November 9, 2025
November 9, 2025
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
Homilies
Homilies
Bishop Robert Barron
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
Meaning of Church Buildings
Finish the Race
The Place of Right Praise
Friends, this Sunday weโre celebrating, with the whole Church, the dedication of the great cathedral of Rome: the Lateran Basilica. You could argue very persuasively that this see church of the pope is the most important of the four major basilicas in Rome; it is the great temple of Catholicism worldwide. This is why the readings for today are all about the temple, this place of right praise where God and his people meetโand find union.
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Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
We Are Church
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This is one of the more unusual feasts on the Church calendar. It is one of those rare feasts, in fact, in which we honor not a person or an event or a theological idea, but a building.
โ originally preached in 2008
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Deacon Peter McCulloch
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
No Homily Available
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Every year on November 9 the Church celebrates the Dedication of the Basilica of St John Lateran. Why remember a place that most of us will never visit? Itโs because this feast is about so much more than a building.
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Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
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Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica. fr Robert Ombres notes how our faith is embodied through a Church building.
We are not angels, and we exist and will be saved as human beings. The sacraments are appropriate ways to salvation because they involve and transform the whole of us, body and soul. Our bodily resurrection will be the completion of our salvation. So let us not think of church buildings, any church building, as just empty shells, mere props, that only have meaning when believers gather in them for worship. Even as buildings, they are appropriate settings for important moments in our salvation journey, we who worship in Spirit and in truth as embodied souls in time and space.
The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica. Fr Lawrence Lew relates todayโs celebration to our prayer for the dead in the month of November.
Pope Leo XIVโs first encyclical, Dilexi Te, thus summons us above all to love the poor. So, as we remember the basilica dedicated in Rome today, and remember too the commandment of Christ to gather in his memory for the Eucharist, we cannot avoid this admonishment of St John Chrysostom cited by Pope Leo: โDo not honour Christโs body here in church with silk fabrics, while outside you neglect it when it suffers from cold and nakednessโฆ [The body of Christ on the altar] does not need cloaks, but pure souls; while the one outside needs much care. Let us therefore learn to think of and honour Christ as he wishesโ. Consequently, says Pope Leo, โcharity [towards the poor] is not optional but a requirement of true worship.โ
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Papal Homilies
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
Pope Francis
9 November 2019
In his homilies for the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, Pope Francis has focused on the idea that individuals are the “temple of God” and that the Holy Spirit dwells within us. He has emphasized themes of spiritual renewal, with the physical church serving as a reminder of the sacredness of our own bodies and hearts. Key messages include a call to a pure and undivided heart, a reminder to keep our gaze fixed on Jesus, and the importance of living eucharistically by giving ourselves to others.
Key themes in Pope Francis’s homilies
Living eucharistically: He connects this concept to giving ourselves to others and preparing a place and a meal for those in need.
The individual as a temple: He highlights that the Holy Spirit lives within each person, making them a “house of God”. This personal sacredness is the core message, and the Lateran Basilica is a symbol of this truth.
A pure and undivided heart: The Pope has pointed to the Gospel account of Jesus cleansing the temple as a metaphor for the need to purify our hearts. He contrasts the “radical” love Jesus offers with a demand for a similarly undivided heart from us.
Spiritual renewal: The feast is a reminder of God’s constant care and a call to let the Holy Spirit renew us and to overcome the distractions that “blur the Lord’s face”.
Keeping our gaze on Jesus: Francis encourages believers to fix their gaze on Jesus, which leads to a shining face and a unified heart.
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Fr. Joe Jagodensky, SDS
Fr. Joe Jagodensky, SDS
Priest of the
MIlwaukee Archdiocese
A Roman Catholic priest since 1980 and a member of the Society of the Divine Savior (Salvatorians). His six books on the Catholic church and U.S. culture are available on Amazon.com.
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
St. Sebastians Catholic Church, Milwaukee
They pay me to do this twice a month, not a lot but itโs nice. Donโt ever let them know that Iโd do it for free. Itโs Church. Itโs families, by blood and by faith. Itโs folks celebrating their lives as best they can. Itโs a twice a month treat for me in spite of the early hour.
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Fr. Austin Fleming
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
You are God’s Building!
2014 โ Weโre about to sit down at the table of Jesus, the Son of God, our Savior and Redeemer. And we do so because he has invited us to be here, has asked us to take a seat at his table. Here he will feed us with the life he offered for us on the Cross, now in the Bread and Cup of the Eucharist. And he will do this precisely because we are the temple of God, we are his Body, the Church and because there dwells in us, in each of us, the Spirit of all that is holy.
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Fr. Jude Siciliano, O.P.
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
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Heart of Our Catholic
Communion
Salvation has come to the people in Jesus Christ. He is now the meeting place between humanity and Godโthe Holy of Holies made flesh. Whenever we gather in his name, we too become that holy place where the world can encounter God.
Today we celebrate not only a building, but the living ChurchโGodโs holy people gathered in unity, guided and empowered by the Spirit to bring Christโs life into the world. May this feast renew us in our mission to be Christโs presence for others.
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Fr. Charles E. Irvin
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
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God’s House
This week’s homily is by Fr. Renรฉ J. Butler, M.S. La Salette Missionaries of North America, Hartford, Connecticut
The reading from Ezekiel uses the image of the stream flowing out from the temple, becoming a river and bringing life wherever it flows. I would like to apply this to ourselves.
Wherever we go, we are Church. Wherever we are, we can bring life. Just imagine the world, in so many ways a desert place, being watered by our compassion, our works of charity, justice and peace, our faith, hope and love, freely and universally shared.
Two of the formulas for dismissal at the end of Mass are particularly eloquent in this context. โGo and announce the Gospel of the Lord,โ and โGo in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.โ
Fr. George Smiga
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
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Living in Visible Power
2003 HOMILY – Today we come together to celebrate the dedication of a building. But, the Church is more than a building, it is a people. As St. Paul says in todayโs second reading, โYou are Christโs building. You are the temple of God.โ The Gospel today calls us to be the Church in the way that we live our lives. So, let us today as institutional Catholics be that Church. Let us be the Church through loving our family and welcoming the stranger. Let us be the Church as we listen to those who suffer and work for justice. When we stand together as part of the Roman Catholic Church and its institutional structure, we have the ability to make Christ more visible in our society. We have the opportunity to let the power of the Gospel spread throughout the world.
Father Kevin Rettig
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
No Homily Available
Stained Glass
We do not celebrate a building; we celebrate the People of God.
Monsignor Peter Hahn
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
No Homily Available
No Homily Available
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Msgr. Joseph Pellegrino
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
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Celebrate Being Church
How wonderful that first celebration must have been in Rome and throughout the Church when Pope Sylvester I dedicated the Basilica of St. John Lateran in 324. Up to 313 AD Christians had been persecuted. But with the Edict of Milan in 313, Christianity was recognized by the Empire. The Emperor Constantine, prompted by his mother, St. Helena, gave part of his residence, the Lateran Palace, to be used by Miltiades, the Bishop of Rome.
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I know that the Church is not buildings, but we do have some very nice ones! Enjoy these videos.
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
Enigmatic Yet Enduring
Today is the Feast of St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome. This, not St. Peterโs is the Popeโs true Cathedral. And thus in celebrating this Feast, we celebrate the unity of the Church. The Popeโs work is to unite and strengthen the members of the Church, whom the devil would like to sift (divide) like wheat (see Lk 22:31ff). On this feast, we do well to examine a few teachings about the Church from todayโs readings.
I. The Shock of the Church
II. The Surety of the Church
III. The Sanctification of the Church
IV. The Situation of the Church
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Fr. Michael Chua
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
No Homily Available
Fr. Chua is a priest of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Parish Priest of Church of the Holy Family, Kajang and Ecclesiastical Assistant for the Catholic Ministry for the Deaf.
Our duty is to continue to pray for the dead, for the souls in Purgatory, and we do this, not because they need our prayers but because this is what the Holy Spirit has taught us to do. It is a gift of God, to allow us to share in His work in bringing His people to perfection. Purgatory is where souls are prepared for heaven, it is where the work of God which begun in their lives would be completed. It is the โprocessing centreโ where exiles are prepared for their final homecoming to heaven. God wills that we should share in this work through our prayers. And by praying for them, we are attesting to the truth, โlife is changed, not endedโ at death.
The Church is Your Mother
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This is no ordinary building. This is the cathedral of the diocese of Rome, the first Christian church dedicated after the end of the persecution of Christians, the only church described as โthe mother and head of all the churches of the City of Rome) and of the world.โ In a way, this Church does not only represent the Diocese of Rome but the entire universal Catholic Church. It is not only the mother of all churches but a reminder that the Catholic Church is our mother as St Cyprian beautifully puts it, โyou cannot have God as your father if you do not have the Church as your mother.โ
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Fr. Jude Langeh, CMF
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
No Homily Available
Father Geoffrey Plant
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
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You are God’s Building
Today we celebrate the dedication of the church which is mother and head, not just of all the churches in the city of Rome, but the mother and head of all churches throughout the world. The Lateran Basilica symbolises the primacy of the bishop of Rome because it is the place where he has his ฮบฮฑฮธฮญฮดฯฮฑ (kathedra). It is also an expression of our unity as Catholics because our local church is in communion with the church of Rome.
More Resources for Preachers
Doctrinal Homily Outlines
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