“As they were baptised they confessed their sins”
2nd Sunday of Advent – Year A
A priest went to hear confessions of boys in a boarding school. As the priest went to this place every Saturday to hear confessions, he would find about 10 to 15 boys lining up for confession. On this particular day, he found seven of them already forming the queue for confession. The first boy came and said, “Father, we threw peanut into the pond.” The priest gave his absolution, and off went the boy. The second boy came and said, “Father, during the last week, we threw peanut into the pond near our playground.” The priest gave his absolution. The third boy came and said more or less the same sin. And so did the six boys. Finally, the seventh boy came. By this time the priest […]
Sunday Sermons
Sunday Sermons and Homilies
Sermon for 1st Sunday in Advent – Year A Homily
1st Sunday in Advent
The Son of Man is Coming (Mt 24:44)
One of the advent hymns that I like most is:
We long to see thee so!
To see Thee newly-born.
We long for Christmas morn.
The sands of time run slow.
I like this hymn particularly because it arouses in me the nostalgia for homecoming. As a young boy studying in boarding schools this song reminded me of the joyful time of going back home for Christmas. I remember how the sands of time would run so slow, especially just before Christmas. However, in the past years, especially as a priest being busy during Christmas, unwrapping Christmas of its nostalgic feelings I have also begun to appreciate its spiritual depth. I am not in anyway playing down the importance of the sentimental aspects of Christmas – we have a reason to celebrate it even […]
Sermon for the Feast of Christ the King – Homily
34th Sunday of the year
Jesus, the king of our hearts
For another sermon on the same theme: CLICK HERE
This is one of the feasts that I find difficult to understand. So I did some reading about the history of this feast, I was utterly shocked to note that this feast was introduced only in 1925 by Pope Pius XI. Interestingly, as the Pope points out in an encyclical (letter of the pope) that accompanied the event, the introduction of the feast was a warning against the totalitarian governments of the 20th century. It was a statement against the situation of Europe between the two World Wars.
In this light, I got a new impetus to prepare this sermon. As we know, though ‘kings and queens’ are mostly becoming titles of the past, […]
Sermon for 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C Homily
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C
The Day of the Lord (Lk 21:5-19)
I was rushing in the streets of London to catch a bus to college. Two young men accosted me in a rather friendly manner. I was almost near the bus stop, so I stopped by to listen to them. They showed me a picture of a beautiful garden – a classical scene from the Garden of Eden! “Would you like the world to be like this?” They asked. I immediately guessed that they were members of a sect or something. I came up with my answer quite spontaneously and quickly, “It is already like this; after all, the world is good.” They were somewhat surprised by my unexpected answer. They didn’t know how to proceed on with the conversation. They didn’t want to give […]
All Souls Day
Theme: “The Souls of the Just are in the Hands of God”
Today we remember with affection and prayer those who have gone before us. It is a day when grief and faith meet, when silence and hope hold hands. The Scripture readings (with options) remind us that death is not the end, but a passage. The first reading from the Book of Wisdom says: “The souls of the just are in the hands of God, and no torment shall touch them.”
This conviction did not come easily in Israel’s history. Earlier generations thought that the dead simply went down to Sheol, a shadowy place of silence – in Greek, was referred as Hades. But in the later books, especially Wisdom and Maccabees, there was a breakthrough of faith. […]