TWELFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
My father was a captain of the Dutch Merchant Marines. Unlike the Marines we’re familiar with in this country as a branch of our military forces, the Dutch Merchant Marines is a private, commercial enterprise that trains officers for the Dutch merchant ships. When we moved here to America, his expertise in seafaring led him to be employed by the Insurance Company of North America where he worked in its marine department. His job was to travel around the world and inspect ships and their cargo after they had been […]
STAYING AHEAD OF INFLATION
Every week, when I review the Sunday collection, I find myself feeling both relieved and concerned. I’m relieved that, unlike many other parishes, our Sunday collection income has remained steady through the pandemic and beyond. At the same time, I’m concerned that it hasn’t kept pace with inflation. According to the US Inflation Calculator, the consumer price inflation rose 21.6% between January 2020 and May 2024. Just like you in your household or business, we have experienced this increase in so many of our regular expenses. As a result, the […]
Update on Our School and its Board of Limited Jurisdiction
UPDATE ON OUR SCHOOL AND ITS
BOARD OF LIMITED JURISDICTION
As another very exciting year comes to an end at our school, I would like to offer an update for everyone; there’s lots of news to share. As was announced just last week, Adria Crowley, who led our school over the past two years in many new and innovative ways, has resigned to tend to ongoing health issues. I’m sure you join me in assuring her of our prayers. Jeanne Mulvanerty, a longtime parishioner whose four children attended our school and […]
Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
As I work in my rectory office which has a large window facing Aberdeen Avenue, I’m sometimes distracted by bright red, yellow, black and blue flashes as cardinals, finches, starlings and blue jays fly from the tops of the trees across the street and swoop down to feed on the grass and shrubs in front of the rectory. It reminds me of today’s first reading from the prophet Ezekiel, where we hear God foretell the growth of a great nation using the image of a shoot that he will take […]
Philadelphia March for Life/New Principal
PHILADELPHIA MARCH FOR LIFE
PHILLY’S BIGGEST BABY SHOWER
Speaking of the important roles that fathers and mothers play in their children’s lives, the first is to welcome them into the world. Tragically, so many people today do not recognize the infant in the womb as a unique child who has the same right to life as everyone else does. We Catholics do, however, and we lead the effort in protecting and promoting all human life from the moment of conception to natural death. We also support countless pro-life […]
TENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Jesus was having a really bad day. The crowd was so big that he and his disciples couldn’t even eat. His relatives were out to seize him, saying, “He is out of his mind.” The scribes claimed that “he is possessed by Beelzebul.” And then, his mother and his brothers arrived. Who knows what they were up to.
But Jesus was unfazed. He knew what he was up to. If you were to read the Gospel of Mark just before the passage we heard today, you would see that Jesus […]