Claim OwnershipFr. Brendan McGuire - Podcasts that Break open the Word of God
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© 2026 Fr. Brendan McGuire - Podcasts that Break open the Word of God
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Breaking open the Word of God …Applying it to the lived experiences of daily lifeIn the busyness of modern life, it is sometimes difficult to see and experience God in our lives. Through his homilies, Fr. Brendan challenges and invites us to take a break focus on what the Lord is saying. God is not only present but is opening up the divine story in each of us.
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See, it is our choice. And when we choose to remember the hurts, the slights, we choose what will damage us and damage the relationships. It does not change that they said something silly or something hurtful. Why has that happened? Because they did say something hurtful. But instead of letting it go, we hold on to it and we dredge up that memory and shine it like gold, like some treasure. What a dreadful mistake to make, and yet here we do it time and time again. Here is my homily for the Se...
If you think about an ordinary social interaction, that you might have at a party or some sort of scene, where you are meeting people for the first time. What is typically the first question after you have greeted? What do you do? And I am always reluctant to answer because they are so disappointed! They are like, "Oh, okay," and then the conversation comes to an end. (Read more…) Here is my homily for the First Sunday of Lent. I hope you can enjoy it. And many blessings for a holy lenten jou...
What amazed me about Cirque du Soleil was how they threw each other with such grace, they seemed to swoop in and pick them up each time, at the right place and the right time. It was just magnificent. Now, if you know anything about human dynamics, a lot of strength is required to throw somebody and catch somebody of your own weight or anybody’s weight. And it requires the ability to adjust. (Read more..) Here is a bonus homily from a Renewal of Marriage Vows that took place on February 14, 2...
There is a great story told of a little fish in the ocean swimming around trying to figure out where the ocean is. He comes up to this older, wiser fish and says, “Where is the ocean?” The old fish says to him, “You are swimming in it.” The little fish is confused. He says, “But that is just water,” (Read more…) Here is my homily for the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time. I hope you can enjoy it.
When I was growing up in Ireland, my father had an expression, just one simple phrase that summed up a person, and it was a compliment. He would see somebody that he thought well of, somebody that he thought was authentic. He would say, "Ah, that man is a salt of the earth man." It was a definitive statement. (Read more…) Here is my homily for the Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time. I hope you can enjoy it.
The foundational component, what they called a pillar of humility. To be humble before God and know that they are a child of God. Happiness comes from that. We are no better than anybody else. No one else is any better than us. And because of that foundational principle, everything else is built and flows from there. (Read more…) Here is my homily for the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time. I hope you can enjoy it.
And there, in that unlikely place, Jesus finds his first followers. He walks along the Sea of Galilee and sees two brothers, Simon and Andrew, casting their nets. He says to them, "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men." At once, they left their nets and followed him. Then he sees James and John with their father Zebedee. He calls them. (Read more…) Immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.
Most myths follow the same general pattern. The arc of the story is that you have a hero who goes on a quest, then in that adventure overcomes great adversity, whether personal or something that happens in their life.Then in overcoming it, they gain profound wisdom. But that is not where the story ends. Because the real power of the myth is that they bring this newfound wisdom back to their tribe or their family or their community. In that process, the community becomes enlightened and the co...
I am not going to tell you to do not do all those New Year's resolutions. I am just going to say to do this one thing first. Remember that you are beloved. And sit with that for maybe just January. Not just today, but the whole month of January. Just put all the other ones on to February. You can pick those up then, and then you see if you need to do them. (Read more…) Here is my homily for the Baptism of the Lord. I hope you can enjoy it.
We need to start with small things, but we need to have a vision of what we want. One of the things that human behavior scientists would tell us, the idea of setting goals is great, but it is actually useless when it comes to accomplishing anything. We all can give value to how many of our New Year's resolutions never get really even started, right? Because we have outsized our goals. That is called forecasting. What they suggest it might be better to do is back-casting. (Read more…) Here is ...
It is such a gift to be able to celebrate a meal around the table and just feel the love of family. And it is a gift, but it also requires some hard work, because you have to show up, right?And that is a challenge for all of us, because we get busy with our lives, especially when we move out of the house as children. When you return to the house, you have to show up more than just physically. You have to be there emotionally. You have to be there spiritually. And that requires commitment. Tha...
The only meaning, the true logos, is God. The true logos is what we believe as Christians, the baby Jesus. He is the logos made flesh. That is what we celebrate, that that is the profound meaning. That is a foundation meaning for everything in our lives. God loves us so much that He did not just send a messenger, He sent His very self, His Son. (Read more…) Here is my homily from the Christmas Day Mass. I hope you can enjoy it.
What I would like you to do today and this week is make a little bit of room, take something away. Because like the branches in that story, we had to clear some of the branches and the grass away. We had to take something out. Can we have just a few minutes less television? A few minutes less playing on the computer so that we leave room for Christ. (Read more...)
The challenge for us as modern-day people, is that we have so much coming at us, so many voices. We have a cacophony of voices and messages. We do not know where or how to listen, and we certainly do not expect to listen to God. We do not ave that same sense that God is speaking to us in those direct ways. We have podcasts, we have videos, we have endless amount of internet voices, and that is not even including the television. They are all different stuff. (Read more…)
Here is what is interesting, what I have learned since then and before, through other many situations. Doubt is not the opposite of faith. We often believe that doubt is the opposite of faith. But it is a part of faith. Doubt is not the opposite of or the enemy of joy. It is part of it. Doubt is part of the process of faith development. (Read more…) Here is my homily from the Third Sunday of Advent and as Advent continues, I ask you to join me at St. Simon Parish for the final evening of pray...
The prophets are the people who tell us what we need to hear even if we do not like it. Isaiah today which we hear in the first reading and John the Baptist, who we may as well call “John the Isaiah” because he comes on with just as strong a language. They see where we ought to be or could be but we are not quite there yet. But they see it and they tell us, we have to turn around. They build a vision for us so that we can imagine ourselves on the right trail. (Read more…) Here is my homily fr...
And now comes Advent. Now comes the busiest season of the year, when our regular business goes into high gear. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we add shopping, decorating, parties, concerts, and celebrations to our already overflowing calendars. It seems almost impossible to stay awake and attentive when we are running on empty, exhausted by hurry sickness. (Read more...) Here is my homily from the Fist Sunday of Advent and as Advent begins, I ask you to please join me at St. Simon Parish...
Today, we celebrate the Feast Day of Christ the King and the readings bring us back to the foot of the cross. It seems like an odd place to bring us back as we enter into the end of our liturgy year and now enter into to the Advent season as we prepare for Christmas. Yet, that is where it does brings us, to the foot of the cross. (Read more…) Here is the Homily from The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. I hope you can enjoy it and please feel free to share with others.
In the cultural view, time is a scarcity. It is an asset that is a diminishing, that we are going to lose some day. In this cultural view of time, time is running out. We have this sense of everything must produce something. A view of productivity. You are running out of time, so therefore you need to use your time well, and you need to stop wasting your time. (Read more…) Here is the Homily from the Thirty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time. I hope you can enjoy it and please fe...
We have to be mindful of how we are serving others in our world today. Because we, you and I, are the church. Today we celebrate an unusual Feast day called the Dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome. We might say, "Why are we celebrating a dedication of a building?" It is a pretty significant building. First of all, it is the See of the Bishop of Rome, not St. Peter's. St. Peter's is the pope's basilica, if you would. St. John Lateran is the See of the Bishop of Rome. (Read more…) H...
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