From Our Pastor

Next weekend, we will join with the Church Universal in celebrating World Mission Sunday with its theme: “One in Christ, United in Mission”.  This year’s World Mission Sunday celebration is unlike any other in our lifetime!  First, 2026 marks the centennial milestone of this worldwide observance.  Second, we celebrate it with a theme chosen by Pope Leo XIV who was himself a missionary priest and bishop for many years in Peru.  While there, he spoke often about how dependent he was on the support generated by World Mission Sunday.  Now, [...]

After the celebration of the Eucharist itself, what better Eucharistic event is there than our annual Forty Hours Eucharistic Devotion?  It’s a great opportunity to linger with our Lord, recalling all that he has done for us and preparing for our eternity with him.   Our annual Forty Hours Eucharistic Devotion will begin next Sunday after the 11:30am Mass and conclude with a 7:00pm Mass on Tuesday.  I encourage everyone to join in this wonderful devotion! As you know, we believe that, when we celebrate Mass, we participate in the Paschal [...]

 Artificial Intelligence has certainly been a big topic on the news this past week!  Last Saturday, Dario Amodei, the chief executive of Anthropic, called for a global slowdown of artificial intelligence development.  The leaders of two other top AI companies – Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI and SpaceXAI founder, Elon Musk – quickly voiced their agreement with Mr. Amodei’s ideas.  During the week, King Charles III of Britain met with leaders from major artificial intelligence companies, including Nvidia, Google, DeepMind, OpenAI and Anthropic, “to discuss how AI can [...]

Now that Labor Day is behind us, many of our parish organizations and activities resume.  Our parish school opened on Wednesday with 410 students.  Our parish religious education program (PREP) will begin on Monday with 245 students.  We are blessed to have so many children in our parish learning about God and growing in their faith and so many teachers and catechists eager to help the parents of these children share their faith! On this Catechetical Sunday, we pray for them and their parents, the primary teachers of their children [...]

As celebration of the semiquincentennial of our nation winds down, Philadelphia has been in the spotlight as the birthplace of our nation with the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  The city and its environs were privileged to host the world’s largest sports tournament and the country’s formal 250th birthday party.  Many areas in the city received a thorough cleaning and an additional 250 cherry blossom trees were planted throughout the city.  It was good for the city and the entire region. But several serious problems still plague Philadelphia.  Fortunately, [...]

Next week is Labor Day weekend – can you believe it!?!  As summer quickly comes to an end, I hope you have all had time for some rest and relaxation.  Now, it’s time to begin thinking of returning to full swing!  Our school begins next Wednesday, 9 September, PREP begins on Monday, 14 September, and all the other parish organizations resume their full fall schedule over the next few weeks.  It will be great to have the parish facilities become fully alive again! Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) [...]