Sometimes short is simple and simple is good. It's easy to oversimplify things and it's also easy to over complicate things.

One thing I learned during the first quarter of this century is to never be so foolish as to think things couldn't get worse.

My homily for tonight's celebration: Both Simeon and Anna recognize in the Holy Infant not only their hope, not only the hope of Israel, but as Simeon’s canticle, known by its Latin name the 'Nunc Dimittis,' points out, the hope of the whole world.

Some thoughts to add to the unbounded commentary on the Beatitudes: Be meek and merciful. Also, be a peacemaker, a protagonist.

Another late traditio:

My homily for today's Memorial: Saint Paul starts his Letter to Titus not by asserting his apostleship, which was frequently challenged, given the highly unique circumstances of his call, but by calling himself “a slave of God” (Titus 1:1).

Some thoughts primarily on today's Gospel: In past years, one of my stock theological sayings was... it wasn't intuitively obvious to the casual observer that this itinerant from Nazareth was the Son of God...

While I've never attained the certainty about most things in life (an acute desire from my 20s thru my 40s), I'm very certain about Christ calling me to be a deacon.

My homily for today: Non-violence requires much more courage than violence.

Sadly, this year Martin Luther King, Human Rights Day needs much more emphasis than any time in the recent past.

My homily for Second Sunday in Ordinary Time: There is no better way to begin this, or any season, than by declaring Jesus as the Christ, our Lord and Savior. This is why, at its most fundamental, Christianity isn’t merely a moral code but a person.

Some Friday thoughts:

My homily as we start in Ordinary Time:

Some thoughts on today's Feast in light of the readings: Baptism makes explicit what is implicit. Hence, your baptism, too, is a revelation!

It's Friday. And so, ...

My homily for today's Memorial:

It's the First Friday of a New Year:

For anyone who might need it:

Homily for today's Solemnity. Happy New Year. While time itself does not speed up or slow down, our experience relativizes time, making it seem slower or faster depending on what you’re doing at the time. scottdodge.blogspot.com/2026/01/sole...

2025 was a fairly eventful year.

My homily for today's Feast: For a Christian, seeking holiness means recognizing the purpose for which you are set apart, that is, living in accord with the end for which God created and redeemed you.

My homily for today's Feast of Saint Stephen, First Martyr:

The Holy Father's Christmas Urbi et Orbi message:

My homily for tonight: But the light we hear about from Isaiah is not sunlight, electric light, firelight, or even candlelight. It is the Light of World: Jesus Christ...

My homily for today: Jesus,” or Yesh'ua, meaning something like “the Lord who saves.” Emmanuel comes to save God’s people from their true enemies: sin and death.

Some Friday stuff, you know the drill

My homily for Monday in the Third Week of Advent:

Thoughts for Gaudete Sunday: Hope brings joy. Joy, in turn, is overcoming adversity.

My homily for today's great celebration: ¿No estoy yo aqui, que soy tu madre?

My homily for today: Hope steps in when you realize you don’t have a clue, you’ve no idea what’s going to happen, and you’re not likely to figure it out, at least not your own.

My homily from last night, posting it a bit late:

Some thoughts as we enter Advent, the start of a new year of grace:

I love Thanksgiving. It's becoming my favorite holiday. It's easy to grouse about the origins of this national holiday. In reality, isn't it nice to set aside a day to give thanks?

Something short for today's Solemnity: So, the question is not whether or not you're a "thief." I am and you are. The first question is, do you know you're a thief? Then the question becomes, are you a good thief or a bad one? scottdodge.blogspot.com/2025/11/happ...

The more we are in the era of dopamine,” Rosalía says, “the more I want the opposite. . . . There has to be something that pulls us..."

Homily for today's Memorial:

Homily for today: With the elapse of many centuries, even a couple of millennia, the eschatological or “apocalyptic” dimension of Christianity grows more attenuated.

Something I didn't want to go to waste. Makes a great Friday traditio:

A few thoughts:

Instead of a new post, I am reposting this on the Pope's cathedral as Bishop Rome from 15 years ago: "The Church you have in front of you now, in which you believe, is the Church that has inherited two thousand years of history" Luigi Giussani

On a Friday of movie watching:

Monday homily: It is tempting to say that Saint Martin de Porres was ahead of his time. What is really the case is simply that he took the Gospel of Jesus Christ into heart and endeavored to live it.

Today's homily: In his Bull of Indiction for this year’s Jubilee... Pope Francis noted “The Jubilee indulgence, thanks to the power of prayer, is intended in a particular way for those who have gone before us, so that they may obtain full mercy.” (

Some thoughts as we start the Church's annual three-day festival: "With this marvelous beginning, during the entire month of November, the Church urges us to remember those who have died and to pray and (gasp!) seek indulgences on their behalf."

My homily for tonight: The spiritual life is an embodied life. Otherwise, the Incarnation was in vain.

Some perhaps unimaginative thoughts on today's Gospel:

It's Friday all over again:

A homily for a Monday: In 'The Grapes of Wrath,' John Steinbeck puts these words of the lips of his character Ma Joad: “If you’re in trouble or hurt or need – go to poor people. They’re the only ones that’ll help – the only ones" (chapter 26).

Isn't the Lord's death and resurrection the pattern of Christian life?

Thoughts on the Sunday readings: "Expect a journey, not a miracle that dodges your responsibilities..." Servant of God Luigi Giussani