Throughout the year, you are invited and encouraged to participate in a variety of food drives, both here in our parish and – I’m sure – from a number of charitable agencies in our area and around the world. In the name of all of those you feed with the support you provide, I thank you for responding to our Lord’s call to feed the hungry. The summer is a particularly challenging time for these agencies and I would like to invite you to participate in a food drive that […]
Again, congratulations to you boys and girls who are about to receive our Lord in Holy Communion for the first time in just a few minutes; I’m sure you’re really excited. You girls look so pretty in your white dresses and you boys look very handsome, too! What a special moment it is for you – and for all of us – as you receive the Body of Christ and become one with all of us who are the Body of Christ. Congratulations and welcome!
It is so fortunate for […]
FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER-First Communion
Again, congratulations to you boys and girls who are to receive our Lord in Holy Communion for the first time in just a few minutes; I’m sure you’re really excited. You girls look so pretty in your white dresses and you boys look very handsome, too! Do you know why so many of you are wearing white today? When was the first time many of you wore white to church? You don’t remember it, but for most of you it was when your parents and godparents […]
This weekend and next, at the 5:00pm and 9:30am Masses, 71 of our parishioners will receive our Lord in Holy Communion for the first time! This is a very important event in their faith lives as they now join with the rest of the believing community in participating fully in the Celebration of the Eucharist. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains so clearly, Holy Communion is “our fellowship with Jesus and other baptized Christians in the Church, which has its source and summit in the celebration of the […]
We’re all familiar with the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. But, what do you know about shepherding sheep? If you’re like me, probably very little. One of the important aspects of shepherding sheep, as opposed to herding cattle, is that, unlike cattle, who are best moved along from behind, sheep prefer to be led. And, in our Lord’s time, almost all families had a little flock of sheep even if they lived in a small town or village. Family members would take turns between farming their little plots […]
It’s hard to believe that it’s already May, it arrives on Monday! As you surely know, this month is traditionally dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God and the Mother of the Church. As Pope Paul VI expressed so well in his encyclical entitled the Month of May, this is the “month which the piety of the faithful has especially dedicated to Our Blessed Lady,” and it is the occasion for a “moving tribute of faith and love which Catholics in every part of the world [pay] to the Queen […]