INTERESTING DETAILS ABOUT OUR CHURCH MADE MORE EVIDENT THROUGHT LIVE STREAMING
I hope you are staying healthy – physically, mentally and spiritually – during these ongoing stressful times as we all try to weather the coronavirus pandemic. I’m delighted that so many of our parishioners are watching the live streamed Masses; it’s a very important way for us to stay together as a faith community. Over the past several weeks, I’ve had a number of parishioners ask about some of the details of our church that they hadn’t noticed before but now see on the live streamed Masses. They have asked […]
SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER
Happy Easter! Yes, I realize that Easter Sunday was last week and I hope you had a wonderful Easter, even under these unusual and stressful circumstances. But, since the Resurrection of our Lord is such an important event, the Church calls us to celebrate it for an entire octave and today we come to the end of those eight days. Just as cinematographers slow down the action of a particularly important moment of a movie or television show to give the viewer time to catch every detail of the event, […]
DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY
Happy Easter! As we bring the Octave of Easter to its conclusion, know that I have kept you in my prayers all week, that you may experience the joy of the Resurrection! Today is also Divine Mercy Sunday. Heeding the call that our risen Lord gave to St. Marie Faustina Kowalska in the 1930’s, the Church decreed on 23 May 2000 that “throughout the world, the Second Sunday of Easter will receive the name Divine Mercy Sunday, a perennial invitation to the Christian world to face, with confidence in divine […]
EASTER SUNDAY
Christ is risen! Halleluiah! These are the victorious words we shout and sing with gusto on this greatest of all feast days. Halleluiah is the “h” word I mentioned in my homily last Sunday, when we were focused on another “h” word – Hosanna. As you will recall from last week, “Hosanna” means “God save us.” It is a cry for help. That’s how we started off Holy Week – praying to God to save us, knowing that he, alone, can save us. But this morning we can shout out […]
EASTER VIGIL
“Hallelujah!” We’ve already sung it several times and now I can say it: Hallelujah! It was that “h” word I referred to last Sunday when another “h” word – “Hosanna” – was the word of the day. “Hosanna”, you will recall, is a cry for help; it means “God save us.” That’s how we started off Holy Week – praying to God to save us, knowing that he, alone can save us. But this evening we can shout out “Hallelujah!” which means “Praise God!” We can, indeed, praise God because […]
EASTER GREETINGS
Alleluia! Our Lord is risen and offers us new life! We certainly need to hear this message this year as we find ourselves surrounded by suffering and death. The Paschal mystery proclaims that Jesus, truly man – the son of Mary – really died on the cross and then overcame death as he rose on Easter. The resurrection of the body, the central mystery of Easter, is an essential Christian doctrine. As the apostle Paul declares so clearly: “[I]f the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If […]
HOLY THURSDAY OF THE LORD’S SUPPER
I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to be able to get together around the dinner table with my extended family or friends for a good meal and engaging conversation. Msgr. Carroll and I get along very well but it’s getting a little lonely in the rectory. Unfortunately, those family dinners aren’t going to happen soon due to the stay at home order as we continue to work together to overcome the coronavirus pandemic. But tonight, we gather together virtually around our Lord’s Table to commemorate the first […]