Tag: Virtue

Up, Up, Up: Homily for the Assumption of Mary

Posted on by Father Albert
Assumption of Mary                                                                                       August 15, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/d8MApXvCvRs Up, up, up. If we wanted to distill the entirety of this Festival to a single word, it would be “up.” The Assumption celebrates when Mary was taken up into heaven, but that direction, that movement didn’t start at the end of her life. Indeed, it began over a thousand years before. King David, anointed by Samuel the prophet and successor to Saul as king of Israel, set out to properly establish and rule the kingdom given him by God. He conquered...Read More

Homily for the 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time: No Loopholes

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6th Sunday OT, A                                                                                            February 12, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/pZA-jAkq_zQ You have heard it said, “do not miss Mass on Sundays,” but I say to you that everyone who goes to Mass on Sunday, but purposely comes late or leaves early has already skipped Mass in their hearts. And whoever comes to Mass but plays on their phone or tunes everything out has insulted God rather than worshipping him. You have heard it said, “you can go to confession to get your sins forgiven,” but I say to you that whoever goes...Read More

Homily for the Epiphany: Real Power

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Epiphany                                                                                                         January 8, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/sP2csL942zA Who has the power? In the wake of tense battles over important positions, we might wonder what real power looks like. Majority votes, political concessions, making other people do what you want… all these are a part of how we tend to imagine power. Yet, a careful reading of the scripture ought to challenge us to think more deeply about it. Who, after all, has the real power in the story of these Magi? Herod is a king backed by the power of the...Read More

Pastor Column: Queenship of Mary

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[N.B. This is not the Sunday Homily. It is an article for the bulletin of October 23, 2022]      Our next letter from Pope Pius XII is on the Queenship of Mary, titled Ad Caeli Reginam(Latin for ‘to the Queen of Heaven”), published in 1954. Recall that it was Pius XII who formally declared the Assumption of Mary into heaven to be a dogma. Following up on that declaration, the pope decided to offer a reflection on the power and influence of Mary as an intercessor in heaven. As always, his teaching on this is not some new idea, but...Read More

Homily for the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time: It Begins With Hunger

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17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, B                                                                              July 25th, 2021Fr. Albert                                                                                St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/SbCpnC6Ad1Q Are you hungry? Are you willing to be hungry? Because that’s how this whole thing starts. The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life, the gift where God literally gives us himself… and it started with a crowd that was willing to go hungry. Not that they said anything about being hungry. These people saw paralyzed men get up and walk, fevers disappear, leprosy wiped away by Jesus. So they followed him without cell phones and google maps. Jesus was...Read More