Evangelical Disciple

Homily from the 1st Sunday of Lent. The Lord always provides grace for us to overcome our sins and our temptations to sin, but we have to cooperate with that grace. Sometimes this takes quite a bit of effort, heroic effort. We need to pray for courage to fight for the Lord since he is fighting hard for us.

Homily from Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is a great opportunity to examine where my life is going. Penance is not doing deadly things, but putting to death what is deadly in me.

Homily from the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time. We can see from our Scripture passages this week three distinct stages a person goes through when pursuing to live life as a disciple of Jesus Christ, namely the Purgative, Illuminative, and Unitive ways. We can examine our lives and see through these ways how the Lord is working in our lives, and how he desires to work into the future.

Paul gives us the answer for almost every question that could be posed to us in reference to religion. Why do you go to Church? What's the big deal about Christianity? Why do you bother with religion? Why not just stay at home on Sunday? Locate the answer by listening to this week's message.

Homily from the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Israelites had certain expectations of the Savior and became furious when their expectations turned out to be inaccurate. Their fury led them to want to kill the Savior. They allowed their minds to become dull and their emotions to rule. St. Paul, on the other hand, speaks of putting aside childish ways and becoming a man of God. He is the one we should strive to imitate.

SPIRITUAL GIFTS AND YOU PART III - Father Vasek by Fr. Craig Vasek & Fr. Bryan Kujawa

Homily from the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. Jesus speaks of a Year of Jubilee, during which slaves would be set free, debt would be paid, and land returned. Going beyond the surface, we can understand that Jesus has paid the debt of our sin, wants to free us from our slavery to sin, and always reorients our attention toward Heaven, the new Promised Land. We only have to accept his offer.

SPIRITUAL GIFTS AND YOU PART II - Father Vasek by Fr. Craig Vasek & Fr. Bryan Kujawa

Saint Paul writes over and over of the gifts that God has placed within the individual believer for the building up of the body of Christ. Hear about them in “Spiritual Gifts and You, Part I: You Have Them.

Homily from the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time. Going "beyond the surface" of the Scriptures, we can see that God is always thinking of the moment when he will save his people from their sins. This moment is the crucifixion and death of Jesus. Everything in the Old Testament points toward this moment and everything after the Ascension of Jesus points back to it. God is always thinking of the Crucifixion. We ought to think of it, too, for this is the moment God saved us from eternal damnation.

Homily from the Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord. The baptism of John the Baptist was a baptism meant for those who wanted to repent of their sins and be cleansed. Jesus, being God, did not sin. Why was he baptized? He was baptized because of his immense love for his people, because of his immense love for you.

Homily from the Solemnity of the Epiphany. St. Paul writes to the Ephesians and talks about the mystery of God being revealed to him. It took 25 years of prayer, study, and preaching for him to be able to fully understand the mystery of God. The Lord wants each of us to understand the mystery of his heart, but that demands that we dive into the mystery instead of passing it off as something we'll never be able to understand.

Homily from the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Catholics talk about Mary a lot and mention her importance in the life of each disciple. What's the deal? Well, she is the mother of Jesus. Who is Jesus? He is, among other things, both King and God, which makes Mary the Mother of God. A look into the Scriptures shows the mother of the king in the Davidic dynasty having some sort of special authority over the king, and Mary is no exception. Her role is to hear the petitions of the king's people and bring them to him.

Homily from the Feast of the Holy Family. We can look at the Holy Family (Jesus, Mary, and Joseph) and easily surrender to the thought that we will never be able to imitate their virtue in our own lives. Yet that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. St. Paul gives a great blueprint for imitating the virtues of the Holy Family in his letter to the Colossians.

Homily from Christmas. So often we profess our belief in Jesus, but we don't think about what it means to believe the Good News of the Gospel. Our belief has to express itself in how we live our lives.

Homily from the 3rd Sunday in Advent, "Gaudete Sunday". The joy of God is to produce joy in us. This requires a lot of purification, which always feels like punishment. The result, though, is an encounter with authentic joy and deep peace which, as St. Paul says to the Philippians, "goes beyond all understanding." This joy causes in us a new way of thinking, shifting from focusing on our individual selves to focusing on the community as a whole, always seeking new ways to invite others into this relationship of deep joy.

Homily from the 2nd Sunday in Advent. Being a partner in the Gospel demands that we examine our life and repent of our sins, so that we can be restored in our relationship with the Father. We are meant to be as kings living in the world, announcing the dominion of Heaven. At the same time, we are to imitate John the Baptist and go out into the world to invite others to repent of their sins so that they, too, may be restored in their relationship with God, for all are to know the salvation of our God.

Homily from the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Jesus came to testify to the truth because his people had misplaced the truth. Their priorities were mixed up so Jesus had to come and reorient his people back to the heart of the Father. He wants us to love God with our whole heart, soul, and mind. When we sin, we reject Jesus and hand him over to be crucified, but Jesus constantly offers the invitation to place him back on the throne of our heart. Our King is a merciful king.

Anointed With The King - Father Vasek by Fr. Craig Vasek & Fr. Bryan Kujawa

Homily from the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. Jesus uses striking imagery to warn his people about the end of time, when the Son of Man will come and take his disciples with him to Heaven. The imagery creates a sense of urgency for disciples to purify their desires so they can be ready to see their Lord. We're invited by Jesus to prepare ourselves for the Heavenly banquet, which begins at the Sunday Mass, where Heaven touches earth.