father's blog

Pope Benedict XVI has announced some exciting news for Catholics throughout the world. Starting in the fall of this year the Church will celebrate a “year of faith” to help Catholics appreciate the gift of faith, deepen their relationship with God and strengthen their commitment to sharing the faith with others. To mark this great event, St. Rose of Lima will designate Wednesday evenings as the night when we all gather as a Church to learn more about the faith. This will affect all catechetical ministries throughout our parish for the coming years.

Dear Friends,

Christ is risen! Alleluia! Our long lenten journey is over and now we celebrate the most important truth in the world. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. This reality...and it is a reality...should dictate the way we live our lives. We are a resurrection people.

As we begin our Lenten journey this year I would like to encourage you to make a commitment to receive the sacrament of Confession or Reconciliation before we celebrate Easter Sunday. As I said last weekend, this great sacrament has fallen off the radar of many Catholics in the past 40 years, even though the Church has celebrated it since Her beginning. This is very sad because this sacrament, like all sacraments, is a cause of great joy in our lives.

In this Sunday’s gospel(3rd Sunday of Advent) we hear of Mary’s encounter with the Angel Gabriel, who reveals to her the pivotal role that she is to play in salvation history. Her role is to be the mother of God. “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus…he will rule over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end”(Luke 1:31-32) is the message that the angel delivers to her in her home in Nazareth.

In this Sunday's readings for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time we see two figures who show us that hardship and struggle accompany the person who bears the message of God to the world. In the first reading, the prophet Jeremiah was sent by God to the people of Israel to turn their hearts and minds back to him from their idolatrous ways. His message is not received well and Jeremiah is persecuted for speaking out. In this section of the reading we hear him venting against God because God has called him to a hard way of life....

I am writing this blog entry on our nation's birthday. July fourth is a time when we gather with family and friends for barbecues and fireworks and celebrate everything that makes America great. We have so much for which to be greatful. God has blessed our nation in so many ways. It is important that we remember that if we are going to continue to be a great nation then we must remain a nation under God. All the wonderful blessings that our nation enjoys are gifts from God and not something that we have merited on our own.

Dear Friends,

Christ is risen! Alleluia! Our long lenten journey is over and now we celebrate the most important truth in the world. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. This reality...and it is a reality...should dictate the way we live our lives. We are a resurrection people.

Lent is a penitential season in the Church that begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes on Good Friday. It is a time when we are called to practice the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in order to turn our hearts away from the temptations of the world and back to God who is the deepest desire of all our hearts.

This Sunday we celebrate the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Church presents to us St. Matthew's account of the call of the first disciples. Jesus goes into the region of Galilee and sees four fishermen (Peter, Andrew, James and John)tending their nets and invites them to leave it all behind and follow him. The Christian life is all about putting ourselves in Lord's company every day and following him so that we can become more and more like him. St. Paul says at the end of time, Christ will be all in all.

Dear friends,

Joy to the world the Lord is come! The four week period of Advent is over and the Christmas season is upon us. Let us celebrate with joy because we have received the greatest gift that we could ever receive, Emmanuel, whose name means "God with us".