These homilies owe a great deal to the thoughts and writings of many authors much more skilled and knowledgeable than myself.

From the dim, distant days of being a student, I remember being advised that some are destined to be " springs" delivering fresh water; others are destined to be "channels" carrying the water from the spring to others. I am a channel!  But, so that the charge of plagiarism does not sit too heavily against me, I wish to mention the principal authors whose thinking has contributed so much to these random thoughts on what I think constitutes a Christian Response to various life situations.  -  Bishop Geoffrey Robinson's "Travel in Sacred Places"; The Catechism of the Catholic Church; Dom Chautard's "The Soul of the Apostolate"; Charles Brethes, "Liturgia  della Festa";  "Markings" - Homily Notes issued by Archdiocese of Chicago; A New Catechism (Revised) by the Dutch Bishops.  John MacKenzie - Dictionary of the Bible; Archbishop Suenens,  "A Christian Response"; Michel Quoist, "Living Words", "Prayers of Life"; Fr. Anthony Meredith, S. J., "Faith and Fidelity..  These and my own observations made over 54 years of active priesthood are reflected in the following homilies.  I am still in the process of editing missing numbers.

The format for these short reflections - Buzzword, Scriptural tie-in, practical application and Scriptural reference - resulted from a comment made to me some years ago by a young American sailor.  After Mass, he approached me to say in his broad Bronx accent -"Fadder! I want to tell you; you talk good; real good! The only trouble is, no one can understand you!!!!"  So much for my slabs of abstruse and, probably, obtuse, theological presentations!

Back to the drawing board and some advice given to me as a very young priest in Geraldton by Bishop Gummer  -"Never leave them in hell! Give them something to take home".  And so, the "Buzzword".  People remember the "Buzzword".  So successful was it that a few weeks later, the same young American sailor approached me to say   "De buzzwoird, Fadder, is good; but why do you keep us there for another eight minutes"!  Since then, I am often identified as "Father Buzzword" in parishes where I provide supply for the resident priest.

Fr. Noel J. Tobin