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Homilies for September 2024
For September 1, September 8, September 15, September 22, and September 29 Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time – September 1, 2024 Readings: Dt 4:1–2, 6–8 • Ps 15:2–3, 3–4, 4–5 • Jas 1:17–18, 21b–22, 27 • Mk 7:1–8, 14–15, 21–23 bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090124.cfm By Fr. Joseph Zwosta On this Labor Day weekend, with college and professional football […]
Ecclesiology After the NEC with Bishop Barron as Our Guide
I was not blessed to personally attend the National Eucharistic Congress this past July. However, I know several bishops, priests, religious sisters, and seminarians, both religious and diocesan seminarians, who had attended, and all of them came back enthused and excited. Even parishioners whom I encountered in parishes in both the Archdiocese of New York […]
The Holy Spirit and the Four Marks of the Church
In the creed which we profess at Mass, we declare the Church to be one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. In the past, particularly in counter-reformation apologetics, it was not uncommon for these four marks to serve as a kind of litmus test for identifying the true Church of Christ. Amid the various claimants to ecclesial […]
Helping Penitents Overcome Pornography Use Within the Sacrament of the Penance
Pornography is an epidemic. Social science data and the experiences of priests counseling parishioners reveal the ubiquity of pornography in our society. The accessibility, affordability, and anonymity of Internet pornography has exposed countless men, women, and children to the most prurient and deviant forms of sexually oriented material.1 Worldwide the pornography industry is worth $97 […]
Equip and Deploy the Sleeping Giant
St. Paul teaches that “truth is in Jesus.” What then is the lived consequence for people who meet Jesus and choose to give their lives to him? Paul goes on to explain that those people should “put away the old self” of their lives before they knew Jesus, and “be renewed” in their minds, “putting […]
Pastoral Planning 101
For those of us who experienced pastoral planning at parish or diocesan levels over time, we have seen changes that make the practices of the past seem unrecognizable. Key to those changes is a re-examination of the underlying purpose of pastoral planning in the light of what the Church teaches us rather than only what […]
Questions Answered – September 2024
Question from the Reader: My priest at Mass said that the number of the Sacraments was not determined until the Council of Trent. I was told since I was a child in religion class that Our Lord Jesus established seven sacraments in the course of his earthly life. Who is correct? Answer from Fr. Cush: […]
Book Reviews – September 2024
The Passion of Love in the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas. By Daniel Joseph Gordon. Reviewed by David Zettel. (skip to review) Nothing But You, Lord: Reflections on the Priesthood and Priestly Formation through the Lens of Bishop Robert Barron. By Rev. John P. Cush. Reviewed by Rev. Ryan Connors. (skip to review) The Message Behind […]
Recent & Upcoming Homilies
Homilies for September 2024
For September 1, September 8, September 15, September 22, and September 29 Twenty-second Sunday … more...
Homilies for August 2024
For August 4, August 11, August 18, and August 25, as well as the Feast of the Transfiguration … more...
From the Editor
Ecclesiology After the NEC with Bishop Barron as Our Guide
I was not blessed to personally attend the National Eucharistic … more...
Guilt and the Eucharist
The words of the centurion, words that we say again and again at every … more...
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