Fr. Brendan McGuire - Podcasts that Break open the Word of God
Episodes
288 episodes
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...
Homily for Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion - The Meaning That Carries Us Through Suffering
And in this worst place of human suffering, he came to a profound realization. Who was it among them that survived? It was not the strongest. It was not the smartest. It was the one who had meaning in their life. And the meaning had to be great...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 ...
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 ...
