Tag: Mary

The Breadth of Faith: Homily for the 1st Sunday of Lent 2026

Posted on by Father Albert
1stSunday of Lent, A                                                                              February 22, 2026Fr. Alexander Albert                                                           St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/q9cjTNgWNJ4 What’s the big deal? It’s just a piece of fruit. How can something as small as eating one wrong piece of fruit be so bad that it breaks the whole world, gets Adam & Eve banned from the garden, and causes human beings for the rest of time to become weaker, dumber, and doomed to die? Isn’t that a bit unfair? Apparently not. Because God is just. God is good. If God, who is all-knowing, all-powerful, and perfectly good says this is the right consequence, then...Read More

The Smile of God: Homily for Mary, Mother of God 2026

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Mary, Mother of God                                                                                January 1, 2026Fr. Alexander Albert                                                           St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/EPagZfs_8uo When I was serving as a deacon at Cathedral, Msgr. Mouton was living there in retirement. Very much his own man, Monsignor Mouton was quite disciplined. His expectations of others and himself were quite high. I’ve also heard stories that, when he taught seniors at Vermilion Catholic, he would tell his students outright, “you are not going to make an ‘A’ in my class.” I don’t know if that proved to be true or not, but I get the impression that...Read More

Sacramental & Human: Homily for Holy Family Sunday 2025

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Feast of the Holy Family, A                                                       December 28, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                          St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/EWkdXx9XLzo It’s kind of weird, isn’t it? Mary was conceived without sin. Mary is the most perfect servant of God to ever exist. Mary gave birth to God’s own son. Yet, Mary gets exactly one visit from an angel. But Joseph? He gets not one, but four visits from angels. There’s the first confirming Mary’s claim before Jesus is born. Then there are the three we see today. One telling him to flee to Egypt, another telling him to go home,...Read More

What’s In A Name: Homily for the 4th Sunday of Advent 2025

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4th Sunday of Advent, A                                                                  December 21, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                            St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/KGRQCZBwWtE Myth. Legend. Liar. Lunatic. The cause of wars. The symbol of oppression, hatred, and discrimination. The angry judge. The source of guilt and repression. The role model. The teacher. The nice guy. The Lord. The Savior… When you call upon Jesus, when you think or speak of him, how do you name him? Because everyone of those titles, every one of those “names” has been applied to Jesus of Nazareth. But this is not a sociological question. It is a personal one. What do...Read More

Done To Her For Me: Homily for the Immaculate Conception

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Immaculate Conception of Mary                                                         December 8, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                          St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/DTeKU_PwCgg The most powerful thing ever done by a human being and it was done before she was even born. Mary is the Immaculate Conception. From the very first instant of her existence in her mother’s womb, Mary was immaculate, totally free from sin, a human being the likes of which had not existed since Adam and Eve were first created in the garden. We speak of Mary’s Immaculate Conception with such familiarity that this is lost on us. An uncorrupted human nature? No sin...Read More

Bodily Destiny: Homily for the Assumption of Mary 2025

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Assumption of Mary                                                                                       August 15, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/B6AP96HWFv4 Before he died, my grandfather was fond of giving me unsolicited advice on what priests needed to preach about more. Some of his favorite topics were the kingship of Jesus Christ, final judgment, the power of prayer, and the resurrection. To make his point about that last one, he would sometimes share a story about a conversation he had with a friend at lunch one day. While trying to convince his friend to take his faith more seriously, my grandfather started talking about how amazing...Read More

Mother of Memory: Homily for Mary, Mother of God 2025

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Mary, Mother of God                                                                                     January 1, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/LXWgcCJzGB4 What do you keep? What in your life and experiences and memories do you store up, hold onto, safeguard? That word, “keep,” has a lot more connotation than just maintaining possession of something. It’s also translated as “treasuring” something. So, like keeping a trophy or keeping something in a safe-deposit box or “keeping” an eye on your small child. There’s value in the thing being kept. There are lots of memories that we kind of “keep” whether we want to...Read More

The Father’s House: Homily for the Holy Family 2024

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Feast of the Holy Family, C                                                               December 28, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/-u_BLnMEdEs When I say “holy family,” what do you picture? Jesus, Mary, & Joseph are the Holy Family, but what if I ask you to picture a more generic idea of a holy family? Perfectly behaved kids sitting quietly in church? An immaculate home? A strict father surrounded by his solemn-faced wife and kids praying the rosary with unbroken concentration? When I picture a holy family, I see a noisy family meal, the chaotic joy of Christmas morning, a family...Read More

Blessed Are You Who Believed: Homily for the 4th Sunday of Advent

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4th Sunday of Advent, C                                                                                 December 22, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/bHDa_DXSTXI “Blessed are you among women.” times 53 in each rosary times the tens of millions of people who pray at least one rosary every day. That means those words are said to Mary over half a billion times every day… and I’m lowballing that number. Mary is blessed indeed! Why, though? Why should Mary be so blessed? And what can we do to be blessed as well? For one thing, it is God’s will. God chose her from before...Read More

Victory: Homily for the Immaculate Conception 2024

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Immaculate Conception of Mary                                                                    December 9, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/G8KpyEPrY_A Victory! We are here today to celebrate victory! Not just that, but a flawless victory, undefeated. Small, unimportant, easy to overlook and yet conquering mighty enemies. What a reason to celebrate! I’m talking, of course, about the victory of Mary over the devil. Today we celebrate her Immaculate Conception. The most common mistake people make about this day is that they think we’re celebrating when Mary conceived Jesus. No. That’s the Annunciation on March 25th, exactly 9 months before Christmas. Today, we...Read More