I have a rare weekend off from preaching; they’re showing a video for the Bishop’s Annual Catholic Appeal at all the masses, so that will eat up the homily time.
So I don’t have a homily to post today. 

But I thought I’d share another great prayer from Deacon James Keating’s new book “A Deacon’s Retreat”:

What a marvel, that I can proclaim your word, the word which saves in its hearing. Lead me, Lord, into a love of your word above all other words that clamor to call to me each day. Fill me with your sacred silence so that I might truly seek your instruction and only yours. Enable me to teach and preach out of such silence so that the people listening may enjoy the fruit of our intimacy, an intimate love contained within and ordered by the church’s continual love and protection of your holy word. Amen.

For all those who will preach this weekend: may you be graced with the courage of St. Stephen, the humility of St. Francis, and the joy and fervor of our era’s most celebrated preacher (and future saint) Fulton Sheen.