Blog

Sermons from 2020 to 2021 are available in PDF form. Download Homilies by Francis X Clooney 2020-21 (PDF).

Sort & Filters

Filters

Publish Date

199 results

199 results

On First Visiting South Asia, 50 Years Later (I)
This week marks fifty years since my first visit to South Asia and the beginning of my lifelong learning from Hindu traditions. On July 4, 1973, I flew from Kennedy Airport, New York, to Nepal. The flight was terribly delayed leaving New York, but my ever...

Pondering Benedict XVI, Retired Pontiff
Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, the retired Bishop of Rome, died today, December 31, at age 95. Many will write learned, well-informed commentaries on his legacy. Rightly so, since that legacy is vast, complex, and very influential. I am a scholar of...

Blessed are Those Who Doubt: A Christmas Message from St. Matthew
I am thankful that this year at Mass — year A in the three year Sunday cycle —we are following the Gospel according to Matthew in Advent (and we shall hear more from him at Epiphany). Matthew has helped create Christmas as we know it: the Magi, the star...

Trust the Viper, or Kill It? An Advent Question
The readings for the 2 nd Sunday of Advent this year drew my attention to a sharp contrast that raises a basic question: The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. (Isaiah 11.8) But...

Fan into Flame the Gifts of God
Early this morning — in October, it is still dark when I leave the house just after 6am — I drove 30 miles south to Sharon, MA, for the 730am Mass at Our Lady of Sorrows, where I am in my 26 th year of weekend ministry. In welcoming the 40 or so hardy...

God and the Rain
Twice at least I was in Madras (Chennai), south India, in the spring and summer, before the rains came. As was too often the case, the rains were delayed, and water supplies were dwindling. Water was being rationed; people who could afford it purchased...

Sacred: in the World, in the Heart
More than 50 years ago, very early in my years as a Jesuit, I attended a conference on the international mission of the Society of Jesus. The keynote speaker, Fr Horatio de la Costa, SJ echoed a sentiment attributed to Jerónimo Nadal early in the Society...

Many Voices, One Spirit
By tradition, St. Luke was a painter, and when we read the Gospel and Acts, we can guess why: his stories are so vivid, he brings scenes to life by his words. He not only tells us the story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, but he shows it to...

In-Between Sunday
The ten days from the feast of the Ascension to Pentecost (this year, May 13 to May 23) is a special, and rather odd, time in the history of the Christian community, at least as we hear about this period as reported by St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles...

Like a Mother, God Loves Her Children
Two of our readings today stand in the tradition of St. John: our second reading is from I John 4, and our Gospel is a continuation in the Gospel of John 15, which told us last week about the vine and the branches. Both of today’s passages speak of love...

Divine Life, Our Life
Springtime: things are growing everywhere as May begins, and so much of that new life and beauty simply a gift to us. We may do our part – planting, watering, fertilizing, protecting from bugs and rabbits – but what grows is in the end a miracle —the...