The Radical Choice of Following CHRIST

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:01]Welcome to the morning offering, your daily call to prayer. Pray with us every day right here on the podcast and in your inbox. Learn more at morningoffering.com.

[00:00:11]Hey y'all, welcome to your morning offering. My name is Father Brad Doyle, and today is May 26th. It's the memorial of Saint Philip Neri. Let's pray.

[00:00:21]In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

[00:00:24]Amen.

[00:00:25]O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world for the salvation of souls, the reparation of sins, the reunion of all Christians, and in particular the intentions of the Holy Father this month.

[00:00:47]Amen.

[00:00:48]In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

[00:00:52]I bet you some of you out there, this is your parish.

[00:00:57]Right?

[00:00:58]Go down in the comments and and tell me if you are a parishioner of a parish called Saint Philip Neri. And add if you pronounce it like that, cuz there's a big controversy a lot of parishes. Is it Saint Philip Neri or or is it Neri?

[00:01:19]Tell us.

[00:01:20]I think it's Neri, Saint Philip Neri. Uh because that's how I always said it.

[00:01:24]Maybe it's not right. I don't know. But he was a Reformation saint around the time of the Reformation so the response, the Catholic response to uh the Reformation, and he was a big proponent of the reform of seminaries.

[00:01:39]Okay? Charles Borromeo, if you remember him, he's a big reformer of the seminary process.

[00:01:45]Re-enkindling, reworking, how are priests formed? Because a major aspect of what happened in the Protestant Reformation is the lack of holiness of clergy and bishops.

[00:01:59]And so, look, bishops don't just fall from the sky. Bishops are priests, and priests don't just fall from the sky.

[00:02:04]Priests come off a priest tree.

[00:02:08]Just joking. They don't They don't fall off a priest tree. They come from seminary, okay? And so, we have to have good formation. He did that, and the gospel for today is so beautiful because it was one of the major gospels that drew me into the priesthood. And it was when Bishop uh Munch, Bishop Robert Munch, who's the bishop who confirmed me.

[00:02:29]He's the bishop basically for my almost my entire life. Um well, as a high schooler and a and a grade schooler.

[00:02:37]And I remember one Sunday he was saying mass at our parish. Maybe it was a confirmation mass. I can't remember, but I remember him reading this gospel. Peter began to say to Jesus, "We have given up everything and followed you."

[00:02:51]Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions." Love how he adds that. "And eternal life in the age to come."

[00:03:16]And Bishop Munch challenged us. He's like, "Look, if you're thinking about being a priest, this this gospel's for you."

[00:03:23]Because the world and sometimes us, we think like, "Oh, if I choose to if I feel a call to the priesthood or religious life or something that's kind of countercultural and and radical, well, I'm going to give up some stuff."

[00:03:38]And really the answer is, "Yeah." And Jesus told us we would do that.

[00:03:43]But but what about uh you know, children?" Well, Jesus said, "Sometimes you have to give up children."

[00:03:50]"Well, I'm not going to have my own land, right? I'm going to be given like I I'll be moved around. Well, he's told us you might give up land.

[00:03:57]Right? Or maybe maybe your family doesn't want you to do this, right?

[00:04:01]Doesn't want you to be a priest. Well, sometimes you got to give up your father or mother, right?

[00:04:08]But then he gives the promise.

[00:04:10]You will receive more. And this has been my experience as a priest.

[00:04:14]Right?

[00:04:15]My parishioners, my people, my youth group, my friends, my parish.

[00:04:24]Right? Actually, this is interesting.

[00:04:27]You know, the Levites were the only tribe that did not receive land.

[00:04:33]That's cool. That was That's where the Old Testament priesthood came from.

[00:04:37]They didn't have a land inheritance because their portion was in the sanctuary.

[00:04:43]It's the same with the priesthood of Jesus Christ.

[00:04:46]Yes, we might not have houses that we can keep. We get moved, we're going to another house.

[00:04:53]We get moved to another parish.

[00:04:55]It's going to be a sad day when I have to leave St. Francisville, but guess what? My portion is in the sanctuary.

[00:05:04]This has been your reflection for today.

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[00:05:11]This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad [music] in it.

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