Christ, and Him Crucified
10 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, this year, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross falls on a Sunday, so we have the ...
Are You Ready for Serious Discipleship?
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, for this Twenty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, we’re reading from the fourteenth chapter ...
Don’t Play the Pride Game
27 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, for this Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time, I want to talk to you about a very importan...
Does God Punish Us?
20 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, I want to focus this week on the second reading, which is from the marvelous Letter to the ...
Christ Came to Cast Fire Upon the Earth
14 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, the title of my ministry, Word on Fire, came from our Gospel for today. Jesus says to his d...
What Is Faith?
05 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, on this Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, our second reading from the Letter to the Hebre...
All Things Must Pass
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, George Harrison once sang, “All things must pass; all things must pass away.” Almost ev...
Lord, Teach Us to Pray
23 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we have the great privilege this week of reading, in our Gospel, Luke’s account of the ...
Are You Anxious and Worried About Many Things?
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, on this Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, our Gospel is the Martha and Mary story, and in...
The Natural Law
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, in our first reading from the book of Deuteronomy this week, Moses says to the people, “F...
The Church’s Marching Orders
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, as we resume Ordinary Time, it’s appropriate that we’re looking at a portrait of the Ch...
The Church Is Built on the Rock
23 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, this year, the feast of Saints Peter and Paul falls on a Sunday, and I want to spend some t...
Join Your Life to Christ’s Sacrifice
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, every year we have Trinity Sunday followed by today’s wonderful Solemnity of Corpus Chris...
The Theology of the Trinity
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, today is Trinity Sunday—one of my favorite feast days of the year because I can put my ol...
The Fruit of the Spirit
05 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, this is the great feast of Pentecost, the feast of the Holy Spirit. In the First Reading, t...
Seated at the Right Hand of the Father
28 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, getting the Ascension of the Lord right is very important for understanding many aspects of...
The Holy Spirit Will Teach You Everything
21 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we come to the Sixth Sunday of Easter, and as the Church readies us for Pentecost, the read...
The Love That Jesus Commands
15 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends on this Fifth Sunday of Easter, we have an extraordinary Gospel that is at the heart of the ...
The Voice in the Depths of Your Soul
08 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, on this Fourth Sunday of Easter, we have this marvelous, short but very punchy reading from...
Becoming a Disciple of Jesus
01 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, on this Third Sunday of Easter, we have the magnificent Gospel from the very end of the Gos...
Everything Has Changed
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we enter now into the Easter season, and here is the thing I want you to know: We misunders...
Something Happened on Easter!
15 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, happy Easter! Many of you probably know that I’ve spent much of my life reading philosoph...
The Forgiveness of Sinners
10 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we come to Palm Sunday, which is also called Passion Sunday because we always read at Mass ...
The Conversion of Saint Paul
02 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we come to the Fifth Sunday of Lent, and I want to reflect today on our second reading fro...
The Heavenly Banquet
26 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, this Fourth Sunday of Lent gives us marvelous readings: the First Reading from the book of ...
You Can’t Grasp—or Hide From—God
18 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we come to the Third Sunday of Lent, and we have the extraordinary privilege during Cycle C...
When the Eternal Breaks Through
11 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends our Gospel for the Second Sunday of Lent this year is Luke’s account of the Transfiguratio...
Three Questions to Ask Yourself During Lent
05 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we come to the holy season of Lent. Pascal said that most of us go through life diverting ...
The Revolution of the Resurrection
25 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, for this Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Church gives us the opportunity, in our secon...
Give Expecting Nothing Back
19 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, our Gospel for today is from the Sermon on the Plain, which is Luke's version of Matthew's ...
Place Your Heart in God
12 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, on this Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we have the first reading from the prophet Jeremi...
Graced Sinners on Mission
04 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Church gives us a wonderful pairing of readings...
God Returns to His Temple
29 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, it’s easy enough to sentimentalize the Feast of the Presentation. But we oughtn’t to, b...
You Can’t Give What You Don’t Have
22 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, on this Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, I want to talk to you about walls and bridges. There...
The Marriage of Divinity and Humanity
14 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we return now to Ordinary Time, and this Sunday, we hear the marvelous story of the wedding...
Why Was Jesus Baptized?
07 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord is exceptionally important. All four Gospels talk abo...
Science Points to God
30 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we’re all familiar with the story of the three wise men, which has been depicted in thous...
Freeing Your Family for God
18 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, I always love preaching on the Feast of the Holy Family because I think the biblical messag...
Why Mary Matters
18 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, on this Fourth Sunday of Advent, we come to the Advent figure par excellence: the Blessed...
The Peace that the World Can’t Give
10 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, on this Third Sunday of Advent, called Gaudete Sunday, I want to draw attention to our sec...
Have You Wandered Away from God?
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, in our readings for the Second Sunday of Advent, there is a lot of talk about building h...
Three Dimensions of Advent
26 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we come to the First Sunday of Advent, which is the commencement of the new liturgical yea...
Which Kingdom Are You In?
20 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we come to the end of the liturgical year with the Feast of Christ the King, where we medit...
A New World Unveiled
12 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we're coming toward the end of the liturgical year, and as is typical, the Church gives us...
Trusting God in Dire Straits
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, our first reading is that wonderful story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath, which is a ...
The Highest Good Is God Alone
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, the readings for this Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time take us to very holy ground. In ...
Answering God’s Call
23 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, all three readings for this Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time have a golden thread runn...
What Real Power Looks Like
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, our Gospel this Sunday is taken from the tenth chapter of Mark, and it is high-octane spir...
What Do You Ask God For?
07 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, for this Twenty-eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time, our first reading from the marvelous book ...
The Biblical Vision of the Family
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, the first reading from Genesis and the Gospel from Mark this week are of great importance....
Whoever Is Not Against Us Is For Us
25 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, the first reading and Gospel this Sunday have to do with the Church at war with itself. The...
The Ladder Doesn’t Matter
17 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, why was the story of Jesus with the little children, versions of which appear in the three ...
Faith Without Works Is Dead
10 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, “fools rush in where angels fear to tread”—and this week, I am going to go once more ...
Be Opened!
03 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, our Gospel for today is the evocative scene of Jesus healing a man who cannot hear and can...
The Goodness—and Dangers—of the Law
27 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, as Americans, we have a very ambiguous relationship to law. On the one hand, we are a nat...
Do You Accept This Teaching?
20 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we come now to the close of this great discourse of Jesus in the sixth chapter of John, whe...
Really, Truly, and Substantially Present
13 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we continue reading from the sixth chapter of John, this pivotal section of the New Testame...
Strength for the Journey
06 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we’re continuing our reading of the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John, which is all abo...
Everything in This World Passes Away
30 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, in the midst of our country’s great Eucharistic Revival, we continue our reading of the s...
Where Heaven and Earth Meet
24 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, this Sunday we begin five weeks of Gospel readings from the sixth chapter of John, which i...
The Shepherd Has Arrived
16 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends the readings for this Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time are interwoven with each other in a...
The Earliest Moments of the Church
09 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, on this Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, our Gospel from the sixth chapter of Mark is Jes...
A Thorn in the Flesh
03 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, on this Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, our second reading is from Paul’s Second Lett...
Reach Out in Faith
25 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, there’s something Hemingway-esque about Mark’s Gospel—something very direct and uncom...
Peace in the Storm
17 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, our Gospel for today is Mark’s account of the stilling of the sea. We know the basic stru...
See Things Differently
11 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, people of faith just see things differently. They see what the nonbeliever sees—they read...
What Is Sin?
04 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we return now to Ordinary Time, and this Sunday, the Church gives us such a fundamentally i...
The Power of Eucharistic Adoration
28 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we come to the great Feast of Corpus Christi—the Body and Blood of Christ. This year, as ...
Three Ways of Approaching the Trinity
22 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we come once again to Trinity Sunday. The Church has reflected very deeply on who God is, a...
Fruits of the Spirit, Works of the Flesh
14 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we come to the Feast of Pentecost, the great celebration of the Holy Spirit. I want to focu...
Get to Work!
07 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, today we come to the wonderful Feast of the Ascension of the Lord. Like the disciples in ou...
Hints of the Holy Spirit
30 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we’re getting very close to Pentecost, the great feast of the descent of the Spirit. And ...
It’s Time for Some Pruning
23 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, the Lord Jesus Christ is not a teacher from a distant age, not someone from long ago we rem...
Three Qualities of a Good Shepherd
16 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we come to the Fourth Sunday of Easter, known as Good Shepherd Sunday. Jesus says in the Go...
What Happens After We Die?
09 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, this week, on the Third Sunday of Easter, we have a passage from that magnificent twenty-fo...
Do You Struggle to Believe?
02 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, on the Second Sunday of Easter, we have the inexhaustible reading from the twentieth chapte...
Evidence of the Resurrection
26 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, a very happy and blessed Easter! We come to the climax of the Church’s year, the feast of...
Put Yourself in the Passion Narrative
19 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we have the great privilege on Palm Sunday of reading from one of the Passion narratives, a...
Drinking the Blood of Christ
12 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, on this Fifth Sunday of Lent, we hear one of the most pivotal passages in the Old Testament...
Face Your Fears
05 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, the Gospel on this Fourth Sunday of Lent includes one of the most famous verses in the Bibl...
A Tour of the Ten Commandments
27 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, on this Third Sunday of Lent, the Church asks us to look at one of the great texts in the O...
When Your Faith Is Put to the Test
20 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we come now to the Second Sunday of Lent, and we’re on both dangerous and very holy groun...
Are Your Soul and Body at War?
13 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we come now to the holy season of Lent. The Gospel for this First Sunday of Lent is Mark’...
Reaching Out to the Lepers
06 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, this week, our Gospel is the marvelous passage from Mark about Jesus curing a leper. These ...
Pray, Serve, Evangelize
30 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, the Gospel of Mark is a fascinating literary work. St. Mark seems to write in a breathless,...
Surrender to the Holy One
22 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, the first reading from Deuteronomy today is of signal importance. Moses, speaking to the pe...
Listen to the Voice of God!
16 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, though the book of Jonah is only a few pages long, there is something inexhaustible about i...
The Voice of Conscience
08 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we commence now with the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, and our first reading is one of my...
The King of All the World
02 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we come to the wonderful Feast of the Epiphany and the great account in the Gospel of Matth...
Go to Joseph
27 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we come to the wonderful Feast of the Holy Family. Over the years on this feast day, I’ve...
He Will Rule Forever
19 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we come to the fourth and final Sunday of Advent, falling this year on the very day before ...
The Voice of One Crying Out in the Desert
12 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, for this Third Sunday of Advent, the Church asks us to focus on John the Baptist, who of co...
Confronting the Powers That Be
05 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, great writers, from Aristotle to Shakespeare to Melville, put a lot into their opening line...
You Can’t Save Yourself
01 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we come to the First Sunday of Advent—the liturgical new year. I've said this before, but...
Classic Sunday Sermons: The One True King
21 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, Christ is the King of all things. His rule is characterized not by totalitarianism or ...
Classic Sunday Sermons: The Enemy of Melancholy
14 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, we must develop a theology and spirituality of work. Meaningful labor awakens our desire to...
Classic Sunday Sermons: You Must Rethink Your Spiritual Life
07 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, there’s a great temptation for us to turn the Lord into a distant spiritual entity or a d...
Classic Sunday Sermons: Your Life is Not About You
31 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, there’s only one real sadness in life—not to be a saint. But what does it mean to follo...
Classic Sunday Sermons: God’s Rules for Life
24 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, the Books of Moses teach that the three types of Israelite law—liturgical law, ritual law...
Classic Sunday Sermons: Does It Matter What You Believe?
18 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Friends, a great theme of the Bible is that of God’s chosen people. At the same time, we also...