“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you.” Jesus spoke these words on the night before he was to suffer a most grueling, painful death on the cross. And yet, he is in peace and offers his peace to his followers. How is this possible?
It’s important to recognize that there are two kinds of peace: worldly peace and heavenly peace. Worldly peace is temporary and varies from person to person. To a lazy person, peace […]
THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD
As they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.” (Acts 1:10-11)
This Thursday, we will celebrate the […]
As I’m sure you all know, Pope Leo celebrated his inauguration Mass just a few hours ago. In his homily, he called all people to live in unity and love. Allow me to quote a few lines from his brief but powerful homily:
I come to you as a brother, who desires to be the servant of your faith and your joy, walking with you on the path of God’s love, for he wants us all to be united in one family.
Love and unity: these are the two dimensions of the […]
This has certainly been an exciting – and, indeed, historic – time for the Universal Church as 132 cardinals from 70 countries around the world recently met in the Sistine Chapel to elect our next pope. And, after just four ballots, so many of us watched excitedly as white smoke billowed from the chimney above the Sistine Chapel just after noon on 8 May. I don’t know about you, but I certainly did not expect an American to be elected – the first pope from the United States of America […]
This is certainly an exciting time in the Church, isn’t it!?! We have a new pope and he’s an American with local roots. As I’m sure you have all heard, he studied right down the road at Villanova University. He may even have come to Mass here! We rejoice and pray that God will give him the strength to be the Good Shepherd who leads the entire Catholic Church ever closer to God.
And, it’s also very exciting for us here in the local Church of St. Katharine of Siena […]
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!
Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers of the parish and the mothers of all our parishioners! We all know how important our mothers have been to us as we grew up and so we join with our nation in honoring them today. Mother’s Day is not part of the Church’s liturgical calendar. In fact, liturgical directives state that “this secular observance must in no way diminish the primary focus of Sunday as the celebration of the paschal mystery.” Yet, this national holiday allows an opportunity to […]
It’s so good to see you children who are about to receive Holy Communion for the first time, all dressed up and excited. I’m delighted that so many members of your family are here, as well, and I hope you know that all of us – everyone here at Mass – is praying for you as you take this important step in being even more a part of our worshiping community. We have this wonderful tradition here in our parish of celebrating First Holy Communion at the regularly scheduled Sunday […]