Tag: Hope

The Joy of Poverty: Homily for Gaudete Sunday 2025

Posted on by Father Albert
3rd Sunday of Advent, A                                                             December 14, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                         St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville N.B. Technical Difficulties meant the recording failed this week. You don’t have to feel Catholic in order to be Catholic. You don’t have to feel Catholic in order to be Catholic. Somehow, American Catholics bought into the lie that practicing a faith you don’t feel deep down makes you a hypocrite, that acting Catholic while you have doubts makes you a hypocrite. It doesn’t. How do I know? Because we have an example no less illustrious than John the Baptist himself. Look again at what...Read More

What We Know: Homily for All Souls Day 2025

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All Souls Day                                                                                     November 2, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/-50x9MAY37M “I know he will rise.” Not “I believe,” not “I think,” not even “I hope.” I know he will rise. How? How can this unimportant woman from a small town outside of Jerusalem know someone will rise from the dead? Because faith is not a guess or an opinion. It is a supernatural conviction of truths that are beyond our natural reason. Faith is not opposed to knowledge. It is not opposed to reason. It is an extraordinary way of knowing. Of course, it is...Read More

Saints & Pharisees: Homily for the 30 Sunday OT 2025

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30th Sunday of Ordinary Time, C                                                                   October 26, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/BG2y-1f79ls “O God, I thank you that I’m not like those pharisees who think they’re better than everyone else. They pray and fast and give to the Church, but they’re so judgmental. I’m much more like those tax collectors and other people Jesus loved – I never fast or give tithes, I love money, I’m addicted to drinking, and I like to lust… but, man I’m so glad I’m not judgmental!” Y’all see the problem there? People are so quick to agree with Jesus...Read More

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

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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

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

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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

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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

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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

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

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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

2025 Triduum Part III: Healing our Bodies

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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

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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