26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)Lectionary 136: Today the Catholic Church in this countrycloses National Migration Week,and the global Church observes today asthe World Day of Migrants and Refugees. Pope Leo chose a line from Jesus for this year's theme:“Even just one of these children,”from the gospel of Matthew.

Homily for August 23, 2026, the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (A). Based on the gospel, Matthew 16:13-20. Watch somebody walk into a room where they don't know anyone yet. Notice the small things.Not the obvious ones.They stay near the edge of the room.They let a couple of conversations go by before they say anything.

Mass readings for Sunday, June 28, 2026: The 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time2 Kings 4:8–11, 14–16a · Psalm 89 · Romans 6:3–4, 8–11 · Matthew 10:37–42 Next weekend, the United States of America turns 250 years old.Most of us will probably mark it in ordinary ways:Barbecue.Fireworks. Time with family. Maybe a parade. Mix in some gratitude.

On the front of my ordination prayer card is a crowded red boat in rough water, an anchor holding the whole scene steady, and Christ in the middle of it all. For a year, people have asked me why I chose it. I finally sat down to write the long answer. Well, it's about hope that isn't the same thing as optimism, about a culture that taught me we are always part of something larger, and about the strange summer when, before I ever saw the picture, I learned what it means to pull someone out of the water and into the boat. We do not make the journey alone. Read the full reflection.

Corpus Christi invites us to contemplate the Eucharist. But the name of the feast points us past the bread itself and toward something we can easily miss: the Body that the Eucharist forms among us. This homily, preached at St. Austin Catholic Church on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (June 7, 2026), begins with the Communion line: who stands in it, who assembled it, and why the Body of Christ is always larger than the one we would build on our own. The full video and text are below.

One year ago, 17 May 2025, I was ordained to the priesthood. These photos and videos are mostly from the ordination itself and the various Masses of Thanksgiving that followed in NYC, Chicago, DC, Los Angeles, Honolulu, and Texas, otherwise known as the “Fr Chris Priestly Kick-Off Tour.” Looking back on them now, I’m reminded how much of this first year has been shaped by people: family, friends, brother Paulists, parishioners, mentors, students, young adults, and communities across so many places that have helped form me along the way.

It’s easy to say, “Someone should do something.” It’s harder to accept when that someone is you.

Homily for Monday of the Second Week of Easter Readings: On the night of Sunday 12 April 2026, a social media post described Pope Leo XIV as “weak” and criticized the Church, especially on issues like nuclear weapons and foreign policy. And immediately, people reacted. Some echoing it. Others coming to the defense of the Pope and the Church.

Easter Homily April 5, 2026 Readings: Acts 10:34a, 37-43 Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23 1 Corinthians 5:6b-8 Matthew 28:1-10 Maybe you remember…there was a phrase going around on social media a few years back:“Do it scared.” AKA - #doitscared It showed up everywhere,usually when someone was about to do something difficult.The idea was simple:you do not wait until you are no longer afraid;

What does it mean to follow one’s conscience when authority demands otherwise? Drawing from the witness of St. Oscar Romero, this homily reflects on truth, responsibility, and what is done in our name.

This weekend the world witnessed an escalation of military conflict and upheaval. Here in Austin, just a mile from our parish, a shooting shook the city’s nightlife district. Events like these unsettle us. Headlines can shape our reactions. But Lent asks a deeper question: Who will shape our hearts? Every Christian is entrusted with the Gospel. We are baptized into a vocation that calls us to steadiness, mercy, and peace in times of turmoil. Christ forms us into steady people in an unsteady time.

Some of us have learned to shrink pieces of ourselves in certain rooms just to belong. Ash Wednesday says: you do not have to pretend here.

Friday of the Third Week of Ordinary TimeLectionary: 321 2 Samuel 11:1-4a, 5-10a, 13-17 Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6a, 6bcd-7, 10-11 Mark 4:26-34 Today’s first reading is meant to unsettle us. This is not David at his best.It is David when power goes unchecked.At the time when kings are supposed to be out with their people,sharing risk and responsibility,

Homily for the Memorial of Saint SebastianTuesday, January 20, 2026Mass readings: Fear runs through today’s Gospel.Jesus returns to it again and again, not because fear is imagined, but because it is learned.Fear teaches people how to move through the world.It shapes how openly we speak, how carefully we act, how visible we allow ourselves to be.

We scroll past suffering every day. Sometimes angry. Sometimes numb. Sometimes convinced we’re on the right side. Epiphany isn’t about having the right reaction. It’s about being changed. If nothing changes in us, maybe we haven’t really encountered anything yet.

It’s easier to retreat. It’s easier to rely on slogans. It’s easier to stop paying attention. Jesus does something harder. Baptism places us inside the world as it is and gives us the courage to live (and act) there without becoming cruel or indifferent. For anyone trying to stay human in a complicated time.

Homily for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God & the World Day of PeaceThursday, 01 January 2026Mass Readings As we begin a new year, the Church asks us to tell the truth about where we are. Today is the eighth day of Christmas, the Octave of the Nativity. January 1 is also the Catholic Church’s commemoration…

Homily for the 2025 Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and JosephScripture readings: It’s still Christmas.The lights are still twinkling.Schedules may soon be returning to normal.But the Church is still proclaiming Emmanuel…God with us. And today, on the Feast of the Holy Family, the Church does something very intentional. It asks us not just to celebrate…

Christmas Eve Homily 2025 We gather in the dark of night.That’s not accidental.Christmas doesn’t begin in the daylight.It begins at night, when the world is quiet enough,and honest enough,for us to admit what’s really going on. And the truth is:not everyone is here for the same reason.People arrive here with many stories.Some arrive joyful.

Homily for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Friday, December 12, 2025St. Austin Catholic Church -- Austin, Texas Readings: First Reading: Isaiah 11:1-5, 10 Responsorial Psalm: 71:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17 R/ Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace forever. Second Reading: Romans 12:9-16a Gospel: Luke 1:39-47 A veces, cuando la vida nos jala en mil direcciones,

This reflection is based on the readings for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Amos 6:1a, 4–7 and Luke 16:19–31, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. --- At the center of today’s Gospel is a gate.On one side is a rich man, clothed in purple, feasting every day.On the other side is Lazarus, poor, hungry, covered with sores.

Homily based on the readings: Mercy is not passive.  It moves toward the person in danger, speaks when others remain silent, and shelters the one the crowd has cast out. Today we remember St. Maximilian Kolbe, a man who offered his life so another could live, and whose courage still speaks to us in our own time. I shared how his witness in World War II meets real acts of mercy happening right here in Texas and throughout the USA.

I shared a story from 2018 when an emergency alert warned of an incoming missile in Hawai‘i. I was with a group of teenagers on retreat. There were no answers. No plans. Just a chapel, a deep breath, and a prayer we all knew by heart. The Our Father isn’t just something we recite; it’s something we also rehearse!