Tag: Holy Spirit

Attaining Joy: Homily for Gaudete Sunday 2024

Posted on by Father Albert
3rd Sunday of Advent, C                                                                                 December 15, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/v70YSRU0t5g “Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee O Israel.” It’s hard to pick just one hymn as a favorite, but that’s a contender. Profound meaning, a great tune, a deep connection to tradition, and it’s always sung in my favorite season, especially on one of my favorite days of the year: Gaudete Sunday, which literally means “rejoice.” Our second reading follows that theme by telling us, commanding us to rejoice. How, though? To understand how, it will help to reflect...Read More

Steps to Joy: Homily for the 30th Sunday OT 2024

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30th Sunday of Ordinary Time, B                                                                   October 27, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/mgqV77TSPKI [Steps outlined at the bottom] “The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.” Does that sound convincing? If we cannot convince ourselves, how can we convince those who do not know God? Preaching on this topic is always a little fraught with danger. For one thing, it rarely helps to try to guilt-trip people into being joyful. “Shame on your for not feeling joy! Start being joyful right now!” I say rarely, not never, because...Read More

Being Love: Homily for Trinity Sunday 2024

Posted on by Father Albert
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

What is the Holy Spirit? Homily for Pentecost 2024

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Pentecost, B                                                                                                                May 19, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/J6WTq0Qr46k What is the Holy Spirit to you? Really, I should say “who” is the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is a person! Yes, Jesus sometimes talks about the power of the Holy Spirit in a more abstract way, but we see the personal dimension in today/tomorrow’s gospel. Jesus says “But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.” Hear how personal that is? “He will guide you.” So, while Pentecost is about the fantastic...Read More

The Gift of Going Away: Homily for the Ascension 2024

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Solemnity of the Ascension, B                                                                                   May 12, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/bORFb1E3u2M St. Paul tells us that Jesus “ascended on high; he gave gifts to men.” What gifts? The power of the Holy Spirit to become witnesses of Jesus to the whole world. Power for exorcisms, healings, miraculous communications and survival. And not just to the Apostles long ago. To this day, these signs happen throughout the world in conjunction with the proclamation of the gospel by laity and clergy alike. Neither does this power to bear witness only come in...Read More

A Trigger Warning: Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Lent 2024

Posted on by Father Albert
2nd Sunday of Lent, B                                                                                     February 25, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/vEuAWfzPkKY Image by CC 2.0 from https://www.flickr.com/photos/gcfairch/4189169360 A story. A true one, as far as I know. At a church elsewhere in Louisiana, there was a young pastor who once opened the door to find a gun pointed straight at him. Holding that gun was a nervous looking man who rather shakily said, “Father, I’m sorry but God told me I have to kill you.” Inspired, he quipped, “oh, God just told me to tell you that you don’t have to kill me anymore.” The...Read More

The Flight of Joy: Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Advent 2023

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3rd Sunday of Advent, B                                                                                 December 17, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/hGXZtli3eJ8 Fly! Go on, start flying! It’s not like you don’t know how, there are about a million people in the air right now. So why aren’t you flying? Probably because it’s not as simple as just deciding “I’m flying now.” We can only fly in specific circumstances. It is the result of several forces beyond our control, it took us thousands of years to figure out how to do it. Flying is the fruit of a complex process. Despite being possible,...Read More

How It Burns: Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Advent, B

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2nd Sunday of Advent, B                                                                                December 10, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/4QCixpBM44I If you were running from a fire about to burn your house down, would you stop to make the bed first? It kind of sounds like St. Peter is saying we should in the 2nd reading. Listen again: “the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar and the elements will be dissolved by fire… Since everything is to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought...Read More

To Repay What We Owe: Homily for the 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time

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29th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                   October 22, 2023 Fr. AlexanderAlbert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/A1CWnEMUS7c “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” And what is that, exactly? What do we owe to God? Everything. The demands of our religion aren’t arbitrary. They are concrete expressions of the fact that we owe God everything. Authentic religion is the effort to make that repayment. Last week, I focused particularly on the obligation to attend Sunday Mass. Repaying to God what we owe to God means being willing to sacrifice time, money,...Read More

How Ought We To Pray? Homily for the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Posted on by Father Albert
16th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                               July 23, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/XzE9cl6zTII “The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought.” That’s comforting, but it does raise an important question: How “ought” we to pray? Last week we heard about the groaning of all creation and how we are awaiting “adoption, the redemption of our bodies.” We used this to reflect on how that groaning and hope allow us to “consider the sufferings of this present time as nothing.” Today’s section...Read More