Father Weerackoon’s Homilies and Talks

Our bodies are a gift from God and are so good that God Himself took a body and redeemed it and gave that body for us saying: “This is my body, given up for you.”
So when St. Paul says in the Second Reading "to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship," he means that every decision we make about what to do, especially with our bodies, is either an act of offering ourselves to God or offering ourselves to sin. If we are willing to commit to looking at images of Jesus, Mary, and the saints and to read Scripture, then our minds will help guide our bodies to right worship and to grow in purity so that we can turn back to Jesus and say: “This is my body given back to you.”

Peter could say Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God because he experienced what it was to be saved by God. So if Jesus asked you: "Who do you say that I am?", how would you respond? Can you reflect and pray on what's happened in your life to say who Jesus is to you? And can you ask the Lord: "Jesus, who do You say that I am?" Because He will tell you who you are to Him.

How can you practically grow and help others grow in devotion to Mary? Learn about Mary's role in the Church as (1) the Model of the Church, (2) the Face of the Church, (3) the Mother of the Church, and (4) the Neck of the Church and discern what measures God might be calling you to take to echo His words of love to those in our lives.
The Presentation for this talk can be accessed through the link below.
The Priest and the Legion.pptx

Why does Jesus seem to be so rude to the Canaanite woman whose daughter is tormented by a demon? Why does Jesus seem to ignore her and say He was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and then compare this woman to a dog? It's to draw out faith from this woman and to show that God can do a lot with crumbs.

Why did God come to Elijah in a "tiny whispering sound"? God sometimes whispers so that we will move closer to hear Him. 

King Solomon asked for an understanding heart, but he did not have an undivided heart. That's why Jesus explains that we must be willing to sell everything for the kingdom of heaven, so that God doesn't just get a portion of our time or so we just squeeze God into our schedule, but rather so that have a heart that's completely undivided to Him so we can say that we want "Nothing but You, Lord."

The weeds that God allows to grow with the wheat look very much like the wheat itself, because there are some things that we think are good, but are in fact evil, and likewise, some things we consider to be bad, but are actually for our good. So God allows the weeds to grow with the wheat to give us time to repent and change, so that we in turn can be Christlike to others. But God also allows some evil so that He can bring a greater good out of it, because it’s through our struggle with evil that He makes us into saints. And in persevering through the field of weeds in this world, God enables us to bear with our sufferings as our good ground for hope.

In the Parable of the Sower, the sower seems to be utterly careless and foolish losing seed on the path, on rocky ground, and amongst thorns. Are we willing to bring the hardened paths in our hearts, carry the cross on rocky ground, and remove the thorns in our life? So don't worry about the ways in which you've failed or the lack of perceived fruit. If we bring our failures before God, we will be rich soil, because God doesn’t call us to be successful, just faithful.

God rested on the seventh day to show us the importance of rest. You might likely have many tasks to do, but you're only busy if you're not praying. So give your burdens to the Lord and yoke yourself to Him, because He will give you rest and because God wants you to be His life partner.

Jesus invites us into a “take and give” relationship with Him in which we are to take up our cross and follow Him, and give a cup of cold water to His messengers and to those whom we struggle to love. And if we abide in this “take and give” relationship, then Jesus promises to take us to Himself and give us a heavenly reward.