Sermons on Lent:

Truckloads Of Mercy And Forgiveness Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Feb 27, 2021

Our forgiveness invites God and other people to forgive us.

Monday of the 2nd Week in Lent 2021 The prophet Daniel was exiled to Babylon with many leading Israelites by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. At the time of this writing the Persians, who had conquered Babylon, are led by King Darius. Daniel has just realized that the time of Israel’s exile ...read more

Scripture: Luke 6:36-38, Deuteronomy 11:26-32, Daniel 9:4-10

Denomination: Catholic

Only A Wimpy Philosopher--Come On, Man! Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Mar 6, 2021

That would, of course, be a lot like having a beautiful vehicle with no engine and, therefore, no value. Jesus as a kind of philosophizing wimp, so to speak.

Monday of the 3rd Week in Lent 2021 One of the great heresies of Christendom that comes back again and again says that Jesus Christ was a great moral philosopher in the line of the Buddha, Confucius, and Marcus Aurelius. Perhaps the most notorious of the authors holding this position was the U.S. ...read more

Scripture: Luke 4:24-30

Denomination: Catholic

Big Cross Or Little Crosses, But No Other Path To Joy

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Feb 22, 2024

Abraham did not have to show his faith by slaying his only Son, Isaac. God the Father, however, did not hold onto His only Son, Christ Jesus, but accepted His sacrifice.

Second Sunday in Lent 2024 St. Mark’s Gospel tells us today that “after six days” Jesus and His three lead apostles went up a high mountain. Why is “six days” important to remember? We need to go back to the previous chapter to see. The story line follows St. Matthew’s Gospel very closely, which ...read more

Scripture: Romans 8:31-34, Genesis 22:1-18, Mark 9:2-10

Denomination: Catholic

Who Were The People Liberated From Egypt? Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Feb 24, 2024

It’s not important to our eternal happiness just who our ancestors are, or what racial or ethnic group we belong to.

Who Were the People Liberated From Egypt? Lent 2024 In today’s Scripture reading from Matins, we read how Moses and the other Israelite leaders led their people out of Egypt. The numbers look staggering: “six hundred thousand on foot, not counting the children.” Now there was no roll call, but we ...read more

Scripture: Exodus 12:37-49, Exodus 13:11-16, Psalm 95:8-9, Numbers 14:30, Matthew 7:13-14, Exodus 10:12-15, Exodus 12:3  (view more)  (view less)

Denomination: Catholic

The Great Trades

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Mar 1, 2025

God, the Most High, has given us everything we own, so generosity in His service is only just.

Tuesday of the Eighth Week in Course 2025 The wisdom book we have in Greek called Sirach, or Ecclesiasticus (since the early churches used it so often) reads like the book of Proverbs. Today’s proverbs regard offerings to God. Our sacrifices to God, in the spirit of the second-Temple Jews, should ...read more

Scripture: Leviticus 2:1-16, Deuteronomy 12:6, 2 Corinthians 9:7, Mark 10:28-31, Exodus 23:15  (view more)  (view less)

Denomination: Catholic

Decision Day--Don't Wait

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Mar 10, 2025

We don’t know when our termination date will be. It could be later today or tomorrow. We don’t get to decide.

Friday of the First Week in Lent 2025 Ask anybody of mature age what are the two most important dates of anyone’s life and you will get a potpourri of answers. The statisticians will say the dates of birth and death, because those dates control so many decisions and outcomes. The real answers, for ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 130:1-8, Matthew 5:20-26, Ezekiel 18:21-28

Denomination: Catholic

Hosea--Is He A Loser And Chump? Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Mar 24, 2025

He fell in love with a woman who found herself lovers, lots of them. She was frequently unfaithful. Despite her infidelity, Hosea took her back time after time.

Friday of the Third Week in Lent 2025 The prophet Hosea, if he lived in our modern culture, would be called a total loser, an inveterate chump. He was prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel and ministered during the reign of King Jeroboam II in the middle of the eighth century before Our Lord. ...read more

Scripture: Mark 12:28-34, Psalm 81:6-11, Psalm 81:14, Hosea 14:2-9

Denomination: Catholic

Send Not To Know For Whom The Bell Tolls

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Feb 7, 2010

Ash Wednesday gives us what may be our last Lenten opportunity to repent and turn back to God.

Ash Wednesday Homily 2010 2 Cor 5:20 - 6:2 The great bell called St Ferdinand at our diocesan cathedral tolls solemnly several times each month. Many years ago I heard the toll as my father’s casket was slowly pushed out toward its ultimate resting place. Each day the low sound of bells ...read more

Denomination: Catholic

Adapt The Delivery, Not The Message Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Mar 2, 2013

The stark message of the Gospel must be delivered in ways that will be heard by modern humans.

Monday of 3rd Week in Lent Gaudium et Spes Adapting the Delivery, Not the Message Those commentators who are not very familiar with the documents of Vatican II, but who count themselves experts on the “spirit” of Vatican II frequently see the Council as creating a break with the ...read more

Scripture: Luke 4:24-30

Denomination: Catholic

Five Principles Of Art And Architecture Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Mar 26, 2011

From the iconoclast controversy we can derive the five principles that should inform our church art

Monday of 3rd Week in Lent 28 March 2011 Spirit of the Liturgy The onset of a dreaded disease is one of the most stressful events of any life. Today, cancer is the most dreaded, but in the time of the prophets, when no one knew about viruses and few people lived to an advanced age, it was a ...read more

Scripture: Luke 4:24-30

Denomination: Catholic

Transfigured Through Obedience And Suffering Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Aug 4, 2012

The transfiguration event offers us an opportunity to learn how we might achieve union with God in the pattern of Jesus on Tabor.

Monday of 18th Week in Course 2012 Transfiguration Verbum Domini “The word of God has bestowed upon us the divine life which transfigures the face of the earth, making all things new (cf. Rev 21:5).” These words of Pope Benedict’s letter, Verbum Domini, should frame our thoughts ...read more

Scripture: Mark 9:2-10

Denomination: Catholic

Fullness And Limitation, Time And Space Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Feb 18, 2017

we must focus on the efforts we need to make to improve our imaging of Jesus and Mary.

Thursday of Seventh Week in Course Joy of the Gospel We continue in the season which the Extraordinary Form calendar still calls Septuagesima, or the seventy days before Easter. The penitential season of Lent begins on March 1, and we must focus on the efforts we need to make to improve our ...read more

Scripture: Mark 9:41-50

Denomination: Catholic

Build On Rock, Not Sand Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Dec 2, 2017

" pray for our young religious and seminarians, for all of us will be judged on the basis of where we build–on the firm rock of obedience to God, or on shifting sand."

Thursday of the First Week in Lent Reformation & Revolution It is the happy decision of the Church that brings us so much of the prophet Isaiah as we celebrate the time of expectation, the time of Advent. Isaiah was a prophet of hope in a time of social and religious and political upheaval. ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 7:21-27

Denomination: Catholic

Grain Of Wheat Principle

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Feb 9, 2018

“Lord, protect me from the things I want. If they're not in accordance with your will. ~Amen.”

Lent5B You can tell that Jesus eat whole grains by his analogy of a kernel of wheat falling to the ground and dying to produce life. It was in reference to his sacrificial death, but he gives it to us as an over-arching spiritual principle of dying to selfish desires, e.g. like the ...read more

Scripture: John 12:20-33, Psalm 51:3-15, Jeremiah 31:31-34

Denomination: Catholic

A Revolution Of Tenderness Series

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Mar 21, 2015

An opportunity exists in the world to turn away from solipsism and bring all humanity into communion.

Thursday of 5th Week in Lent 2015 Joy of the Gospel Abraham is, as the Roman Canon says, our “father in faith.” He believed that, old as he and Sarah were, they would have a child, and by the power of the Lord, Sarah conceived and brought forth Isaac. But Isaac was not the real child ...read more

Scripture: John 8:51-59

Denomination: Catholic