Skip to main content
Father Nick Blaha Homily Cast

Father Nick Blaha Homily Cast

By Father Nick Blaha

Homilies and talks delivered by Father Nick Blaha, pastor of Christ the King and Blessed Sacrament parishes in Kansas City, Kansas

Support using Bitcoin⚡️ on any Podcasting 2.0 app

fountain.fm/fathernick?code=8ad001ce12
Available on
Apple Podcasts Logo
Castbox Logo
Google Podcasts Logo
Overcast Logo
Pocket Casts Logo
RadioPublic Logo
Spotify Logo
Currently playing episode

RIVER JORDAN RESOLUTIONS - Homily for the Baptism of the Lord

Father Nick Blaha Homily CastJan 09, 2022

00:00
08:44
ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES - Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Lent

ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES - Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Lent

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.
You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me.


(republished from 2021)

Feb 25, 202410:21
COVENANT AND HOPE - Homily for the First Sunday of Lent

COVENANT AND HOPE - Homily for the First Sunday of Lent

"Events happen to us pleasant or painful; we do not know at the time the meaning of them, we do not see God's hand in them. If indeed we have faith, we confess what we do not see, and take all that happens as His; but whether we will accept it in faith or not, certainly there is no other way of accepting it. We see nothing. We see not why things come, or whither they tend. Jacob cried out on one occasion, "All these things are against me;" [Gen. xlii. 36.] certainly so they seemed to be. One son made away with by the rest, another in prison in a foreign land, a third demanded;—"Me have ye bereaved of my children; Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me." Yet all these things were working for good. Or pursue the fortunes of the favourite and holy youth who was the first taken from him; sold by his brethren to strangers, carried into Egypt, tempted by a very perilous temptation, overcoming it but not rewarded, thrown into prison, the iron entering into his soul, waiting there till the Lord should be gracious, and "look down from heaven;" but waiting—why? and how long? It is said again and again in the sacred narrative, "The Lord was with Joseph;" but do you think he saw at the time any tokens of God? any tokens, except so far as by faith he realized them, in faith he saw them? His faith was its own reward; which to the eye of reason was no reward at all, for faith forsooth did but judge of things by that standard which it had originally set up, and pronounce that Joseph was happy because he ought to be so. Thus though the Lord was with him, apparently all things were against him. Yet afterwards he saw, what was so mysterious at the time;—"God did send me before you," he said to his brethren, "to preserve life ... It was not you that sent me hither, but God; and He hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt"…

--Saint John Henry Newman, The Darkness of Faith

Feb 18, 202422:10
LA ATMÓSFERA DE LA VERDAD - Homilia para el 6o domingo del tiempo ordinario

LA ATMÓSFERA DE LA VERDAD - Homilia para el 6o domingo del tiempo ordinario

La importancia de una formación verdaderamente católica

Feb 11, 202421:42
DETACHMENT - Homily for the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

DETACHMENT - Homily for the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

“The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for, until the cord be broken the bird cannot fly.” —Saint John of the Cross
Jan 21, 202415:50
LOOKING, LOVING - Homily for the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

LOOKING, LOVING - Homily for the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

"There are those who, while they recognize the glory of God as well as the importance of man and the call addressed to him in general, believe in false humility, that the call is meant for all others but not for their own person. They deem their own person too wretched to dare assume that they may refer the divine call to themselves. They would hide in a corner and play the part of mere onlookers. The sight of their wretchedness impels them to exclude themselves from the great dialogue between God and man. This ostensible excess of humility, for all the diffidence it involves, is not free of an element of pride. For here, once more, man presumes to decide himself where he stands, instead of leaving that decision to God. Yet, this is precisely the test of true humility, that one no longer presumes to judge whether or not one is too miserable to be included in the call to sanctity but simply answers the merciful love of God by sinking down in adoration." -- Dietrich von Hildebrand, Transformation in Christ

Jan 14, 202414:32
THE BLESSING AND CHALLENGE - Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family

THE BLESSING AND CHALLENGE - Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family

"The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children."

G.K. Chesterton

Dec 31, 202313:19
THE PLAN WAS MADE FLESH - Homily for Christmas Day

THE PLAN WAS MADE FLESH - Homily for Christmas Day

Delivered at Christ the King, Kansas City, KS

Dec 25, 202309:55
EL PLAN SE HECHO HUMANO - Homilia de la Navidad del Señor

EL PLAN SE HECHO HUMANO - Homilia de la Navidad del Señor

Feliz y Santa Navidad a todos

Dec 25, 202308:15
HOPE AND WORK - Homily for the First Sunday of Advent

HOPE AND WORK - Homily for the First Sunday of Advent

Delivered at Christ the King Church, Kansas City, KS

Dec 03, 202312:32
TO MORNING GLORY - Homily for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Oct 29, 202323:07
TRIANGULISM - Homily for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

TRIANGULISM - Homily for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

I forgot to acknowledge the wonderful essay by Tom Hoopes of Benedictine College for most of the content for this homily. View it here:

https://media.benedictine.edu/this-sunday-forgiveness-is-hard-correction-is-harder-one-thing-is-needed?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=273424581&utm_content=273424581&utm_source=hs_email

Sep 10, 202316:20
¿TRIÁNGULO O CRUZ? - Homilia del 23o domingo del tiempo ordinario

¿TRIÁNGULO O CRUZ? - Homilia del 23o domingo del tiempo ordinario

Noble no es el alma que nada hiere, sino la que pronto sana.

--Don Colacho

Sep 10, 202318:04
SHIP SHAPE - Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

SHIP SHAPE - Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The C.S. Lewis "Doodle" can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtTeCyrgjIQ

Aug 20, 202316:51
ENTHRONED - Homily for the Feast of the Transfiguration
Aug 06, 202317:48
HAPPINESS WITH A CAPITAL H - Homily for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

HAPPINESS WITH A CAPITAL H - Homily for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

"The more I buy, the more I'm bought / and the more I'm bought, the less I cost"

--Joe Pug, "Hymn #109"

Jul 30, 202313:14
JPII AND YOU - Homily for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

JPII AND YOU - Homily for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Pope Saint John Paul II, born Karol Wojtyla, was above all a preacher of God's Word. Much of his priesthood, episcopacy, and papacy was dedicated to opening the Scriptures so that they could bring life to the faithful. His formulation of the Law of the Gift offers us the chance to consider the ways in which we approach life as a game to be played rather than a gift to be shared, and to be converted to the full truth of the Gospel.

Jul 02, 202320:07
ONE TO ONE - Homily for the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time

ONE TO ONE - Homily for the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Jesus wants me to tell you again, especially in this Holy Week, how much is the love He has for each one of you – beyond all you can imagine.  I worry some of you still have not really met Jesus – one to one – you and Jesus alone. We may spend time in chapel – but have you seen with eyes of your soul how He looks at you with love?  Do you really know the living Jesus – not from books but from being with Him in your heart?  Have you heard the loving words He speaks to you?  Ask for the grace, He is longing simply to give it.  Until you can hear Jesus in the silence of your own heart, you will not be able to hear Him saying ‘I Thirst’ in the hearts of the poor.  Never give up this intimate contact with Jesus as a real living person – not just an idea.  How can we last even one day living our life without hearing Jesus say ‘I love you’ – impossible.  Our soul needs that as much as the body needs to breathe the air.  If not, prayer is dead – meditation only thinking.”

--Mother Teresa, "Varanasi Letter"

Jun 18, 202312:10
NO SHORTCUTS - Homily for a Nuptial Mass

NO SHORTCUTS - Homily for a Nuptial Mass

Delivered at Most Pure Heart of Mary Catholic Church, Topeka, KS

9 June 2023

Congratulations and prayers to Mr. and Mrs. Gentry

Jun 09, 202317:53
CLING TO ME, FOR I HAVE ASCENDED - Homily for the Ascension

CLING TO ME, FOR I HAVE ASCENDED - Homily for the Ascension

First, thank you for your prayers for the principal search. I am pleased to announce we have hired a principal for the coming school year, Alex Weibel. Read about it at https://telegra.ph/Welcome-Alex-Weibel-as-Principal-of-Christ-the-King-School-05-20

Early in the morning on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalen went to the tomb, and found the stone moved away from the tomb door. So she came running to Simon Peter, and that other disciple, whom Jesus loved; They have carried the Lord away from the tomb, she said to them, and we cannot tell where they have taken him... The disciples went back home; but Mary stood without before the tomb, weeping. And she bent down, still weeping, and looked into the tomb; and saw two angels clothed in white sitting there, one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. They said to her, Woman, why art thou weeping? Because they have carried away my Lord, she said, and I cannot tell where they have taken him. Saying this, she turned round, and saw Jesus standing there, without knowing that it was Jesus. Woman, Jesus said to her, why art thou weeping? For whom art thou searching? She supposed that it must be the gardener, and said to him, If it is thou, Sir, that hast carried him off, tell me where thou hast put him, and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary. And she turned and said to him, Rabboni (which is the Hebrew for Master). Then Jesus said, Do not cling to me thus; I have not yet gone up to my Father’s side. Return to my brethren, and tell them this; I am going up to him who is my Father and your Father, who is my God and your God.

John 20:1-2, 10-17

May 21, 202322:23
MEEKNESS, NOT WEAKNESS - Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Easter

MEEKNESS, NOT WEAKNESS - Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Easter

What I need is the meekness by which the prince of this world is destroyed.

-- Saint Ignatius of Antioch

Apr 30, 202309:10
CLEARED FOR DEPARTURE - Homily for a Nuptial Mass

CLEARED FOR DEPARTURE - Homily for a Nuptial Mass

Delivered at Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church, Kansas City, MO

29 April 2023

Congratulations and prayers to Mr. and Mrs. Khadivi

Apr 29, 202314:07
INCORPORATION - Homily for Divine Mercy Sunday

INCORPORATION - Homily for Divine Mercy Sunday

A prayer request: https://ctkclassical.org/employment.html

Jesus Christ still lives upon earth as surely, though in another and what must be called a "mystical" sense, as He lived two thousand years ago. For He has a Body in which He lives, a Voice with which He speaks. As two thousand years ago He assumed one kind of Body by which to accomplish His purposes, so He has assumed now another kind of Body in which to continue them; and that Body consists of a unity of a myriad of cells—each cell a living soul complete in itself—transcending the sum of the cells and yet expressing itself through them. Christianity, then, to the Catholic is not merely an individual matter—though it is that also, as surely as the cell has individual relations with the main life of the body. But it is far more: it is corporate and transcendent. The Catholic does not merely as a self-contained unit suck out grace through this or that sacramental channel; the priest to him is not just a viceregent who represents or may misrepresent his Master; a spiritual life is not merely an individual existence on a spiritual plane. But to the Catholic all things are expanded, enlarged, and supernaturalized by an amazing fact: he is not merely an imitator of Christ or a disciple of Christ, not merely even a lover of Christ; but he is actually a cell of that very Body which is Christ’s, and his life in Christ is, as a matter of fact, so far more real and significant than his individual existence, that he is able to take upon his lips without exaggeration or metaphor the words of St. Paul—“I live—yet it is no longer I what live; it is Christ that liveth in me”; he is able to appreciate as no separatist in religion can appreciate that saying of Christ Himself, that unless a man lose his life, he cannot save it.

--Robert Hugh Benson, The Mystical Body and Its Head


Apr 16, 202317:13
DRAWING THE POISON - Homily for Good Friday

DRAWING THE POISON - Homily for Good Friday

Upon this hil Y fond a tree,

Undir the tree a man sittynge,

From heed to foot woundid was he,

His herte blood Y sigh bledinge:

A semeli man to ben a king,

A graciouse face to loken unto;

I askide whi he had peynynge,

He seide, Quia amore langueo.

I am Truelove that fals was nevere.

My sistyr, Mannis Soule, Y loved hir thus.

Bicause we wolde in no wise discevere,

I lefte my kyngdom glorious.

I purveide for hir a paleis precious;

Sche fleyth; Y folowe. Y soughte hir so,

I suffride this peyne piteuous,

Quia amore langueo.


Delivered at the Good Friday Passion Service, Christ the King Classical School

Apr 07, 202309:58
SCRUTINY OF THE BLIND - Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday)

SCRUTINY OF THE BLIND - Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday)

Delivered at Blessed Sacrament Church

Mar 19, 202313:07
REJECTION, CONFLICT, FAILURE - Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Lent

REJECTION, CONFLICT, FAILURE - Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Lent

In perfect renunciation lies unlimited fruitfulness. 

--Hans Urs von Balthasar

Mar 05, 202314:41
NO ES JUSTO - Homilia del primer domingo de cuaresma

NO ES JUSTO - Homilia del primer domingo de cuaresma

Dado en la parroquia de Christ the King

Feb 26, 202311:35
SET THE BAR AT FAITH - Homily for the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

SET THE BAR AT FAITH - Homily for the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The language of theology, properly understood, gives birth to the language of love. 

--N.T. Wright, What Saint Paul Really Said

Feb 12, 202308:30
TESTIFY - Homily for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

TESTIFY - Homily for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

I pledge to seek the truth
and to love all that is good and beautiful.
I will strive to achieve clarity of thought,
nobility of character, and purity of heart.
Therefore, I will pursue my education with
diligence, humility, and honor, embracing
excellence and renouncing mediocrity.
I will assume responsibility for my actions.
I will treat my peers, my teachers, and
myself with the utmost dignity and respect.
And I will aspire above all to wisdom and
to a life of faith, hope, and charity,
so that I might fulfill my destiny
as a Christ-like Thinker for the Kingdom of God. 

Christ the King Scholars' Pledge

Jan 29, 202325:43
BEHOLD THE LAMB - Homily for the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

BEHOLD THE LAMB - Homily for the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

"Our ordinary activities are not an insignificant matter. Rather they are the very hinge on which our sanctity turns, and they offer us constant opportunities of meeting God, and of praising him and glorifying him through our intellectual or manual work."  

--Saint Josemaría Escrivá

Jan 15, 202315:49
CHRIST THE COMEBACK KING - Homily for the Solemnity of Mary

CHRIST THE COMEBACK KING - Homily for the Solemnity of Mary

As a pastor, I am always open to listening and accepting thoughtful feedback, which I value and need in order for my priestly service to be fruitful. I sincerely wish for there to be a deeper spirit of collaboration with the people of these parishes. I am praying for the grace to respond to what feels like a curse with a blessing. It is hard.

So, as a gesture of good will, I hope that re-forming the CTK Pastoral Council will provide an ongoing forum for this kind of communication and collaboration. More specifics will be shared soon. Please begin praying for its fruitfulness.

Jan 01, 202320:13
STEP FOUR - Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

STEP FOUR - Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

During Advent, the priests of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas will be walking through the basic Gospel message. This week focuses on the fourth part of the Gospel: that our response is the obedience of faith, worship, and surrrender.

Dec 22, 202225:60
STEP THREE - Homily for the Third Sunday of Advent

STEP THREE - Homily for the Third Sunday of Advent

During Advent, the priests of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas will be walking through the basic Gospel message. This week focuses on the third part of the Gospel: that God has rescued us through the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

Dec 12, 202218:58
TERCER PASO - Homilia del Tercer Domingo de Adviento

TERCER PASO - Homilia del Tercer Domingo de Adviento

Este Adviento, los sacerdotes del Arquidiocesis predican sobre el mensaje basico del Evangelio. Hoy, tratamos del tercer paso: Dios nos ha rescatado de la esclavitud y dominio del pecado por la encarnación, la muerte, y la resurrección de Jesús de Nazaret.

Dec 11, 202220:45
STEP TWO - Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent

STEP TWO - Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent

During Advent, the priests of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas will be walking through the basic Gospel message. This week focuses on the second part of the Gospel: that we are born on a battlefield and that a spiritual enemy is intent upon our enslavement and degradation. 

"Hell is not to love any more, madame. Not to love any more! That sounds quite ordinary to you. To a human being still alive, it means to love less or love elsewhere. To understand is still a way of loving. But suppose this faculty which seems so inseparably ours, of our very essence, should disappear! Oh, prodigy! To stop loving, to stop understanding—and yet to live. The error common to us all is to invest these damned with something still inherently alive, something of our own inherent mobility, whereas in truth time and movement have ceased for them; they are fixed for ever. Alas, if God’s own hand were to lead us to one of these unhappy things, even if once it had been the dearest of our friends, what could we say to it? Truly, if one of us, if a living man, the vilest, most contemptible of the living, were cast into those burning depths, I should still be ready to share his suffering, I would claim him from his executioner, to share his suffering! The sorrow, the unutterable loss of those charred stones which once were men, is that they have nothing more to be shared." 

—Georges Bernanos, Diary of a Country Priest

Dec 04, 202226:20
STEP ONE - Homily for the First Sunday of Advent

STEP ONE - Homily for the First Sunday of Advent

During Advent, the priests of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas will be walking through the basic Gospel message. This week focuses on the first part of the Gospel: that we are created, and we were meant to be loved and to love.

“Something I constantly notice is that unembarrassed joy has become rarer. Joy today is increasingly saddled with moral and ideological burdens, so to speak. When someone rejoices, he is afraid of offending against solidarity with the many people who suffer. I don't have any right to rejoice, people think, in a world where there is so much misery, so much injustice.
"I can understand that. There is a moral attitude at work here. But this attitude is nonetheless wrong. The loss of joy does not make the world better - and, conversely, refusing joy for the sake of suffering does not help those who suffer. The contrary is true. The world needs people who discover the good, who rejoice in it and thereby derive the impetus and courage to do good. Joy, then, does not break with solidarity. When it is the right kind of joy, when it is not egotistic, when it comes from the perception of the good, then it wants to communicate itself, and it gets passed on. In this connection, it always strikes me that in the poor neighborhoods of, say, South America, one sees many more laughing happy people than among us. Obviously, despite all their misery, they still have the perception of the good to which they cling and in which they can find encouragement and strength.
"In this sense we have a new need for that primordial trust which ultimately only faith can give. That the world is basically good, that God is there and is good. That it is good to live and to be a human being. This results, then, in the courage to rejoice, which in turn becomes commitment to making sure that other people, too, can rejoice and receive good news.” 

--Pope Benedict XVI

Nov 29, 202216:12
PRIMER PASO - Homilia del Primer Domingo de Adviento

PRIMER PASO - Homilia del Primer Domingo de Adviento

Este Adviento, los sacerdotes del Arquidiocesis predican sobre el mensaje basico del Evangelio. Hoy, tratamos del primer paso: Somos aquí para ser amados y para amar.

Nov 27, 202220:45
REGNAVIT A LIGNO DEUS - Homily for the Solemnity of Christ the King

REGNAVIT A LIGNO DEUS - Homily for the Solemnity of Christ the King

Christianity does not solve “problems”; it merely obliges us to live them at a higher level. Those who claim that it does solve them entangle it in the irony of every solution. --Don Colacho

Nov 20, 202220:29
PONTE AL VOLANTE, MIJO - Homilia de la 33o domingo ordinario

PONTE AL VOLANTE, MIJO - Homilia de la 33o domingo ordinario

1. El moderno ambiciona reemplazar con objetos que compra lo que otros tiempos esperaban de la cultura metódica de los sentimientos. 

2. El amor utiliza el vocabulario del sexo para escribir un texto ininteligible al sexo solo.

--Don Colacho

Nov 13, 202223:02
TAKE THE WHEEL, SON - Homily for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

TAKE THE WHEEL, SON - Homily for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Please note: my father never let me drive on the interstate!       


“We sense that the human body is a precious thing, worthy of our reverence. It is not a tool, not an object of consumption like a steak or a keg of beer, not an animate provider of pleasure. It is the outward expression of a profound mystery, that of another human being.”
Anthony Esolen

Nov 06, 202224:52
A DROP OF DEW - Homily for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

A DROP OF DEW - Homily for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Credit to Father Robert Sokolowski for the summary formulation: God plus the world is no greater than God alone.

Delivered at Christ the King Catholic Church

Oct 30, 202220:13
SMALL MEN, LONG SHADOWS - Homily for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

SMALL MEN, LONG SHADOWS - Homily for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

When small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set."
--Lin Yutang
Sep 25, 202218:59
HOMBRES PEQUEÑOS, SOMBRAS LARGAS - Homilia del domingo 26o del Tiempo Ordinario

HOMBRES PEQUEÑOS, SOMBRAS LARGAS - Homilia del domingo 26o del Tiempo Ordinario

Cuando hombres pequeños hacen sombras largas, se acerca el atardecer.

Sep 25, 202221:19
HOLINESS THE ONLY TRUE WEALTH - Homily for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

HOLINESS THE ONLY TRUE WEALTH - Homily for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

"We should live in such a way that our lives wouldn't make much sense if the gospel were not true." --Dorothy Day

Sep 18, 202214:29
THE SCIENCE OF THE CROSS - Homily for the Twenty-third Sunday

THE SCIENCE OF THE CROSS - Homily for the Twenty-third Sunday

To learn more about the prisoner whose writings were read in the homily, visit: nguyenvanthuan.com

Delivered at Blessed Sacrament Church 

Sep 04, 202211:47
YOU CAN'T BE POORER THAN UNBORN - Homily for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

YOU CAN'T BE POORER THAN UNBORN - Homily for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.” 

--The Cynic Epistles

Aug 28, 202212:11
HUMILDES SON LOS GUERREROS - Homilia para el Vigésimosegundo Domingo

HUMILDES SON LOS GUERREROS - Homilia para el Vigésimosegundo Domingo

De cada cien hombres, diez ni siquiera deberían estar allí, ochenta son sólo carne de cañón, nueve son los verdaderos luchadores y somos afortunados de tenerlos, pues ellos darán batalla; ah, pero uno, uno es un guerrero; y él traerá de vuelta a los demás.

Aug 28, 202218:08
BE OF GOOD CHEER - Homily for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

BE OF GOOD CHEER - Homily for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

It’s said that words instruct, but examples inspire us to follow.  Do we not want to see Christians who, in the midst of all the darkness, are still able to stand above it all in clarity, calmness, and confidence, who, in the midst of all the lack of peace and joy, the egoism and hate, still stand there in the purest peace and cheerfulness? 

----Franz Jägerstätter

Aug 21, 202208:36
CARMEL AND COMPIÈGNE - Homily for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

CARMEL AND COMPIÈGNE - Homily for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

"All the way [to the guillotine] the Carmelite sisters sang: the 'Miserere,' 'Salve Regina,' and 'Te Deum.' Beholding them, a total silence fell on the racous, brutal crowd, most of them cheapened and hardened by day after day of the spectacle of public slaughter. At the foot of the towering killing machine, their eyes raised to Heaven, the sisters sang 'Veni Creator Spiritus.' Sister Teresa, their prioress, requested and obtained permission to go last under the knife. The youngest, Sister Constance, went first. She climbed the steps of the guillotine 'with the air of a queen going to receive her crown,' singing Laudate Dominum omnes gentes, 'all peoples praise the Lord.' She placed her head in the position for death without allowing the executioner to touch her. Each sister followed her example, those remaining singing likewise with each, until only the prioress was left, holding in her hand a small figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The killing of each marter required about two minutes. It was about eight o'clock in the evening, still bright at midsummer. During the whole time the profound silence of the crowd about the guillotine endured unbroken."

Jul 17, 202219:06
FREEDOM RE-ENCHANTED - Homily for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

FREEDOM RE-ENCHANTED - Homily for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

eu·ca·​tas·​tro·​phe ˌyü-kə-ˈta-strə-(ˌ)fē 

A sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur, a fleeting glimpse of joy, joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.

Delivered at Our Lady of Most Holy Trinity Chapel on the campus of Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, California

Jun 26, 202210:52
TRANSFORMATION BY FIRE - Homily for Corpus Christi

TRANSFORMATION BY FIRE - Homily for Corpus Christi

As fire transforms into itself everything it touches, so the Holy Spirit transforms into the divine life whatever is subjected to his power.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1127

Jun 19, 202221:43