by Father William R. Dulaney Some laughter or chuckles from the congregation at the right moment assure a preacher that he got his point across. While a homilist may find it amusing to notice one person in a pew gesturing to another as if to say, “he’s talking about you,” he hopes everyone gathered for […]

by Father Caleb Buchanan When we are immersed in serious fights and arguments with our friends, loved ones, classmates, co-workers, neighbors, fellow parishioners and enemies, we tend to cause a great deal of damage to ourselves and others by trying to prove that we are “right” in moments of conflict. When we get caught up […]

by Father Caleb Buchanan “LAUDATE, laudate Dominum! Omnes gentes, laudate Dominum! Exultate, iubilate per annos domini, omnes gentes!” “We praise you, we praise your Holy Name, God of justice, eternally the same. May our living be thanksgiving, rejoicing in your name now and always!”* This glorious and marvelous refrain resounds in cathedrals all over the […]

Many powerful preachers have spoken about the “privilege of knowing God.” As Christians, it is a tremendous blessing to know the Lord Christ Jesus and pursue the “blessed life” of the Kingdom on His terms. In the second reading from the Letter to the Romans, Saint Paul makes the terms of the Lord very clear […]

by Father Caleb Buchanan WE LIVE IN a society that is quick to treat conflict, moral failure and the need for conversion in the harshest and most destructive ways. Unfortunately in our everyday lives, local communities and even houses of worship, we fail to give people the benefit of the doubt in times of disagreement. […]

 by Father Thomas Catania As it happens, today is the anniversary of the dedication of our Cathedral of St. James in the Diocese of Brooklyn. The event will be observed only in the cathedral itself, but it is apparently God’s idea (if God directed the composition of the Lectionary, and who am I to say […]

by Father Thomas Catania YOU DON’T WANT to get me started on the subject of professional athletes’ salaries. I really don’t care whether the Mets or the Yankess bring joy (or misery) to your summer evenings — they’re all overpaid. Maybe it’s because there are so many teachers-in-training at the college where I teach, but […]

by Father Thomas Catania SOME OF YOU, like me, may have been born under the sign of the “crab,” in late June through mid-July. I know this makes us “water people,” but I do not know whether it makes us crabby. I do know that summer’s heat and humidity can bring out the crab in […]

by Father Thomas Catania I write these columns too far in advance to be able to speak to this summer’s weather; in fact, I write them far enough in advance to be only too mindful of this past winter’s weather, of which the less said in a religious journal, the better. But it seems that […]

by Father John P. Cush IN THE SEMINARY, I had a professor for homiletics named Father John Burke. Father Burke was a Dominican Friar who would come to the North American College in the month of September and run an intensive pastoral workshop for the seminarians on preaching. Not only focusing in on the stylistic […]