Tag: Gospel

Billboards & Mirrors: Homily for the 5th Sunday OT 2026

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5th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                              February 8, 2026Fr. Alexander Albert                                                           St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville N.B. Technical difficulties during streaming mean the video is broken up and incomplete. https://youtu.be/uTQDN-xeZLM Audio Re-recorded: In 1835, a New York City printer named Jared Bell used his equipment to print an image on a special cloth-based paper that was 6 feet wide and 8 feet high. The specialized paper meant the image was durable enough to stay outside for a long time, thus marking the first ever modern billboard advertisement. Jared Bell used this cutting-edge marketing technology to advertise Barnum & Bailey’s circus....Read More

Will He Find Faith Here? Homily for the 29th Sunday OT 2025

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29th Sunday of Ordinary Time, C                                                                   October 19, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/LnoLBi-jlxw It’s one of the most frightening questions in all of scripture. “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” For the third week in a row, our Gospel has called attention to the virtue of faith. This time we see a shift in focus: not just faith, but faith in preparation for the end of the world. Jesus doesn’t just want us to have faith. He wants us to keep faith and, more importantly, to spread faith. The fact...Read More

Uncomfortable Mercy: Homily for the 5th Sunday of Lent 2025

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5th Sunday of Lent, C                                                                                      April 6, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/1qiAE8QwpbE Let’s talk a little inside baseball on scripture today. You see, most scripture scholars think this story of the woman caught in adultery was not originally in John’s Gospel. Why? Because it isn’t in some of the oldest copies of the bible we have, from around 400 A.D. Where it does show up, it’s in different places or in another gospel, which kind of gives the impression that people who added it in later on didn’t know where to...Read More

Being Love: Homily for Trinity Sunday 2024

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Trinity Sunday, B                                                                                                       May 26, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/LWnwLJEZS3w Three weeks ago, I focused on the teaching that God is love. But what is love? “Love is to will the good of the other.” If God is love, then this means that God’s very existence is to will the good of the other. We tend to think of existence or being as this kind of passive reality. If you ask me “what are you doing?” and I answer “existing,” you’d probably think “ah, so he’s doing nothing” and you’d...Read More

Hear, See, Touch: Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Easter 2024

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3rd Sunday of Easter, B                                                                                   April 14, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/CJpKIwhq6Js It’s a funny thing, being a priest. All the time, I don’t have to say or do anything for people respond differently to me. Double-takes, subtle changes in posture, eagerness to talk to me or to avoid me, hearing the same jokes over and over. Without me even thinking about correcting them, people will apologize for cursing in front of me. Sometimes I do ask but even when I don’t, people will volunteer why they don’t come to Mass. One I hear...Read More

A Body Made Real: Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Easter, 2024

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2nd Sunday of Easter, B                                                                                  April 7, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/w5q5Gk1QIFI Does it sound like a cult to you? When you hear that first reading describing the early Christian church, perhaps everyone being “of one heart and mind” sounds a bit like not letting people think for themselves. Perhaps having “everything in common” and no one claiming “any of his possessions [as] his own” sounds a bit like a hippy commune. Perhaps letting the Apostles distribute wealth “to each according to need” sounds a bit like giving the leaders too much power and...Read More

Love That Never Fails: Homily for Easter Sunday

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Easter Sunday                                                                                                 March 31, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/8oluT1-c5gE Rejected, betrayed, slandered, murdered, and buried, what good is love to Jesus? That question doesn’t even occur to Mary Magdalen early on Sunday morning. She goes to the tomb, ready to anoint him, to fulfill the duties placed on her by law and personal affection. She does not have a plan for the stone across the tomb, yet she goes anyway. She is not willing to let foresight or prudence delay her love even a moment. Whatever she expected, she persevered and when she arrived...Read More

Holy Thursday – Part I of the Triduum: A New Love

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Mass of the Lord’s Supper                                                                              March 28, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/W2LmLDbBnDY “Love one another as I have loved you.” We call it the new commandment because that’s what Jesus called it. Like the word “gospel,” however, we’ve heard it so much that it does not strike us as news in any way. It’s old hat, familiar territory, memorized and forgotten, hear the first few words and tune out… But we don’t know it like we think we do. Anyone who thinks the gospel isn’t news isn’t really listening. Anyone who thinks this commandment...Read More

A Clean Heart: Homily for the 5th Sunday of Lent 2024

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5th Sunday of Lent, B                                                                                      March 17, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/Rq7nymESj0w When I was a kid, my boy scout troop would take rock climbing trips. Now, we all knew that falling from a great height can kill you, which is why we were careful to use ropes, harnesses, and anchors to keep us safe. We were taught how to use it and we knew that the gear was perfectly safe. But when you’re 70 feet off the ground, barely clinging to a tiny handhold and your feet start to sleep… you suddenly know the power...Read More

Exiling Ourselves: Homily for the 4th Sunday of Lent 2024

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4th Sunday of Lent, B                                                                                      March 10, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/f_3QXhry7rc From about 605 to 535 BC, God’s chosen nation of Israel went through the Babylonian Exile, described in the first reading. Our psalm today is a lament, a song expressing the sorrow the Jews felt when it seemed like God had abandoned. Why, though? Why did God allow the Babylonians – a pagan empire – to conquer Jerusalem, destroy the temple, and exile His people to a foreign land? [      ] Sin, obviously. God promises never to abandon his people. Yet, he also promised...Read More