The Emmaus Pastorate’s Podcast

Homily on 4-28-24

Have you ever looked at a living grape vine?  It's a huge mess!  It's a tangled web of vines, branches, and fruit all wrapped around a pole, wire, log, or whatever it can find!  But that's us, isn't it?  Our lives are also a tangled mess, and that's OK.  Our relationships get a little distorted sometimes, and our connections to each other are rarely ever cut and dry.  But nonetheless, the branches stay attached to the vine, because without it they would die.  Such is also true of our own lives.  Christ illustrates us as branches in today's Gospel, branches that bear much fruit, but only when they stay attached to him, the vine.  How's your connection to the Vine this week?

Homily on 4-21-24

If you've seen the 2024 priest appointments from the Archdiocese of Dubuque, it's pretty clear that we have shortage of homegrown priests in Northeast Iowa.  One reason why might be a lack of vocation culture in our homes.  In your family, do you talk about vocations to the priesthood and religious life?  Do you plant the seed in your children's  or grandchildren's minds?  Do you ask them if to consider becoming a priest, brother, or sister when they grow up?  Without more priests, we will have no more Eucharist!  And the Eucharist is the central part of our lives, or at least it should be!  As we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday and First Communions this Eastertide, let's consider how we're (re)building a culture of vocation in our homes and towns.

Homily on 4-14-24

Without a doubt, the Eucharist is the central tenant of the Catholic faith.  True, there are many important truths of Catholicism, but all of those either point to or support our receiving and becoming the Body and Blood of Christ.  We could go so far as to say that a Catholic isn't really a Catholic if he/she doesn't receive the Eucharist!  The good news is that we don't walk the journey alone.  We always have companions walking beside us along the way to support us and share the Good News.

Homily on 4-7-24

If the bread and wine change into the Body and Blood of Christ, should we not also change when we receive it?!  That's the lesson we take from Doubting Thomas on Divine Mercy Sunday.  Just as he was shaken to his core after putting his finger and hand into Jesus' nail marks, so should we be when we receive him the Eucharist.  Jesus expects nothing less of us.

Easter Sunday Homily 2024 (bonus!)

We Catholics have a reason to rejoice!  Our savior has risen from the dead and delivered us from the Evil One once and for all!  So what's stopping us from the hope and serenity of Easter?  What stones do we need to roll away this spring?  Let's fold up our burial cloths, give our brokenness to Christ, and embrace the joy of Easter!  We are an Easter people, and alleluia is our song!

Thank you to Fr. Carl Ries for helping our parishes celebrate Easter Sunday!

From the staff of the Emmaus Pastorate, happy Easter!

Easter Homily 2024

St. Oscar Romero was Archbishop of El Salvador in the 1970s, and he was very disliked by the government for his outspokenness against their corruption.  He was assassinated on March 24, 1980 while praying the Eucharist Prayer.  This Easter, we take to heart his words as he reminds us that Christ is present in every person every where.  That's the hope of the resurrection: that Christ came to save every one of us, regardless of our differences.  The question we must ask ourselves is whether we recognize him, even if he's right in front of us.  We are more united than we think, and Jesus is present in all of us, all the time, despite our divisions and brokenness!

But there is a catch.  If we don't' believe in the resurrection, then we simply recall a guy who died a horrible death and an empty tomb.  Our faith in this case, is worthless and a waste.  BUT!  If we do believe in the resurrection, then our joy in Christ's presence cannot be stopped or stifled!  That makes us an Easter people, and therefore alleluia is our song!

From the staff of the Emmaus Pastorate, happy Easter!

Good Friday Homily 2024

Why is it GOOD Friday?  We call it GOOD because the cross reminds us that we're a people set apart.  The cross we venerate gives meaning and purpose to our pain and suffering.  We don't come to Good Friday services just to relive or reimagine an event of long ago.  We do do that with the reading of the Passion Narrative and through the veneration of the cross, but we don't stop there.  We continue to bear our own crosses each and every day!  Instead of running from the like we tend to do, we should embrace them!  We need Good Friday because it makes sense of our daily sufferings and pain, because we're reminded that Jesus had them too!

Holy Thursday Homily 2024

The Eucharist is about change and transformation, and we hate change.  Yet, that's what Jesus gives us every day at Mass.

Welcome to the Paschal Triduum.  Let's begin!

Palm Sunday Homily 2024 - Bonus

Palm Sunday marks the final Sunday in the season of Lent, and over the last five weeks, the Emmaus Pastorate has focused on the concept of "Broken."  How are we broken people?  How has Jesus been broken for us?  As we near the end of Lent and the start of the shortest and most important season, the Sacred Paschal Triduum, we remind ourselves that Jesus came to lead us out of our brokenness into the transformative light of the resurrection.

Palm Sunday Homily 2024

Palm Sunday is a holy day we celebrate every year.  The Mass is a prayer we pray every Sunday and even every weekday!  And yet these things are not dormant.  They are not remembrances of events gone by.  They are reality.  Jesus was crucified almost 2,000 years ago, but we continue to crucify him in our sinfulness!  But lest we begin our own pity party, let's remember that after Good Friday comes Easter Sunday.  Remember that Jesus died for our transformation!  As we enter the holiest day of the year, let's keep our minds fixed on the Way to transformation!