Fr. Coutts’ Homilies - We are blessed to have Fr. Michael Coutts (Toronto Canada) homilies on-line:

Michael Coutts S.J. is a Jesuit of the English speaking Canada Province. He is the eldest of seven sons. Michael began his early Jesuit training in India. He was then posted to Guyana, South America in 1969. He worked there till 1985 except for 1970-73 when he studied theology at University of London, England. Most of his priestly life has been in parishes - in Canada, he has worked in Georgetown, Chepstow and Thunder Bay. From 1991 - 1998, Michael worked at the Martyrs' Shrine, Midland. Ont. Since then, he has been working in parishes, while stationed at the Manresa Retreat House, Pickering Ont. Now he is full time in Parish Ministry again, at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, in Toronto. Michael's mother lives in Toronto, his dad died in March, 2001 at the age of 94 year.

For a sample video, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyNejPf24es 

NOTE: "These homilies were not written for publication - but for preaching: Do not look out for a polished style or scriptural quotations or references. It is meant for a local Canadian parish and consequently it will have references to the local situation - not general or abstract context. It is meant to get people to know the Kingdom of God and come closer to God. Please read it in that context."

To print the readings, you may go to a link off The Word Among Us (Daily Reflections on Daily Readings from Mass).

• 23rd Sunday - Come O Holy Spirit and renew the face of the Earth, it and renew the face of the Earth
   
• 22nd Sunday - We have a long way to get out of our comfort zone , but a realisation that challenge of being humble is not an easy or smooth road, is a good place to begin.
   
• 21st Sunday - Our real possession, our real treasure as Christians is the person of Jesus Christ. It is not in our possessions, but in our relationship with the Lord that our question “Will we be saved” becomes a statement: In God I trust. God is my salvation. As the Coca Cola ad would say: “Who could ask for anything more.”
   
• Assumption of Mary - the Feast of the assumption of Mary is a call to involve women in all levels of Church governing and policy making. We have a long way to travel on that road, haven’t we? God entrusted his Son to a woman. Jesus entrusted his Church to a woman. Need I say more?
   
• Nineteenth Sunday - Like Peter in the Gospel, we can say, "Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life.” John 6:68. Alleluia.
   
• Eighteenth Sunday - Would it make a difference to eternal life, if they wrapped you in a cloth and left you by the roadside? What you will be in the next world will be the number of lives you have touched, the number of hearts you have enriched with joy and peace and gratitude. In a word: how was your heart seeking things from above.
   
• Seventeenth Sunday - In this spirit we pray the “I Believe”. It is in this confidence we make the prayers of the faithful.
  
  Alternate Homily - Our Father who are in Heaven. Lord I would like to continue, but this is a mass on TV and our time is up. Don’t worry says the Father... I will be here again tomorrow. Same time same place.
   
• Sixteenth Sunday - “People may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”  Paul tells us that it is Christ whom we proclaim. It is through our welcoming them, that we bring them to full maturity in Christ. In this word and action, we are blessed by God.
   
• Fifteenth Sunday - God knocks at the door of our Heart – not at the door of what is Logically or politically correct. Are we prepared to open for the Lord – or are we going to say to him. Do not bother me on a Monday a Tuesday… etc I will meet you at Church on Sunday.
   
• Fourteenth Sunday - And so like Paul, we rejoice that we have been found worthy to bear the cross of Christ, so that one day we can wear the crown he wore.
   
• Thirteenth Sunday - Jesus is with us all the time. Jesus will do the work through the power of the Holy Spirit.
   
• Twelfth Sunday - It is in the resurrection, that the sombre challenge of the Cross will find its reward. The Good Shepherd will not crush the bruised reed. He will give us hope, as the alleluia acclamation says, “Hear my voice, says the Lord.”
   
• Eleventh Sunday - Our mission statement says all are welcome… not only those who wash our feet with their tears, and wipe them with their hair, and anoint them with rich perfume.
   
• Corpus Christi - If we trust in the Lord, Jesus will accomplish within us great things, which will be beyond our imagining. Our lives must be lived so completely that there should be always something left over, as was the case of the multiplication of loaves and fish.
   
• Trinity Sunday - We live out in this way, the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Then the “Glory to God in the highest” is not merely a prayer after the Kyrie Eleison and the Opening Prayer, but a song that leaps from the core of the human heart.
   
• Pentecost Sunday - Pentecost is just the beginning. It is here that our faith will be re-enkindled, it is here that we will be on fire again. Do we love our faith so much that we want to tell people about it? God so loved the world that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Do we also love the world enough to go out and tell the Good news to them?
   
• Ascension Sunday - Evangelization is spreading the command of Jesus to love one another as Jesus loved us. We see Jesus in the way we act and live. There were two characteristics of Jesus’ life that can easily be part of our own life and action: The first is HEALING, the second SERVICE.
   
• Sixth Sunday of Easter - There are final issues in life, that are beyond our skills, capacity and outside help. We have to depend entirely on God. God takes the initiative. But God is always there for us. 
   
• Fifth Sunday of Easter - Christian love is making a profound effort to preserve the dignity and destiny of our fellow men and women. We are not perfect yet, but parts of us are in excellent condition – and with God’s grace the entire body can reach that perfection. That will be the new age and new creation that God promises to create.
   
• Fourth Sunday of Easter - The presence of God could be touched and seen, heard and felt – now I knew what we read in the Acts of the Apostles, “the salvation of God was brought to the ends of the earth.”
   
• Third Sunday of Easter - And so with Peter, even when it hurts, we can continue to say: “Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you.”
   
• Second Sunday of Easter - We demand identification of men and women who speak in the name of the Lord. This is right and just. But we must also demand the same standard of the nails and wounds in ourselves if we must stand up and be counted.
   
• Easter Sunday - For many the passion and suffering will take longer than the three days of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday – before we have the joy and peace of Easter. One thing we know: Christ has died, Christ has risen and Christ will come again.
   
• Good Friday - And so, we hear that every knee, in heaven and on earth and under the earth will bend. And so we come to venerate the Cross, on which hung our Saviour, and the Saviour of the World.
   
• Passion - Palm Sunday - And so as we celebrate Passion Sunday , we grieve for a while. We thank God for all God has done for us, but we know that Jesus will rise again. And that is all that we need to know, and all that is worth knowing.
   
• Fifth Week in Lent - But the newness that Jesus brings is a new respect for every human person made in God’s likeness. This beauty never disappears, no matter how much we sin, no matter how much we wallow in dirt. We see that in the Gospel, in the story of the Woman caught in adultery.
   
• Fourth Week in Lent - We fast, we pray, we give alms during Lent and this sharpens our senses to experience God's love. But even if we see only "through a mirror darkly" - we can rest assured that God has and always will love us - no matter what.
   
• First Week in Lent - Luke directly links this narrative of the Temptations with the Passion of Jesus by saying, “after this Satan left Jesus alone until an opportune time.”  It is no surprise then, that the followers of Christ – would be faced with the same temptations, at crucial times in their own lives. And so we pray once again the Responsorial Psalm (psalm 91) “Be with me Lord, when I am in trouble.”
   
• Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time - The proof our faith and the beliefs that we affirm in the Creed are seen in the way we live our lives, in the compassion we show to others, the way we handle our sufferings and pain, the respect and time with elders, care for children, time with homeless, street people, uneducated and the disabled.  In these things, we are blessed as Jesus says in the Gospel. Jesus says “Blessed are the poor” – the actual poor. 
   
• Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Here I am Lord. I will go Lord since you need me. I will tell the people of your death and resurrection, and of your new commandment: To love as you have loved us. The Call is there, loud and clear: What is your answer? Not me, try someone else OR Here I am Lord, Send me.
   
• Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Like Jeremiah, and like Jesus, we too received the “Spirit that anoints” – at the time of the baptism. We too were called to be priest, prophet and king. We fulfil that prophetic role in the way our lives unfold in faith, hope and love.
   
• Third Sunday In Ordinary Time - May we too listen attentively to the readings from Scriptures, so that moved by the Spirit, we may worship as one community. We are different in talents, character and devotion, but we are one in and through Jesus. We are his Body inspired by the Spirit.
   
• Second Sunday In Ordinary Time - It is our choice of light or whether we prefer to be in the darkness. The Lord delights in us like a young man delights in his bride. The Lord has called us His delight and so does the Lord rejoice in us.
   
• Epiphany 2010 - “The commission of God’s grace was given to me”. We were not put into this world just as adornments. We were not told to “be there, look good and pretty or handsome.” We were not called to be “with it” whatever that implies.  The responsorial psalm tells us quite dramatically: All the ends of the earth will adore the Lord.
   
• Christmas Day 2009 - As we share gifts on this Holy Day, may our hearts welcome joyfully the Gift of God to each one of us: Jesus born in a manger. As we eat our own Christmas dinners, may we remember the nourishment we receive from the table of the Lord.
   
• Fourth Sunday of Advent - Like Mary and Elizabeth, God has a specific role for each of us in the continued Salvation History of us all. In most cases, we have to make known the goodness of God to our own families, to our spouses, to our children and grandchildren, to those who are our neighbours. But every now and then – God will send a total stranger in our paths, - a stranger who needs to hear from us, and through our lives of God’s saving power, of God’s wondrous care, of  God’s concern for our well being.
   
• Third Sunday of Advent - And so we wait in eager anticipation for the coming of Jesus. Paul tells us that “the Lord is near” – what will the face of Jesus look like, according to you?
   
• Second Sunday of Advent - In our second reading we have a Picture of thanksgiving and optimism. In our Gospel we have a Picture of History and Anticipation.  We are not called to be chickens, we are called to soar like eagles, and hence we Prepare the way of the Lord.
   
• First Sunday of Advent - Our liturgy today on this First Sunday of Advent could be summed up in three words: Promise, Hope, Vigil.
   
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