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

Over the last few weeks, we have been reading from the Gospel of John and it hammers away at this metaphor of the Good Shepherd. And today’s version is a powerful one about how a good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. That is the image, a good shepherd. But I sometimes wonder if we really internalize that message? Do we really understand what he is trying to say? (Read more…)

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

Alleluia He is Risen !

Our faith is all about God as love and how we are called to be love to one another. And we are called to bring that story alive. We gather every Sunday to tell this story but sometimes I fear that we do not really believe the story, I am not sure we are convinced about the story we tell. (Read more…)

Here is my homily from the Third Sunday of Easter. Please feel free to share with others.

Alleluia He is Risen !

We often name the gospel from this Sunday as “Doubting Thomas." One of the things that has always struck me about this particular gospel passage is that Jesus has now risen from the dead, glorious victory over death and he has wounds. Why does he have wounds? Is this what it will be like when we all are raised? We will have all our wounds or broken legs, and our bad hips. We will all have the same old things we had when we were living. (Read more…)

Here is my homily from the Second Sunday of Easter . Please feel free to share with others.

Alleluia He is Risen !

Our role is to witness to love in the world so that others will come to know and experience the joy of eternal life. In the gospel t we get a hint of what the disciples found it hard to do it. Jesus says, “Go to Galilee.” Galilee was not just a physical location, it was much more. It was where they first met Jesus, where they first fell in love with Jesus. (Read more…)

Here is my homily from Easter Sunday. Please feel free to share with others.

I hope you had a blessed Easter - Alleluia He is Risen !

We look upon Jesus on the cross and we take all our suffering wherever we have been, whether we have witnessed it, whether we are currently in the middle of it or when we are indifferent to it. We talk to Christ and accept his invitation of the cross to move beyond the cross. (Read more…)

Here is my homily from Good Friday. Please feel free to share with others.

When we witness something that is powerful, we tend to want to immediately mirror it. Our brains wire immediately to repeat it. If we witness a young person helping an elderly person we will typically say, “Wow, that is really wonderful. ” Our brain is now rewiring to repeat something like that for ourselves within the next twenty four hours. We will attempt to mirror that because we witnessed it. Now, it also happens with bad things. (Read more…)

Here is my homily from Holy Thursday. Please feel free to share with others.

We tend to think there are good people in the world and there are bad people in the world. Of course, we are part of good people, right? I mean, we do not ever consider ourselves bad, so we are the good ones. And they, whoever they are, are the bad ones. The challenge with that is that it is simply not reality as much as we want to believe it. (Read more…)

Here is my homily from Palm Sunday. Please feel free to share with others. Wishing you a reflective and prayerful Holy Week.

There is something inside of us that we have to let go for something new to grow within us. We have to surrender to it for new growth to happen. In fact, we believe in it so much that we have a whole season dedicated called Lent. We must die to so much of ourselves and let something new grow, but it is cooperation with the grace of God that we can move forward.  (Read more…)

Here is my homily from the Fifth Sunday of Lent. Please feel free to share with others. I hope you had a great St. Patrick's day!

Every action needs to ooze and come forward from that very sight that we want peace. Because peace is the loving relationship and right relationship with God. Because we know that is so hard to do, we come to receive the peace here with the body and blood of Christ. We come here to receive what we promise to become out in the world. (Read more…)

Here is my homily from the FourthSunday of Lent. Please feel free to share with others.

Sabbath became a way to understand and treasure people's time and leisure.   It enhanced the people's relationship with God   while intensifying their shared identity.
 Keeping the Sabbath holy was another way that  Israel better appreciated the sacredness surrounding them  and highlighted places and practices  that sharpened their awareness of the presence of God  and indeed the meaning of their life.

(Read More...)