Homilies

We are inaugurating the new Liturgical Year with the Advent Season, our preparation for the second coming of Christ and for Christmas. It is not a festive season, as one might imagine. Note that the liturgical color is purple, that is, an invitation to penance, repentance, and conversion. We have no flowers, no Hymn of Praise. It is an opportune season for reflection and for confessing through the sacrament of Reconciliation. A traditional symbol is the Advent wreath, with its candles that mark the four weeks of this liturgical season. Its catechetical purpose is to help the faithful in the passage from the darkness of sin to welcome Christ, the rising sun, at Christmas (cf. Isaiah 9.2; Luke 1.78-79). It would be very important to dedicate more time to prayer and charity towards the poorest. The Christmas novena in family and neighborhood is a great option. Let us organize charitable initiatives that purify us from our sins. Today the evangelist Matthew speaks to us of the coming of th...

We begin the last week of Ordinary Time with Mother Church, with the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. This solemnity was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925, through the encyclical Quas Primas, as a response to the First World War and its consequences, recalling that true peace and justice are only found in the recognition of the kingship of Christ, when men allow Christ to reign in their minds, hearts, and societies. Originally celebrated on the last Sunday of October, this solemnity was transferred in 1969 to the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year, reinforcing the idea that Christ is the ultimate end of history and Christian life. Christ is King, not in a political or military sense, but as sovereign of love, truth, and peace. He is the Judge and King who will come at the end of time. Above any human power, Christ is the Lord of History. This solemnity is a profession of faith against ideologies that attempt to exclude God from public and personal life. Today ...

We begin the penultimate week of Ordinary Time with Mother Church. Next Sunday, the Liturgical Year will conclude with the Solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe. The Sunday before this solemnity, which is today, is the World Day of the Poor. It was an initiative of Pope Francis, started in 2017. Of course, Christians should think about and care for the poor 365 days a year. But the proposal was to have a common day for reflection and witness of charity, in all parishes and Catholic institutions. In 2025, the IX World Day of the Poor will take place, with the motto "You are my hope" (cf. Psalm 71:5), proposed by Pope Leo XIV, in line with the Jubilee Year. In his message (available for free on the Internet), Pope Leo XIV speaks of poverty as a result of unjust social structures that must be corrected; he says that the poor are a "theological place," from where God speaks to us and calls us to conversion through charity; and he says that Christian hope is not o...

We begin the thirty-second week of Ordinary Time with Mother Church. In two Sundays, the Liturgical Year will conclude with the Solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe. In 2025, the feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, on November 9th, coincided with Sunday, the Lord's Day. The Basilica of St. John Lateran is the Cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, presided over by Pope Leo XIV. It is the oldest church in the West, inaugurated in the year 324, during the pontificate of Pope St. Sylvester I. It is the most important of the four papal basilicas in Rome (the others are St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, and the Basilica of St. Mary Major). Five ecumenical councils have taken place there. She is considered the ecumenical Mother Church. Initially, the basilica was dedicated to Christ the Savior, and only centuries later was it co-dedicated to Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist. Let us celebrate the catholicity...

Today the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata of Our Lord Jesus Christ celebrates the feast of its foundation, on this same date in the year 1816, in the Italian city of Verona. In short, Fathers Gaspar Bertoni and John Marani entered the church and school of the Stigmata, accompanied by Br. Paul Zanolli. They followed the divine inspiration to found a missionary congregation to serve the bishops, which Fr. Gaspar Bertoni had before the image of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. The times were difficult: the constant conflicts between French and Austrian soldiers in Verona left destruction and misery; the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte had prohibited the founding of religious congregations; the Church was persecuted by sympathizers of the French Revolution with its ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity. Bertoni, Marani, and Zanolli reformed the church and the school, and religious and school activities were resumed for the good of families and the diocese. The origin was humble, but t...

We begin with Mother Church the thirty-first week of Ordinary Time, in this commemoration of all the Faithful Departed. Death is an inevitable reality that proves the finitude of everything material. The human awareness of one's own death and also of the death of others is deeply disturbing, especially when it comes to loved ones. Faith in the resurrection of Christ softens the impact of death. Christians still mourn the death of loved ones, like Christ when He learned of the death of His friend Lazarus (cf. John 11:35). But, once the time of mourning is over, sadness gives way to longing, in the certainty that we are pilgrims in this world, walking towards our ultimate homeland, which is Heaven. Like Christ, we are in this world to fulfill a divine mission and, when the pre-defined time ends, we return to God. If they died in a state of grace (having received the sacraments), the faithful departed go to Heaven, alongside the saints (the triumphant Church); if they died in a state ...

Today the Church, our Mother, celebrates the solemnity of all saints, especially the unknown and anonymous ones, since the canonized saints already have their own specific liturgical feasts. "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of the universe" (cf. Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8). This is what we proclaim in the Holy Mass. Only God is holy, and no one else. To be holy, human beings need God's help. God wants human beings to participate in His holiness. To be holy is to be upright, to be happy, to love and be loved, to forgive and be forgiven, to be just, to be good, to be truthful, to be peaceful, to be humble, to be generous. In other words, to be holy is to be blessed. Today the evangelist Matthew tells us about the beatitudes, in the context of the Sermon on the Mount. Without a doubt, Jesus is the blessed one par excellence. Jesus dedicated His life to serving the needy of His time. They were the greatest beneficiaries of Jesus' redemptive action. We, disciples of Jesus...