Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priest, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days.  He spoke this openly.  Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  At this, he turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan.  You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”   He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said, “Whoever wishes to come […]

Last summer, while we were in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, I began a series of presentations in my Parish Bulletin articles on the beautiful stained glass windows of our church.  This was in response to an increased interest in them that had resulted from a highlighting of some of the stained glass windows during our live streamed Masses that began when all public Masses were prohibited due to the pandemic.  Beginning in July and ending in December, I offered explanations on all of the windows in the nave, […]

Today, we will join with the universal Church in celebrating the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus, into heaven.  It is not often that we actually celebrate it on a Sunday.  It is the principal feast day of the Blessed Mother, so I would like to offer you some reflections on it.

The commemoration of the death of Mary is known as the Assumption because of the tradition that, shortly after her death, Mary was raised up, body and soul, into heaven.  In the Eastern Church, it is […]

If you have been paying attention to the Sunday Gospels over the past two weeks, you might have noticed that they were taken from the Gospel of John.  If you noticed that, you might have thought it odd since this year, when we are in Year B of the three year Liturgical cycle, the Sunday Gospel is ordinarily taken from the Gospel of Mark.  Since Mark’s Gospel is rather short, however, we have more Sundays than we have Marcan pericopes so periodically throughout the year, readings are taken from other […]

It has been just three weeks since our school has closed for the summer and the parish facilities have quieted down considerably.  I miss seeing and hearing our children in the classrooms, corridors and schoolyard – they are so full of life and vitality!  We all know how fortunate we are to have such a vibrant school and I want to take this opportunity to thank our principal, Bud Tosti, and the entire school staff for keeping our school open and in-person this past year; both our students and their […]