Tag: Mary

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

Posted on by Father Albert
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

Posted on by Father Albert
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

Posted on by Father Albert
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

Posted on by Father Albert
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

The Celebration Continues: Homily for the Queenship of Mary 2024

Posted on by Father Albert
Queenship of Mary                                                                                         August 22, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville N.B. This is a sequel to the homily for the Assumption of Mary. https://youtu.be/u4GFnnLurpM A week later and here we are again, celebrating something about Mary the Mother of God. Once again, it is worth asking: why? As with her Assumption into heaven, there are many reasons that all come back to one reason: to glorify Jesus Christ her son, God incarnate. And what is it that we celebrate this time? Mary’s queenship. It’s not an accident that it is exactly a week after...Read More

Why Celebrate? – Homily for the Assumption of Mary 2024

Posted on by Father Albert
Assumption of Mary                                                                                       August 15, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/jwnk-iFshWs Why? Why celebrate the Assumption of Mary? For many reasons, but one above all: everything we celebrate about Mary gives even greater glory to Jesus Christ her son. Every Marian dogma, devotion, and practice is ultimately about Jesus Christ. Before explaining why, let’s answer what it is. The Assumption of Mary commemorates the day that Mary was brought into heaven, body & soul. Everyone else, when they die, leaves their body behind and only their soul goes to heaven. When Jesus rose from...Read More

How to Face the Devil: Homily for the 10th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2024

Posted on by Father Albert
10th Sunday of Ordinary Time, B                                                                               June 9, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/7jJ_LRBpZNw There are two extremes that get the devil wrong. One is to deny he exists at all, to reduce him to a myth or literary symbol. The snake is a literary symbol, but it a symbol that represents the very real fallen angel named Satan. When we deny his existence, we leave ourselves defenseless. If a Catholic denies the existence of the devil, he risks the sin of heresy and being cut off from God’s grace. The...Read More

A Family of Faith: Homily for the feast of the Holy Family 2023

Posted on by Father Albert
Feast of the Holy Family, B                                                                           December 31, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert [No recording available] Abraham “reasoned that God was able to raise even from the dead, and he received Isaac back as a symbol.” A symbol of what? God promised Abraham a lot of descendants. He finally had Isaac when he was 100 years old and God said his descendants would come from Isaac. So, when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac before Isaac even had the chance to have his own children, Abraham correctly guessed that God must be able to raise people from the dead. As...Read More

Your Will Be Done: Homily for the 4th Sunday of Advent 2023

Posted on by Father Albert
4th Sunday of Advent, B                                                                                 December 24, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/8yjMcR6JPEo Some of the most useful and most underrated words in all of Scripture are the ones the prophet Nathan says to King David in our first reading: “Go, do whatever you have in mind, for the LORD is with you.” These words can pull you back to the center from one of two dangerous extremes: excessive self-reliance and crippling uncertainty. By far the most common one is excessive self-reliance. Even being too worried about what other people think is relying on...Read More

From Beyond Time: Homily for the Immaculate Conception of Mary

Posted on by Father Albert
The Immaculate Conception of Mary                                                             December 8, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/Rgpy1AmDGjU Seeing how we celebrate the Immaculate Conception of Mary, some Christians accuse us of over-emphasizing her. Yes, there are people who get carried away and distort Marian devotion, but the Catholic Church’s teaching that Mary was immaculately conceived – conceived without Original Sin – is solid and dependable. Critics say the Immaculate Conception isn’t in the bible. But it is. The angel calls her “full of grace,” which comes from a unique Greek word. We lose something in translation: this is...Read More