Mothers Show Us the Meaning of Jesus’ Commandment In the Gospel for this weekend which comes from John 15: 9-17, Jesus continues his “Farewell Discourse,” teaching the apostles about how to continue to grow in, and spread, the faith. Jesus says: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love” …
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Faith’s Journey: An Encounter and a Response This week our parish will be celebrating Confirmation with Masses on Monday and Friday evening, and we welcome Archbishop Hebda for the Monday evening Mass and Auxiliary Bishop Cozzens for our Friday evening Mass. This weekend also will feature a number of our young parishioners making their First …
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Thankful for the Unsung Heroes in Blue In this week’s Gospel from John 10, we hear of the good shepherd who “lays down his life for his sheep” and of the desire of Jesus that there be “one flock, one shepherd.” And as I was reading it, the thought occurred to me of how much …
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Faith’s Journey: An Encounter and a Response In coming weeks, we’ll be celebrating some wonderful events at our parish, namely the sacraments of First Communion and Confirmation. We’ll have two confirmation Masses to account for distancing and to make it easier for families to attend, and are honored to have both Archbishop Hebda and Bishop …
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Doubt as the Companion of Faith I never much cared for the term “doubting Thomas,” because it’s a really unfair label to give Saint Thomas, who is front and center in this week’s Gospel. He is not there when Jesus comes the first time; perhaps upset and troubled about what has happened and needing to …
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Be Not Afraid! Each year on Ash Wednesday, we gather to start Lent to remember the fact that for all of us, we one day will die. We return to dust. And with that, so much of what we put our energy into on this earth fades away too. Sports glory is forgotten. People move …
Holy Week: The Greatest Love Story Ever Told Last year when the pandemic began, and the church was forced to be closed to people due to the executive order, it was quite surreal to have Holy Week with just a couple of people in the sanctuary. There were palms but no one to sing “Hosanna”; …
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Unveiling the Meaning of the Cross This week, as we begin the final two weeks of Lent, we enter into a period formerly called “Passiontide.” One of the options during this time is to have all crucifixes and images covered in veils. This is done until the Triduum, when the statues are uncovered and the …
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Humility Leads us to Grace Odds are you have heard of the story by Hans Christian Anderson, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” So caught up himself is the emperor, that all of his money goes to his new clothes. The story begins that he cared about nothing else; from reviewing the soldiers to going to the …
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Thinking More Deeply about the 10 Commandments Tomorrow night, we’ll be celebrating our parish penance service. Hopefully you can join us; we’ll have a number of priests here to hear individual confessions. Coincidentally this week’s first reading is the giving to the Israelites of the 10 commandments from God. Many of us memorize them …
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