Author: Father Albert

Why Make The Cut?

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The Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time                                     September 30, 2018 Fr. Albert                                                                                            St. Peter’s, New Iberia As a young boy scout, I enjoyed climbing, hiking, and building survival skills. My friends and I relished in having skills enabled us to survive in difficult terrain. We often listened to stories of men and women who had used similar skills to survive incredible ordeals and return home. One such story was that of Aron Ralston. Aron Ralston was a mountaineer from Colorado. In 2003, he was hiking and climbing in Utah by himself when a boulder shifted and trapped...Read More

New and Improved

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Homily for Mass @ CHS                   Grandparent’s Day                             September 27, 2018 Fr. Albert                                                                                            Catholic High, New Iberia  “New and improved.” That tagline advertisement is just about everywhere. The next iphone, the next computer, the next update of fortnight. Things are always getting improved, getting better, becoming new again. And as the world changes, we start to see differences between different generations. One hilarious illustration of this difference I saw in a video a while back. It features a dad who decided to test his daughter’s ability to understand how things used to work. He’s sitting down...Read More

Purity and Desire

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The Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time                                     September 23, 2018 Fr. Albert                                                                                            St. Peter’s, New Iberia  Passion. Desire. Ambition. What do you think of when I say these words? Something carnal or worldly? Do they make you think of spirituality and holiness? And what do you think of when I say “purity?” Perhaps, you think of purity as something opposite to desire and passion; that someone who is pure simply doesn’t want is wrong. St. James says, “where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions?”...Read More

Kiss My Feet

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Homily for Mass @ CHS                                                                               September 20, 2018 Fr. Albert                                                                                            Catholic High, New Iberia  Would you kiss my feet? I mean, I’m a pretty clean person, and these are fresh socks, so it’s probably not too bad. This woman in the Gospel is willing to kiss Jesus feet, and he wore sandals in the desert. Can you imagine how ripe those things would be? Maybe that’s why she washed them first… Still, it’s kind of crazy isn’t it? There are all these people at a dinner party and this woman walks into someone else’s...Read More

The Perfecting Pain

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The Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time                                   September 16, 2018 Fr. Albert                                                                                            St. Peter’s, New Iberia  Jesus tells us many comforting things – God loves us, He wants to provide for what we truly need, we can be forgiven – this teaching, however, takes a different approach. “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” We like to hear the other stuff and most people like to believe it. But what about this one. Do you wish to “come after” Jesus and are you willing to carry a...Read More

The Teacher Who Demands Death

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The Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time    Educator’s Mass                September 15, 2018 Fr. Albert                                                                                            St. Peter’s, New Iberia  Teachers, what do you demand of your students? I know I want them to pay attention, to be respectful, and to do the assignments I give them. But would you ask them to die? To sit in an electric chair and be executed? If Jesus is the great teacher we consider him to be, if he is someone we want to imitate as teachers, then maybe we should expect that. Because that’s what he’s telling his students, his disciples...Read More

Finger In Your Ear

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The Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time                                                September 9, 2018 Fr. Albert                                                                                            St. Peter’s, New Iberia  Some of my favorite videos on the internet are the ones that show somebody experiencing something for the first time. A few such videos feature Cochlear implants and lets you see what it’s like for someone hear for the first time in their life. Put yourself in that place. Never knowing sound and then… *snap* sound rushes in and a whole new dimension of reality becomes available to you. You know what happens almost every time? The person lights...Read More

Jesus the Bread of Life & The Hungry One

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Monday of the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time                                                September 3, 2018 Fr. Albert                                                                    Our Lady Queen of Peace, Lafayette “Jesus made Himself the Bread of Life and the Hungry One”  “Is this not the son of Joseph?” Though it seems like a simple question, this comment hides behind it a hardened heart. This is in Nazareth where Jesus “had grown up.” The people here knew Jesus. They saw the child play games in the street. They saw the boy at prayer with the community. They saw the hungry one, a man like any other, who had...Read More

This Saying Is Hard

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The Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time                                                  August 26, 2018 Fr. Albert                                                                                    Sacred Heard, Broussard, LA N.B. The ending of the recording is from the end of Mass when I address the scandal in the Church  “This saying is hard, who can accept it!” Which saying, exactly, is so hard to accept? The Jews in the Gospel are talking about the Eucharist, but there is another saying in our readings today that is probably just as hard, if not even harder for modern Catholics to accept. I’m talking about the opening lines for our second...Read More

Coming into Union With God

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The Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time  Liturgy Catechesis                   August 26, 2018 Fr. Albert                                                                                            St. Peter’s, New Iberia  Today we come to the last part of our walk through of the Mass. Once the Eucharistic prayer concludes with the Doxology and the Great Amen, we begin to prepare ourselves to receive Holy Communion. Notice how the Our Father is introduced: “At our savior’s command and formed by divine teaching, we dare to say.” To us, calling God “Father” seems like no big deal, but it is. Before Jesus Christ, expressing that kind of intimacy was seen as...Read More