Father Matthew Wiering Podcast

7/31/16: 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Are Relationships the Truly Real Thing in my Life?

Today we hear the Gospel of the rich man who stores up his abundant harvest into barns so that he is able to "eat, drink, and be merry". And then he dies. So what is real in his life, if he spent his whole life trying to attain something he couldn't take with him in death? What is real in my life?

7/17/16: 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Making God the Priority

Today in the Gospel Jesus praises Mary for choosing "the better part", which is to spend time not in busy-ness but in being with Jesus. Do we spend time just being with Jesus everyday in prayer? Is he the priority of our life?

7/10/16:15th Sunday of Ordinary Time: Who is my Neighbor?

What the scholar of the law is REALLY asking when he asks, "Who is my neighbor?", is, "Who must I love?" and "Whom do I not need to love?" Jesus challenges us today to break through the stereotypes and prejudices that we often live under and love others, especially those who are most difficult for us to love.

7/3/16: 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Take Nothing for the Journey!

In today's Gospel, Jesus sends out his disciples on mission and gives them the curious command to "take nothing for the journey...." Jesus wants the disciples--us too--to be dependent on others and, especially, on Him.

6/26/16: 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time: God Must Come First

In today's Gospel, we hear Jesus criticize those who would put anything--even their immediate family--ahead of Him and the call to follow Jesus. God wants to be first, and if we put Him first, everything else will be ordered.

06/12/16: 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time: How are People Converted?

How is a person converted? Is it through personal initiative--changing their life--following the law? Or is through the experience of unconditional love, which gives the strength to begin to change one's life?

06/05/16: 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time: When God Doesn't Make the Miracle (We Want) Happen

Today we courageously take on the question, "Why does God work miracles in the lives of some who ask for them but not for others?" I tell the story of Deacon Jim Guldan, who died of cancer three years ago, to help shed light on this mystery.

5/29/16: The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ: God Gives Us Himself to Eat

In today's Gospel, Jesus commands his disciples to feed the crowd themselves--literally--to feed them with themselves, to make a gift of themselves....to allow others to consume them.... This is precisely the attitude that God adopts towards us: Answering our need by giving us Himself to eat.

Commencement 2016: The Only Sadness is not to become a Saint

5/22/16: Commencement address for Cathedral High School class of 2016.

5/15/16: Pentecost: The Holy Spirit is in Us Objectively (with a brief excursus on Transgenderism)

Today we talk about the objectivity of the Sacraments and the Holy Spirit's working in us through them. It's difficult for us to think objectively sometimes because our world is so focused on the primacy of subjective experience (case in point: gender identity). But that the Sacraments really work is good news for us! We don't have to be so concerned about how we feel but about what is true even despite sometimes how we feel.