Fr. Brendan McGuire - Podcasts that Break open the Word of God
Episodes
304 episodes
Homily for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Why Do We Keep Score? God Gives Us a Full Cup
My mother used to have problems with some of my homilies, and she used to say so, "You are a bit light on judgment and a bit heavy on love." I would say, "God has more love than judgment." She would go, "Yeah." Then she would always end the arg...
Homily for the Twenty Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Tear Out the Page: There Is No Ledger in Heaven
I remember 9-11, twenty-five years ago. I was in the rectory at St. Lawrence Parish, as that second plane crashed into the tower, and then watching the two towers burning. It is seared into my memory. Then the following hours of confusion and a...
Homily for the Twenty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time - Stagnant Water, Stagnant Love: Keep It Flowing
When I was growing up in Ireland, you would turn on the tap and have water, just like you guys do, right? The difference is, in Ireland, there is no bill. Water is free. Never charged for it.
Homily for the Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time - Are You a Believer or a Follower? The Hard Truth
Human behavior scientists maintain that in order to change one’s behavior, the person who actually wants to change needs to desire to change. That sounds so obvious, right? If you want to change something, you have to actually want to ...
Homily for the Twenty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time - Not What You Do But Who You Are
I had the wonderful opportunity to visit my close friend and mentor, Monsignor Lloyd Torgerson. Lloyd is a towering figure in the American church, especially in Los Angeles. He is eighty-six years old, still pastor,and he has been pastor ov...
Homily for the Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time - The Yellow Door and the God of Surprises
This last week we had a great opportunity as a parish and school staff to go away on a day of retreat. It was wonderful just to be away and to spend a day in prayer,holding up the whole year ahead. I introduced the theme for the year: F...
Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time - God’s Primary Language Is Silence
I just got back from vacation. I had been in Florence for a conference on artificial intelligence for the first nine days, where I gave four presentations over those days. Then I had the great opportunity to go to Sicily and visit with a ...
Homily for the Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time - What Mothers Know That the Rest of Us Forget
Last year, when we were on pilgrimage to Turkey and Greece, in the footsteps of St. Paul, we had nearly 50 parishioners. When you have a group of people like that, something always goes wrong! So the first day, som...
Homily for the 17th Sunday or Ordinary Time - What Is My Purpose Now? The Pearl of Great Price
During the year, at our Men’s Group, we have been reading a book called “The Power of Purpose” by Richard Leider, and in it he tries to articulate what it is that gives us meaning and purpose in our life. In thi...
Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time - The Reckless Sower: A Love That Will Not Stop
I bring you this homily today from Florence, Italy. I am here with a group of Jesuits from throughout the whole world, those working in formation, bringing them all together to learn a little bit more about artificial intelligence and how to in...
Homily for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Turn the Lens of Life to Clarity
One of the great gifts that we have as priests is that we are invited to journey with people in some of the most tender and vulnerable moments of their life. In particular, when people get sick, and when they get terminally si...
Homily for the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Do Not Be Afraid: A Father's Faith in Hard Times
Many of you know how much my own father was a hero in my life. He always seemed to have the right thing to say at the right moment. He just seemed to have that wisdom to always guide in the midst of darkness.
Homily for the Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time - Do Your Portion of the Wall
Our conversation led to talking not so much about artificial intelligence, as what this means for humanity. What does it mean for humans to flourish? What does that conversation look like? It really was a mirroring of the document that Pope Leo...
Homily for The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ - Gnaw on My Flesh: The Presence We Cannot Outsource
What does it mean for us as human beings to flourish? What does it mean to have dignity as a human person? And what is the common good for all people? He goes through a whole hundred and thirty-five years of the Church’s...
Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity - Right Relationship: With God, Each Other, and AI
This past week, as I said at the beginning of Mass, has been quite a week for me. It was extraordinary. I had the opportunity to sit in the Synod Hall as the Holy Father gave his new encyclical, Magnificat Humanitas
Homliy for Pentecost Sunday - Holy Spirit Goose 2026
In our Catholic church, we typically think of the Holy Spirit in rather tame terms. We think of the Holy Spirit as a nice peaceful dove coming, fluttering into our lives, or tongues of fire settling down on our head. But in Celtic spiritu...
Homily for Ascension Sunday - The Fierce Urgency of Now: A Message for 2026
Almost 60 years ago, on April 4th, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King walked into Riverside Church in New York City and gave a speech co-written by Dr. Vince Harding, his peer in ministry. For over a decade, he had been the voice ...
Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter - Why Are We So Afraid? The Spirit Is With You
We need to recognize that the Holy Spirit is a gift, and like all gifts, it has to be received. It has to be opened. It has to be unleashed. As Catholics, we have some work to do with the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are maybe a tad shy in accep...
Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter - The Way, The Truth and The Life
A few weeks ago, I was scrolling through my phone and stopped at three news clips back-to-back. Three different people, all speaking with total confidence, all claiming to tell the truth, and all saying things that flatly contradicted what the ...
Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Easter - Do We Hear His Voice? Listening for the Good Shepherd
“Do you always listen?” “Oh, listening is a bit of a problem,” they admitted. We hear the voice, but we do not always listen. Why? Because we get distracted. There are lots of things we are doing, and we want to do what we want to d...
Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter - Walking With Those Who Walk Away
I know that many of you, over the years, have told me how sad you are that your children and grandchildren do not come to church. It is hard, because you wonder what you have done that has led them away, or not to stay. It is hard, becaus...
Homily for the Second Sunday of Easter - Cool the Ego, Gentle the Soul
This last week I read an article about a tribe called the San tribe in southern Africa. They are believed to be the oldest continuous culture of human beings in the history of humanity, some 40,000 to 50,000 years old as a tribe. What is fascin...
Homily for the Resurrection of the Lord - Slow Down and Let Easter Change You
I was talking with a colleague this week, and she said, “God, where has the year gone? It is Easter already, has Lent already passed?” I said, yeah, it has. I sympathize. Lent seemed to go faster than any forty days recently. We never seem to e...
Homily for Good Friday of the Lord's Passion - The Key You Already Hold
They had carried a grudge so long that they had forgotten. It had become like furniture in their house. It was just part of their lives. One leaned into the other and said, "You know, I am sorry. I was wrong." And the other calmly said...
Homily for Holy Thursday Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper - The Power of Simply Showing Up for Someone in Pain
One of the great gifts we have as priests is to visit people in their homes and in their areas of vulnerability, in their hospital beds, in their convalescent homes. And when we get there, yes, we bring oils, often bring communion, and we bring...
