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 […]

“Peace be with you.”  Three times in today’s Gospel, we hear the risen Lord assure his disciples with these comforting words: “Peace be with you.”  And, although this greeting of peace, “Shalom,” was a common expression among the Jewish people of his day – as it still is today – it had taken on a much deeper meaning for the followers of Jesus who had just gone through three days filled with anything but peace.  It made them think of our Lord’s words of encouragement to them just a few […]

Once again, Happy Easter!  It is so good to see so many of you here in person!  And, I greet, as well, those of you who, for a variety of reasons, are still joining us virtually.  As we come out of the 40-day liturgical Lenten Season, I think we can all agree that it has felt like a two yearlong Lent, ever since everything shut down in the face of the coronavirus.  Let’s pray that we don’t have to do it again.  We have all had our crosses to bear, […]

We are, once again, experiencing a great deal of turmoil in the world: the horrific war in Ukraine, the terrorist attack in the New York subway, frequent shootings right down the street in Philadelphia.  So much turmoil, death and destruction.  This turmoil offers us an insight into the turmoil in Israel in the time of Jesus, as the Jewish people struggled to survive under the oppressive rule of the Romans and the common Jew suffered from the misuse of power by many of their own leaders.  And, we need simply […]

As Christians everywhere this day flock to churches stripped of all flowers to venerate the wood of the cross, we fast and pray, mindful of the depth of God’s love for us, even to the death of his Son on a cross.  There are two questions that I would like to offer for our reflection.   First, what did we do to deserve such a loving God who gives the life of his only Son for our salvation?   And second, what can we offer him in return for this wondrous sacrifice […]