Br. Joseph van Havermaet OP | Called, Chosen, Changed

Br. Dominick Jean, OP, preaches on the Second Reading from 1st John for the 6th Sunday of Easter. What and who do you love? St. Augustine famously said that we become that which we love. The natural movement of love draws us out of ourselves and towards and into another. Do we love our own power or opinions? Do we love wealth and what wealth brings us? Or do we love God and what God loves? If we love God we shall be united with God, but if we love earthly things we will be united with earthly things and die like them. Only love rightly ordered to God and what God loves can save us. Only love.

Br. Andrew Martin del Valle, OP, preaches on the First Reading from Acts for the 6th Sunday of Easter.  One of the great themes we see in Acts of the Apostles is that of conversion. And not merely the conversion of those like Cornelius in Acts, but Peter himself.   We are all challenged to ongoing conversion each day of our lives. Can we accept the challenge, the risk, that comes with conforming more and more to Christ?

Br. Hoang preaches on the Second Reading for the 4th Sunday of Easter.  In the Second Reading for this Sunday we hear about what it means to be in union and relationship with God.  God calls us to become not merely servants but his very own children. Dare we enter into that relationship?

Br. Peter Lewitzke, OP, preaches on the First Reading for the 4th Sunday of Easter  When we stand up and preach about our Faith who is it we are speaking about? Whom do we preach?  Often we preach ourselves and an image of God in our own image. Peter in the Acts of the Apostles shows us the way though. Peter knows the one whom he preaches and whom all the Apostles preach and his name is and must always be Jesus.

We're called to witness to Christ in the public square; why are we so often like Peter in the upper room? Dcn. James Pierce invites us to look at Peter's journey from the Upper Room to the public square, so that we might imitate Peter's journey and invite others to share in the Risen Lord.

The Apostles were imperfect men, men who ran away and denied Jesus, and yet Jesus called them back, he chose them, and in their encounter with Christ and their acceptance of the Holy Spirit they were changed forever. And when they embraced this gift, Christ changed the world through them.

Br. Dominick Jean, OP, preaches on Philippians 2:6-11 for Palm Sunday.   Through the Incarnation Christ has written himself into the story of our world, transforming our lives from a tragedy into a fairy tale but with one important difference from all other fairy tales: this one is true.

Br. Andrew Martin preaches on Isaiah 50:4-7 for Palm Sunday. Why do we preach? The world and the culture around us are, at best, apathetic to the Faith, and at worst openly hostile. It is an exhausting and wearisome enterprise. And yet we preach the Word which Is Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. Jesus who took upon himself our own weariness, our own exhaustion and our own humiliations. Why would we not want to preach this Word?

Christ has written His image on our hearts, and He’s invited us to share His image. Dcn. James Pierce invites us to see ourselves as sharing in Christ’s mission; not being afraid to let Jesus lead us to the cross, and to trust that we are welcome to share in His resurrection.

Br. Hoang Nguyen, OP, preaches on the Jeremiah 11:18-20 for the 5th Sunday of Lent.  Br. Hoang reminds us all that God no longer writes on stone tablets but upon our hearts and that we are called to embrace the law that God writes there by forming our consciences in accordance with that new and far more grace-filled covenant.