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Home / Homily Resources - Page 163
  • 24 August. St Bartholomew, Apostle

    1st Reading: Revelation (21:9-14) The City of God has twelve gates, representing the twelve apostles One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And in the spirit he carried me…

    Read More 24 August. St Bartholomew, ApostleContinue

  • 23 August. Thursday, Week 20

    1st Reading: Ezekiel (36:23-28) The exiles return to their promised land, purified and renewed in spirit, and so enabled to keep God’s law The Lord says this, “I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them; and the nations shall know that I am…

    Read More 23 August. Thursday, Week 20Continue

  • 22 August. The Queenship of Mary

    1st Reading: Isaiah (9:1-6) God’s promise of joy and restoration to those who sat in darkness There will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way,…

    Read More 22 August. The Queenship of MaryContinue

  • 21 August. Tuesday, Week 20

    1st Reading: Ezekiel (28:1-10) God warns the proud, wealthy seaport metropolis of Tyre The word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord God: Because your heart is proud and you have said, “I am a god; I sit in the seat of the gods, in…

    Read More 21 August. Tuesday, Week 20Continue

  • 20 August. Monday, Week 20

    1st Reading: Ezekiel (24:15-23) He does not publicly mourn his wife’s death, as a sign that Jerusalem too will die The word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes; yet you shall not mourn or weep, nor shall your…

    Read More 20 August. Monday, Week 20Continue

  • Liturgy | Presider's Page

    Presider’s Page for 19 August (Ordinary Time 20)

    Whoever eats the flesh of the Lord and drinks his blood will live for ever. We celebrate Jesus’ promise, believing we will share the eternal destiny of all who have this divine life in them.

    Read More Presider’s Page for 19 August (Ordinary Time 20)Continue

  • Sunday Homily Resources

    19 August. 20th Sunday

    1st Reading: Proverbs (9:1-6) Wisdom has built her house, with seven pillars Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn herself seven pillars. She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table. She has sent out her servant girls, she calls from the highest places in the town,…

    Read More 19 August. 20th SundayContinue

  • 18 August. Saturday, Week 19

    1st Reading: Ezekiel (18:1-10, 13, 30-32) Each individual is responsible to God, for our own actions The word of the Lord came to me: “What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? As I live, says…

    Read More 18 August. Saturday, Week 19Continue

  • 17 August. Friday, Week 19

    (Or option: Our Lady of Knock, Readings from the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Lectionary II, 1421-1449) 1st Reading: Ezekiel (16:1-15) Israel is like a baby girl, neglected but later espoused and loved by God The word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, make known to Jerusalem her abominations, and say, Thus says…

    Read More 17 August. Friday, Week 19Continue

  • 16 August. Thursday, Week 19

    1st Reading: Ezekiel (12:1-12) Ezekiel mimes going into exile, as a warning to the people The word of the Lord came to me: “Mortal, you are living in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see but do not see, who have ears to hear but do not hear; for they are…

    Read More 16 August. Thursday, Week 19Continue

  • Liturgy | Presider's Page

    Presider’s Page for 15 August (Assumption of the BVM)

    We worship God who brought Mary to the glory of heaven this day. We celebrate her Assumption, the tangible reminder that the resurrection of Jesus brings victory over death for all who believe.

    Read More Presider’s Page for 15 August (Assumption of the BVM)Continue

  • 14 August. Tuesday, Week 19

    1st Reading: Ezekiel (2:8-3:4) The prophet eats the scroll, so he can speak the word of God The Lord said to me, “But you, mortal, hear what I say to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.” I looked, and a hand was stretched…

    Read More 14 August. Tuesday, Week 19Continue

  • 13 August. Monday, Week 19

    1st Reading: Ezekiel (1:1-5, 24-28) The four cherubim that carry God’s glory on the wing In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. On the fifth day of…

    Read More 13 August. Monday, Week 19Continue

  • Liturgy | Presider's Page

    Presider’s Page for 12 August (Ordinary Time 19)

    We gather together as friends, called by the Lord to forgive each other as quickly as God forgives us.

    Read More Presider’s Page for 12 August (Ordinary Time 19)Continue

  • Sunday Homily Resources

    12 August. 19th Sunday

    1st Reading: 1 Kings (19:4-8) Elijah is a dispirited; but revived by food and drink, he reaches the mountain of God Elijah went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life,…

    Read More 12 August. 19th SundayContinue

  • 11 August. Saturday, Week 18

    1st Reading: Habakkuk (1:12–2:4) The prophet questions God and learns that the just will live by faith Are you not from of old, O Lord my God, my Holy One? You shall not die. O Lord, you have marked them for judgment; and you, O Rock, have established them for punishment. Your eyes are too…

    Read More 11 August. Saturday, Week 18Continue

  • 10 August. Saint Lawrence

    1st Reading: 2 Corinthians (9:6-10) Whoever sows richly will also reap richly Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows richly will also reap richly. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to…

    Read More 10 August. Saint LawrenceContinue

  • 09 August. Saint Teresa Benedicta

    1st Reading: Hosea (2:16-17; 21-22) God’s love for his people is like a husband’s love for a wife On that day, says the Lord, you will call me, “My husband,” and no longer will you call me, “My Baal.” For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be…

    Read More 09 August. Saint Teresa BenedictaContinue

  • 08 August. Wednesday, Week 18

    1st Reading: Jeremiah (31:1-7) Jeremiah foretells the reunion of Israel’s northern tribes with Jerusalem At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. Thus says the Lord: “The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness; when Israel sought…

    Read More 08 August. Wednesday, Week 18Continue

  • 07 August. Tuesday, Week 18

    1st Reading: Jeremiah (30:1-2, 12-15, 18-22) After the exile the people will return home to their own land The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you. For thus says the Lord: Your hurt…

    Read More 07 August. Tuesday, Week 18Continue

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  • 5 comments

    22 Feb 2026 – 1st Sunday of Lent (A)

    February 22 2026
    Sean O'Conaill
    CCC 2552 : "The Tenth Commandment forbids avarice arising from a passion for riches and their attendant power." This is a classic missing of the point. Girard is surely correct in calling covetousness a 'metaphysical' desire - a futile desire for the BEING of another person - whatever it is that gives that person an apparently far superior 'status' in the eyes of others. To tranmute covetousness into avarice is, crucially, to miss the imminent potential for violence in this futile desire - and especially the dynamic behind all dangerous rivalries - the Cain and Abel / Saul and David / Caesar and Pompey / Constantine and Maxentius / Constantine and Licinius problem. So the CCC is a late Christendom product, averting its gaze from what lies behind all violence - fear of the negative judgement of others because of what one lacks in comparison to someone else. Avarice is easier to think and write about than violence, so why not go there in explaining covetousness? Missing as it does also this highly dangerous chemistry in the opposition to Jesus, the Catechism therefore also lacks a genealogy of violence, even a willingness to face that problem squarely. No wonder then that we get in YouCat that rhetorical excess of attributing the death of Jesus to God alone - the dismissal of the 'tragic external circumstances' of the crucifixion as of no account. Inevitably this mistakenly compromises the Father in the violence of the Crucifixion, when Jesus acceptance of the Cross was very clearly a REJECTION of violence, in accordance with the will of the Father. So what, then, were the particular sins of Jesus's enemies that were 'taken away' by his forgiveness? When will theologians and homilists (and the Catechism) get around to discussing that - especially the obvious fact that those sins were NOT sexual?
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  • 5 comments

    22 Feb 2026 – 1st Sunday of Lent (A)

    February 22 2026
    Joe O'Leary
    CCC 1866 lists pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth; envy is discussed alongside covetousness in the section on the Tenth Commandment. The Baltimore Catechism had: Pride, Covetousness, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Envy, and Sloth. Wikipedia gives a list of Evagrius, translated by John Cassian: Gula (gluttony) Luxuria/Fornicatio (lust, fornication) Avaritia (greed) Tristitia (sorrow, despair, despondency) Ira (wrath) Acedia (sloth) Vanagloria (vanity, vainglory) Superbia (pride) In AD 590, Pope Gregory I revised this, and in order of increasing severity lists lust, gluttony, avarice, sloth, wrath, envy, pride. He combined tristitia with acedia; combined vanagloria with superbia; and added envy, invidia.
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  • 5 comments

    22 Feb 2026 – 1st Sunday of Lent (A)

    February 22 2026
    Sean O'Conaill
    "Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour..." This was very obviously a temptation to covet - to want something currently possessed by someone else - and therefore also a temptation to violence, since the current rulers of those kingdoms would not relinquish them readily. If we still so seldom hear warnings about the importance of Commandments Nine and Ten - and the word 'covetousness' is replaced by 'avarice' in the list of seven 'deadly' sins in Article 1866 of the 1994 Catechism, why is that? Given that avarice can be satisfied simply by amassing money legally it is not at all the same thing as covetousness - which fastens on something proudly owned by someone else and is therefore likely to be a cause of both enmity and conflict. Covetousness was often what drove Christian rulers into conflict with one another in the long centuries of Christendom but, beholden to those same rulers for protection and patronage, Christian churchmen could not easily point that out. Eventually, in the global conflict of World War 1 1914-18, this association of the churches with warring covetous empires disgraced those churches as well - and secularism burgeoned everywhere. That a 21st century US president might covet a large arctic island, the colonial possession of a small European country, makes that word indispensable again - because here too we see the potential for not only conflict but the destruction of an alliance that has lasted since the last Great War of 1939-45. This surely was why we were warned originally against covetousness, and why in particular we need to heed and cherish Jesus' renunciation of this temptation. Covetousness - allowing our more affluent neighbours to determine our desires - explains not only absurd fashion crazes but the global climate crisis, for it lies at the root of all insatiability, all futile consumerism. Can our ministers see and explain this to the young, before the churches disappear altogether due to perceived irrelevance - like the word 'covetousness' itself? You did not need what others possessed, O Lord. Teach us to seek what you had and still have - that closeness to the Father that puts an end to all wanting!
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  • 5 comments

    22 Feb 2026 – 1st Sunday of Lent (A)

    February 22 2026
    Joe O’Leary
    The Lenten Medicine of Mercy Pope Francis spoke of the Church as a field hospital, coming to the aid of the wounded. Every year, at a well-timed moment, the Church comes to our aid with the medicines of Lent. We are all wounded by sin, and the medicines the Church proposes include repentance, penance, prayer, holy discipline, good deeds, recollection (mindfulness), spiritual reading, the sacraments--all well-known homely remedies, which restore us to spiritual health. Psalm 50, the Miserere, strikes the keynote of Lent and is itself a vehicle of the graces that flow so freely in this season. The context of the psalm is mentioned in the words introducing it: ‘A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.’ In fact, David had also committed murder at the service of adultery, by having Bathsheba’s inconvenient husband, Uriah, placed in the front line of the battle against the Ammonites. (He wrote to Joab, his most brutal general: ‘Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down and die,’ 2 Sam 11:15). We may suppose that David committed both sins with no consciousness of sinning. But Nathan told a story that prompted David to condemn himself out of his own mouth: There was a poor man who ‘had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.’ But a rich man ‘took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man’ and prepared it for a guest of his. ‘David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die!”’ Nathan replies with two words that pierce the conscience of David like a sharp arrow: ‘atta ha-ish… Ýou are the man!’ Unanswerably convicted of transgression and guilt, David acknowledges the truth in two words: ‘chetati le Adonai... I have sinned against the Lord.’ As the chapter shows (2 Samuel 12), it is not only against the Lord that David has sinned. The human wreckage caused by his secret sin includes the disgraceful betrayal of his nation’s honour by having Uriah slain by the enemy. This aspect is not taken up in the psalm, which places the sinner before God, bracketing out all the concrete details of the sin and the damage it has caused. Another aspect not taken up in the psalm is the contrast between David’s shifty private behaviour and the public exposure of his crime ‘in broad daylight before Israel’ (2 Sam 12:12). The omission of concrete details makes the psalm one that any sinner can use. One might expect sinners to be crushed by the weight of their sins and to sit down in despair. But the psalm makes the sin an occasion of grace, and enables the sinner to discover the reality of God, not only as judge, but as one whose very nature is to have mercy. That is the first note the psalm strikes: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Relentless condemnation, often sweeping up the innocent as well as the guilty, is the favoured tone of our public discourse, and severe punishment is our remedy for every ill. We forget or reject Pope John XXIII’s stress on ‘the medicine of mercy’ in his opening speech at Vatican II. If we seek this medicine for ourselves at the beginning of Lent, should we not apply it to ‘those who trespass against us’? A second positive note struck by the psalm is cleansing: Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin… Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Lent will bring a daily inner cleansing and will culminate in healing waters: those of the Cross: ‘Wash me, ye waters, streaming from his side,’ and those of baptism, bringing the new life of Easter. A third positive note is knowledge of self, which goes hand in hand with knowledge of God: For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. The prayer of repentance places us in an ‘I-Thou relationship’ with God, one in which we learn wisdom from God in the secret place of the heart. A fourth positive note is joy: Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. A fifth positive note is sanctification: Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Luther and Calvin carefully distinguish the free, unmerited justification of the sinner from the sanctification that follows upon it. ‘Son, your sins are forgiven’ (Mk 2:5) are the first healing gift of Christ, and the second is: ‘Stand up and walk.’ In Lent we may hope to hear both words and to receive both graces, lifted from the paralysis of sin by the Lord’s mercy and made able to walk in newness of life by his Spirit.
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