Browsing Fr. Jasper's Homily
Twenty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time (9/10/23)
Posted by Peg O'Donnell
The Jesus Way
In 2007, I was on the steering committee that recommended to the diocese that my childhood parish elementary school – the school where I was at the time the 8th grade teacher – should close that coming June.
It was a heartbreaking decision. Many of ... Read More »
Twenty- Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (9/1/23)
Posted by Peg O'Donnell
The Whole Picture
The Presbyterian minister in town called here last week on behalf of one of his parishioners. “Father, this woman’s husband is Catholic, and hasn’t been to Church in decades,” he told me. “He’s dying and in need of the Sacraments. Will someone from your parish go?”
How could we ... Read More »
Twenty- First Sunday in Ordinary Time (8/27/23)
Posted by Peg O'Donnell
Who Are You
It’s exam time, and the teacher is asking his students two final questions. Only two.
How do others describe me? Who do you say that I am?
The second, even more than the first one, might be the only question in life that we ever ... Read More »
Twentieth Sunday In Ordinary Time (8/20/23)
Posted by Peg O'Donnell
Who Let the Dogs Out
My closest friends and I are quickly approaching the half-century mark, and for most of us, our lives revolved around the Catholic parish and parochial school system. In fact, many sociologists believe we Gen-Xers might be the last generation where one’s church community ... Read More »
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (8/13/23)
Posted by Peg O'Donnell
Sinking Springs
The caller on the phone – a woman I had never met in person – was desperate. “Father, I am just so tired.”
You could hear it – she was literally hanging-on by a thread.
Her health was a mess, both physically and mentally. Her family ... Read More »
Transfiguration (8/6/2023)
Posted by Peg O'Donnell
Climb Every Mountain
“I don’t want to do it.”
How often have we muttered that phrase, either silently to ourselves (over-and-over) or even out loud to anyone who will listen?
I don’t want to move. Begin a new job. Go to the doctor’s appointment. Put Mom in a care ... Read More »
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time(7/30/23)
Posted by Peg O'Donnell
Treasure, That Is What You Are
Of the nearly three dozen couples I have prepared for marriage these past six years, Andrew and Maggie (pseudonyms) will always hold a special place in my heart for this one reason alone: Maggie was courageous enough to turn to her fiancé ... Read More »
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time(7/23/23)
Posted by Peg O'Donnell
Wake Me Up Before You Go Go
Something is happening.
It’s small, almost imperceptible. But the Spirit – the One of whom Paul speaks in today’s letter to the Romans – is at work, searching hearts and stirring souls to act.
It might be better to say: stirring ... Read More »
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time(7/16/23)
Posted by Peg O'Donnell
Sow What?
by Fr. Rich Jasper
It was a late-January morning during my second year of teaching middle-school students when the announcement from the principal came over the loud speaker: “Faculty and students, please pardon the interruption. The weather forecast has changed pretty quickly within the past hour; ... Read More »
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time(7/9/23)
Posted by Peg O'Donnell
The Yoke’s on You
by Fr. Rich Jasper
During the long holiday weekend, I went exploring for a bit in the county I now call home. It is quite rural, with vast expanses of farmland and forest as well as plentiful rivers that flow toward the ... Read More »