CATHOLIC CHARITIES APPEAL
“As often as you did it for one of my least brothers, you did it for me” (Mt 25:40). For the past 65 years, Catholic Charities Appeal has provided assistance for over 12 million people throughout the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. As you can well imagine, this assistance is particularly important at this time while we all face the effects of ongoing inflation. The needy are particularly affected as they struggle to feed their families, care for their aging parents and grandparents and educate their children with special needs in a [...]
SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Year A)
Sirach 15:15 – 20 We don’t often hear from the Book of Sirach. It is always the first reading on the Feast of the Holy Family but, other than that, we only hear from this book two or three times over the course of the year. It is one of the very last books of the Old Testament. If you look in your Bible’s Table of Contents, you will find it listed under The Wisdom Books. It is, in fact, an excellent example of Wisdom literature, filled with moral teachings. [...]
NATIONAL CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK
National Catholic Schools Week is an annual celebration of Catholic education in the United States. Now entering its 49th anniversary year, it is an opportunity for us to recognize the importance of Catholic education and formation and to celebrate our school that has instructed and formed our children for over 100 years. Our school has enjoyed a strong reputation as an outstanding Catholic elementary school ever since it opened in 1916. It was originally founded to ensure that the Catholic children in this area would receive both an excellent education [...]
MARCH FOR LIFE
Every year since the fateful Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973 legalizing abortion in our country, we have been called to reflect on the Gospel mandate to protect human life from conception to natural death. Although Roe v. Wade has been finally overturned, the struggle to end abortion in our country continues. So many people – including those claiming to be practicing Catholics – have bought into the lie about a woman’s rights over the child in her womb and are working to overturn the effects of the [...]
RETURN TO ORDINARY TIME
As Christmas comes to an end with the feast of the Baptism of the Lord – which we celebrated this past Monday – we begin what the Church calls Ordinary Time. It is called “ordinary” because the weeks are numbered in order – 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. It is time – usually 33 weeks – ordered by God’s grace in between the sacred seasons of Advent and Christmas, Lent and Easter. The priest wears green vestments. Our church’s Christmas decorations have come down and we all have returned to a [...]
SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Year A
Isaiah 49:3, 5 – 6 As we return to Ordinary Time, this Sunday we will hear the second of the four "Servant-of-the-Lord" oracles (over the years, we have heard the First Song – 42:1-4; Second – 49:1-7; Third – 50:4-12; Fourth – 52:13-53:12). Since it is found in chapter 49 of the Book of Isaiah, we know that it is from Deutero-Isaiah which dates to the time of the Babylonian Captivity. As I have explained in the past, these servant songs never name the servant and, as we will see [...]