Father Matthew Wiering Podcast

2/14/16: 1st Sunday of Lent: The Logic of Lent

The first temptation to put bread in the place of God helps us to understand the logic of Lenten penance: During this season we have the opportunity to turn to God for our nourishment instead of bodily pleasures.

2/10/16: Ash Wednesday: Pope Francis's Call for Mercy

Pope Francis is calling for a different kind of Lent this year--a Lent of Mercy, in which we experience God's merciful love for us and share the love we have received with others through concrete acts of mercy.

2/7/16: 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Jesus Makes our Life Fruitful

In today's Gospel we hear the story of the call of Peter. His laboring all night without catching any fish is symbolic of our inability to produce good fruits without the help of grace. But what happens when Peter allows Jesus in his boat and, in trust, does what he tells him to do? His life becomes fruitful in a way it never would have been without Jesus.

1/31/16: 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Accepting Jesus as He Really Is

Today in the Gospel Jesus's fellow townspeople pre-judge who he is and reject him. Do we receive God as He really is? Or do we put God into a box--forming him according to our own categories....closed to who He actually is and wants to reveal Himself to be?

1/24/16: 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time: Jesus's Mission is Mercy

Today we reflect on the beginnings of Jesus's public ministry and how his whole ministry is marked by mercy. How are we in need of Jesus's mercy? Do we let him show us his mercy?

1/17/16: 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time: Spiritual Wine for our Soul

Whenever we read John's Gospel, we always have to read on the literal and the symbolic, spiritual level. So what we see Jesus doing here in the Gospel--changing the water of the Old Covenant into the new wine of the New Covenant, Jesus desires to do in our hearts--to quench our thirst, to make us new.

1/1/16: Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God

Reflecting on Mary's love for her Son Jesus helps us to realize Mary's love for each of us--her spiritual children.

12/27/15: Feast of the Holy Family

Seeing that everything we have in our life comes from God helps us to offer everything that we have back to Him.

12/25/15: Christmas 2015

This Christmas we reflect on the poverty of the stable. The stable becomes a sign for us: God chose to enter into physical poverty to show us that He really desires to come into and transform our spiritual poverty--to enter into and bring light into the darkness of our heart!

12/13/15: 3rd Sunday in Advent: Mercy and the Sacrament of Reconciliation

As we begin the Year of Mercy, we reflect on the profound and **joyful** gift of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.