The Restless Heart Made Strong: Homily for School Mass Aug 28 2025

Thurs, Week 21 OT - I                       St. Augustine                                      August 28, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/NmvMULMh9Lo “What are you looking for?” Sometimes in confession, I ask that question of the person confessing. Especially when their sins seem to involve chasing thrills or pleasures, I want them to reflect on what they thought they would get our of committing those particular sins. Today is the memorial of St. Augustine, one of the greatest saints of the Church and one of the most significant figures of human history. Why is he so great? Because he went looking, seeking,...Read More

To Be Strong Enough: Homily for the 21st Sunday OT 2025

21st Sunday of Ordinary Time, C                                                                   August 24, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/-vS2vH33qVw Ever heard the phrase, “famous for being famous?” For my generation, it was the Kardashians. For younger kids, there are probably a bunch of social media “influencers” who fall in this category. It’s people who just kind of “got famous” by just hanging around famous people, chasing clout and “aura farming,” until they can market themselves as famous enough to get paid for it. For one in every 10 million people or so, it kinda works. Not that it makes them happy. Jim...Read More

Fighting Fire with Fire: A Chastity Homily – 20th Sunday OT 2025

20th Sunday of Ordinary Time, C                                                                   August 17, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/zXt_IGG5bNU “Fight fire with fire.” One tactic for fighting a wildfire is to deprive it of fuel by burning the areas in front of it. Fire can’t burn what’s already been burned. That tactic is enlightening when we consider Jesus’s pyromaniac proclamation, “I have come to set the earth on fire and how I wish it were already blazing!” Is the reason it's not blazing perhaps because the world has already been burned? Of course, the fire Jesus speaks of is a metaphor for...Read More

Bodily Destiny: Homily for the Assumption of Mary 2025

Assumption of Mary                                                                                       August 15, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/B6AP96HWFv4 Before he died, my grandfather was fond of giving me unsolicited advice on what priests needed to preach about more. Some of his favorite topics were the kingship of Jesus Christ, final judgment, the power of prayer, and the resurrection. To make his point about that last one, he would sometimes share a story about a conversation he had with a friend at lunch one day. While trying to convince his friend to take his faith more seriously, my grandfather started talking about how amazing...Read More

Thy Kingdom Come… Where? Homily for the 19th Sunday OT 2025

19th Sunday of Ordinary Time, C                                                                   August 10, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/nxXZdCHeD7g What is faith? Once, a teacher asked that question to a group of children. One little boy raised his hand and said, “it’s believing something even when you know it’s not true!” Where did he get such an idea? I doubt anyone said those exact words to him. Someone probably told him that with their actions. Children don’t usually get hypocrisy, so they simply take in and imitate what they see. Why did that boy think Faith is believing something you know is...Read More

The Wealth of Judgment: Homily for the 18th Sunday OT 2025

18th Sunday of Ordinary Time, C                                                                   August 3, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/rgCDUWrgduk “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” Uh, friend Jesus, our Father did. In Acts chapter 10, Peter the chief apostle outright says, Jesus “commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.” So, is Jesus being forgetful or is he just trolling this guy? Actually, “trolling him” isn’t far off. If you’re unfamiliar, that expression is used to describe when someone purposely says things more...Read More

What He Gives: Homily for the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2025

17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, C                                                                   July 27, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/DUyblY3tRNo Couldn’t even find 10 people, could he? Abraham, I mean. God promises not to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if there are just 10 innocent people in it. But they were destroyed. There’s even some archaeological evidence of where those cities were and what happened. Even if this story was just fictional morality parable, the point would be the same: Sodom and Gomorrah were so evil that they couldn’t come up with 10 innocent people. What does that mean for us? Well, a common...Read More

Him Whom My Heart Loves: Homily for the Patronal Feast of St. Mary Magdalen 2025

Patronal Feast of St. Mary Magdalen                                                                         July 20, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/szYXUkvax6U “Him whom my heart loves.” Who does your heart love? Last week, Jesus exhorted us to love God with our whole heart, mind, being, and strength. Now we hear this love poem from the bible. The Song of Songs is 8 chapters of lyrical verse about love. Traditionally ascribed to King Solomon, some Church Fathers read this poem as an allegory for the kind of love that should exist between God and the human soul with God as the groom and the...Read More

Too Fast For Family: Homily for the 14th Sunday OT 2025

14th Sunday of Ordinary Time, C                                                                   July 6, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/iiVB2xqgZao Have you ever been on the highway behind someone going too slow? You go to pass them, but right as you get even with them, it seems like they speed up to stay even with you? Are they being spiteful? Trying to stop you from passing? Maybe. More likely is that it’s not a conscious choice. Human beings are instinctively communal. Some part of our subconscious tells us “stay together.” So, unless the person is using cruise control or actively thinking about what...Read More

Sacramental Vision: Homily for the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul 2025

Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul                                                               June 29, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                            St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/bSt9aI65OsU Is a flower just a plant? Just a briefly living thing that withers and dies? Is a building just a composite of materials in a useful shape? In one sense, yes. In a far more important sense, no. Nothing is “just” that thing. A flower picked by a man in love and given to his beloved is obviously something more, but good luck in trying to measure that. In every culture, buildings are always more than just the shape and stuff....Read More