Nominations for Our Parish Pastoral Council
Nominations for Our Parish Pastoral Council – part II As I noted in last week’s Parish Bulletin, it’s time to elect four new members for our Parish Pastoral Council. As you consider who to nominate, allow me to provide a little more information on the purpose and role of a Parish Pastoral Council. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia Rationale, Principles and Guidelines for Parish Pastoral Councils, the document that I mentioned last week, offers a good summary: The general function of the Parish Pastoral Council is to advise the Pastor in [...]
LENT BEGINS
It’s been a strange and unusually warm winter, hasn’t it? With the exception of a few extraordinarily frigid days, it’s felt more like spring than winter. Some of you may still be looking for that one, major snow storm but, ready or not, spring is fast approaching. Liturgically, Lent – which means “spring” – is almost here; it starts this week with Ash Wednesday. Just as the natural world is reawakened and renewed every spring, each year, the Church, in her wisdom, offers us this liturgical Season of Lent, a [...]
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 [...]