Fr. Patrick J. O'Doherty

09/07/2026

Have a safe, happy, and blessed Labor Day.

09/06/2026

MORE ABOUT PRAYER

When we pray we should say “Our Father” because we are God’s children now, what we shall later be has yet to be revealed. We know that when it is revealed we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. We say, “Who art in Heaven,” knowing that there are many mansions in Our Father’s house and that the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard what God has prepared for those who love Him. The Almighty has done great things for us and we say, “Holy is His name.” When we pray, “Thy kingdom come”, we rightly pray for the coming of the kingdom within ourselves, within that private room while we wait for Christ to come again in Glory when all eyes will see Him as He is. Jesus, we love you, possess us.

We know too that when we pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”, we are praying that You will make us Holy. Do in us what You will, do through us what You will, do with us what You will, and Lord gives us all the graces that we need to live a holy life. Lord, in your presence this day, free us from all anxiety about tomorrow. Surely each day has enough troubles of its own. Let not past things rob us of our hope of salvation. Lord, remove all un-forgiveness from our hearts as we cry to You unceasingly, “Forgive us our sins.” Give us your grace to resist all temptation and deliver us from the evil one who roams the earth and patrols it seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

09/05/2026

https://youtu.be/Ifur0lDVwhs

This video is the first installment in a series called “Fr. Patrick...

09/04/2026

PRIVATE

…”And when you pray, go to your private room, and when you shut the door, pray to your Father who is in that secret place and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you”. So who said go to your private room? It was Our Lord Jesus Christ who said it, and I am able to imagine the devil, the anti-word showing up at this point and saying to you, “See, stay at home and pray, pray in your private room, you don’t need to go to Holy Mass with all those hypocrites in order to pray.”

“By private room you must understand,” says St. Ambrose, “not a room enclosed by walls that imprison your body, but the room that is within you, the room where you hide your thoughts, where you keep your affections. This room of prayer is always with you wherever you are and is always a secret room where only God can see you.” It is even more mysterious to consider that Jesus Our Lord says that Our Heavenly Father is in that secret room. It’s no wonder not one of us has ever seen The Father and we only know Him in so far as Jesus, His son, has let us know him.

In times past, men and women withdrew into the desert to pray. We read in Holy Scripture that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Were these early Christians who withdrew from the world into the desert imitating Our Lord by going there to fight the devil? In our own time there is no need for us to go anywhere, the desert is now spread into the city because of the evil that men do. It even enters our home on slow and fast moving newspaper headlines, inhabiting the very airwaves of radios, TV’s and computers. So when you pray do not pray only for yourself, but for all. My own private prayer is (In the private room that is me) essentially reduced to 2 prayers, “Jesus I love you, possess me” and “Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of Thy Mercy.”

Jesus says to us, ask and you will receive. He does not say ask and you might receive, so join me please… Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of Thy Mercy. Would you be offended if Our Lord answered our prayer? Would you be angry if The Lord, being generous, led even the worst of us to Heaven?

09/03/2026

ANOTHER STORY
A man anxious to justify himself said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, a man was once on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of brigands. They took all he had, beat him, and then went off leaving him half-dead. Now a priest happened to be traveling down the same road, but when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. In the same way, a Levite who came to the place saw him, but passed by on the other side, but a Samaritan traveler who came upon him is moved with compassion when he sees him. He went up and bandaged his wounds pouring oil and wine on them, he then lifted him on his own mount, carried him to the inn and looked after him.

The next day he took out two coins and handed them to the innkeeper. “Look after him,” he said, “and on my way back I will make good any extra expense you have.” Which of these do you think proved himself a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands? “The one who took pity on him”, he replied. Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same yourself.”

So is this story true? Well of course, it’s true, A man fell among robbers as he was going down from Jerusalem (Heaven), to Jericho (Hell), is me, you and all of us. The priest and the Levite who passes him by without helping him are the priests and Levites from before the time of Jesus Our Lord. The Good Samaritan is Jesus, God come in the flesh, The good Shepherd seeking out what was lost. He bandages our wounds by forgiving our sins and anoints us with the Holy Spirit, strength for our journey to the New Jerusalem, bring us to the inn that is the Church and hands us over to the keepers of the inn who are the Bishops and the Priests. They are to take care of you and feed you Christ through the Sacraments, giving you your portion of food in due season. In the strength of this food from Heaven you are to love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, with your whole mind and you are to love your neighbor as ourselves. When the Lord who is in our midst even now, returns again in glory, he will lead us through the apocalyptic red sea of fire to the New Jerusalem.

All stories are true, some of them actually happened.

09/02/2026

OPINION

I’m not interested in your opinion, after all it’s your opinion so keep what is yours. If I do want your opinion, I’ll ask you for it. I imagine you hearing me say from the pulpit, “I’m not interested in your opinion”, could cause you a certain amount of indignation. Hopefully I soften the seeming harshness when I add, “I’m not interested in my own opinion either.” When something is true for instance, 1 + 1 = 2, your opinion and mine matters not at all. If you say in my opinion, 1 + 1 = 2 and I offer my opinion that 1 + 1 = 1, neither your opinion nor mine changes the truth that 1 + 1 = 2. When it comes to Christ or the Catholic Church, opinion stops and truth begins.

For instance, I happen to know that in the bread is the body of Christ which hung upon the cross and in the chalice the blood of Christ, which flowed from His side. Supposing I don’t know this, or don’t believe this, or have the opinion that it’s all just a symbol. My knowing or not knowing , my believing or not believing, my opinion right or wrong does not alter truth. Jesus Christ Our Lord, True God, True Man, who died on the cross, was buried, rose from the dead, ascended into Heaven, is present body, blood, soul and divinity in the appearances of bread and wine at Holy Mass. On the night He was betrayed, Jesus took bread, broke the bread, gave it to His disciples and said, “Take this all of you and eat it. This is my body which will be given up for you.” In times past, times before B.C., the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, spoke to Our Fathers in various and different ways through the prophets, but in this the final age, God has spoken to us through His Son. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. If nobody on the planet believed or never did believe this in all the ages past, it is still the truth; Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, my opinion or yours doesn’t make anything be or not be.

Of blessed memory Pope Paul VI said, “We had hoped that Vatican Council II would usher in a great period of renewal within the Church but by some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the Church.” That the smoke of Satan could be in the Church might seem terrible to you, yet there’s nothing new under the sun. Was not Satan himself present at the Last Supper in the person of Judas? Did not Satan enter the garden again in the person of Judas to arrest Jesus the new Adam? Yet even here, we have hope.

Did not Our Lord say on founding His Church that the gates of Hell can never hold out against it? The Catholic Church is the embodiment, the incarnation of the Apostolic Church willed by Christ. Jesus Our Lord with the Church, even as you read this, is the revelation of God in time. The Catholic Church with all its sins preserves, defends, and embodies Christ Jesus. In Her is Christ, the way, the truth, and the life. When Paul VI talked about the smoke of Satan entering the Church, as I see it he was referring to that liberal Christianity that has not internal brake. The Church, therefore Christ, says a man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, what God has joined men must not divide.

Liberal Christians, the smoke of Satan, cries, divorce, divorce, divorce. The Church, therefore Christ, says, “Increase and multiply, fill the earth.” Liberal Christians, the smoke of Satan, cries, “Contraception, birth control, condoms.” The Church, therefore Christ, says, “Thou shall not kill.” The liberal Christian (and here one can smell the tail on the dragon) cries out, “Abortion, abortion, abortion!” You can hear them already advocating su***de; well do you see what I mean? Opinions, yours or mine, have nothing to do with it. Christ has given you and I the truth of marriage, children, life. As for the many, many, millions aborted, Jesus came for all of them, baptized in their own blood, and they all went home and colored Easter eggs.

09/01/2026

THE THREE TOED SLOTH

Sloth is spiritual laziness and is often symbolized by the 3-toed sloth. Once I saw a sloth in a cage in the zoo, ‘twas a sight see. If you studied it long enough you could barely see it move. You wonder how there are any of them on the planet, why they are not all eaten up by predators. Perhaps they move so slowly that predators don’t see them, I don’t know.

Sloth is a characteristic of some very busy people. Now says you, that’s a contradiction if I ever heard one, busy people are slothful? Well, they can be, they get very busy about all the wrong things and neglect what’s really important. You are so busy that you keep putting off your return to the Lord. You have committed a mortal sin and you are walking around in this state, too busy to go to confession and receive absolution. Woe to you if you die in this state, nothing unclean can enter into Heaven and in this state, you are unclean spiritually. How many millions of people are there who have left the bosom of Holy Mother Church endangering their salvation because they cannot and do not even desire to break the bonds of sin and the sloth that goes with it.

I once knew this very busy lady, she and her husband had one child, a girl child about five years old. The little girl was a dreamer; she loved to play in mud puddles, talk to frogs and dance after butterflies. Mommy however, was an immaculate housekeeper and day after day when her little Rachel came home after school, shoes muddy from playing in the mud, hands dirty from catching and talking to frogs and other creatures, hair always messed up from dancing after butterflies, she was scolded and sent to her room where she cried for a while every day. Every day too, sloth sat on the refrigerator smiling unperceptively to herself, looking at mom and saying silently inside herself as only sloth can say. “I got you babe.”

Sloth is a kind of evil trinity: occupation with unnecessary things, distraction and spiritual sadness. How often have I had funerals for fallen away Catholics and the best the family seems to say about them is that he or she was an avid golfer?

I once asked up to 5,000 people at Holy Mass to please give an hour a week in the Adoration Chapel to pray for priests and vocations to the priesthood. I encouraged all to do so and told all that our Holy Father Benedict asked for this. Seventy (70) people made the commitment. Four ladies when asked explained that they were much too busy with their weekly commitments to golf, cards, and God knows what else.

Distraction is that form of sloth where we say our prayers without any zeal or enthusiasm. At prayer we are bored and boring. Spiritual sadness is that form of sloth whereby we have no courage to break with our faults and imperfections, we are lukewarm all the way through, we procrastinate.

There was a convocation in Hell recently. The millions and billions of demons who roam the earth and patrol it were called back to Hell. It seemed like people everywhere were waking up and turning back to the Lord. The new strategy that Hell is using on the face of the planet is sloth. Sloth says, “you know there’s no hurry with these things, take your time, go ahead and take your time about going back to the Lord.”

08/30/2026

THE SOW OF GLUTTONY

I don’t know that animals ever eat too much or drink too much, although I have seen a mosquito drink so much blood that it couldn’t fly. This mosquito had landed on my finger one time and I watched it gorge itself on my blood. It swelled up, it looked red all over and then fell of my finger on to the ground. I however, have often eaten and drank much too much. When I was thinking about this column on gluttony, I said to myself, “there won’t be much to write about; after all I am a moderate eater, and by God’s holy grace, ‘tis well near thirty-five years since I’ve had alcohol in any form.

Then it hit me, being an alcoholic, addict, which I am, and having for 18 years used alcohol and drugs to the point of excess is the worst form of this vice of gluttony. ‘Tis true what they say, that gluttony makes one like an animal. Gluttony dulls the mind, the intellect, the reason, all of which are faculties that raise us above the animals. In my case, drugs came before all else; before Jesus, the Blessed Mother, The Church, you, my Parish, my sanctification, before heaven and before Hell. One can be more than shocked if you let yourself consider that scripture has it that drunkards will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

I imagine that the active drunk or addict is not even remotely likely to read this post on gluttony. My own journey into the depths of addiction and alcoholism was truly a journey into Hell, but blessed be the Lord who jumped down from Heaven in the person of His Son to rescue me from damnation. I didn’t just stop drinking and drugging – I was rescued. ‘Twas in the fall of 1985, I hadn’t used for 3 days, I was burning up inside, we addicts call it dope sickness. I got into my car and went looking for drugs like a dog returning to its vomit and eating it. As I drove burning up inside for drugs, I experienced in my mind an invisible hand around my throat, I heard, “I’m sorry I made you, you are scandalizing the drug dealers. It would be better if a great millstone were tied around your neck and you drown in the depths of the sea.” And then the voice said again, “I’m sorry I made you.”

The heavy hand of the Lord struck me, but I was not doomed to die. I turned my car around on the road that day, went back to my attic room, and from that day to this I have never used again. I suffered greatly in mind and soul in the weeks that followed. Every day at Holy Mass the horror of what I have done and who I had become would rise up inside me like gas from a sewer. A terrible rebuke from the Lord, I’m sorry I made you, was my daily bread. The word of the Lord, “Woe to those who cause scandal”, was branded on my soul. I had caused much scandal and ‘twould have been better indeed if I had never been born. Every day I realized that drowning in the depths of the sea would be easy compared to what I deserved in the depths of Hell. Today I can only cast myself upon His mercy. Lord be merciful to me a sinner, and I beg Him that none will be lost because of me.

As the weeks went forward into months, hatreds, resentment, fears, rose from my inner soul and possessed me, they mocked me too. If you do not forgive, neither will I forgive you, but I couldn’t forgive. I was possessed. Again, the Lord, blessed be His holy name, rescued me; in a still small voice He spoke in my soul: “Be willing to have me remove these demons of hate.” “Lord, lord, take these demons from me for I surely cannot get rid of them myself.” Our Lord removed them, cast them out, and healed me. I would prefer this day to die, rather than to offend Him in any way.

08/29/2026

ENVY – THE SERPENT OF ENVY

Envy ranks fifth among the 7 deadly sins: pride, covetousness, lust, anger, envy, gluttony, and sloth. I think of envy as green and as a serpent. Through the envy of the devil, sin entered the world and with sin came death. Some place in my head I have a memory of asking my mother to bring one of my younger, newborn brothers, back to the hospital (see, even back then I was an enlightened little boy). I knew that babies came from the hospital and not from under a cabbage plant as everyone said, (and neither were they brought by the storks).

When I came of age envy was already full blown in me. Actually, I never remember a time when I was not envious. I couldn’t stand anyone being preferred to me, and could not enjoy anybody who was better than me at anything. It leads to a pretty miserable kind of life if you are envious all the time. There is a very famous litany (well maybe not so famous if you hadn’t heard of it) by a not so well known Cardinal, Merry del Val. The opposite of what he says in his Litany of Humility captures me to a ‘T’; I don’t know where the expression to a ‘T’ came from, do you?

This litany is called: The Litany of Humility

Deliver me Jesus from the desire of being loved
Deliver me Jesus from the desire of being praised
Deliver me Jesus from the desire to be honored
Deliver me Jesus from the desire of being preferred to others
Deliver me Jesus from the desire of being consulted
Deliver me Jesus from the desire of being approved
Deliver me Jesus from the fear of being humiliated
Deliver me Jesus from the fear of being hated and despised
Deliver me Jesus from the fear of suffering rebukes and rejections
Deliver me Jesus from the fear of being calumniated
Deliver me Jesus from the fear of being forgotten
Deliver me Jesus from the fear of being ridiculed and mocked
Deliver me Jesus from the fear of being wronged
Deliver me Jesus from the fear of being suspected
Grant Jesus that others may be loved more than I
Grant Jesus that in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease
Grant Jesus that others may be chosen, and I set aside
Grant Jesus that others may be praised, and I completely unnoticed
Grant Jesus that others may be preferred to me in everything

Now truthfully, as I pointed out, it’s the opposite of this that I like to think (that I would be preferred and other people not.), but this last one can speak with complete truth….Grant Jesus that others (that means you), may become holier than I provided that I may become holy as I should.

Please don’t think I’m completely lost: Mary, the mother of Jesus, has taken me in hand, she has taught me everything.

‘Twas about eight years ago, ‘twas December the 8th, the Feast of Mary’s Immaculate Conception in the womb of Ann. ‘Twas during the first reading of Holy Mass, I had drifted off into my usual envious thought pattern. How come Lord, you chose the Jews and not the Irish, or the French, or the Polish, etc., etc.? What I was really, really, thinking was how come You didn’t pick me (see my sin of envy, right there)? How come You chose Theresa of Avila, Mother Theresa of Calcutta, St. John Vianney, the Blessed Mother, and not me? All the time the lector is reading the first reading, and in the gentlest manner my mind was led back to the reading.

At that very second the lector was proclaiming, “You have been chosen by God, before the world began, to be holy, to be blameless in His sight, to be full of love.” On Mary’s feast day I heard it, me, I, myself, have been chosen by God before the world began. You, yourself have been chosen by God before the world began. Chosen for what? To be holy, to be blameless in His sight, to be full of love. Now, envious no more, I have a new difficulty, me, a sinner, holy? Me, a sinner, blameless in his sight? Me, a sinner with the ice-cold heart, full of love? Mary again guided me, “Say to my Lord and your Lord, ‘Be it done to me according to Your word. Then the Holy Spirit will come upon you as it did upon me. The power of the most High will cover you with its shadow as it did me, and you will no longer live, My Son will live in you.”

Lord, be it done to me according to your word, and remember Genesis: The Lord said to the serpent, I will make you enemies of one another, your offspring Satan, and her offspring will be enemies. You will lie in wait for his heel and he will crush your head.

08/28/2026

ANGER – THE BLOOD OF CAIN

We now will examine the deadly sin of anger. Jesus, Our Lord said, “You have heard how it was said to them of old. Thou shalt not kill, but I say to you that whosoever grows angry with his brother and calls him a fool will answer for it in Hell’s fire.” I wonder about all the road rage I hear about today. Is our road rage putting us on the road to Hell’s fire?

In due time Abel the priest and Cain the priest came into the Lord’s presence to offer sacrifice. God looked with favor on Abel and on his offering, but on Cain and on his offering, He did not look with favor. Apparently, Cain is burning unholy fire before the Lord by offering his cereal offering with a bitter, angry, resentful heart. Cain grows even more angry and downcast. This ‘downcast’ word is the first mention of depression in the Holy Scripture. God begins now to seek out Cain, the lost one. In the rest of the story, the Lord God only speaks to Cain not Abel.

So he says to Cain, “Why are you angry and downcast? If you have done what is right, ought you not to lift up your head? Because you have done what is wrong, sin in the person of Satan is at your door hungering for you. You must be his master.” The implication of all this is that Cain’s anger is inspired by Satan and with the grace of our Lord, Cain can master the devil. Will the devil win out?

Cain invites his brother into the countryside and murders him. Here rage, anger, resentment leads to murder, an no murderer will enter the kingdom of God. Fortunately, the story doesn’t end here. Our Lord continues to speak to Cain as the blood of Abel cries out from the ground for vengeance. “Where is your brother Abel”, says the Lord to Cain? His blood cries out to me from the ground.” Cain says, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” This cry of his will continue down through the centuries right up to our own time when millions are murdered every year and millions more who don’t care say in their own way, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

Cain who belonged to the settled population is now to become a fugitive. God says to him, “Now be accursed and driven from the ground that has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hands.” Later, we will open our mouths to receive the Blood of Christ. When you till the ground it will no longer yield you any of its produce; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer over the earth. To this day, who among us would want and welcome a murderer in our community? Cain cries out to the Lord, “My punishment is too great. I must hide from you and be a fugitive on the earth; why whoever comes across me will kill me.”

Apparently, God does not wish the death of the murderer, but his rehabilitation. He puts a mark on Cain to protect him. Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and did dwell east of Eden in the land of Nod. We can see why anger is a deadly sin. It leads to murder and murders the life of grace in our souls. The ferocity of Cain’s descendants increased upon the face of the earth reaching a high point in his descendent Lameck.

Lameck said to his wives, “Ada and Zilla hear my voice; wives of Lameck listen to me. I killed a man for wounding me, a boy for striking me, seven fold vengeance will be taken for Cain, but 77 fold for Lameck.” Did you notice the use of numbers in Lameck’s poem about himself? Seven times vengeance is taken for Cain but seventy seven times vengeance will be taken for Lameck. Knowing that you probably will not look up Matthew 18:22 yourself, this is what it says: “Then Peter went up to Jesus and said, Lord how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times?” Jesus answered, “Not seven times I tell you but seventy seven times.”

In Paul’s letter to the Hebrews there was a very obscure line where Paul tells the Jews who had welcomed Jesus as Mesiah, but now because of persecution were beginning to fall away, “You have drawn near to the sprinkled blood that cries out more eloquently than the blood of Abel.” You know already that Cain killed Abel and that Abel’s blood cried out for vengeance. So whose blood cried out more eloquently? Father forgive them for they know not what they do.