Love Enough to Lose: Homily for 23rd Sunday OT 2026

23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                       September 9, 2026Fr. Alexander Albert                                                  St. Mary Magadalen, Abbeville, LA https://youtu.be/Dyifbk38pi0 Towards the end of her life, Mother Teresa had become quite famous and was beloved by most of the world. The Nobel Prize in 1979, articles and covers on major publications, speaking engagements at the national and international level… these helped her work get attention and funding, so Mother Teresa was willing to accept the popularity. At the US National Prayer Breakfast in 1994, however, Mother Teresa famously preached against abortion despite knowing it would upset the Clinton administration that invited her....Read More

Loved to the Max: Homily for VC’s Opening Mass 2026

Memorial, St. Maximilian Kolbe                                                                   August 14, 2026Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              Vermilion Catholic, Abbeville https://youtu.be/OPrEYfMIRwc Parents & grandparents, if your child or grandchild was in danger and the only way to save them would mean you had to die… would you do it? Would you trade your life for theirs? Students, raise your hand if you have younger brother or sister. Don’t raise your hand for this one, but think about this: would you trade your life to save your younger sibling? People, would you trade your life for your best friend? For your neighbor? Would you trade your...Read More

Love That Believes: Homily for the 19th Sunday OT 2026

19th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                   August 9, 2026Fr. Alexander Albert                                                   St. Mary Magadalen, Abbeville, LA https://youtu.be/19d4nHV-1E8 “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Because it’s kinda crazy to be walking on water, Jesus, that’s why! Like, it’s one thing to watch you heal people and do miracles. It doesn’t stretch our minds too much to say “okay, Jesus is special and has miraculous power, so of course he can heal people.” It’s quite a different thing to be standing on water in the middle of a storm! How does that even work? Were his...Read More

Desire for Light: Easter Vigil, Pt 3 of the Paschal Triduum 2026

Easter Vigil                                                                                           April 4, 2026Fr. Alexander Albert                                                           St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville N.B. This is the third of a three-part series of homilies on the topic of desire. The first part can be found here and the second part here. https://youtu.be/Ul20JcyOtU0 Three days ago, 4 people sat atop 6 million pounds of machinery filled with 700,000 gallons of fuel for 3 hours, waiting for the whole thing to explode and launching them into an environment completely incompatible with human life: the vacuum of space. Now, at this very moment, those 4 people are closer to the moon...Read More

Keep Watch With Me: Homily for Palm Sunday 2026

Palm Sunday, A                                                                                           March 29, 2026Fr. Alexander Albert                                                           St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/PSgb2kBhC1s Who wins? The chief priests? Not when the veil of the sanctuary is torn. Judas? Certainly not when he takes his own life. Pontius Pilate? Not when he has to answer to his wife who asked him not to do it. The disciples? Not when they fell asleep in the garden, not in their futile attempt to use the sword, not when they fled and not when Peter denies Jesus. Who wins in the end, then? Jesus wins in his resurrection. But we aren’t there yet. Who...Read More

Losing Jesus: Homily for St Joseph 2026

St. Joseph, Husband of Mary                            March 19, 2026Fr. Alexander Albert                                                      St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/J-uZJWt7usk How can you lose Jesus? More easily than you might think. Once, when were kids, my brother and I were on a camping trip with a bunch of other people. My brother is… not a morning person. So, when everyone else was getting out of their tents and preparing to go to the place where we’d go rock climbing, my brother was trying to grab a few extra minutes of sleep. Well, he got more than a few. With all the people and commotion,...Read More

Asking Without Grumbling: Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Lent

3rd Sunday of Lent, A                                                                                   March 8, 2026Fr. Alexander Albert                                                            St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/G9Z_RRVSko0 When you need water, do you ask for it? Or do you grumble about the fact that you are thirsty? In both cases, the need is the same... that need is legitimate. Without water we die, so the suffering and misery of thirst is our body saying “this is important!” If our bodies can use misery to get what it needs, why can’t we? Who says we can’t? I’m saddened by the misguided way Christians sometimes talk about our feelings and experiences, often reducing them...Read More

Not By Sight: Homily for the Funeral of Unclaimed Bodies 2026

Funeral Mass for the Unclaimed Bodies                                                      March 5, 2026Fr. Alexander Albert                                                           St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/7l4POdGvkYs “We walk by faith, not by sight.” It’s a common expression among us Christians. We often hear it in preaching and in the lives of the saints. We’ve just heard the part of scripture it comes from: St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. And the context of that saying is important because it tells us what the original point was. It is meant as an expression to help us face death because none of us can see past death. And...Read More

Why Do Anything? Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Lent 2026

2nd Sunday of Lent, A                                                                                  March 1, 2026Fr. Alexander Albert                                                            St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/IN8w68Tje-o “It is good that we are here!” Why is it good? “Because we see Jesus in glory!” “Why do we want that?” This past week, I pestered the 6th grade boys with this kind of questioning. Every time they answered why we should want something, I would ask, “why do we want that?” Now that we’re in the heart of Lent and some of the things we’re doing can begin to weigh on us, we might ask ourselves, “why are we doing this?” You might...Read More

Beyond The Way of All Flesh: Homily for St. Agatha, VC School Mass

Thursday, Week 4 OT (St. Agatha)                                                         February 5, 2026Fr. Alexander Albert                                                           St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/q9o9fzR-g7Y “I am going the way of all flesh.” When King David says that to his son Solomon, he means he is going to die. But the way he expresses that is important for us to understand. Death really is the way of all flesh. Everyone dies eventually. King Solomon is a legendary king, but he’s dead now. The 12 apostles that Jesus sends out? All dead. The people they healed, the ones they delivered from demons? All dead. When we really think about...Read More