Check the Dean’s sermons and reflections from past Sundays and holydays.
The name Et Reliqua is taken from the Office of Matins, in which the commentary by the Church Fathers on the Gospel of the day is preceded by part of the Gospel itself. Rather than read the Gospel in its entirety, only the first sentence is included, followed by the words, Et Reliqua, translated into English as “And so on and that which followeth.”
Palm Sunday is a day of conflicting emotions. Our Mass begins with the recreation of that triumphal scene when our Lord was welcomed into his holy city of Jerusalem by a crowd brimming with excitement and enthusiasm, waving palms and shouting Hosanna. We sing the hymn of praise “All glory,
Our Passiontide begins today with a reading from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews in which the apostle outlines the whole reason why there ever had to be a Passion and Divine Sacrifice in the first place. It’s a simple outline, and even if you’ve heard it before, remains a
On this Fourth Sunday in Lent, it may be puzzling to us why the Church relaxes some of her Lenten laws and instructs us to be joyful. In the midst of the rigorous Lenten fast, when men should bewail their sins and do penance for them, and sounds of mirth
We taste Thee, O Thou living Bread, And long to feast upon Thee still; We drink of Thee, the Fountain-head, And thirst our souls from Thee to fill. We began our Lent with the devil tempting our Lord to turn stones into bread. His motive in doing so was of
It makes no sense for the detractors of our Lord to accuse him of casting out devils in the name of Beelzebub, the chief of the devils. For many years, people have been racking their brains, unable to understand how anyone could be so illogical as to assert such a
Our blessed Lord taught that every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth. He was referring at the time to the kingdom of Satan. Rumors were abounding that our Lord was casting out devils in the name of the devil, and
When our blessed Lord appeared in glory to the three Apostles, Peter, James and John, we can imagine what their reaction was. They probably knelt down in homage before this man who now showed himself to be more than just a man. They must have been in awe of this
The Second Sunday in Lent is commonly called Transfiguration Sunday, from the events described in today’s Gospel. That our Lord should reveal to his apostles a glimpse of his true glory before his Passion and Death should not surprise us—a couple of weeks ago the Gospel of Quinquagesima Sunday showed
There are two messages in today’s Gospel. First, that we must follow Christ into the wilderness, where we fast and do penance for our sins. This acknowledgment of our failures prepares us for the second stage of our commitment, which is to then follow Christ in resisting temptation. Our Lenten
Lent, as we all know, begins on the Wednesday following Quinquagesima Sunday. Carnival time officially ends at the stroke of midnight on Mardi Gras, and our penances begin immediately. The first ceremony of the Lenten season is the blessing and imposition of ashes, a practice that was common among the
There are many different kinds of blindness. Not all blind people see nothing at all. Many are able to detect light to some extent. Even more common are people suffering from macular degeneration, glaucoma, cataracts or other form of blindness. Some of these impairments can be healed or improved through
What is it about the approach of Lent that fills us with such dread? Are our fears based on superficial reasons, such as the enforced curtailing of our food consumption? Is the removal of the cookie jar from the kitchen table enough to send us into paroxysms of trepidation and
There is an aspect of Shrovetide that remains hidden to the faithful who do not recite the Church’s Divine Office. While the daily readings at Matins during Epiphanytide were focused on the Epistles of St. Paul, the Church has now shifted her attention to the very beginning of Holy Scripture,
What exactly are we made of? The answer to that question usually depends on whom we ask. A child will tell us we’re made of skin and bones; a doctor will go into more detail, describing the various organs, muscle tissue, nerves, fluids, and so on. But we don’t need
As we meander our way along the treelined avenues of life, we are constantly barraged with distracting voices, all of them offering us advice. Most of the advice is insignificant, and we can use our common sense as to whether or not we should take it. “Take this pill and
With President Trump’s warp-speed draining of the Washington Swamp these past few weeks, you’d think we would finally be finding some peace and happiness in the state of the Union. Everyday, we turn on the TV to find not one or two, but literally dozens of new and sensible policies
Candlemas. The last feastday of the Christmas cycle, that joyful season of the year during which we celebrate the birth of the Messiah, and his manifestation to the world. If there is one symbol which more than any other exemplifies Christmastide, it is “Light”. Our Lord described himself as the
The Holy Ghost had revealed to the old priest Simeon “that he should not see death, before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.” At the Presentation, we can imagine this old man’s joy as he receives the Christ from the very hands of our Blessed Lady. This old
We celebrated yesterday the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle. It’s a story you know well, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, which tells how one of the chief persecutors of Christians, by name of Saul, was on his way to Damascus, breathing out threatenings and
We are admonished by St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans today, to “Mind not high things.” It has always been a natural temptation for the common man to think about and comment on the great events and personalities that affect him. Never has this phenomenon been more commonplace
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