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

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 Rules of Love: Homily for the 6th Sunday OT 2026

6th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                            February 15, 2026Fr. Alexander Albert                                                          St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/9p8fk5Jcj84 Ladies, if you had walked into the house yesterday to find three roses and a box of chocolates inside a grocery bag on the counter and him off playing a game or something, how would you have reacted? It’s certainly better than if he ignored the day completely. Now compare that to if you walked in the house to find him holding those same three roses, smiling and greeting you with enthusiasm, if he had that same box of chocolates, but presented them...Read More

Faith, Gratitude, and Salvation: Homily for the 28th Sunday OT 2025

28th Sunday of Ordinary Time, C                                                                   October 12, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/PeIKEth-UP0 A man was about to be late for an important meeting. Knowing that the right parking spot could make all the difference, he began to pray as he got close to the parking lot: “Lord, if you help me find the right parking space, I’ll…” Just then he spotted a place right by the door “nevermind, Lord, found one!” That’s a classic story of being ungrateful to the Lord, but let me tell you a true story of gratitude from my own life....Read More

Obey, and be Free: Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Easter 2025

3rd Sunday of Easter, C                                                                                   May 4, 2025Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/hCt3nyokYfk Though I never quite rejected my Catholic faith, there was a time that I didn’t live it, a time of selfishness and sin and distraction where no one looking in from the outside would have considered me a practicing Catholic. Then I had a conversion experience. Literally overnight, my life went from selfish pointlessness to a dedicated, daily effort to live my faith wholeheartedly. I suddenly enjoyed praying. I wanted to go to Mass, even during the week. I craved...Read More

That’s My King: Homily for Jesus, King of the Universe 2024

Christ the King, B                                                                               November 24, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville https://youtu.be/SRX1lB3_mfE What makes a king? Riches? Bloodline? Popularity? The power to make other people do things? Maybe. Depends on what you mean by a king. The world plays fast and loose with words and their meanings, changing them to suit whatever goal happens to be convenient at the time. This is why Jesus can be elusive sometimes, answering questions with questions. He knows better than anyone that when two people say the same thing, they do not always mean the same thing....Read More

Being Love: Homily for Trinity Sunday 2024

Trinity Sunday, B                                                                                                       May 26, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/LWnwLJEZS3w Three weeks ago, I focused on the teaching that God is love. But what is love? “Love is to will the good of the other.” If God is love, then this means that God’s very existence is to will the good of the other. We tend to think of existence or being as this kind of passive reality. If you ask me “what are you doing?” and I answer “existing,” you’d probably think “ah, so he’s doing nothing” and you’d...Read More

A Clean Heart: Homily for the 5th Sunday of Lent 2024

5th Sunday of Lent, B                                                                                      March 17, 2024Fr. Alexander Albert                                                              St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/Rq7nymESj0w When I was a kid, my boy scout troop would take rock climbing trips. Now, we all knew that falling from a great height can kill you, which is why we were careful to use ropes, harnesses, and anchors to keep us safe. We were taught how to use it and we knew that the gear was perfectly safe. But when you’re 70 feet off the ground, barely clinging to a tiny handhold and your feet start to sleep… you suddenly know the power...Read More

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

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

Not as Human Beings: Homily for the 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                  September 3, 2023Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette https://youtu.be/8fyh0bbujDU “Get behind me Satan.” It’s quite the change, really. Last week’s gospel shows Jesus naming Simon “Rock” – Peter in Greek – and proclaiming that the gates of the netherworld will not prevail against the Church founded on that rock. Mere minutes later, Jesus uses a very different name for Simon Peter: Satan. Kind of looks like that promise of never being defeated didn’t last very long, doesn’t it? Appearances can be deceiving. In fact, that’s exactly the point Jesus makes:...Read More