Homilies

We are in the final stretch of the Easter Season. Next Sunday will be the solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord and, the following Sunday, will be the solemnity of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit, concluding this liturgical season. Today the evangelist John tells us about the sending of the Holy Spirit, through whom the Father and the Son come to dwell in the disciples who love Jesus and keep His word. The context of today's passage is the Last Supper on the night before Jesus' crucifixion. He said that He would go but that He would return to the disciples - a reference to His death and resurrection. Jesus told them that they should rejoice because He was going to the Father, who was greater than He. Jesus said that the Father would send the Holy Spirit to His disciples in the Name of the Son to teach them everything and remind them of Christ's words. Jesus left His peace to the disciples, so that their hearts would not be troubled or intimidated. This peace (shal...

It is Easter! It is resurrection! It is life! With Mother Church we begin the fifth week of Easter Season. Jesus is alive among us! Today the evangelist John speaks to us about the glorification of the Son of Man and the new commandment of love. The context of today's passage is the Last Supper. Jesus was only with the disciples for a short time, because the very next day He would be crucified. Jesus speaks of the Son of Man, which was a well-known Jewish title for the Messiah. Jesus was the Son of Man, the Messiah, who was glorified in order to glorify God. The verb to glorify means to reach supreme glory, to be exalted. So to say that the Son of Man and God were glorified means that Jesus and the Father were reaching glory, were being exalted. And such glorification occurred through the obedience of the Son of Man to God, through His death on the Cross and subsequent resurrection. In other words, through the Paschal Mystery, the Son was exalting the Father at the same time that t...

Habemus papam! We welcome with love and affection the new Successor of Peter, the Vicar of Christ on earth, the American Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who chose Leo XIV as his name. We thank the Holy Spirit who enlightened our cardinals in fulfilling the noble task of electing the new Pope. We are on the fourth Sunday of Easter, called Good Shepherd Sunday. Easter is this liturgical season characterized by the joyful encounter with the resurrected Jesus and the courageous testimony of His victory over death. This is the second Sunday of the month of May, dedicated to our beloved mothers. May God bless the living mothers and grant eternal rest to the deceased mothers. Today the evangelist John speaks to us about Jesus, the Shepherd who gives eternal life to His sheep, and about His identification with the Father. There were many sheep and shepherds in Israel. They led the sheep out of the fold to graze on the grass and drink water, protecting them from wolves, and then brought them b...

We are beginning the third week of Easter Season with Mother Church. We are experiencing the joy of discovering and witnessing the presence of the resurrected Jesus in the Church and in the world. Today the evangelist John tells us about the third appearance of the risen Jesus to the disciples during a miraculous catch of fish in the Sea of ​​Tiberias and about Simon Peter’s reconciliation with the Lord after his denial before the crucifixion. The disciples had gone out at night to fish in the boat, but they caught nothing. In the morning, a man standing on the shore of the lake told the disciples to cast their net on the right side of the boat and they would find fish. Obeying the man, the disciples caught a large number of fish without the net breaking. The disciple whom Jesus loved told Peter that the man was the Lord. Then they saw burning coals of coals with fish on them, and bread. Jesus invited them to eat. None of the disciples dared to ask who he was, because they knew he was ...

Today is the second Friday of Easter; we commemorate the Sacred Stigmata of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the liturgical feast that gives its name to the congregation of Stigmatine missionaries, founded by Saint Gaspar Bertoni and present in several countries around the world. The stigmata are the five scars or marks that the risen Jesus kept on His hands, feet and side after the crucifixion, as a memory of the mystery of salvation. Saint Gaspar Bertoni was a great devotee of the Sacred Stigmata and transmitted this devotion to the members of his congregation. Each stigma was attributed a specific meaning and an invitation to conversion, according to Bertonian spirituality. Saint Gaspar Bertoni had a persistent wound on his right leg, which required hundreds of surgeries, at a time when anesthesia did not exist. With the Sacred Stigmata, Saint Gaspar Bertoni learned to suffer patiently, without complaining against God. The Stigmatine Congregation was founded in a church dedicated to the Stigm...