THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Year C)
Malachi 3:19 – 20a As we come to the end of the liturgical year – next Sunday is already the last Sunday of the Year when we celebrate the feast of Christ the King – we are given an opportunity to reflect on the end of time. All three readings speak of the end of the world and the final judgment. This is a good time for us to reflect on how prepared we are for the coming of the Lord. This Sunday, we will first hear from [...]
SAINT CHARLES BORROMEO SEMINARY ANNUAL APPEAL
As plans were being finalized for its relocation, St. Charles Borromeo Seminary opened once again this fall for the education and formation of 148 seminarians from 11 (arch)dioceses and six religious congregations, including Allentown, Harrisburg, Lincoln, NE, Trenton, NJ, as well as dioceses in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Vietnam! We are blessed to have 65 of the seminarians preparing to become priests in our archdiocese. Founded in 1832, our seminary has provided excellent priestly formation for our archdiocese, (arch)dioceses around the country and, indeed, worldwide. I am very proud of [...]
THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Year C)
2 Maccabees 7:1 – 2, 9 – 14 This Sunday, we will hear from the Second Book of Maccabees. Again, we shall see that the passage was clearly chosen to prepare us for the Gospel – they both speak of the resurrection. We haven’t heard from this book for a long time – we never hear from 1 Maccabees and we hear from 2 Maccabees only once in every 3-year cycle-this Sunday – so let’s review the “who, what, when, where and to whom” of the book. There are [...]
Solemnity of All Saints and Feast of All Souls
This Tuesday, 1 November, we will join with the universal Church is celebrating the Solemnity of All Saints. On Wednesday, we will celebrate the Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed, commonly known as All Souls. Both of these annual feasts speak powerfully about one of the very important tenets of our faith – belief in everlasting life for everyone – and have ancient roots. The Solemnity of All Saints dates back to the days of ancient Roman, when the people throughout the Empire often deified and worshipped their ancestors, and [...]
THIRTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Year C)
Wisdom 11:22 – 12:2 This Sunday, we will hear from the Book of Wisdom. Like the Book of Sirach that we heard from last week, it is part of the wisdom literature of the Old Testament. The full name is the Wisdom of Solomon in the LXX manuscript; Book of Wisdom in the Vulgate. Most probably originally written in Greek, not Hebrew, somewhere between 100 – 50BC, probably in Alexandria, Egypt, one of the largest centers of the Jewish Diaspora by an anonymous author. He was a devout, Greek-speaking [...]