RESPECT FOR HUMAN LIFE
“You are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it” (1 Cor 12:27). Each of us is a unique, unrepeatable reflection of God’s presence in the world and, as we hear so powerfully declared in today’s second reading, each of us is Christ’s body. And, God calls each of us to live according to his plan, not our own. This past Saturday, we commemorated that dark day, forty-nine years ago, when the United States Supreme Court handed down the infamous Roe v. Wade decision, legalizing abortion for any reason. Since that […]
OUR ORGAN IS COMING! KEYS TO THE KINGDOM update
After a delay of almost two years, I am excited to announce that our new pipe organ is on its way from Padua, Italy! You may recall that we had contracted with Fratelli Ruffatti, one of the finest organ manufacturers in the world, to construct a new organ for us; the contract was signed in April 2018 and the organ was completed in March 2020. It was scheduled to be installed over the summer of 2020 but we all know why that didn’t happen. Like so many aspects of our […]
BAPTISM OF THE LORD
Have you ever wondered why Jesus was baptized? We all know that baptism washes away our sins – that’s one of the reasons why we use water as the sign of the sacrament – and Jesus was sinless. Baptism also welcomes us into God’s family, and Jesus is God so he is already in the innermost circle of God’s family – the Holy Trinity. And finally, the other reason we use water at baptism is as a sign of the new life we receive through this sacrament – that is, […]
EPIPHANY OF THE LORD
“We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.” The explanation that the Magi gave for their journey seems so simple and straightforward. But, like most aspects of our Salvation History, there is more to the story.
We do not know exactly where these men began their journey. We do not know how long or how far they traveled, but it seems that they were not Jews or Romans. They did not come to pay homage to their own newborn king, but the king of […]
THE HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS, MARY AND JOSEPH
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, with time to celebrate with family and friends. This is a very sacred time of the year as we reflect on the great mystery of the incarnation: God coming to live among us. As we celebrated yesterday, Jesus is truly the Word made flesh. And, he came into a family, the new family of Mary and Joseph. As we contemplate his birth during this Christmas Octave, we are encouraged on this, the Feast of the Holy Family, to reflect on our lives […]
CHRISTMAS 2021
Allow me to wish all of you, once again, a most blessed Christmas. In the midst of all of the troubling news in the world, we need a moment to celebrate good news! We all know that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the four evangelists. They wrote the gospels, the proclamation of the Good News of our salvation. But, as with so many words we use to describe our faith, we have borrowed and repurposed an ancient Greek word – ἐύαγγελιστής -evangelist. Originally, the Greek word for evangelist, which […]
CHRISTMAS VIGIL 2021
Once again, let me wish all of you a very blessed Christmas! We gather this evening to celebrate a momentous event in human history: the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Although he was born more than 2,000 years ago, his birth impacts each of our lives directly today. He is the Lamb of God, who came to take away the sins of the world on a cross. He is Emmanuel, God with us, who draws us back to our heavenly Father. We hear, once again in this […]
FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Is it here yet? We have all had the experience of eagerly anticipating some upcoming event in our life. We imagined how great it would be when “it” – whatever it was – finally happened or arrived. The closer we got to the actual day of the event, the more excited we became. You may have been waiting for the birth of a child, or graduation or a special vacation, or retirement. Or you may have been waiting to overcome some challenge in life such as counting down the appointments […]