St. Patrick Catholic Parish Podcast

In this homily, given Palm Sunday, 2025, Dcn. Josh breaks down the meaning of compassion: to suffer with. As we enter into Holy Week, we have an opportunity to have compassion on Christ, who had compassion on us first.

On the 5th Sunday of Lent, April 6th, 2025, Fr. Joshua Fons dives into the question "when do we get old?" It's not just a certain number of years, or a lack of hair, it's when we stop believing life has anything new to offer. And nothing ages the human heart like sin, and the acceptance of sin. But there is good news: the Lord wants to bring renewal to your heart, just like he did with the woman caught in adultery, just like he did with St. Paul.

In this brief homily given on March 23, 2025, Fr Mathias preaches on the relationship between our desires for things in this life and our ultimate desire for God who alone can fulfill us. He ends his homily with an exhortation to call on the Holy Spirit, the living water, to fill us.

In this homily given on March 16, 2025 Fr Mathias breaks down St Peter's warning to the Christians in Philippi and applies it to us today.  After all, who we allow to influence us through media or in person matters a lot. 

Father Mathias offers three criteria for discerning the bad influencers in our lives.  This helps us to have the clarity of mind and heart to pursue heaven and helps us to be better to fulfill our mission to be "influencers" to the world around us. 

On the first Sunday of Lent, Fr. Joshua Fons unpacks the temptation of Jesus in the Desert, showing how Christ faced these temptations because He knew we would face them to. Just as with Christ, the Devil tries to attack our identity as beloved sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, trying to get us to lose trust in our loving God. But Jesus has better plans for us, and shows us how to defeat the Devil's lies.

In this homily, given Sunday, March 2nd, 2025, Dcn. Josh explains the importance of preparing for Easter, which is accomplished by entering into Lent well. And if Easter is worth preparing for, then it is worth having a plan for Lent. 

He then suggests two ways to discern what to commit to this Lent. The first is to discern using the three pillars of Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. The second is to do a review of life in which areas of focus are highlighted by comparing our life as it is right now with the life we know the Lord is calling us to live.

In this homily given on February 23rd, 2025 Fr Mathias preaches on the high standard of love that Jesus calls us to: to love our enemies.  When it comes to our love, we are meant to be different from those around us.  But when we take our eyes off of Jesus and his standard of love, we begin to compare ourselves with lukewarm Catholics and the culture around us and falsely conclude we're living up to the kind of love Jesus calls us to.  

The true standard of love is not loving those who love us, but loving those who do not love us.  We are to be merciful just as God is merciful.  God shows us his mercy in Jesus and he calls us to live like him.  Father ends his homily by offering two tips to help us to love our enemies.

In this homily given on Sunday, February 16th, 2025 Father Joshua Fons explores the timeless Christian theme of the Two Ways: one way that leads to eternal life, and one way that leads to destruction. Tying together the Scriptures, and his own hiking experience, he exhorts us to walk in the way of the Lord.

In this homily given on February 9th, 2025 Fr Mathias preaches about the common experience of becoming aware of our unworthiness when God draws near to us. Just as Jesus tells Peter to not be afraid when he encounters the presence of God in the miracle of the fish, Jesus tells us not to be afraid when we suddenly become aware of our sin and unworthiness in his presence. God does not call the worthy, he makes worthy the called.  Rather than being afraid of God because of our sin or worse, not having any fear of God, we are to ask Jesus for holy fear of God, a reverence and awe at who he is and how much he loves us.

On the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord (February 2nd, 2025), Father Joshua Fons explores Simeon's proclamation, a prayer that is prayed by thousands and thousands around the world as part of Night Prayer each night. Simeon saw God's promises for the Salvation of His People coming to pass right before his very eyes, and if we have the eyes to see the same is true for us. This is particularly true through the Sacrament of Baptism, and how it is the means by which we are brought into God's promises for our own salvation.