St. Patrick Catholic Parish Podcast

In this homily, preached on October 25, 2026, Fr. Peter concludes the mini-series on end-of-life issues by preaching on the Church's principles regarding end-of-life care. He begins by stating that the intention for using or forgoing a treatment can never be to kill the patient. Then, he explains the difference between Ordinary and Extraordinary means. Ordinary means are morally obligatory. For a treatment to be Ordinary means, it must provide reasonable hope of benefiting the patient and not be excessively burdensome to the patient and not impose an excessive expense on the family or community. Extraordinary means are those treatments that do not provide reasonable hope of benefiting the patient (they are futile) or are excessively burdensome to the patient or impose an excessive expense on the family or community. Extraordinary means are optional. Fr. Peter then clarifies that food and water (even through a feeding tube and IV) are always considered ordinary means until the person's body can no longer digest them. Fr. Peter then covers comas, advanced directives, and ventilators. Lastly, he states that Catholics do not have to try every possible treatment to keep their loved ones alive for as long as possible. If a treatment is recognized as extraordinary means, it can be declined. His practical for the week is to pray every day for the grace of a happy death, both for one's self and for loved ones. The link the National Catholic Bioethics Center is here (https://www.ncbcenter.org/).

In this homily, preached on October 18, 2026, Fr. Peter begins a mini-series on end-of-life issues by preaching on the Anointing of the Sick. He covers the primary graces and the essential rite of the Anointing of the Sick. He then covers the requirements for someone to be anointed. Having covered those fundamental points, he moves on to answering some common questions about the Anointing of the Sick and discussing when to call the priest for the Anointing of the Sick. Lastly, he touches upon the Apostolic Pardon. His practical for the week is to pray for those who are dying, since the moment of death is such a crucial moment in people's lives.

In this homily, delivered on October 11, 2026, Fr. Peter preaches on the mission of St. Pat's Catholic Church. The parish's mission is to make Spirit-filled missionary disciples of Jesus for the glory of the Father. The parish strives to help nonbelievers become disciples and to help those who are already disciples to mature in their faith. A core part of this mission is to get parishioners to enter small groups. As a way of gauging how the parish is doing at its mission, there is an annual survey to see where people are in the Five Thresholds of Conversion and whether they are in small groups. Fr. Peter walks through the Five Thresholds of Conversion and leads the congregation in a prayer to commit their lives to Jesus. At the end of the homily, he encourages everyone to take the survey.

In this homily given by Fr. Tim Nelson on Sunday, October 4th, 2026, he  interprets Jesus’ parable of the Wicked Tenants as an allegory about God, Jerusalem, Israel’s leaders, the prophets, Jesus, and the Church. Its central message is that true life only comes from being faithfully obedient to God’s will. Sin, on the other hand, separates us from God. Pride is the chief obstacle to faithful obedience to God's will, and humility as its remedy—not self-degradation, but a grounded acceptance of reality and a dependence on God. Because human beings are created in God’s image, loved by Him, and called to share in His divine life, they must learn to love God and pray with Jesus, “Father… not as I will, but as you will.” The homily concludes by noting that God provides opportunities to grow in humility in our day to day lives. Fr. Tim offered two examples; one from his prior profession as a cardiologist; and one from a gentleman whose severely disabled step-son humbly admitted to his mother,  “Mom, I am the wounds of Christ.”

In this homily given on September 27th 2026, Fr Mathias breaks open Philippians 2 and challenges us to love others and not judge them.  St Paul exhorts us to humbly regard others as more important than yourselves.  Because they think they are better, proud people look down on others for their faults and failures and judge them.  Humble people because they don't see themselves as better than others seek to give the benefit of the doubt and have compassion on others.  The difference is love.

Father challenges us to have the mindset of Jesus who made himself a slave of us in our faults and failings.  He challenges us to ask Jesus to show us the roots of our judgment of others.  If judgement and pride in the Christian are ugly and repulsive to unbelievers around us., loving humbly like Jesus is very attractive. 

Father ends his homily inviting us to ask Jesus for his gift of love for those around us. 

In this homily, delivered on September 20, 2026, Fr. Peter preaches on the reality that there is no wasted time with God. We can often be tempted to think that God cannot redeem our past. For example, if we failed our kids in the past, did not start to pray until later in life, or keep falling into the same sin, then the messy situations we find ourselves in cannot truly be redeemed or that we will never be as holy as we should have been. Fr. Peter speaks the truth into that temptation: God can redeem every situation if we allow Him to do so. Because Jesus died on the Cross, He can use the broken situations to draw us close to Himself. This does not give us permission to sin but does give us hope for our lives and helps us to ward off discouragement. Fr. Peter challenges us to ask the Father to redeem some situation in our lives in which we feel that the past cannot be redeemed, whether it be years of less-than-perfect parenting, a very distracted prayer time, or yet another fall into our habitual sin. By making this prayer, we are giving the Father permission to redeem all things in our lives.

In this homily, delivered on September 13, 2026, Fr. Peter preaches on the goodness of the Father. He points out that our way of viewing God heavily impacts the way that we approach Him and live our lives. The parable of the Unforgiving Servant reveals the great mercy of God. The servant owed an unpayable debt, but the king chose to forgive him; in the same way, the Father is incredibly merciful to us and wants to forgive all of our sins. However, the servant, perhaps because he did not believe that the king was truly that merciful, tried to make another servant pay back a much smaller amount. The king respected the servant's decision to try to pay back the debt and handed him over to the torturers until he repaid the debt. If we believe that God is not truly the Father that He says He is, then we will end up holding onto our sins and choose not to forgive others, and God will respect that decision. However, that does not end up well for us in this life or the next. The Father has so much more for us than that. The Father wants us to live in freedom, peace, and joy both in this life and the next. He wants us to know Who He truly is and live in accord with that reality. Fr. Peter invites us to ask the Father to reveal His love and mercy to us so that we can live in the freedom and joy that the Father has always wanted to give us.

In this homily, delivered on August 23, 2026, Fr. Peter preaches on what it means to be a good steward. Stewardship involves receiving everything from the Father then giving it all back to Him out of love and gratitude. Since this dynamic of giving and receiving is at the heart of the Trinity, being a good steward is actually a participation in divine life. This is made concrete in our daily lives by giving of our time, talent, and treasure. Fr. Peter walks through examples of what it means to give of our time, talent, and treasure. His practical for the week is to spend ten minutes praying about stewardship. In the first five minutes, reflect on the time, talent, and treasure that God has given you, and in the second five minutes, ask the Father how He wants you to give of your time, talent, and treasure to those you are called to love. This is the first part of a two-part series on stewardship.

In this homily, delivered on August 2, 2026, Fr. Peter preaches on the reality that food is for communion. In today's world, there is a lot of discussion and debate surrounding food, and many people wrestle with how to feed themselves and their children. In addition, many people have a broken relationship with food because of stress-eating, concern about body image, and other such things. It can be so easy to be caught up in what or what not to eat, that we often do not consider why we eat. Food is for communion, both with God and with others. God did not have to make food, but chose to create food so that we could be united with Him and others through it. In both the Old and the New Testaments, God uses food to draw His People into communion with Himself, and the ultimate expression of this is in the Eucharist. Fr. Peter invites the congregation to approach daily meals as a way to enter into communion with God and others, allowing the grace before meals to be a practical reminder that we are about to enter into a time of communion. 

In this homily given on the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time (July 5, 2026), Father Mathias preaches the parable of the treasure buried in the field.  He outlines three reasons why people don't joyfully sell all they have (surrender) to secure the treasure of Jesus.  

1) They simply haven't found Jesus yet. 
2) They have found him, but they're not convinced of his real value
3) They have found him and they're convinced of his value, but they refuse to change and repent.

After relating this parable to the five thresholds of conversion and the mission of St Pat's, Father ends his homily challenging us to identify our hesitancy and resist joyfully selling all that we have to secure Jesus our treasure.