Author: Father Albert

Horror or Humility?

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Solemnity of Joseph, Husband of Mary Fr. Albert St. Peter Catholic Church, New Iberia [audio wav="http://box5246.temp.domains/~alberuc3/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Horror-or-Humility.wav"][/audio]   Mary “was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly.” We have much to learn from St. Joseph as a model man, husband, and Christian, but what exactly does this verse mean? How is he just, why does he make that decision? Joseph is righteous, meaning he knows and follows the law of God given to Moses and the Jews. The law required...Read More

Will You Marry Me?

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3rd Sun Lent, Year A March 19, 2017 Fr. Albert St. Peter Catholic Church, New Iberia [audio wav="http://box5246.temp.domains/~alberuc3/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Will-You-Marry-Me.wav"][/audio] Will you marry me? This is the question that Jesus asks the woman at the well today. Jesus sits by Jacob’s well and talks to a woman. The last time scripture shows a man talking to a woman at a well is Moses talking to his future wife. Before that is Jacob talking to his future wife by a well. Before that, is Abraham’s servant who goes to a well to looks for a wife for Isaac. When Scripture shows a man...Read More

Weariness and Wonderment

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2nd Sun Lent, Year A Fr. Albert St. Peter Catholic Church, New Iberia [audio wav="http://box5246.temp.domains/~alberuc3/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Weariness-and-Wonderment.wav"][/audio]   Are you tired yet? A week and a half into Lent – have you fallen short on your sacrifice? Your resolutions? We still have a month of Lent left in front of us and the mental burden of having to stick it out can be well… discouraging. Can you imagine, then, the mental weight being carried by the Apostles? Just six days ago, Peter boldly proclaimed that Jesus is the Son of God only to have his excitement dashed to the ground by a...Read More

Your Battle, Your Weapon

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Lent 1st Sun, Year A Fr. Albert St. Peter Catholic Church, New Iberia [audio wav="http://box5246.temp.domains/~alberuc3/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Your-Battle-Your-Weapon.wav"][/audio]   1) You will be tempted. We face this battle our whole lives, so we should be prepared to fight. 2) We can win this battle. It is possible to resist temptation and avoid sin with the help of God's grace. To do this we need humility and a spirit of obedience. 3) We must know Scripture:    A) Not in the way that the devil knows it, but as it really is. Learn to read and understand Scripture like a Catholic.    B) It is imperative...Read More

Marked By God

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Ash Wednesday, Year A Fr. Albert St. Peter Catholic Church, New Iberia [audio wav="http://box5246.temp.domains/~alberuc3/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Marked-By-God.wav"][/audio]   A tattoo. A dramatic change in hair style or even color. A wedding ring. These are just a few ways that we like to mark something: a change, an occasion, a memory. It’s in our nature as human beings to mark things. That includes our own bodies. Sometimes, that marking, that sign, does more than make a statement. A letter-man jacket or an emblazoned t-shirt. We dress ourselves with these things as a sign, a mark that we belong to something: a particular school or...Read More

To Be and Not to Worry

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8th Sun OT, Year A Fr. Albert St. Peter Catholic Church, New Iberia [audio wav="http://box5246.temp.domains/~alberuc3/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/To-Be-and-Not-to-Worry.wav"][/audio]   Do you exist? Then God loves you. God is the source of existence and God is Love. If you exist, it is because God loves you. And if God loves you, he wants to provide for what you really need and he wants you to be happy. The next time you hear that gnawing question in your heart: does God love me? Will God provide for me? Answer it with this question, do I exist? The answer to that q is the answer to...Read More

An Unusual Love

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7thSun OT, Year A  Fr. Albert St. Peter Catholic Church, New Iberia [audio wav="http://box5246.temp.domains/~alberuc3/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/An-Unusual-Love.wav"][/audio] In 2003 Gary Leon Ridgway confessed to the murder of 48 women and hinted that he may have actually killed as many as 60. During his sentencing, a father of one of Ridgway’s teenage victims looked directly and him and said “You’ve made it difficult to live up to what I believe... what God says to do… to forgive. You are forgiven, sir.” That statement reduced the Green River Killer to tears.  On the evening of June 15, 2015 and young man went to Emanuel Church in...Read More

Love is the Law, The Law is Love

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6thSun OT, Year A Fr. Albert St. Peter Catholic Church, New Iberia [audio wav="http://box5246.temp.domains/~alberuc3/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Love-is-the-Law-The-Law-is-Lo.wav"][/audio] “I am spiritual, but not religious.” Just look at the way Jesus treats those religious and legalistic Pharisees! Look at the beatitudes. Catholics shouldn’t worry about the rules because Jesus is all about what’s in the heart… and he’s all about mercy. Oh? Try telling a woman “I love you, but I’m not committed to you” or “I promise to spend my life with you, but I won’t marry you.” Is that really love? If someone chooses to believe that, fine, but is that what Jesus Christ taught? It...Read More

Salt, Light, and Refugees

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5th Sun OT, Year A February 5, 2017 Fr. Albert St. Peter Catholic Church, New Iberia [audio wav="http://box5246.temp.domains/~alberuc3/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Salt-Light-and-Refugees.wav"][/audio]   Eating dirt in the dark. That’s what our world is doing. At least, whatever their eating is so bland and so useless that it might as well be dirt. Without a light to see and without a decent chef to broaden their culinary horizons, human beings spend most of their time groping around without purpose and constantly consuming what they find, but never with the satisfaction they want. The fact is that the human heart craves something and craves it constantly....Read More

Blessedness Of The Gods

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4th Sun OT, Year A January 29, 2017 Fr. Albert St. Peter Catholic Church, New Iberia [audio wav="http://box5246.temp.domains/~alberuc3/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Blessedness-Of-The-Gods.wav"][/audio]   Like a god! We could almost say that the word for “blessed” could be translated like that. For the ancient Greeks, the word that Jesus uses here – makarios – was primarily used to describe their gods. Only the gods were fortunate enough to be immortal, to be able to escape the inevitability of death and the sorrow it brings. Only the gods could be truly happy, fortunate, and blessed. But not so for Jesus. You have heard the beatitudes so...Read More