Fr. Brendan McGuire - Podcasts that Break open the Word of God

Mary believed! She just did not just hear, she heard and believed. And so we too must be willing to hear and then to believe what we hear. We will need to hear and believe that we are a beloved child of God. And we are called to go share that love with others today. Not in some future year, not in some future time, but today. (Read more…)

Here is my homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Please feel free to share with others.

Stuff comes in life and stuff happens! It is hard to, in a sense, frolic and enjoy life. Joy is not about circumstances. Joy is not about what happens to us. Joy is about what we choose when stuff is happening to us. Joy is a response that we have regardless of what is happening to us. (Read more…)

Here is my homily from the Third Sunday of Advent. Please feel free to pass it on.

God bless,

Fr. Brendan

Our parish theme for the whole year is “Be still and know that I am God.” But during the advent period it is to be still and be joyful with the Lord. In the current secular climate today, we have the craziness and the busyness of Christmas. We cannot stop all the shops doing what they need to do and to try to get us ramped up and amped up on all the purchasing. But we can take a rest from it and to be still with the Lord. (Read more…)

Here is my homily from the Second Sunday of Advent. Please feel free to pass it on.

We are called in a more profound way to not try to change all the circumstances outside. We are not going to change the secular world, we are not going to change the stores. If they have goods to sell and they are going to start selling it. But we can change our attitude. See the difference between heaven and earth is not about altitude. It is about attitude. (Read more…)

Here is my homily from the First Sunday of Advent. Please feel free to pass it on.

Here is a photo taken by the James Webb telescope. Now, where are we in this universe? We are a tiny little point in the middle of that tiny place, we are so far away that you can not even see it. What is illustrated here is that the universe is massive! There are over 200 billion galaxies in the universe, and each of those galaxies has billions of stars and trillions of planets. We are in the Milky Way galaxy and we are one planet of trillions of planets. Yikes! We are just a dot in the cosmos! (Read More)

Here is my homily from the The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Please feel free to pass it on.

Life is transient. One minute you are driving along, next minute, boom, the car flies off the road and you are taken out and your life could be gone. Never take life for granted. And we do. 

What today’s reading is trying to do is to wake us up. It says, ‘Listen, look, stop, take it. Pay attention.” Jesus is saying, “Wake up, wake up. I am always here. But pay attention to me. Pay attention now. I am here. Do not wait till the end times. I am here now.” (Read more…)

Here is my homily from the Thirty-Third Sunday of Ordinary time. Please feel free to pass it on.

May God take all our loved ones to himself for all eternity. And one day, we will join him as well. Together we will be one in heaven. Until then, we will ask those clouds of witnesses to witness to us their love and help us to carry our grief and each other’s grief. (Read more…)

Here is my homily from the Thirty-Second Sunday of Ordinary time. Please feel free to pass it on.

Every time we come to the Eucharist God says that he loves us completely. So much so that he gives us Jesus Christ in his person. I want to quote Thomas Merton. Let me explain first. When the sun is shining bright, you can take a magnifying glass, focus the sun and you can set a piece of paper even on fire. Thomas Merton says that Jesus Christ is the magnifying lens which God gives us so that he can focus his love onto our hearts and set our hearts on fire with his love. (Read more…)

Here is my homily from the Thirty-First Sunday of Ordinary time. Please feel free to pass it on.

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PS - for some awesome time of prayer and reflection, take a look at the streaming sessions of our 2024 Seeds of Contemplation Retreat.

Click here

We should understand the context of today’s reading. This is Mark’s gospel, the very first gospel to be written. And remember it is a continuation from last week’s gospel, where the rich young man comes up to Jesus and asks, “What must I do to inherit kingdom of of heaven?” And he says to him, “Give away everything.”

Then James and John come along. They have given up everything. So they are thinking, I got it. We have given up everything. We are following you.” And so John asks, “Can you give us a place one at your right and the other on your left, key places of honor?” (Read More…)

Here is my homily from the Twenty-Ninth Sunday of Ordinary time. Please feel free to pass it on.

We should understand the context of today’s reading. This is Mark’s gospel, the very first gospel to be written. And remember it is a continuation from last week’s gospel, where the rich young man comes up to Jesus and asks, “What must I do to inherit kingdom of of heaven?” And he says to him, “Give away everything.”

Then James and John come along. They have given up everything. So they are thinking, I got it. We have given up everything. We are following you.” And so John asks, “Can you give us a place one at your right and the other on your left, key places of honor?” (Read More…)

Here is my homily from the Twenty-Ninth Sunday of Ordinary time. Please feel free to pass it on.