Fr. Brendan McGuire - Podcasts that Break open the Word of God
Breaking open the Word of God …Applying it to the lived experiences of daily lifeIn the busyness of modern life, it is sometimes difficult to see and experience God in our lives. Through his homilies, Fr. Brendan challenges and invites us to take a break focus on what the Lord is saying. God is not only present but is opening up the divine story in each of us.
Episodes
278 episodes
Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent - Stop Keeping People in Their Tombs: Let them Go
I have a friend taking one of those GLP-1 drugs for the last year, and he just looks fantastic. He has shed pounds he has carried for 10, 20, 30 years. He is now walking, running, he has started to do weights. It has transformed his life comple...
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9:52
Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent - Why Your Brain Judges People Before You Think
Whether it is because we know what young people are like, or what old people are like, or because of the color of their skin, or their accent, or their community. LGBTQ, married, divorced, immigrant, you name the list. We put people into catego...
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12:57
Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent, First Scrutiny - Why Are We So Lonely? The answer is at the Well
We are the only human species that has survived hundreds of thousands of years.There were many human species, but only we remain. The reason, according to him, is not muscle strength, not our tools, and not even our brains, but b...
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9:43
Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent - Collect the Right Memories
See, it is our choice. And when we choose to remember the hurts, the slights, we choose what will damage us and damage the relationships. It does not change that they said something silly or something hurtful. Why has that happened? Because the...
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10:57
Homily for the First Sunday of Lent - Three Lies the World Tells Us About Our Identity
If you think about an ordinary social interaction, that you might have at a party or some sort of scene, where you are meeting people for the first time. What is typically the first question after you have greeted? What do you do? And I am alwa...
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9:09
Homily for the Renewal of Marriage Vows - February 14, 2026
What amazed me about Cirque du Soleil was how they threw each other with such grace, they seemed to swoop in and pick them up each time, at the right place and the right time. It was just magnificent. Now, if you know anything about human dynam...
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10:41
Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Swimming in Love and Not knowing It
There is a great story told of a little fish in the ocean swimming around trying to figure out where the ocean is. He comes up to this older, wiser fish and says, “Where is the ocean?” The old fish says to him, “You are swimming in it.” The lit...
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11:02
Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time - You Already have What it Takes to Change the World
When I was growing up in Ireland, my father had an expression, just one simple phrase that summed up a person, and it was a compliment. He would see somebody that he thought well of, somebody that he thought was authentic. He would say, "Ah, th...
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11:57
Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Why Humility is the Secret to Real Happiness
The foundational component, what they called a pillar of humility. To be humble before God and know that they are a child of God. Happiness comes from that. We are no better than anybody else. No one else is any better than us. And bec...
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14:12
Homily for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time - How to be a Peacemaker in a Divided World
And there, in that unlikely place, Jesus finds his first followers. He walks along the Sea of Galilee and sees two brothers, Simon and Andrew, casting their nets. He says to them, "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men." At once, th...
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10:03
Homily for the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time - We Are a Religion of History
Most myths follow the same general pattern. The arc of the story is that you have a hero who goes on a quest, then in that adventure overcomes great adversity, whether personal or something that happens in their life.Then in overcoming it, they...
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10:47
Homily for the Baptism of the Lord - You Are My Beloved Son
I am not going to tell you to do not do all those New Year's resolutions. I am just going to say to do this one thing first. Remember that you are beloved. And sit with that for maybe just January. Not just today, but the whole month of January...
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8:28
Homily for the Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord - I Spy with My Little Eye
We need to start with small things, but we need to have a vision of what we want. One of the things that human behavior scientists would tell us, the idea of setting goals is great, but it is actually useless when it comes to accomplishing anyt...
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10:17
Homily for the Feast of the Holy Family - Make Room for Family
It is such a gift to be able to celebrate a meal around the table and just feel the love of family. And it is a gift, but it also requires some hard work, because you have to show up, right?And that is a challenge for all of us, because we get ...
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9:04
Homily for the Nativity of the Lord during the Day - The Word was Made Flesh
The only meaning, the true logos, is God. The true logos is what we believe as Christians, the baby Jesus. He is the logos made flesh. That is what we celebrate, that that is the profound meaning. That is a foundation meaning for everything in ...
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11:39
Homily for the Nativity of the Lord at Night - Make Room for Christ
What I would like you to do today and this week is make a little bit of room, take something away. Because like the branches in that story, we had to clear some of the branches and the grass away. We had to take something out. Can we have just ...
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11:44
Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent - Courage to Listen and Obey
The challenge for us as modern-day people, is that we have so much coming at us, so many voices. We have a cacophony of voices and messages. We do not know where or how to listen, and we certainly do not expect to listen to God. We do not ave t...
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7:36
Homily for the Third Sunday of Advent - Rejoicing in the Midst of Doubt
Here is what is interesting, what I have learned since then and before, through other many situations. Doubt is not the opposite of faith. We often believe that doubt is the opposite of faith. But it is a part of faith. Doubt is not the opposit...
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10:10
Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent - Turn Around
The prophets are the people who tell us what we need to hear even if we do not like it. Isaiah today which we hear in the first reading and John the Baptist, who we may as well call “John the Isaiah” because he comes on with just as strong a la...
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10:21
Homily for the First Sunday of Advent - The Eye of the Storm
And now comes Advent. Now comes the busiest season of the year, when our regular business goes into high gear. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we add shopping, decorating, parties, concerts, and celebrations to our already overflowing calen...
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8:54
Homily for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe - We Are Not Numbers
Today, we celebrate the Feast Day of Christ the King and the readings bring us back to the foot of the cross. It seems like an odd place to bring us back as we enter into the end of our liturgy year and now enter into to the Advent season as we...
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13:01
Homily for the Thirty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time - Death and Life Eternal
In the cultural view, time is a scarcity. It is an asset that is a diminishing, that we are going to lose some day. In this cultural view of time, time is running out. We have this sense of everything must produce something. A view ...
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10:23
Homily for the Feast of the Dedication of Lateran Basilica in Rome - Church as Restaurant
We have to be mindful of how we are serving others in our world today. Because we, you and I, are the church. Today we celebrate an unusual Feast day called the Dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome. We might say, "Why are we...
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12:57
Homily for the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed - Cricle of Life
Every one of us will take that final journey home someday. But until then, we are called to live this circle of life well. We are called to live it fully, embracing every moment and savor every moment for what it is, whatever part of the journe...
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12:36
