 16:7). He’s telling us that if we had to choose between having Him with us or having the Holy Spirit, that we should choose the latter! Because many people do not have the same relationship with the Holy Spirit as they do with God the Father and God the Son, they often do not know how the Holy Spirit wants to help fill them with true hope. But we can briefly sketch the ways:
The Holy Spirit fills us with hope by teaching us how to pray. Prayer puts our hope into action. St. Paul tells us, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” (Rom 8:26-27). Prayer helps us to recognize that no situation is hopeless!
The Holy Spirit fills us with hope by making us aware of our dignity as beloved sons and daughters of God. “Because you are children,” St. Paul says, “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God” (Gal 4:6-7). The Holy Spirit convinces us that we are “heirs” of all God has promised us — including the promise of heaven! — which obviously fills us with Christian hope. With St. John we can say, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are! … We are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him for we will see him as he is” (1 John 3:1). Recognizing our divine filiation by the help of the Holy Spirit is a great source of hope.
The Holy Spirit makes us hopeful by leading us “into all truth” (Jn 16:13) and teaching us everything (Jn 14:26). Sometimes we can feel so lost and bewildered by events that we begin to despair that there’s any meaning to it all. The Holy Spirit works within us — through his gifts of knowledge and understanding, wisdom and prudence — to allow the truth about God, about ourselves, and about His love for us, to set us free (cf. Jn 8:32). The Holy Spirit does this objectively through the Church, so that we can be even more certain that we’re not deceived and find God’s light when we’re walking in the valley of darkness. This light fills us with hope even on dark days.
The Holy Spirit lifts up our hearts by “remind[ing] us of everything Jesus has taught us” (Jn 14:26). He prevents us from forgetting all that Jesus said and did, and Jesus’ words and actions for our salvation fill us with a deep, imperishable hope, no matter what situation we’re in.
Finally the Holy Spirit makes us hopeful by allowing us to share in God’s life here in this world. He is active in all the sacraments, making and keeping us a “temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 6:19). In Baptism, he comes down upon us, as he did on Jesus in the Jordan (cf. Lk 3:22). In Confirmation, like Peter and James confirmed the Samaritan converts in today’s first reading, he seals us with his strength for the Christian life. By the Holy Spirit’s power, men are made to be other Christs in the sacrament of Holy Orders. By his dynamism working through the priest, our sins are forgiven and the bread and wine in a priest’s hands become Jesus’ body, blood, soul and divinity. The Holy Spirit’s mission is to overshadow us like he overshadowed Mary, so that we, like her, may become tabernacles of God. When the Lord is with us, and we’re aware of it, we, like Mary, cry out “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!” (Lk 1:46-47). A soul and spirit filled with the Holy Spirit in this way cannot but be hopeful!
So God — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — is the principal cause and reason for our hope. His past deeds for us — all the events of salvation history in the Old Testament and New — make us confident that he will keep all the promises he made to us. His living presence within us through the diving indwelling of the Sacraments, making us “temples of the living God” (2Cor 6:16), is the deep inner source of our hope and joy.
And this reality should make very clear to us what is the cause of the loss of hope in us and others. If the principal driver of our hope is God and being with him in the world, the principal reason for despair is separation from God through sin. All the problems in the world and in human hearts are all a direct or indirect result of sin; and the despair that often flows from these problems occurs when we don’t respond to them by turning back to God, but rather allow them to drift away from the Lord.
Today’s readings address this connection between sin and despair. Before St. Peter tells us to be always ready to give an explanation for the hope within us, he exhorts us: “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts!” And immediately after his summons for us to be witnesses to hope, he says, “keep your conscience clear!” He knows, from personal and pastoral experience, that unless we’re sanctifying Christ as God in our consciences, unless we’re living moral lives based on his promises, we cannot and will not be people of true hope and therefore will not be able to bring that hope to others. If our hearts and consciences are not “sanctifying Christ as Lord,” then we will be at least partially separated from God and suspectible to the despair, sadness and lack of peace that flow from our sin and others’. Holiness and hope go together, as do sin and despair.
Jesus points to the same reality in the Gospel in another way. He points to the connection between love of God and keeping his commandments. The commandments are divine gifts, heavenly road signs to keep us on the path to holiness. “If you love me,” he tells us, “you will keep my commandments.” Later he reiterates the same point twice: “Whoever accepts my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me” and “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one that loves me.” Love is ultimately a union with the beloved, a holy communion, which is the source of hope. Jesus tells us that we cannot have that communion with him unless we do what He commands. There’s a clear reason for this: because Jesus is the Word-made-flesh. We cannot separate Him from the word he put into flesh. We can’t truly love him and at the same time choose not to love his will expressed in the commandments. Jesus gave us the commandments so that we might be filled with his peace and joy and become people of hope, witnesses to the triumph of sanctity over sin, light over darkness, life over death.
Today we have two great witnesses to hope. The first is St. Damien of Molokai, whose feast the Church remembers on May 10, the day he entered the leper colony in Kaluapapa in 1873. The leper colony was a place of deep despair, not just because of the physical consequences of the disease but because of the way those who suffered were cut off from all of society and even, for a length of time, from the Church, due to fear of contagion. The Catholic lepers in Kaluapapa — 200 out of the 816 in the enclave at the time — wrote Bishop Louis Magret of Honolulu begging him to send a priest so that they might at least suffer and die with the consolation of the sacraments. The bishop knew what he was proposing: a slow martyrdom, as chaplain to a walking graveyard. He couldn’t force the assignment on anyone; he asked for volunteers Fully conscious of the consequences, Fr. Damien, a Belgian missionary who had been laboring on the island of Hawaii for 9 years, stepped forward to take the assignment. Bishop Maigret prophetically introduced him to the colony of lepers as “one who will be a father to you, and who loves you so much that he does not hesitate to become one of you, to live and die with you.” The 33-year old priest got right down to work — every type of work. He built churches, homes and beds. He created farms and schools and worked to enforce basic laws. He fought to have medicine sent and to get his people whatever medical care was possible. At first, it was hard for him to approach the lepers because he had a natural revulsion to the fetid odor given off by their leprous sores. To overcome this repugnance, he began to smoke a pipe so that the smell of tobacco would make it possible for him to approach the lepers with dignity as he began to dress their ulcers. While what he could do for their deteriorating bodies was limited, he knew that he could help prepare their souls to meet the Lord, to help them live with an eternal purpose, with hope. If they could focus on the joys after the pangs of childbirth in this world, he believed, they could better endure the sufferings of leprosy. So he had them focus on the great hope of eternal life. The first thing he did was to give increased attention to funeral rites. He knew that if the lepers saw how much care he showed them at their death, they might begin to sense the value of their lives and grow in the great hope of heaven. He brought them the sacraments at their bedsides and tidied their rooms and beds to await the imminent visit of the Lord Jesus. He formed choirs, taught them how to sing beautiful hymns at Requiem Masses, and trained others to play musical instruments. He cleaned the cemetery and adorned it with flowers. He even made coffins. The second thing he did to help them get ready for eternity was to bring them into eternity in time through instituting perpetual adoration, so that the lepers would know that the Lord Jesus our hope was with them always and they could pour out their hearts to Him in need 24/7. Father Damien knew, too, that this was what sustained his hope, too. “I find my consolation,” he wrote in a letter, “in the one and only companion who will never leave me, that is, our Divine Savior in the Holy Eucharist.… Without the Blessed Sacrament a position like mine would be unbearable. But having Our Lord at my side, I continue always to be happy and content.” It is unsurprising that his witness began to win over the members of his community. Six months after his arrival, he had 400 people — half the village and two thirds of those who were not Catholic at his arrival — preparing for baptism. A cheerful spirit of hope began to radiate in the community in place of the former dejection. In December of 1884, Fr. Damien discovered that he had contracted leprosy, but didn’t lose hope. He wrote, “My eyebrows are beginning to fall out. Soon I will be disfigured entirely. Having no doubts about the true nature of my disease, I am calm, resigned, and very happy in the midst of my people.” To those who asked him how he was holding up, he expressed the hope that flowed from his prayer: “Our Lord will give me the graces I need to carry my cross and follow him, even to our special Calvary at Kalawao.” The Lord did give me those graces and allowed him to follow him to the Lord’s right side. St. Damien shows us that no matter where we are, no matter how seemingly desperate the situation, we are called to be not just missionaries of faith and missionaries of charity, but also missionaries of hope even to the places that humanly are most devoid.
The second great witness we have today of hope is our mothers, biological and spiritual. Many of us have been first taught the Gospel by our moms, who were to us the first apostles of hope. Many of our moms and grandmothers have been the ones who have sustained us in hope, encouraging us, never ceasing to pray for us. Spiritual moms do that for the whole Church, like St. Monica, like St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, like Our Lady, whom we call Mater Spei,Mother of Hope. Today we give thanks to God for all our moms, natural and supernatural, who individually and collectively are a great cloud of witnesses who never cease to be sources of hope for us along the pilgrim way. We also pray today for all of those married women longing to become mothers, that the Lord will fulfill their hopes and reward their trust.
In order to help us become disciples of hope capable of becoming apostles of hope to everyone, the Lord Jesus instituted the Mass. It’s here that God wants to fill us with hope — by giving us his word, by feeding us with his very self, by helping us to experience not only his extreme love but the love and friendship of his family on earth, the Church. God comes to dwell with us and within us so that we are able to bring Him to others as the true hope of the world. There’s a beautiful prayer after the Our Father that summarizes what we’ve been pondering today, both the reasons for our hope and how our hope is squandered. The priest turns to God the Father and implores, “Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our savior Jesus Christ.” The “blessed hope” is the hope of eternal life and love with God, with the communion of saints, with, we pray, all our loved ones, both deceased and alive. Here on earth the Mass is the foretaste of that blessed hope as we receive God within, alongside each other. May the Hope we here receive in Jesus, by the love of the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit, fill us with enduring hope and help us to go, always and everywhere, just as St. Peter did in his own time, and bring that hope, the reasons for it, and the Source of it, to a world ever in need. This is the Gospel of hope Jesus at the end of every Mass sends each of us with his blessing to announce, giving to everyone the explanation for the reason of the hope we have within!

The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1 ACTS 8:5-8, 14-17
Philip went down to the city of Samaria
and proclaimed the Christ to them.
With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip
when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.
For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice,
came out of many possessed people,
and many paralyzed or crippled people were cured.
There was great joy in that city.
Now when the apostles in Jerusalem
heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God,
they sent them Peter and John,
who went down and prayed for them,
that they might receive the Holy Spirit,
for it had not yet fallen upon any of them;
they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Then they laid hands on them
and they received the Holy Spirit.
Responsorial Psalm PS 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20
R. (1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God, “How tremendous are your deeds!”
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
“Let all on earth worship and sing praise to you,
sing praise to your name!”
Come and see the works of God,
his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He has changed the sea into dry land;
through the river they passed on foot;
therefore let us rejoice in him.
He rules by his might forever.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare
what he has done for me.
Blessed be God who refused me not
my prayer or his kindness!
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 PT 3:15-18
Beloved:
Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.
Always be ready to give an explanation
to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope,
but do it with gentleness and reverence,
keeping your conscience clear,
so that, when you are maligned,
those who defame your good conduct in Christ
may themselves be put to shame.
For it is better to suffer for doing good,
if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.
For Christ also suffered for sins once,
the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous,
that he might lead you to God.
Put to death in the flesh,
he was brought to life in the Spirit.
Alleluia JN 14:23
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Whoever loves me will keep my word, says the Lord,
and my Father will love him and we will come to him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel JN 14:15-21
Jesus said to his disciples:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always,
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept,
because it neither sees nor knows him.
But you know him, because he remains with you,
and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
but you will see me, because I live and you will live.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father
and you are in me and I in you.
Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is the one who loves me.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”
The post Giving the Reason Always For the Hope Within Us, Sixth Sunday of Easter (A), May 10, 2026 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
27 min
May 03Making Our Home in the Place Jesus Has Prepared, Fifth Sunday of Easter (A), May 3, 2026
Msgr. Roger J. Landry
St. Paul Center, Steubenville, Ohio
Making Our Home in the Catholic Church Conference
Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year A
May 3, 2026
Acts 6:1-7, Ps 33, 1 Pet 2:4-9, Jn 14:1-12
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The following text guided the homily:
The drama of today’s Gospel cannot be overstated. Jesus is on the eve of his passion. He had just washed the apostles’ feet and celebrated the new and eternal Passover with them, but added, that the one who ate his food had raised his heel against him. He was returning to a topic that they had repeatedly tried to ignore or change the subject on: that he would be betrayed to the chief priests and scribes, be mocked, tortured, scourged, crucified and on the third day be raised. Now everything seemed to be coming to a head. And their anxieties were maximized. Jesus, however, was thinking far more about them — his friends, his disciples, his apostles, and about us, his future friends, disciples and apostles — than he was about his own imminent sufferings and physical death. He had just told them that he was telling them everything before it happened, so that when it happened, they might believe. He was revealing everything to them so that after the resurrection, they and we, thanks to St. John’s spirit-helped recollection, might understand the full meaning of his words and actions. What Jesus says, providentially, is at the heart of our retreat on making our home in the Catholic Church.
Jesus’ first words were “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God. Have faith also in me.” He knew they were going to struggle to accept what he was saying. That they were going to be like sheep without a shepherd when he would be arrested and brought to trial. That, despite his already telling them three times that he would be killed and rise on the third day, they would be absolutely flummoxed when they would see him in whom they had placed their hopes crucified. “Don’t let your hearts be troubled,” he emphasized, and urged them to believe in him with the same faith they’ve always had in God. It was part of his plan. He knew what he was doing. These words echo throughout time. The remedy to our anxieties as we look to the future is to trust in the Lord.
Jesus says that he is going to prepare a place for us and will come back to take us to be with him, so that where he is, we also may be. Of course, one application of this is anagogical, referring to eternal life. But the same care Jesus has given to our eternal communion he takes with regard to the earthly. His whole life can be summarized as preparing a place for us, a place with him. He became Emmanuel, God-with-us, so that we could be with him. He took on our humanity so that we might become part of his Mystical Body. The Sacraments, especially Baptism, allow us to abide not just with him but within him, and he in us. Just like with David who desired to build a suitable house for God only to have Nathan tell him that God’s plan was to build a house for him, so as we seek to make a home in the Catholic Church, Jesus assures us that he has already prepared one for us. He doesn’t want us troubled, but rather he desires us to trust in him, to trust in the place he has prepared.
Faith is a rock-solid assurance in which we trust in something based on a trust in someone, we trust in what Jesus says and does because of our trust in him. But the assurance that comes from faith is different than knowledge. The anxious apostles wanted details to buttress their faith. In response to Jesus’ words that they knew the way he was going, because he had already told them repeatedly it was the way of the Cross, the way of the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecies, Thomas, on behalf of all of them, blurted: “Master, we do not know where you are going, how can we know the way?” We are often in a similar situation. Supposedly to make trust easier, we ask for a detailed plan, so that we can evaluate it on our own rather, than give full trust to the One who made it. But Jesus brought it back to a trust in him. In response to Thomas’ query as to how he can know the way, Jesus replies: “I am the Way.” “I am the Truth.” “I am the Life.” He was urging them simply to stay with him, to find their answer in him, to draw their whole life from him, as he sought to lead them to the Father, the ultimate destination of their path, the ground of all reality and the source of all life.
We’ve heard Jesus’ self-description as the Way, the Truth and the Life so many times that their revolutionary shock value is almost entirely lost on us, but to first century Jewish listeners, they would have heard Jesus saying that he was the full realization of their three deepest religious aspirations. Jews had been beseeching for centuries, “Make known to me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths” (Ps 25:5), and Jesus was saying, “I am the way.” They had been imploring God, “Teach me your decrees” (Ps 119:108) that “I may walk in your truth” (Ps 86:11) and Jesus was saying, “I am the Truth.” They had been praying, “You will show me the path to life” (Ps 16:11) and Jesus was indicating, “I am the Life.” Jesus was saying that he was the personification of all their religious aspirations and the answer to so many of their most insistent prayers. But these aspirations, we know, were not exclusively Jewish. They point to the perennial needs that spring up in every human life. Many times we’re lost, we don’t know where to go, we’re wandering through a valley of darkness with no clear sense of direction, and Jesus says, “I am the Way.” There are many others who are stumped before life’s biggest questions, who are searching for answers and meaning, who don’t know what to believe, who don’t trust because they don’t know whom to trust, and Jesus tells us, “I am the Truth. …You have faith in God, have faith also in me.” And there are countless others who are struggling to have hope, who feel like they have been having the marrow of existence sucked out of them, who are seeking happiness and human fulfillment sometimes in right places, often in wrong, and to all of them, Jesus responds, “I am the Life.” The remedy to our anxieties is with faith to unite ourselves to Jesus, to recognize that he has prepared a place for us with him, to trust as he leads like Abraham on a journey of faith together with him, on a search for truth in him, on a quest for life ultimately drawn from him.
To use the image given to us by St. Peter in today’s second reading, he wants us to build our life as living stones on him who is the living cornerstone. We’re accustomed sometimes to think of a cornerstone as something immovable. But we know that as we plant a cornerstone to an important building, it seems to remain fixed, but it’s on a little part of planet earth that is rotating on its axis at 1,037 miles per hour, on a planet rotating around the sun at 67,100 miles per hour. The cornerstone is solid, it’s fixed, but there’s still much dynamism happening in other dimensions. So when we fix our bearings solidly on Christ the cornerstone, we know that he’s moving, and he’s constantly calling us to come and to go. Our faith is fundamentally dynamic not static, yet always grounded, always innested, always firmly rooted and built up in him (Col 2:7). Even in the midst of the many changes every disciple experiences along the pilgrimage of earthly life, and as we focus on the often difficult changes that accompany the great blessings of entering into full communion with the Catholic Church, Jesus is telling us, “You faith in God. Have faith in me.” He’s telling us, “While so many things may change, I am the same yesterday, today and forever” (see Heb 13:8). Like the symbolic 144,000 who follow the Lamb wherever he goes (Rev 14:4), he wants us united with him as we follow him to where is he leading, as he seeks to build us up into a spiritual house on him the cornerstone and Peter the rock (Mt 16:18), so that together with Christ, as a chosen race and a royal priesthood, we can make our life a spiritual sacrifice acceptable to the Father through him.
It’s important for us to ask what it means to build our existence on him, on the place he has prepared for us in his Mystical Body. The Second Vatican Council stressed that the whole people of God through baptism participates in Jesus’ three-fold office of priest, prophet and king. We share in his prayer and sacramental self-giving, in his proclamation of the Gospel and teaching all nations, in his shepherding and guiding others to follow him. Learning from him as our Master and in him passing on what we have learned is the way we cling to him is the truth. Uniting ourselves to him in prayer and in the Sacraments is the way we abide in him who is our life. Following him in things big and small and shepherding others to that same path is the way we make Him our way. In today’s first reading, we see this three-fold work on display. As the Church began to grow, the apostles recognized that they could not dedicate themselves to the work of prayer and preaching if they themselves simultaneously had to supervise the Church’s charity. So they appointed and laid hands on the first seven deacons to be able to direct the Church’s charitable outreach. Charity was too important to what the Church is to be neglected. As Pope Benedict stressed in Deus Caritas Est, his beautiful 2006 encyclical on charity, charity is as essential to the life of the Church as the proclamation of the Gospel and the celebration of the Sacraments. The three essential works of the Church are kerygma/martyria (preaching with words and body language, even death), leitourgia (public worship and prayer) and diakonia (charity). Each of us disciples, he said, must focus on these three activities, but not necessarily equally. The apostles themselves prioritized prayer and preaching, the deacons prioritized charity, but each of us to some degree participate in all three. We need to ask to what extent we are remaining in Christ the Truth, learning and teaching the gift of faith; how we are remaining in the sacraments and prayer and helping others to pray and to live a sacramental life abiding in Christ the life; how we are following Christ the Way and showing others the way. Each of us has so many opportunities, as missionary disciples of Christ, to pass on the truths of faith, to teach people to pray and worship and to guide them to join us in following the Good Shepherd.
Someone who did this and from whom we can all learn is from one of the newest saints in the Church, who today would have turned 35 if he hadn’t gone home to God — to the place Jesus had prepared for him in his father’s house, 20 years ago this October 12. St. Carlo Acutis was someone who, very young in life, as soon as he learned about Jesus’ real presence, sought to ground his whole life on this Eucharistic cornerstone. He called the Eucharistic Jesus not just the way but his highway to heaven. He sought to follow him along the path of Eucharistic self-giving, making his life a commentary on the words of consecration. That prayer, that worship, that leitourgia, led quickly to diakonia, to charity, to doing “this” in Jesus’ memory. He cared for the poor and the homeless all throughout Milan. He cared for his fellow students who were struggling with moral problems, or were being bullied, or he needed academic help. And that charity involved passing on as of the greatest importance what he himself had received. He tried to teach them about Jesus’ real presence such that they could build their whole life on him too. He became a catechist to pass on the faith to younger children. And when he began to see some fruit with his classmates and catechism students about the Eucharist, especially through telling them about Eucharistic miracles, he then tried to bring that knowledge to the whole world, teaching himself computer programming and web design so that he would be able to help catechize people across the planet. His work continues to nourish people to this day. He had expressed a desire to be a priest, but that obviously never came to fruition. But in his 15 years of earthly life, and only 8 years of conscious Christian discipleship, he did so much through his faith in God and faith in Christ. Learning from Christ the Truth, receiving life in abundance from Christ the Life, and following Christ along the Eucharistic procession of earthly life and bringing others to join him, he really lived a life pleasing to God. And he inspires us all today to imitate this Eucharistic dependence.
He understood well, in a precocious way, that at Mass that Jesus’ great building project advances. From the earliest days of Christianity, the saints have stated that the Eucharist builds the Church. Ecclesia de Eucharistia, they said: the Church lives by the Eucharist. The Eucharistic Jesus makes us Christians, living stones together built into a spiritual edifice on him the cornerstone. It’s here that Jesus makes us a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God the Father. It’s here he constructs us into a chosen race, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that we may announce the praises of him who has called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. It’s from here that Jesus sends us out to help everyone else discover that Jesus is the direction they most need in life, the answer to their profoundest questions, the source of life that will lead them to meaning and happiness. It’s here at Mass, together with him, as he teaches us, feeds us and strengthens us for the journey of life, that Jesus wants us to recognize the place that he’s prepared, and to find and make our true home.

The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1 ACTS 6:1-7
As the number of disciples continued to grow,
the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews
because their widows
were being neglected in the daily distribution.
So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said,
“It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table.
Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men,
filled with the Spirit and wisdom,
whom we shall appoint to this task,
whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer
and to the ministry of the word.”
The proposal was acceptable to the whole community,
so they chose Stephen, a man filled with faith and the Holy Spirit,
also Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas,
and Nicholas of Antioch, a convert to Judaism.
They presented these men to the apostles
who prayed and laid hands on them.
The word of God continued to spread,
and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly;
even a large group of priests were becoming obedient to the faith.
Responsorial Psalm PS 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19
R. (22) Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Exult, you just, in the LORD;
praise from the upright is fitting.
Give thanks to the LORD on the harp;
with the ten-stringed lyre chant his praises.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 PT 2:4-9
Beloved:
Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings
but chosen and precious in the sight of God,
and, like living stones,
let yourselves be built into a spiritual house
to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
For it says in Scripture:
Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion,
a cornerstone, chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in it shall not be put to shame.
Therefore, its value is for you who have faith, but for those without faith:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,
and
A stone that will make people stumble,
and a rock that will make them fall.
They stumble by disobeying the word, as is their destiny.
You are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, a people of his own,
so that you may announce the praises” of him
who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Alleluia JN 14:6
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the way, the truth and the life, says the Lord;
no one comes to the Father, except through me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel JN 14:1-12
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled.
You have faith in God; have faith also in me.
In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.
If there were not,
would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come back again and take you to myself,
so that where I am you also may be.
Where I am going you know the way.”
Thomas said to him,
“Master, we do not know where you are going;
how can we know the way?”
Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you know me, then you will also know my Father.
From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to him,
“Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time
and you still do not know me, Philip?
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own.
The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me,
or else, believe because of the works themselves.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,
and will do greater ones than these,
because I am going to the Father.”
The post Making Our Home in the Place Jesus Has Prepared, Fifth Sunday of Easter (A), May 3, 2026 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
35 min
May 01Living the Gospel of Work, Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker, May 1, 2026
Msgr. Roger J. Landry
St. Paul Center, Steubenville, Ohio
Making a Home in the Catholic Church Conference
Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker
May 1, 2026
Gen 1:26-2:3, Ps 90, Mt 13:54-58

To listen to an audio recording of this homily, please click below:
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The following text guided the homily:
Today we celebrate the Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker, which was instituted 71 years ago in 1955 by Pope Pius XII both to give a spiritual context to “Labor Day” in many European countries as well as a spiritual response to the “May Day” celebrations in communist countries where the meaning of human work and the relationship between human worker and the State were distorted. Pope Pius XII wanted the whole Church on this day to go on pilgrimage to a carpenter’s shop in Nazareth to find in the hardworking St. Joseph and his diligent foster Son the key that unlocks the meaning of the dignity, beauty and redemptive importance of human labor as part of Christ’s mission of love, so that we might not perish but have eternal life. Moreover, at the beginning of our time together dedicated to “Making a Home in the Catholic Church,” we recall that the greatest teachers we have for making such a spiritual home are St. Joseph and the Blessed Mother, who made their home — in Bethlehem, Egypt, Nazareth and along their journeys to Egypt, to the Temple for the feasts and elsewhere — in full communion with Jesus.
When the Church celebrates the Solemnity of St. Joseph in March, we have a chance to ponder together so many of the reasons why Catholics love St. Joseph. We look at how he was truly a “just man,” humble, obedient, and holy. We examine how he put his whole life at the service of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as her most chaste spouse, and how he was a provident Father of God the Father’s only begotten Son virginally conceived within her, raising him to be a man according to his humanity. We ponder how St. Joseph was fundamentally a man of action whose only word in Sacred Scripture was the saving name of Jesus, Yeshua, but whose body language has proclaimed an unforgettable message that the Church has never forgotten. And we are able annually to contemplate the wisdom of saints and sinners across the centuries in “going to Joseph” as the great patron and protector of the Church as he seeks to help us center our lives on Jesus just like he and the Blessed Virgin Mary did.
On May 1, however, it is important for us to hear what the silent spouse of the Virgin teaches us about the Good News of work in God’s divine plan. We do this because so many today are confused about how important work is. Some, for example, behave as if work is just a necessary evil that we have to endure until we earn enough money or get to the magic age when life can become an unending vacation on the golf course or lounging at the pool. Others fail to see in the crisis of unemployment, especially among the young, that we’re dealing with something far greater than a pressing economic problem, but rather a profoundly dehumanizing one that can gradually deprive millions of a sense of moral worth through a sense of being useless. Sometimes we see a combination of both of these confusions when people who can work just choose not to do so, opting rather to take advantage of the generosity of family members or other workers in society so that they can remain on vacation 365 days a year. Finally, whe rise of artificial intelligence and its inevitable impact on industries and employees has many wondering, and not a few worried, about the future of work. Some wonder whether they will have jobs. Some are thinking AI will just make us rich such that we won’t “have to” work.
The feast of St. Joseph the Worker helps us to see that there’s a Christian response to many of these questions and challenges. Insofar as most us will spend at least 25 percent of our week, from the time we’re five through when we’re in our late 60s or older, doing some form of work, it’s important that we enter the vocational school of St. Joseph and learn from him how to turn our work into a pleasing offering to God. One of the ways that God is calling us to be salt, light and leaven is precisely through our work. One of the ways that we’re called to make our home in the Catholic Church is entering into the home office of St. Joseph and learning why St. John Paul called him “the very epitome of the Gospel of work.”
We see in today’s Gospel that Jesus was known as the “son of the carpenter,” likely because St. Joseph must have distinguished himself for that trade among his contemporaries. It was with St. Joseph in Joseph’s workshop, as a manual laborer, as a “construction worker” (that’s a better translation of the Greek word tekton, found in Mk 6:3, than “carpenter”) that Jesus spent the vast majority of his saving life. Following his foster-father, Jesus entered into the world of human work, not as a “cover” until his “real work” of preaching, miracles, and leading us through the new and eternal Passover would begin, but precisely to redeem noble human work in his process of redeeming the human person. Jesus built houses, made tables and wheels and produced lots of other needed items. He would say that his work was to do the will of his Father, to do what pleased him, and this labor over the course of two decades was part of that glorification. The early saints taught that whatever Jesus didn’t assume he didn’t redeem, and he assumed our human work in order that we might be able through our work to participate in the work of redemption. Today’s memorial is an opportunity for all of us to reflect on the meaning of human work — and specifically our work — in God’s divine plan.
In the beginning of time, which we ponder in today’s first reading, God gave us the vocation to work, which was meant to bring his gift of creation to perfection. He commanded us to do three different forms of labor: to “increase and multiply,” cooperating with his creative power to bring new human beings into existence; to “fill the earth and subdue [or cultivate] it,” by bringing forth the earth’s inner potential, producing fruits and vegetables from the soil, glass and computer chips from sand, medicines from plants and more; and to “have dominion” — to exercise stewardship — over all living creatures, treating them as gifts of God.
God gave us this vocation to work because through work we would become more and more like him, who himself worked in creation and, as Jesus would later say, “works still” (Jn 5:17). Work is meant not only to produce somethingbut to perfect someone, by bringing out the various hidden talents and potentials God has implanted in us — physical, intellectual, and spiritual — which are far greater than the hidden potentials God has inscribed in the earth. We see this human cultivation, for example, in the study that forms our brain, in the physical labor that forms our muscles, in the caring for children and others in need that forms our heart. The interior effect of work is even more important than its external outcome. St. Gregory of Nyssa would even teach that through our work we become our own parents, through forming our character through work well or shoddily done.
After Original Sin and the Fall, as we know and Genesis teaches clearly, our work became arduous. There would be pangs in childbirth, working the fields would become toilsome and sweaty, and animals would often rebel. But we retained the vocation to work, because work remained a fundamental good and gift and would now become a means of our redemption. Through labor we would be helped to overcome our selfishness by working for others, for the family we’re supporting, for the persons receiving the fruits of our efforts, even out of gratitude for our employers or employees, clients and vendors, without whom, in many cases, our work would not be possible.
So great was Jesus’ appreciation for human work in the divine plan that he could not stop using it as an analogy for the kingdom he had come into this world to establish. In his preaching, Jesus favorably mentions shepherds, farmers, doctors, sowers, householders, servants, stewards, merchants, laborers, soldiers, cooks, tax collectors and scholars. He compares the work of evangelization to the manual work of harvesters and fishermen. He called us not to be “bodies” in his vineyard taking up space but “laborers,” those who roll up their sleeves and work hard.
As St. Josemaria Escriva, the great apostle of the laity and of the importance of ordinary work in God’s plans, taught us last century, honest work well done is an opportunity for a triple sanctification: the sanctification of the work itself by offering it to God like the sacrifice of Abel (or we can say the labors of St. Joseph); the sanctification of the worker doing the work honestly and diligently; and the sanctification of others through contact with one’s coworkers, clients, customers and vendors. Work well done is an act of love for all those who will benefit from the fruits of one’s labor, just like everything we use — from watches, to cell phones, to automobiles, to clothing, even to microphones and sound systems, light and HVAC units — is the fruit of someone else’s good work. The marketplace is meant not to be simply an exchange of goods and services but ultimately an exchange of virtuous action and rewarded appreciation that at its best can become an exchange of mutual loving concern.
When Jesus left his foster father’s workshop to begin to his public ministry, he called all of us to follow him, to become perfect as God the Father is perfect and holy as God is holy. But he only called relatively few people to leave their fishing boats or tax-charts behind to proclaim the Gospel with nowhere fixed to lay their head. The vast majority he called to proclaim the Gospel by livingthat Good News right where they were in their work. That’s still what Jesus does today. Most of Jesus’ followers are called to live out their discipleship and apostolate, their vocation and their mission, just as St. Joseph did, in the family and in the workplace. Jesus calls them to become saints and bring others to sanctity through this “increasing and multiplying” and “subduing” and “dominion.” One’s desk and keyboard, or sewing machine, or kitchen, or classroom, or operating room, or workbench or boat, is meant to become an altar that sanctifies not only what is given to God in work, but the giver as well. It is there that the vast majority of men and women are called to be sanctified and sanctify others through showing the original dignity and meaning of human work. It’s there that the vast majority are called to make their home.
We prayed at the beginning of Mass today that God the Creator of all things, “who laid down for the human race the law of work,” will grant us through “the example of St. Joseph and under his patronage, [to] complete the works [he sets] us to do and attain the rewards [he promises].” That’s what this feast is all about. Work is not principally about earning a paycheck, but about serving and loving others, about accomplishing the work that God sets before us to do. No matter what we do, we are supposed to be helping Jesus through that work to save the human race. When work takes on this divine meaning, the perfection of the human person continues, the workplace is evangelized, and God’s kingdom is advanced. In every age a diligent construction worker from Nazareth, together with his foster father, waves to each of us with calloused hands and says, “Come, follow me!”
And Jesus does that in a particularly special way for us here at Mass. As the Second Vatican Council teaches us, the Eucharist is the “source and summit” of any life that is truly Christian. It’s supposed to be the starting point and the goal, therefore, of our work each day. We receive strength here to sanctify our work and the goal of our efforts ought to be to place our work on the paten to be offered to the Father with the work of Jesus’ whole redemptive life, including all he did for us in Nazareth. Just as Jesus worked the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish from the raw material of five buns and two sardines a boy gave him, and just like Jesus worked the miracle of Cana not by creating wine out of nothing but changing the 180 gallons of water brought by the servants from the town well, so Jesus wants to incorporate us and our work in the miracle of the Mass. We don’t celebrate Mass with the raw material of grain and grapes, but rather bread and wine, which are not just the gifts of God but, as we pray, the “work of human hands.” From the beginning Jesus wanted to incorporate your work and mine into his supreme sacrifice. It’s here at Mass that we learn how to pray our work so that the entire world becomes God’s sacred workshop. Let us ask St. Joseph to intercede for us today before his foster Son so that we can do well the work he’s asking of us during these days together, so that we might strengthen to go out from here to do our work well all the days of our life. That is the way we will ultimately and fully build our life on Jesus and make our home with him. That is the way, too, we will grow in holiness, help others grow in holiness, and do something beautiful for God and others. St. Joseph the Worker, pray for us!

The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1 GN 1:26B-2:3
God said:
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
the birds of the air, and the cattle,
and over all the wild animals
and all the creatures that crawl on the ground.”
God created man in his image;
in the divine image he created him;
male and female he created them.God blessed them, saying:
“Be fertile and multiply;
fill the earth and subdue it.
Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air,
and all the living things that move on the earth.”
God also said:
“See, I give you every seed-bearing plant all over the earth
and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food;
and to all the animals of the land, all the birds of the air,
and all the living creatures that crawl on the ground,
I give all the green plants for food.”
And so it happened.
God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.
Evening came, and morning followed–the sixth day.Thus the heavens and the earth and all their array were completed.
Since on the seventh day God was finished with the work he had been doing,
God rested on the seventh day from all the work he had undertaken.
So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy,
because on it he rested from all the work he had done in creation.
Responsorial Psalm PS 90:2, 3-4, 12-13, 14 AND 16
R.   (see 17b) Lord, give success to the work of our hands.
or:
R.   Alleluia.
Before the mountains were begotten
and the earth and the world were brought forth,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
R.   Lord, give success to the work of our hands.
or:
R.   Alleluia.
You turn men back to dust,
saying, “Return, O children of men.”
For a thousand years in your sight
are as yesterday, now that it is past,
or as a watch of the night.
R.   Lord, give success to the work of our hands.
or:
R.   Alleluia.
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
R.   Lord, give success to the work of our hands.
or:
R.   Alleluia.
Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
Let your work be seen by your servants
and your glory by their children.
R.   Lord, give success to the work of our hands.
or:
R.   Alleluia.
Alleluia PS 68:20
R.   Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed be the Lord day by day,
God, our salvation, who bears our burdens.
R.   Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel MT 13:54-58
Jesus came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue.
They were astonished and said,
“Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds?
Is he not the carpenter’s son?
Is not his mother named Mary
and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?
Are not his sisters all with us?
Where did this man get all this?”
And they took offense at him.
But Jesus said to them,
“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and in his own house.”
And he did not work many mighty deeds there
because of their lack of faith.

The post Living the Gospel of Work, Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker, May 1, 2026 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.
22 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.