“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him.  But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you. (Jn. 14:15-17)

As we prepare to come to the end of the Easter season once again with the celebration of Pentecost Sunday next week, I would like to offer some reflections on the importance […]

As Jesus hung on the cross, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold your son,” and to his beloved disciple, John, “Behold, your mother.”  From early in the Church, Mary has been seen as the Mother of the Church.  As any mother who loves her children, Mary cares for us and will intercede for us whenever we turn to her in need.

Throughout the Church’s history, we have often turned to Mary in our particular time of need.   In 593AD, tradition tells of Pope St. Gregory the Great carrying the icon […]

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers of the parish and the mothers of all our parishioners!  We all know how important our mothers have been to us as we grew up and so we join with our nation in honoring them today.  And, as we are still in a stay-at-home state due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, we become even more aware of the essential role they play in our homes in ways that we may have taken for granted in the past.

So often I hear Mother’s Day derided by […]

We celebrated the feast of our patron, St. Catherine of Siena, this past Wednesday and, as I reflected on her life, I also turned to our stained glass window in church for inspiration.  Like so many of our stained glass windows, this one is filled with symbolism that teaches us about our patron saint.  So, I would like to tell you about this window.  First, however, allow me to offer you a brief biography of our patron saint; you may be surprised how much our time has in common with […]

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 […]

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 […]