Deacon Bob's Homily for September 24th, 2023 This (parable of the generous landowner) is one of those parables that shows us that God’s ways are not our ways. It does seem that the landowner (God) is unfair. The first group started working at 6:00 in the morning. The last group started working at 5:00 in … Continue reading God’s Ways Are Not Our Ways
Deacon Bob
Pray for Peter
I really love it when we can see how something in the new covenant follows the old. In the old covenant, as we see in the first reading, there was a prime minister. There were ministers who governed the country and from them one was chosen to be the prime minister who was second only … Continue reading Pray for Peter
Good Seed / Bad Seed
I’d like to share a little of the commentary on these parables (Matthew 13:24-30) and then there’s 2 practical themes I want to talk about. In the first parable of the wheat and the weeds, the commentators say the weed that Jesus has in mind is the darnel. The Jews referred to it as bastard … Continue reading Good Seed / Bad Seed
Deacon Bob Answers Questions about Pentecost
Last weekend our small group met, and I asked them what they’d like to hear about this weekend on the feast of Pentecost. They immediately started coming up with questions about the Holy Spirit. So, I’m going to start by going through some of their questions and then talk about how we can make the … Continue reading Deacon Bob Answers Questions about Pentecost
Deacon Bob asks, “Do You Know the Good Shepherd?”
Today is Good Shepherd Sunday and I want to start and end with a question that I would like all of us to ponder and that is – do you know Jesus as the Good Shepherd? I’ll start by looking at our gospel and give a little Jewish background on what Jesus is saying, then … Continue reading Deacon Bob asks, “Do You Know the Good Shepherd?”
Truths of the Faith are Good and Unchanging
God is at work. He has a plan of salvation. Nothing happens that God does not permit, and He allows it because He will bring greater good out of it.
Are You Ready?
Deacon Bob's Homily for the first Sunday of Advent 2022 (Mt 24:37-44) If you’re like me, when you heard this gospel, you probably thought to yourself, O, that’s the rapture that I’ve heard about, where some are taken, and everyone else is “left behind”. According to Brant Pitre, that’s not what Jesus is describing here. … Continue reading Are You Ready?
The Tax Collector and the Pharisee (A lesson in humility by Deacon Bob)
The gospel this week is a continuation of lessons on prayer. Last week we learned about the need to persevere in prayer. The lesson this week is the importance of humility in our prayer. I’m going to start with a little background for today’s gospel. First, in Jesus’s day, Pharisees were very highly respected. We … Continue reading The Tax Collector and the Pharisee (A lesson in humility by Deacon Bob)
A Few Thoughts on St. Therese from Deacon Bob
In today’s gospel, we see Jesus rejoice at the things revealed to the childlike. This is a prefect opening to share some thoughts on St. Therese of the child Jesus. It’s quite amazing. She wrote 1 book, and 8 of the 11 chapters were about her life growing up in the Martin family. She only … Continue reading A Few Thoughts on St. Therese from Deacon Bob
Deacon Bob Tackles a Tough One
I have to say that when I read this gospel and started doing some research at one point I got really scared. I’ve since calmed down, but there’s no question that this parable can be challenging for us middle-class Americans. I’m going to share a few comments about the gospel and then talk about how … Continue reading Deacon Bob Tackles a Tough One
Pain of Grace 