Father Weerackoon’s Homilies and Talks

3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

In proclaiming a year acceptable to the Lord, Jesus is proclaiming a year of Jubilee, because Jesus has come to liberate captives and freeing people from the worst type of slavery – the slavery to sin and the power of the devil. And so let's take advantage to have all our debts cleared by our merciful Savior by returning to Confession and obtaining two plenary indulgences a day for the poor souls in purgatory in this year acceptable to the Lord, in this year of Jubilee.

2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

Jesus is our bridegroom who fills us with the new wine. When we’re exhausted, He fills us with His strength. When we’re dejected, He fills us with hope. When we’re anxious, He fills us with peace. When we’re sad, He fills us with joy. And most of all, He wants to fill us with a deep sense of His love so that we live in a true spousal relationship with our bridegroom.

The Baptism of the Lord

Jesus's Baptism is a twofold reminder to us that: (1) Jesus identifies with us even in our sinfulness, and (2) that our identity lies not in our sins or our shame, nor in our progress and productivity or our failures, but in being a beloved child of God in whom the Father is well pleased. 

Holy Family Sunday

The Holy Family certainly dealt with problems and anxiety, and because of that, they show our families how to deal with problems and overcome anxiety, because it’s not about the problems we face in life. It’s about who you are with. And when we learn to pray and forgive within our family, the our family too will become a holy family.

Christmas Vigil Mass

The family of Jesus, as recounted in the genealogy, is filled with sins and failings, but the great revelation of Christ becoming man is that He comes to redeem us in our brokenness, because God uses every family in His plan for salvation. Because names are important. Families are important. You are important. 

4th Sunday of Advent

Even amid all the pain we might go through in life, even when it seems impossible to find joy, even when we are experiencing pain that no one else seems to notice or care about, there is one question to ask: Why is God so good to me? How is it that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Because the Lord does not abandon us, He does not leave us alone. What God asks of us is that we have great trust in Him and in His promises, no matter how impossible they may seem.

3rd Sunday of Advent

St. Paul doesn't just say Have no anxiety. He also gives the antidote to anxiety - it's prayer and eucharistias - in other words, prayer and thanksgiving. And if we ask the Lord for what we need for our salvation and then step into the situation with confidence that the Lord would provide, we will have no anxiety, but instead we will be able to rejoice always and be at peace.

Immaculate Conception

Mary is full of grace, but she doesn’t hoard or keep all this grace for herself. She helps pour grace into all of us, so that we too can be pure, holy, and immaculate.

2nd Sunday of Advent

Just like the the Lord spoke through the prophet Baruch that he would bring the people back from exile and restore them, so too the Lord wants to restore us from the damage sin inflicts on us. And so when we go to Confession with trust that God can break the chains of sin in our lives, God gives us His mercy. When we receive God in the Eucharist, we give God our hearts, and He gives us His heart and Himself. And when we give God our lives, He gives us salvation.

1st Sunday of Advent

Advent is about two things - preparing for the birth of Christ in our hearts, and preparing ourselves for when He comes again and when we stand before the throne of God. So this Advent, raise your heads and ask Christ for the gift of temperance so that our hearts do not become "drowsy with carousing and drunkenness" and for the gift of temperance so that we may be free from "the anxieties of daily life."