Statement from Archbishop Pérez
This past week, Archbishop Pérez released a statement regarding reinstating the obligation to attend Sunday Mass. Please read the full text below.
Go Back to Mass – Bishop Barron Video
I’m delighted to see so many of you returning to church for Sunday Mass; it’s so important for us as faithful individuals and as a community of faith! For the few of you who have not yet returned, I offer you this short but very informational video from Bishop Robert Barron. I hope it will inspire you to join us in person and look forward to seeing you in church! Msgr. Brouwers
USCCB Press Release
As you have probably read or heard on the news, the U.S. bishops have been engaged over the past several months in a sometimes heated debate regarding the Eucharist and who should be receiving it. Abp. Jose Gomez, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, provided a press release last week; it includes a statement from him and Q and A on the issue. Although it appears to me to be a bit of damage control and an attempt to rewrite the story, I offer it for your reflection. Msgr. […]
THE MOST HOLY TRINITY (Year B)
Deuteronomy 4:32 – 34, 39 – 40
We have returned to Ordinary Time, that is, time ordered according to God’s plan for our salvation. As we do so, the Church has offered us over these next two Sundays the opportunity to reflect on two very important aspects of our faith: the Blessed Trinity and The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. These are two fundamental beliefs that inform everything else we believe about God. This Sunday, we focus on the mystery of the Holy Trinity. As we read in the […]
PENTECOST SUNDAY (Year B)
On this, Pentecost Sunday, we come to the end of the Easter Season as we celebrate the birth of the Church and hear an exhortation of how we are to live as the Church. Different readings are prescribed for the Vigil Mass than for the Mass on Sunday and that there are options for both sets of readings. I will reflect on the readings for Sunday that I will use at the Masses I will celebrate. I don’t know which readings Fr. Waters and Fr. Reilly will use, so don’t […]
SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (Year B)
John 15:9 – 17
This Sunday, we hear a continuation from last week of Jesus’ address to the apostles at the Last Supper as presented in John’s Gospel. Whereas last week we heard Jesus provide a parable about the vine and the branches, this week, we hear Jesus speak of the Father’s love and his call to his disciples to love in the same way. As you will read in your footnotes, most scholars consider the section of 13:31 – 17:26 to be Johannine compositions, modeled on farewell discourses found in […]
FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (Year B)
John 15:1 – 8
Last Sunday, we heard Jesus speak of himself as the Good Shepherd. He used that image against the Jewish leaders, whom he, by inference, characterized as bad shepherds, mere hirelings who are in it for themselves. He, on the other hand, was the Good Shepherd who “lays down his life for his sheep.” As I mentioned last week, this is the only occasion in the Gospel of John where Jesus uses a human image as an analogy for himself.
This Sunday, we hear Jesus speak of himself in […]
FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (Year B)
John 10:11 – 18
As we do every Fourth Sunday of Easter, we hear this Sunday a beautiful, symbolic presentation of Jesus as the Good Shepherd taken from chapter 10 of the Gospel of John. As it was last year, this year it is part of his discourse against the Pharisees. The good shepherd discourse continues the theme of attack on the Pharisees that ends John 9. We will recall the account of the man born blind whom Jesus cured. In this account, we recall the baptismal imagery of Jesus using […]
THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER (Year B)
Luke 24: 35 – 48
This Sunday, we hear Luke’s presentation of the risen Lord’s appearances to the apostles that corresponds to John’s account that we heard last week. Like each of the other gospels (Matthew 28:16-20, which we will hear this year on the Sunday after Pentecost – Trinity Sunday; Mark 16:14-15, which we hear only at a weekday Mass; John 20:19-23), the Gospel of Luke focuses on an important appearance of Jesus to the Twelve in which they are commissioned for their future ministry. Matthew records the appearance in […]
SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER-DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY (Year B)
John 20:19 – 31
As we come to the end of the Easter Octave with the celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday, we hear the Johannine presentation of the risen Lord’s appearances to the apostles on both Easter Sunday (20:1 – 9; Mary Magdala, Peter and John at the empty tomb on Easter Sunday morning) and this Sunday, where we hear of our risen Lord’s appearance to the disciples on Easter Sunday evening. The appearance to the disciples that we hear in John’s Gospel is similar to Luke 24:36-39; Mark 16:14-18 and […]