SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT
Jerusalem has been much in the news lately as the war rages on between Israel and the Hamas. I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of the old city of Jerusalem. The Al Aqsa Mosque, also known as the Golden Dome of the Rock, dominates the ancient skyline. The gold-encrusted dome sits atop a Muslim mosque and a site that is sacred, not only to believers of Islam, but to Christians and Jewish people as well. Those of you who have been to Jerusalem certainly remember the first time you saw this […]
Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa was founded on the basic principles of Saint John Paul II’s call to action in Ecclesia in Africa and the adoption of the statement A Call to Solidarity with Africa from the Bishops of the United States.
Nations throughout Africa continually face the economic and social hurdles of enormous debt, epidemics, severe poverty and political unrest. Despite these harsh challenges, Catholicism is flourishing throughout Africa.
Your support of the Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa assists in the […]
FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT
Every ancient civilization records a great flood occurring in their distant past. We now know it was the result of the end of the last Ice Age some 10,000 years ago. You can imagine the great destruction caused by the receding glaciers and the floods that ensued as they melted. As you probably know, the Great Lakes were carved out and filled in at this time. It was just another moment in the evolution of our planet but, like many other ancient civilizations, Israel saw a divine lesson in this […]
AS WE ENTER FULLY INTO THE SEASON OF LENT
“See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you” (Gn 9:8). As we begin again the Season of Lent, we hear today God’s reassuring words to Noah and his family after the devastating flood. We are all familiar with this story in the Bible which provides a moral explanation for the end of the last Ice Age. As this story ends, we hear God assuring humanity that he will care for us; all we need to do is turn away from our sinful ways and […]
SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
A leper comes to Jesus and says to him, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” At that moment, the crowd around Jesus surely fell silent. As they stepped away from the man afflicted with that dreaded disease, they all gazed at Jesus and wanted to see what he was going to do. They may have muttered amongst themselves was, “One thing he would never do is touch him.” That’s because those who had spent time with Jesus had remembered that in his previous healing incidents he did, indeed, […]
LENT BEGINS
It’s been a strange and unusually warm winter, hasn’t it? With the exception of a few extraordinarily frigid days and one snow storm, it’s felt more like fall or spring than winter. Now, spring is fast approaching. Liturgically, Lent – which means “spring” – is almost here; it starts this week with Ash Wednesday. Just as the natural world is reawakened and renewed every spring, each year, the Church, in her wisdom, offers us this liturgical Season of Lent, a season for reconciliation and renewal in preparation for Easter, when […]
FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
We don’t often hear from the Book of Job at Sunday Mass. In fact, we only hear from it twice in the three-year reading cycle, and only in Year B, as we are in this year. Today’s reading is a good reason why we don’t – it’s really rather depressing, isn’t it? We hear Job complain: “Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery? …So I have been assigned months of misery, and troubled nights have been allotted me.” Not very good news, is it? I don’t know about you, […]