Exodus 3:1 – 8a, 13 – 15
We are in the middle of Lent, our annual time of retreat. We are called, once again, to take a look at how our life reflects what we believe in God. And, as we will see in this Sunday’s readings, as we come to know God, we are called to action. We also bow down in humility and gratitude before a God who is generous beyond our understanding, always ready to forgive as he continues to call us back to him.
Let’s look at […]
On June 26, 2020, Fr. Ricardo Antonio Cortez Martínez, rector of the St. Óscar Arnulfo Romero seminary in Usulutan, El Salvador, sent a request to the Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America for financial aid for 42 seminarians in the philosophy stage of their formation. Less than two months later, on August 7, Fr. Ricardo was found assassinated. Tragically, three priests were slain from 2019 through August 2020 in El Salvador as drug cartels control the country and drug lords feel threatened by the Church’s call to peace and […]
Deuteronomy 26:4 – 10
This past Wednesday, we embarked again on the journey of Lent, a journey toward Easter. This Sunday, as we begin the season of Lent, we hear Moses recall the various stages of Israel’s journey: Jacob’s migration to Egypt, and the events surrounding the original Passover. It then concludes with the ritual prescribed to thank God who has blessed the people Israel in their journey as it recalls both God’s care for his people in providing them with food for another year and the Passover. It is from […]
It has been almost a year since I wrote to you about Next Generation Parish, an initiative that the Catholic Leadership Institute is introducing to 15 select parishes in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. You may recall that CLI is a 25-year old national apostolate that provides training and formation for the purpose of creating more vibrant communities rooted in Jesus Christ. It was founded and is still headquartered here in our archdiocese but has worked with (arch)dioceses throughout the country. We accepted CLI’s invitation to engage in this four-year process […]
1 Samuel 26:2, 7 – 9, 12 – 13, 22 – 23
We hear from the First Book of Samuel this Sunday. It is one of the Historical Books. We haven’t heard from it for a long time, so let’s review it a little. It is the first of the Historical Books, which present the history of Israel from the time of Samuel to the Maccabees, from approximately 1000 to 100BC. Of course, it is important to remember that histories in those days did not serve the same purpose as our […]
“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 […]
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 […]
Isaiah 62: 1 – 5
As we return to ordinary time, that is, time ordered according to God’s plan for his Kingdom, we hear from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. Since it is from chapter 62, we know that it is from Trito-Isaiah, and concerns the post-exilic time for Israel. This part of Isaiah has, as its primary purpose, the encouragement of the anawim as they return to rebuild Jerusalem. Our first reading contains just such a passage of hope for God’s people at one of the lowest moments of […]
(Opening prayer: Jn 1:29 – 34)
Isaiah 40:1 – 5, 9 – 11
We hear again from the prophet Isaiah this Sunday, from the beginning of the portion of this book that most scripture scholars identify as part of Deutero-Isaiah (chapter 40 – 55). As you will read in your footnotes, these chapters – 40 – 55 – are usually designated Second Isaiah (or Deutero-Isaiah) and are believed to have been written by an anonymous prophet toward the end of the Babylonian exile. There are several significant difference between the first 39 […]
On this, the Fourth Sunday of Advent, we all realize that Christmas is just a few days away! And, you will notice that the two Christmas trees – one at the St. Therese Shrine and one in the baptistery – that had been filled with about 300 tags suggesting gifts for women and children who will be spending Christmas at Mercy Hospice and Women of Hope – are gone; so are all the tags! Over the past few weeks, so many of you have so generously taken the tags and […]
