Best Fr Brendan McGuires Podcasts (2024)

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Homily for the Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time - True Food for the World 11:24

7h ago11:24

11:24

I want us to understand what we need to do because the whole world needs this nourishment so desperately. We are the remnant few who come to church. We need to be the bread of life for the world. If we do not do it, then who is going to do it? There is no one else out here. It is just us guys. It is up to us to live what Christ gave to us and to be…

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Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Taste and See the Goodness of God 11:28

1h ago11:28

11:28

Watching the Olympics was such a wonderful counterpoint to so much we listen to in the news. It is such a relief for the human spirit. Because all we ever seem to see or hear is all bad news. But it is such a relief to watch this, the best of humanity. And it is such a relief and joy to watch. I cannot help but think of that phrase from St. Ireneus…

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Homily for the Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Become the Bread of Life 10:41

17d ago10:41

10:41

What we can do is share the nourishment we receive from here. And what does that mean? It is exactly what Paul says in the letter to the Ephesians. He said, “We shed the old self and we put on new self.” We need to become different when we come back from here. We need in some way to be nourishment for the world. We need to be the bread of life for …

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Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Jesus Sent Them Out 11:30

1M ago11:30

11:30

Jesus sent out the apostles, the twelve. In Mark's gospel, it depicts as just the twelve. But in the other gospels he sends out all his disciples. He sends all of us out to share the good news of the gospel with others. How we do that is incredibly important, but more important is that we do something to spread the good news. (Read more…) Here is m…

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Homily for The Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Familiarity Breeds Contempt 10:41

2M ago10:41

10:41

Let us open our eyes and see what is among us and see if we can participate. At least recognize them for the gifts that are here, that are the ordinary being turned into extraordinary. That we can be grateful for the gift among us and be part of it, maybe to be willing to step in and to help in some way. (Read more…) Here is my homily from the Thir…

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Homily for the Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Humble and Faith-Filled 11:04

2M ago11:04

11:04

What does it mean then for us to be faith-filled? And what does it mean for us to be humble as disciples? The lesson of the woman with the hemorrhages gives us is to reach out and touch his garments, if I could just reach out and touch God. Our constant sort of mode is to always be looking to touch God in our lives. (Read more…) Here is my homily f…

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Homily for the Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Jesus, Chief Meteorologist 9:50

2M ago9:50

9:50

There is something consoling about knowing when the storms will come and go. It does not take away from the fact that storms are there and they are coming and the damage that they are going to do, But it does sort of help to get ready for it. That is kind of the way it works. I find it very helpful, very consoling. (Read more…) Here is my homily fr…

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Homily for the Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time - Little Things 10:35

2M ago10:35

10:35

It is true that the little things are what matter in our own lives as well. It is the little things we will become known for. The little things that we do or say that matter the most. That is what Christ is saying in today's gospel with this parable of the kingdom of God. A mustard seed is the smallest of seeds, but yet when it grows, it becomes th…

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Homily for the Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - The Glory of God is Man Fully Alive 10:35

2M ago10:35

10:35

Today, I do not want to focus on the fall of humanity. I want to focus on the rise of humanity that will return to being fully human, fully alive, by seeing with new eyes, by hearing with new ears, by tasting and touching and smelling with new vitality so that we want to drink in the whole world and give glory to God. (Read more…) Here is my homily…

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Homily for The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ - Open Hands, Open Heart 7:44

3M ago7:44

7:44

Henry Nouwen, the great theologian and Catholic priest wrote in a book called Open Hands, Open Heart, “Most Catholics, when we come to church on Sunday, in fact, do not have open hands or an open heart. When we come, our hands and our hearts are full of many other things, and they are not open.” He challenged us in a very strong way. He said, “many…

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Homily for The Feast of the Most Holy Trinity - Look At Me. Listen To Me. 8:18

3M ago8:18

8:18

A lot of ink has been spilled over the mystery of the Holy Trinity for the past many years. Indeed, actually sadly, even more blood has been spilled over it. Even now, the East and the West Church are still split over a single word called the Filioque. This means that the spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. The gospel today brings us back …

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Homily for the Ascension - Mission Not Absence 11:14

3M ago11:14

11:14

The message is God loves us. The good news is that God loves you completely. The bad news, he loves everyone else completely too. But it is not really bad news. Of course, it is good news all around. The challenge then is, where we are called to be the church in the world where we are called to share this love where we are called to witness this lo…

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Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter - Love One Another 11:55

4M ago11:55

11:55

God loves us not for what we have or what we do, what we own or what we look like. God loves us for who we are. We know that intellectually, I guess we know that, but we need reminders of it. And in this world, there is so much coming at us that we need reminders often for that purpose. Sometimes there are things in our life that will illustrate th…

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homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter - Mountain Behind the Flowers 9:22

4M ago9:22

9:22

“I looked out upon my window and I saw the leaves and the flowers falling from my beautiful tree outside my window. And I lamented as I saw the barren branches appear, and I lamented the beautiful flowers and leaves I had. And then I noticed, as I looked through the tree with its barren branches, the stunning mountains behind the tree that I had no…

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Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Easter - Chickens or Eagles 9:33

4M ago9:33

9:33

Over the last few weeks, we have been reading from the Gospel of John and it hammers away at this metaphor of the Good Shepherd. And today’s version is a powerful one about how a good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. That is the image, a good shepherd. But I sometimes wonder if we really internalize that message? Do we really understand w…

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Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter - Live And Tell Our Story 11:08

4M ago11:08

11:08

Our faith is all about God as love and how we are called to be love to one another. And we are called to bring that story alive. We gather every Sunday to tell this story but sometimes I fear that we do not really believe the story, I am not sure we are convinced about the story we tell. (Read more…) Here is my homily from the Third Sunday of Easte…

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Homily for the Second Sunday of Easter - Wounded Healers 10:29

5M ago10:29

10:29

We often name the gospel from this Sunday as “Doubting Thomas." One of the things that has always struck me about this particular gospel passage is that Jesus has now risen from the dead, glorious victory over death and he has wounds. Why does he have wounds? Is this what it will be like when we all are raised? We will have all our wounds or broken…

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Homily for Easter Sunday The Resurrection of the Lord - Resurrection is For Real 11:51

5M ago11:51

11:51

Our role is to witness to love in the world so that others will come to know and experience the joy of eternal life. In the gospel t we get a hint of what the disciples found it hard to do it. Jesus says, “Go to Galilee.” Galilee was not just a physical location, it was much more. It was where they first met Jesus, where they first fell in love wit…

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Homily for Holy Thursday Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper - Wired to Imitate 12:02

5M ago12:02

12:02

When we witness something that is powerful, we tend to want to immediately mirror it. Our brains wire immediately to repeat it. If we witness a young person helping an elderly person we will typically say, “Wow, that is really wonderful. ” Our brain is now rewiring to repeat something like that for ourselves within the next twenty four hours. We wi…

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Homily for Good Friday - Beyond the Cross 9:39

5M ago9:39

9:39

We look upon Jesus on the cross and we take all our suffering wherever we have been, whether we have witnessed it, whether we are currently in the middle of it or when we are indifferent to it. We talk to Christ and accept his invitation of the cross to move beyond the cross. (Read more…) Here is my homily from Good Friday. Please feel free to shar…

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Homily for Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion - Feed the Good Wolf 6:31

5M ago6:31

6:31

We tend to think there are good people in the world and there are bad people in the world. Of course, we are part of good people, right? I mean, we do not ever consider ourselves bad, so we are the good ones. And they, whoever they are, are the bad ones. The challenge with that is that it is simply not reality as much as we want to believe it. (Rea…

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Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent - Surrendering to the Pain 7:54

5M ago7:54

7:54

There is something inside of us that we have to let go for something new to grow within us. We have to surrender to it for new growth to happen. In fact, we believe in it so much that we have a whole season dedicated called Lent. We must die to so much of ourselves and let something new grow, but it is cooperation with the grace of God that we can …

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Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent - Be In Right Relationship with God 10:44

6M ago10:44

10:44

Every action needs to ooze and come forward from that very sight that we want peace. Because peace is the loving relationship and right relationship with God. Because we know that is so hard to do, we come to receive the peace here with the body and blood of Christ. We come here to receive what we promise to become out in the world. (Read more…) He…

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Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent - Sabbath as a Day of Rest is Good For Your Soul 7:27

6M ago7:27

7:27

Sabbath became a way to understand and treasure people's time and leisure. It enhanced the people's relationship with God while intensifying their shared identity. Keeping the Sabbath holy was another way that Israel better appreciated the sacredness surrounding them and highlighted places and practices that sharpened their awareness of the presenc…

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Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent - Believing and Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart 7:49

6M ago7:49

7:49

Sometimes we underestimate the power of the faith of the disciples as they go up the mountain with Jesus because they already believed in Jesus. They did not go up the mountain to see and believe. It was the other way around. They already believed. They went up the mountain believing in Jesus. And when they saw, they were confirmed in their faith. …

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Homily for the First Sunday of Lent - Testing What We Already Know 9:20

6M ago9:20

9:20

What is the purpose of a test to evaluate your ability? A teacher gives you a test to validate that you already know something. It is not to teach you something. A test only evaluates or confirms what you already know. Jesus was driven into the desert by the Spirit to be tested, to confirm what he already knew. (Read more…) Here is my homily for th…

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Homily for Ash Wednesday - Three Lights to Come Back Home 9:37

6M ago9:37

9:37

Lent is the time for us to turn back and to come home and follow the way back to the Lord. How are we going to find our way? Every year the church gives us three bright lights to take us home. The first light is prayer. The second one is fasting. And the third one is almsgiving. They may not seem obvious as lights, but once we start to understand w…

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Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart 8:47

6M ago8:47

8:47

We need to see, again, with eyes of faith and to act on what we see, which requires some discipline; that is what the root word of discipleship is. What does that discipline look like for us? For Lent, we do it for 40 days. And we talk about extra prayer, we talk about fasting, and we talk about alms giving. That all integrates into the same thing,…

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Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Empathy and Mirror Neurons 11:46

7M ago11:46

11:46

Contagious! Contagious! Good behavior is actually neurologically contagious in our brains! This is very good news! We need more of this and we need to be around more of this for it to stick. That is why community is so important because when we witness morally good behavior, we tend to want more of it and replicate more of it. (Read more…) Here is …

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Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Lamplighters Leaving a Legacy of Love 7:08

7M ago7:08

7:08

We are called to be men and women of love, of gentleness, of kindness, of forgiveness, of healing, of truth and beauty. It requires of us to light a lamp of goodness, of love in people's lives. May we seek to be lamplighters that leave a legacy and a trail of love behind us for all to see. (Read more…) Here is my homily for the Fourth Sunday of Ord…

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Homily for the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time - Be A Follower Not Just A Fan of Jesus 9:24

7M ago9:24

9:24

What makes a Catholic parish and a Catholic school is the involvement of the parents and the community. That is what binds us together. It is a testimony not just of our faith, but it is who we believe in. We believe and follow Jesus. We are not just fans but we follow him. (Read more…) Here is my homily for the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time. Pleas…

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Homily for the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time - Who Are The Influencers? 9:55

7M ago9:55

9:55

We need to do some work learning to steady and slow our soul down. To just be with the Lord and to learn to listen for his voice. To be able to say what Samuel says, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.” We have got some work to do, my friends, because the busyness of our lives with the number of inputs that we are getting, it is hard to sort it…

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Homily for the Epiphany of the Lord - Follow the Model of the Magi; Follow the Star to Jesus 11:03

8M ago11:03

11:03

We can learn a lot from the Magi, and we can learn a lot from this particular passage from Matthew's gospel. It is very rich with meaning and symbols. Let us listen to this challenge that we are called to follow the light that brings us to Christ. We are called to offer our gifts to Christ and the world in service to his kingdom. And we are called …

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Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family - Mattering: We Need Our Children to Love Others 11:39

8M ago11:39

11:39

Your love matters in this world, and we want it not just for our nuclear family, but for the whole human family. It is important that we love one another because love matters to our last day, to our last breath from child to parent, from parent to child. (Read more…) Here is my homily for the Feast of the Holy Family. Please feel free to share with…

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Homily for the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas Day) - Pitched His Tent Among Use 10:10

8M ago10:10

10:10

The Jewish people were in the desert for 40 years. So they lived in tents. Pitching your tent was a common phrase and the idea that Jesus pitched his tent with us was the way that he became vulnerable alongside us as a human being. That he was all in, if you would, with humanity. And then the question we have is why is that so important? Why did Go…

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Homily for the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas Eve) - Let Our Light Shine 15:01

8M ago15:01

15:01

The first reading tonight was dramatic, deliberately dramatic to get our attention to ensure that we are called to be the light of Christ. The ultimate message of Christmas is that we will be judged, not on how well we have lived, but on how well we have loved. This Christmas, let us love well and let us let our light shine for all to see. (Read mo…

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Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent - Awe In God's Presence 9:29

8M ago9:29

9:29

Awe is an under spoken response to life because we know that which is beautiful but it is often a projection of what we want, what we desire, what we like. But awe is something we do not expect. For example, when we even just think about the idea that no two snowflakes are the same, no two snowflakes are the same. Just even thinking about that is a…

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Homily for the Third Sunday of Advent - Punt On The Glasses Of Faith 7:31

8M ago7:31

7:31

The advent season is all about seeing with eyes of faith, to see deeper and to see and to recognize the Christ who is among us. The temptation is to allow our eyes of our faith to get dirty. They get dirty with busyness and tiredness and the hustle and the bustle of the season. It is very easy just to get carried away with it all and lose the reaso…

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Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent - Collective Effervescence 9:50

9M ago9:50

9:50

Repentance is the way to the joy of the gospel. Because once we let go of the stuff that is in our way, once we let go of that, which we know we have made mistakes and those who have hurt us, we might have reacted to, then we are set free. Then we can accept the joy of God. (Read more…) Here is my homily for last weekend. Please feel free to share …

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Homily for the First Sunday of Advent -Radical Active Waiting 9:23

9M ago9:23

9:23

So what are we waiting for? In our rich theology, there are three comings of Christ. The first one is that Christ came once in history as a baby born in time in the year. Then we look forward to Christ's second coming in glory. But then there is this, what theologically we say, the in-between times where we come to recognize the Christ who is alrea…

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Homily for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe November 26, 2023 9:46

9M ago9:46

9:46

We show the face of Christ not only to each other, but to the whole world around us. That is what we are called to do. That is who we are as the body of Christ. We are the image of Christ We become what we receive, the body of Christ to others. (Read more…) Here is my homily for last weekend. Please feel free to share with others.…

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Homily for the Thirty-third sunday of Ordinary Time - Love Like a Grandparent 9:52

9M ago9:52

9:52

This is your opportunity to be part of God's mission, to be reckless with your love without abandon and to not worry about the logic of math, to just shower your love on them without regard.does with us. The way to inspire us to do that is to be in a little bit of awe, the fear of the Lord, of how blessed we are, what we have now, and understand ho…

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Believers and Followers - November 12, 2030 8:16

9M ago8:16

8:16

None of us ever want to be “ready to go,”but if we live our lives actively following the Lord and believing, then we will be more than ready for the Lord. We are believers, yes, but we are called to be believers and followers, to be the wise virgins who are ready for whatever the day or the hour the Lord calls us. (Read more…) Here is my homily for…

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Homily for Thirty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time - Confidence Bias 15:24

10M ago15:24

15:24

The Pharisees and the leaders are on the chair of Moses. Jesus tells the people you can do everything they say, but just do not do what they do because they are not practicing. That temptation is our temptation, to have this overconfidence that we know exactly what God wants us to do at any one moment, and that we have the corner on the truth espec…

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Homily for the Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Multi-Factor Authentication System 6:53

10M ago6:53

6:53

A lot of us are hard on ourselves. We set expectations that are way too high and we get down on ourselves. It is very hard if we are down on ourselves to not be down on others and it starts to snowball and roll downhill. We start to change this by accepting God's love for us, accepting that love for ourselves, then loving others and loving Jesus. (…

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Homily for the Twenty Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Render to God 9:51

10M ago9:51

9:51

When we have a certain sense of humility before God, then we do not get into the sort of the political or religious arguments that the Herodians or Pharisees do in today's Gospel. Because we recognize that God is in charge of all of us and what we are called to do is to love one another. (Read more…) Here is my homily for last weekend. Please feel …

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Homily for the Twenty Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Garment of Christ 7:49

10M ago7:49

7:49

When we receive here today at this Eucharist, it is not just an optional extra to go out and to do good works. But rather, it is a constituent element of coming here. We are here and if we do not do good works when we leave here, then what sort of scandal does that bring to what we do here? Because then nothing really has happened here. (Read more……

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Homily for the Twenty Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time - Fruit of the Garden of Our Lives 8:05

11M ago8:05

8:05

If we are not producing fruit in our lives, if there is no evidence for the fruit, then we have to add something to it. We need to do something here. That is the Holy Spirit, and that is the nourishment we receive from this table. This is our work. Then we can enjoy the fruits. (Read more…) Here is my homily for last weekend. Please feel free to sh…

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Homily for the Twenty Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Convenience and Cognitive Maturity Biases 10:44

11M ago10:44

10:44

Today the one son changed his mind, and he went because it required a conversion, an acknowledgement of his need to check his biases, both convenience bias and cognitive maturity bias. Today, may we also check our biases and come to follow the Lord, even if it is inconvenient and grow a little more mature in our discipleship. (Read more...) Here is…

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Homily for The Twenty-Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Economy of Salvation: Covenant Not Contract 9:24

11M ago9:24

9:24

It is not a transaction, it is not a contract, it is a covenant. That is our discipleship. The commitment to love no matter what. It is really hard to hear when it is like this, but we are on the recipient end of that love. It is magical to hear. It is magical to experience. (Read more...) Here is my homily for last weekend. Please feel free to sha…

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