Homilies of the Season

Show Notes

In this special edition of the Providence College podcast, we present a compilation of weekly homilies offered by our Dominican fathers during Advent, concluding with a Christmas homily from Rev. Kenneth R. Sicard, O.P. ’78, ’82G, the college’s president. Also sharing reflections on the Gospels are Rev. Justin Brophy, O.P.; Rev. Jordan Zajac, O.P. ’04; Rev, Augustine Reisenauer, O.P.; and Rev. James Quigley, O.P. ’60.

Subscribe to the Providence College Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, and YouTube.  Visit Providence College on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and LinkedIn. 

Creators & Guests

Host

Joseph Carr

Sr. Associate Vice President for Marketing & Communications

Producer

Chris Judge

Multimedia and Live Event Producer

What is Providence College Podcast?

The Providence College Podcast features interviews with interesting members of the Friar Family. These in-depth conversations with PC students, Dominicans, faculty, staff, and alumni provide a rich look into the lives of noteworthy Friars. Occasionally we will also bring you on-campus lectures and presentations. Go Friars!

00;00;00;18 - 00;00;30;24
Joe Carr
Welcome to the Providence College Podcast as part of your Christmas preparations and celebrations. We hope you will enjoy a series of reflections from the Dominican fathers of Providence College. What follows is Advent homilies presented by fathers Justin Brophy, Jordan Zay, Jack Augustin, Rising Power and James Quigley. Fathers, Brophy, Z, Jack and Rice Bower are all members of the PC faculty and Father Quigley is an Associate alumni chaplain.

00;00;31;21 - 00;00;43;10
Joe Carr
This podcast concludes with a Christmas homily from Father Kenneth Sicard, the president of Providence College. From all of us at PC, best wishes for a joyous and blessed Christmas.

00;00;44;23 - 00;01;09;17
Fr. Justin Brophy
I am Father Justin Brophy, and I'm assistant professor of political Science here at Providence College. I love Advent. That's my favorite season. It's a season of New Beginnings. It's the start of the new liturgical year, and it's a season when we anticipate the coming of Jesus in the flesh. In today's gospel, John the Baptist anticipates the coming of Jesus by asking us to repent.

00;01;10;08 - 00;01;32;05
Fr. Justin Brophy
The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. What does it mean to repent? Really? What does repentance look like and what does it mean to bear good fruit? Does it merely mean to focus on our moral failings? It seems to me that John the Baptist calls us for a conversion of heart, a conversion in the way we see ourselves.

00;01;32;26 - 00;01;58;26
Fr. Justin Brophy
Others and God. At the end of the day, all of us will be judged by how well we love the people God puts in our lives and the season of Advent offers us the opportunity to transform by loving better. Now I'm from the great state of New Jersey, so if I'm trying to check my spiritual temperature, if you will, it's measuring how well I do in traffic.

00;02;00;05 - 00;02;22;16
Fr. Justin Brophy
How patient am I on the road? How do I act when somebody cuts me off, when the person in front of me is going too slow? How do we react when the person in front of us in a supermarket is paying an exact change or takes out the checkbook to pay for their groceries? How eager are we to pick up the phone when a loved one is calling and we're engrossed in the middle of a project?

00;02;23;19 - 00;02;48;18
Fr. Justin Brophy
How often do we think about others before we think about ourselves? This is the kind of conversion to which we are called today to forget ourselves and to think instead on others, just as God empties himself and takes on human flesh. We too are called to empty ourselves for one another now. We're not called to transform completely all at once.

00;02;48;22 - 00;03;11;05
Fr. Justin Brophy
That's a pretty big task. So I think the challenge in a season like Advent is to think of two or three small ways we can begin to change our lives in a radical way. Maybe I reserve some time every day to check in with a family member. Maybe I make a little time after Sunday mass to pray for those people I know need it.

00;03;11;24 - 00;03;39;21
Fr. Justin Brophy
Maybe I commit to doing one extra special act of kindness each week. Whatever we do, if it helps us to love better, it brings us closer to Jesus Christ. And that as a special opportunity Advent affords, may all of us welcome him into our hearts anew.

00;03;40;02 - 00;04;12;14
Fr. Jordan Zajac
Hi, my name is Father Jordan Sajak, assistant professor of English Literature, also teach in DWC program. And I'm a proud member of the Class of 2004. Now, when I was here as a student at P.S., I had many eccentric professors, but you had some to. But of all of them, John the Baptist would be the most eccentric. The gospel for this Sunday describes the ministry of John the Baptist preparing the way of the Lord just as we prepare for the coming of Christ at Christmas.

00;04;14;06 - 00;04;37;11
Fr. Jordan Zajac
And when I get to preach about John the Baptist to our students now, I ask them to imagine, what would it be like to have this guy as a professor? Imagine, imagine going in and he smells like the zoo because of that camel hair wardrobe he has on. Sometimes he still has locusts in his teeth from from his lunch.

00;04;39;03 - 00;05;04;16
Fr. Jordan Zajac
It's a brutal walk to class. You thought that walk from door hall or fennel up to Harkins was bad Repentance. 101 takes place in the desert. You're going out into the desert every class with John the Baptist. And yet repentance. Another one is a really, really hard course to get into. People are coming from everywhere just to see him in a very peculiar way.

00;05;05;07 - 00;05;36;04
Fr. Jordan Zajac
John the Baptist is obsessed with the final exam. That's all that he cares about. He's always talking about the final and saying, Prepare for the final. Begging every student to be ready. The weirdest thing is that the final exam isn't on the syllabus. And when you ask him about this John the Baptist, all he tells you is he is not the exam, but that the exam is coming.

00;05;37;05 - 00;06;09;23
Fr. Jordan Zajac
So prepare. He talks about the final exam like he's talking about a person during the first part of Advent. We don't just look back at Jesus coming in Bethlehem. We also look forward to his return, his return in glory at the end of time. And every Sunday we pray in the creed and we acknowledge he will come again in glory to judge the living in the dead.

00;06;09;29 - 00;06;39;04
Fr. Jordan Zajac
In other words, at the end of time and at the end of our lives, it's going to be a final exam. And the teaching of John the Baptist makes it clear that it is possible to fail this exam. It's possible to blow it off. It's possible to presume that everybody passes and it's no big deal. And B to be found left unprepared when the final exam does come.

00;06;39;09 - 00;07;09;06
Fr. Jordan Zajac
I think, though more often it's a healthy fear that exams and tests inspire in us a healthy fear that motivates and helps us to prepare. But at the same time, that fear can take over and it can become totally paralyzing. After all, we all have a fear of failure, a fear of being judged. Deep down, we are all aware of our weaknesses, our laziness, our frailty.

00;07;10;20 - 00;07;43;27
Fr. Jordan Zajac
And that fear enjoys a terrible capacity to overwhelm and override. So what are we going to do? How are we going to prepare? The only way is love. Love drives out fear. There is no fear in love. And for this reason, the exam has come to us on paper form. But in the personal way, the exam became a person for us.

00;07;45;22 - 00;08;10;01
Fr. Jordan Zajac
The final exam has come to Earth once as a tiny newborn child. None of us can help but love babies. I have one sister, a younger sister, and she just gave birth to her first child in October. And to meet my niece and to hold her in my arms. Babies are totally disarming. You can feel your blood pressure calming right now.

00;08;10;15 - 00;08;39;24
Fr. Jordan Zajac
Just imagine having a newborn child in your arms. The presence of a baby changes everything. They're so vulnerable that all you want to do is protect them. And holding them makes you feel like nothing else matters. The final exam has come to us in this irresistible form. It's the kind of exam you want to take, an exam you want to hold and love and not let go of.

00;08;41;15 - 00;09;06;09
Fr. Jordan Zajac
Oh, come let us adore him. We sing it every Christmas. The final exam has come already. Once in the form of a baby out of love for our sinners. He came in humility then, and he comes to us in humility now. Every time we go to mass. Under the appearance of simple bread and wine. When you receive him in communion at Mass.

00;09;07;11 - 00;09;32;14
Fr. Jordan Zajac
Love him and be devoted to him. Love him the same way you would be receiving him. And loving him as if he were a newborn child. For the more we grow in love and devotion to him now, receiving him with joy at Christmas and at every mass in the Eucharist. The better we'll do on that final exam. Of all the tests and trials we have in this life.

00;09;33;28 - 00;09;40;20
Fr. Jordan Zajac
There is only one exam, one test that truly matters.

00;09;41;21 - 00;10;13;27
Fr. Augustine Reisenauer
Hello, friends. My name is Father August and writes an hour and I am an assistant professor of theology and the director of the Center for Catholic and Dominican Studies here at Providence College. And I'm delighted to be able to share with you the fruits of my contemplation on the readings for the third Sunday of Advent. In our first reading from Isaiah, we hear about the tremendous joy that will come over all creation as it is transformed from a condition of dying to a condition of thriving.

00;10;15;04 - 00;10;54;14
Fr. Augustine Reisenauer
The desert and the parkland will exalt. The step will rejoice with joyful song and bloom with abundant flowers. What is the reason for this immense joy? Well, nothing other than the coming of the Lord to earth. As Isaiah continues, Here is your God. He comes with the vindication. The Lord God comes to His creatures, neither to punish nor to destroy, but rather to vindicate.

00;10;54;14 - 00;11;30;15
Fr. Augustine Reisenauer
But what God? What does God vindicate? In some sense, God comes to vindicate His own creative design because somebody could look around at this world and its condition of physical suffering and moral depravity and could think or even could say aloud, I could have made a better world where pain would be absent and Vice would be non-existent. What kind of God is the Creator?

00;11;30;15 - 00;12;15;01
Fr. Augustine Reisenauer
And in response, as it were, to this kind of suspicion, God comes in the flesh to vindicate His creation and his design for our freedom. Certainly God's creatures have inflicted upon themselves suffering in their misuse of freedom by freely abandoning God. Who is our light? Our song, our strength and our word. We descended into blindness, deafness, lameness and muteness of the soul and even of the body.

00;12;15;01 - 00;12;50;17
Fr. Augustine Reisenauer
But God refused to abandon us. He also refused to deprive us of our freedom by forcing us to love him, by compelling us to do good and to avoid evil. Instead, God patiently worked with his free creatures over the course of many generations, drawing them gradually from the withering of their freedom to the floor, singing of the freedom from sin to the life of the spirit.

00;12;50;17 - 00;13;20;16
Fr. Augustine Reisenauer
And the Lord gets humanity ready for His vindication and consummation of creature live freedom, freedom from sin and death, freedom for life and love, and are signs of God's vindication. Therefore, the eyes of the blind will be opened. The ears of the deaf will be cleared. The lamb will leap like a stag, and the tongue of the mute will sing.

00;13;20;16 - 00;13;54;27
Fr. Augustine Reisenauer
These are some of the signs that Jesus speaks about in our Gospel from Matthew today, such signs of wonder testify that Jesus of Nazareth is the one who is to come. That He is the Christ promised and delivered by God. The Lord God Himself has come in the flesh of Jesus. But that is not all He is coming, even today, in the flesh of those who have become the body of Christ, the Church.

00;13;56;10 - 00;14;33;18
Fr. Augustine Reisenauer
And He will come again in the flesh at the end of all time to manifest the Kingdom of Heaven and to vindicate God's creative love for us all. Until then, along with a spirit of rejoicing, our second reading from James encourages us to adopt a spirit of patience and confidence. You two must be patient. Make your hearts firm because the coming of the Lord is at hand.

00;14;33;18 - 00;15;06;24
Fr. Augustine Reisenauer
So, as we eagerly and actively await the coming of Christ in the flesh today, in the present and tomorrow, in the future, perhaps we can humbly ask the Spirit to open the eyes of our hearts to see more clearly the wondrous signs of God's daily work among us and within us, vindicating our creature, the freedom, restoring us from sadness to gladness and enfolding us in the embrace of his tender and strong love.

00;15;07;29 - 00;15;24;09
Fr. Augustine Reisenauer
Come, Lord Jesus, come and vindicate your never failing love for us in Christ. So that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

00;15;24;09 - 00;16;29;11
Fr. Quigley
My name is Father Quigley, and I'm the chaplain to the alumni. And I've been, of course, with you before. Your offering homily is the Gospel. On the fourth Sunday of Advent tells us the story of Saint Joseph, his call to be the husband to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the force to Father of Christ. Interestingly, Joseph never uttered a single word that is recorded in the Bible in all four Gospels, a mere 15 lines are dedicated to his life, his thoughts, his actions, and he disappears from the Gospel of Luke after the second chapter so elusive a figure is Saint Joseph that he did not appear in Christian art until the fifth century.

00;16;29;11 - 00;17;14;05
Fr. Quigley
Pope Francis wrote. Joseph reminds us that those who appear hidden or in the shadows can play an incomparable role in the history of salvation. Elizabeth live in a fine book and titled The Silent Night A History of Saint Joseph, as depicted in art, writes Joseph is a beacon in an era that under values, fatherhood denigrates masculinity, ridicules chastity.

00;17;14;05 - 00;18;01;04
Fr. Quigley
He is a champion for the unborn. To millions unemployed, he is a reminder of the dignity of human work To those who die alone, he is a harbinger of a good death. He watches over the universal church and he protects husbands and wives in the intimacy of the home. Joseph of Saint Joseph, The Silent Night. There's one story in the tradition that I get a big kick out of in 1238.

00;18;01;21 - 00;18;56;25
Fr. Quigley
Supposed only a relic of Saint Joseph appeared in the Aachen Cathedral in Germany, built by the Emperor Charlemagne. Their pilgrims came to honor what some claimed were holy relics. For instance, the dress that the Blessed Mother wore or the cloth that held the head of John the Baptist and Saint Joseph's trousers or pants. The story was that when Jesus was born, the Holy family was so poor that Joseph donated his trousers or pants to be the swaddling clothes.

00;18;58;00 - 00;19;43;26
Fr. Quigley
As we reflect in this Sunday's Gospel on this man, this compassionate, hopeful, humble, silent man, perhaps one lesson he may teach us this Christmas is hope. The virtue of hope is faith in the future, even when it is difficult. Events in the life of Joseph required hope. He was a dreamer and so had to hope that what he was told by the Archangel Gabriel was indeed God's will.

00;19;45;03 - 00;20;35;06
Fr. Quigley
He had to hope that he would be successful facing trials. No room in the in flight or immigration to Egypt. The lost Jesus in the temple provoked Joseph to hold on in faith that God's providence was leading him, guiding him, protecting him in his vocation. So brothers and sisters, Christmas is a gift of hope. The Christ child is a gift of hope.

00;20;36;29 - 00;20;55;15
Fr. Quigley
Catholic Christian women and men are people of hope. Hope is a great way to live. So merry Christmas.

00;20;57;00 - 00;21;25;01
Fr. Kenneth Sicard
So many of you in the Friar family know I have a real passion for music, not singing or playing an instrument because that's not my gift, but listening and enjoying. And while I enjoy all kinds of music, I'm especially partial to music from the fifties, sixties and seventies. It's when I grew up and it's what I listen to most often, especially when I'm cooking or cleaning or exercising.

00;21;25;11 - 00;21;48;00
Fr. Kenneth Sicard
And Father Shanley heard this music for years when he and I lived together in Dominic House, and I've developed this skill over the years where I can identify most songs from this era and the artists who sang them in one or two notes. And I admit this skill won't make me wealthy and it won't make me holy. But it's a lot of fun.

00;21;48;23 - 00;22;18;20
Fr. Kenneth Sicard
And hearing just about any song from those decades will trigger a memory or cause some kind of emotional reaction in me. Every time I hear Connie Francis singing Lipstick on Your Collar. I'm five years old. My mom is vacuuming our living room and playing her Connie Francis records because she loved Connie Francis. Every time I hear Stop In the Name of Love, I'm sitting in front of our family's brand new color TV.

00;22;18;20 - 00;22;53;21
Fr. Kenneth Sicard
In 1965 and watching the Supremes on the Ed Sullivan Show. Every time I hear the Bee Gees singing Stayin Alive, I'm 21 years old and enjoying spring break in Fort Lauderdale with my best friends. I could go on and on, but music is so powerful for me, and Christmas carols have the same kind of effect on me. Religious carols especially evoke a strong reaction, strong emotions, and they awaken in me a deeper appreciation for what Christmas is about.

00;22;54;12 - 00;23;25;12
Fr. Kenneth Sicard
There's always a line or a verse in a Christmas carol that really, really touches me. And it changes from year to year. And this year the line that touched me the most and the one I want to talk about is from my favorite Christmas hymn, which is O Holy Night. And the line is a thrill of hope. The weary world rejoices, and there aren't many of us who in some way at sometimes don't feel a bit of that weariness.

00;23;25;25 - 00;23;54;13
Fr. Kenneth Sicard
Our students and faculty are weary by final exams and end of semester stresses. Many of us are weary because of the social and political divisions we're seeing in our country. Many of us are weary of spending $100 at stop and shop and having nothing to show for it. And people we know some of our lungs are still rebuilding and suffering after Hurricane Ian.

00;23;55;13 - 00;24;41;17
Fr. Kenneth Sicard
But as people of faith, we have great cause for hope and rejoicing. And it's a time for us, at least for a while, to put aside the stresses that weigh us down and celebrate the wonderful gift of Christmas. And it's interesting that Christmas comes at the darkest part of the calendar year during the winter solstice, but at the same time, it's a reminder that God's light in the person of Jesus has shown so brilliantly on a dark and weary world then and now, in Bethlehem, when Jesus made his home among us, he came to share all the joys of human life.

00;24;42;17 - 00;25;33;23
Fr. Kenneth Sicard
But he also came to share all the problems and the weariness we face. He came to be with us in our fears, in our weariness. He came to bring us hope, especially in trying times. It all converges in Jesus back then, but more importantly, now and today, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, we still come together in this thrill of hope, a hope that's nourished and rejuvenated as we hear it, as we retell year after year, these beautiful, familiar, touching, tender stories that define our faith, stories of a people who, like us, have walked in darkness but have seen a great light.

00;25;34;18 - 00;26;08;28
Fr. Kenneth Sicard
Stories of a virgin giving birth, stories of the child born to us, the son given to us, the Prince of Peace stories of angels announcing good news and tidings of great joy to shepherds, telling them they have nothing to fear. Stories of an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. As Saint Paul says, the grace of God has appeared and he didn't appear in grandeur and majesty to impress us.

00;26;09;10 - 00;26;42;18
Fr. Kenneth Sicard
He came as the most helpless and dependent creature of all, a child in a manger. And the fact that the all powerful God would do this for us is such a beautiful expression of our dignity and of God's great love for us. And because of this, we can sing about a weary world rejoicing. Today, our hearts are filled with hope because we're reminded of the extent to which God has gone to show his love for us.

00;26;43;17 - 00;27;13;13
Fr. Kenneth Sicard
Our hearts are filled with hope because those words spoken by angels, two shepherds. Do not be afraid, resonate so loudly with us. We know we're not alone. As angels remind us, a savior has been born for us. Who is Christ the Lord? So in joyful times, and even in trying times, there is hope. There is rejoicing. Christmas started in Bethlehem.

00;27;13;13 - 00;27;41;17
Fr. Kenneth Sicard
Centuries ago and continues today right here among us in our Friar family. And as I say, just about every year and my Christmas homily, we need not look for a heavenly star or a choir of angels to lead us to Jesus. We should not look for him out there because it's here in our midst where he has chosen to make his dwelling.

00;27;42;07 - 00;27;57;03
Fr. Kenneth Sicard
It's here with a light of Christ can shatter any darkness and a weary world can once again feel a thrill of hope. God bless you and your families and have a very merry Christmas.

00;27;58;25 - 00;28;04;15
Joe Carr
Thank you for joining us for this Providence College podcast. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.