Tag: Hope

2025 Triduum Part III: Healing our Bodies

Posted on by Father Albert
N.B. This is Part III of a 3-parts series on the Triduum. Part I is here. Part II is here. Easter Vigil                                                                                                     April 19, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/7YjlSCMhqyg “Their story seemed like nonsense.” Yet, we’re here because of that nonsense, here at the culmination of the Paschal Mystery. Since Thursday, we’ve dwelt in this mystery, reflecting on how it heals us. At the Last Supper, we considered how Jesus heals our community through forgiveness and new priorities. At the Crucifixion, we considered how Jesus heals our souls by entering into...Read More

2025 Triduum Part II: By His Stripes We Are Healed

Posted on by Father Albert
N.B. This is Part II of the 3-part Triduum Series. Part I can be found here. Good Friday of the Lord's Passion                                                                 April 18, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/HuMvxV79v9c “By his stripes we were healed.” How strange to say the wounds, the “stripes” left by a whip could bring healing. Yet what God has written, he has written. Today, we continue our reflection on the healing power of the Paschal Mystery. Last night, at the Last Supper, we reflected on how it heals our community. Salvation is not a private thing, but...Read More

A Story Worth Repeating: Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Lent 2025

Posted on by Father Albert
2nd Sunday of Lent, C                                                                                     March 16, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/hXBuswJd0aw Perhaps you’ve heard this story from me before. If so, I hope you don’t mind hearing it again. One summer as boy, I got to trek through the mountains in northern New Mexico in a crew of mostly 14 and 15 year-old boys. For 10 days we wound through the mountains. The final leg of the trip brought us to back base camp by way of the mountain called the Tooth of Time. So, on that final night, we...Read More

The Truth of an Acorn: Homily for the 6th Sunday OT 2025

Posted on by Father Albert
6th Sunday of Ordinary Time, C                                                                     February 16, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/6lPZUytPIsg Quid est veritas? Pontius Pilate mocks Jesus Christ with that question, “what is truth?” It’s cynical, showing that Pilate doesn’t think there is such a thing as “truth” in the first place. For him, all that matters is what works, what keeps him comfortable, alive, and in power. Cynical though the question is, Jesus does answer it. Not with words, but by his very presence and by his witness of obedience unto death. I sympathize with the question, though....Read More

Believe, Child of God: Homily for the Baptism of the Lord 2025

Posted on by Father Albert
Baptism of the Lord, C                                                                                   January 12, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/v33L25qmdoE On Sunday, ..., I was given life, reborn as a child of God. My ordinary birth was a month and half before that, but were it not for my baptism, I would not yet be truly alive. This is not the case for Jesus. From the moment of his conception, Jesus is divine, the very source of life and grace. So why was he baptized? Because that’s just how important baptism is for us. We need baptism, so Jesus...Read More

Where is the Peace? Homily for Christmas 2024

Posted on by Father Albert
Christmas                                                                                            December 25, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/s0BLJbW0oZA Where is the peace? Isn’t there supposed to be peace? Christmas songs proclaim “Peace on earth and mercy mild,” the gloria at Mass comes from the Christmas angels singing “Glory to God in the highest,and on earth peace to people of good will.” Scripture calls Jesus the “Prince of Peace.” Yet, the Holy Land where Jesus was born is a perpetual warzone. Earth as a whole never goes more than a few decades at a time without some major war happening. The...Read More

Hope Fleshed Out: Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Advent 2024

Posted on by Father Albert
2nd Sunday of Advent, C                                                                                December 8, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/XVSMWcTmRuA “I’m spiritual but not religious.” “I’m an open Christian.” “I am a spiritual person.” These kinds of sayings can be pretty appealing. For a little while, when I was younger, it was popular to be agnostic or atheist, to act like only dumb people believed in God or anything spiritual. Nowadays, however, most people are open to some kind of higher power or spiritual truth. The reality is that human beings need the spiritual. As soon as people start to...Read More

Hoping Through The End: Homily for the 1st Sunday of Advent 2024

Posted on by Father Albert
1st Sunday of Advent, C                                                                                 December 1, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/C0K8xlqVWJ8 Remember Y2K? The great “end of the world” scare in the late 90s? Most early computers were programmed to only list the last 2 digits of the year: 85, 93, 99. I don’t know how, but the idea spread that, when we hit the year 2000 and computers rolled over to the number ‘00’ in their programming, something terrible would happen. As a kid in middle school, the impression I got is that there was a chance this computer glitch...Read More

Who’s Coming With Me? Homily for All Saints Day 2024

Posted on by Father Albert
All Saints Day                                                                                                 November 1, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/wfpSmYsgF8c Epic. Or maybe you’d say “sigma.” Most people see the saints as amazing, “up there,” as heroes and legends and special people who do what we never could. And you know what? Some of them really are. Padre Pio could bilocate, read souls, and had the wounds of Christ in his body for 50 years. Joan of Arc led the French armies to victory in battle and bravely faced being burned alive by corrupt men. Francis of Assisi lived radical poverty...Read More

The Apostolate of Hope: Homily for the 29th Sunday OT 2024

Posted on by Father Albert
29th Sunday of Ordinary Time, B                                                                   October 20, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/kbJFoLWU4Ps “Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.” Jesus does not mind ambition, does not reject our desire for greatness – he gives us that desire! – he only minds that we so consistently misunderstand what true greatness is. Not everyone will be a super saint, known world-wide and celebrated for the next 1000 years. But, everyone who gets to heaven will be a...Read More