The Foundational Statement of Christianity

It's 1st Corinthians 15:3ff, in case you're wondering. Everything else builds off that.

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1st Corinthians and the Anatomy of Christ's Body

"Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers?" No, said St. Paul, but somebody has to be. Paul's famous use of a physical human body to describe the mystical Body of Christ is the perfect metaphor for us to recognize that we need different callings within the Church, that we should judge down neither ourselves nor others for our callings, and that we should reflect on how we fit, through humility and discernment. 

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Reflecting on the "Gloria In Excelsis Deo"

January 1st is dedicated to Mary under her title of "Mother of God", but it is also the Octave Day of Christmas—the same "notes" of Christmas Day, harmonizing in a different key.

The last major section of the homily (starting at 11m 45s) may benefit from a visual aid to go along with the audio. [Click here to listen]

The usual layout of this section (in English and Latin) is as 3 couplets:

    You take away the sins of the world · Have mercy on us                       A·B

    You take away the sins of the world · Receive our prayer                      A·C

    You are seated at the right hand of the Father · Have mercy on us     D·B

But if you include the next part, the three "you alone are..." and read it as a 3x3 (like the Kyrie always was for over a thousand years, both East and West), you get something else:

    You take away the sins... · Have mercy on us · You take away the sins...

    Receive our prayer · You are seated at the right hand... · Have mercy on us

    You alone are holy one · You alone are the Lord · You alone are the most high

And this is how the Greek versions of the text lay out those first six phrases too: as 2 sets of 3, not 3 pairs of 2. (Though, admittedly the Greek text has only the first two "alone" titles— holy one and Lord.)