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

Sometimes we underestimate the power of the faith of the disciples as they go up the mountain with Jesus because they already believed in Jesus. They did not go up the mountain to see and believe. It was the other way around. They already believed. They went up the mountain believing in Jesus. And when they saw, they were confirmed in their faith. (Read more…)

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

What is the purpose of a test to evaluate your ability? A teacher gives you a test to validate that you already know something. It is not to teach you something. A test only evaluates or confirms what you already know. Jesus was driven into the desert by the Spirit to be tested, to confirm what he already knew. (Read more…)

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

Lent is the time for us to turn back and to come home and follow the way back to the Lord. How are we going to find our way? Every year the church gives us three bright lights to take us home. The first light is prayer. The second one is fasting. And the third one is almsgiving. They may not seem obvious as lights, but once we start to understand what they are, they are bright lights that show us the way home. (Read more…)

Here is my homily for Ash Wednesday. Please feel free to share with others.

We need to see, again, with eyes of faith and to act on what we see, which requires some discipline; that is what the root word of discipleship is. What does that discipline look like for us? For Lent, we do it for 40 days. And we talk about extra prayer, we talk about fasting, and we talk about alms giving. That all integrates into the same thing, which is a metanoia, a conversion of our heart towards Christ to see, with eyes of faith, to see ourselves as wounded people who need forgiveness, who need healing. (Read more…)

Here is my homily for the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time and the Sunday before Lent. Please feel free to share with others.

Contagious! Contagious! Good behavior is actually neurologically contagious in our brains! This is very good news!  We need more of this and we need to be around more of this for it to stick. That is why community is so important because when we witness morally good behavior, we tend to want more of it and replicate more of it. (Read more…)

Here is my homily for the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time. This was the Kickoff for the Annual Diocesan Appeal and I have included the kickoff presentation in this homily.

We are called to be men and women of love, of gentleness, of kindness, of forgiveness, of healing, of truth and beauty. It requires of us to light a lamp of goodness, of love in people's lives. May we seek to be lamplighters that leave a legacy and a trail of love behind us for all to see. (Read more…)

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

What makes a Catholic parish and a Catholic school is the involvement of the parents and the community. That is what binds us together. It is a testimony not just of our faith, but it is who we believe in. We believe and follow Jesus. We are not just fans but we follow him. (Read more…)

Here is my homily for the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time. Please feel free to share with others.

We need to do some work learning to steady and slow our soul down. To just be with the Lord and to learn to listen for his voice. To be able to say what Samuel says, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.” We have got some work to do, my friends, because the busyness of our lives with the number of inputs that we are getting, it is hard to sort it all out. (Read more…)

We can learn a lot from the Magi, and we can learn a lot from this particular passage from Matthew's gospel. It is very rich with meaning and symbols. Let us listen to this challenge that we are called to follow the light that brings us to Christ. We are called to offer our gifts to Christ and the world in service to his kingdom. And we are called to allow ourselves to be converted, and then we are called to welcome others to the table. (Read more…)

Your love matters in this world, and we want it not just for our nuclear family, but for the whole human family. It is important that we love one another because love matters to our last day, to our last breath from child to parent, from parent to child. (Read more…)

Here is my homily for the Feast of the Holy Family. Please feel free to share with others.

Happy New Year to all!