RESPECT FOR HUMAN LIFE
"You are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it” (1 Cor 12:27). Each of us is a unique, unrepeatable reflection of God’s presence in the world and, as we hear so powerfully declared in today’s second reading, each of us is Christ’s body. And, God calls each of us to live according to his plan, not our own. This past Saturday, we commemorated that dark day, forty-nine years ago, when the United States Supreme Court handed down the infamous Roe v. Wade decision, legalizing abortion for any reason. Since that [...]
OUR ORGAN IS COMING! KEYS TO THE KINGDOM update
After a delay of almost two years, I am excited to announce that our new pipe organ is on its way from Padua, Italy! You may recall that we had contracted with Fratelli Ruffatti, one of the finest organ manufacturers in the world, to construct a new organ for us; the contract was signed in April 2018 and the organ was completed in March 2020. It was scheduled to be installed over the summer of 2020 but we all know why that didn’t happen. Like so many aspects of our [...]
SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Year C
Isaiah 62: 1 - 5 As we return to ordinary time, that is, time ordered according to God’s plan for his Kingdom, we hear from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. Since it is from chapter 62, we know that it is from Trito-Isaiah, and concerns the post-exilic time for Israel. This part of Isaiah has, as its primary purpose, the encouragement of the anawim as they return to rebuild Jerusalem. Our first reading contains just such a passage of hope for God’s people at one of the lowest moments [...]
THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD Year A
(Opening prayer: Jn 1:29 – 34) Isaiah 40:1 – 5, 9 – 11 We hear again from the prophet Isaiah this Sunday, from the beginning of the portion of this book that most scripture scholars identify as part of Deutero-Isaiah (chapter 40 – 55). As you will read in your footnotes, these chapters - 40 - 55 - are usually designated Second Isaiah (or Deutero-Isaiah) and are believed to have been written by an anonymous prophet toward the end of the Babylonian exile. There are several significant difference between the first 39 [...]
ADVENT COMES TO AN END
On this, the Fourth Sunday of Advent, we all realize that Christmas is just a few days away! And, you will notice that the two Christmas trees – one at the St. Therese Shrine and one in the baptistery – that had been filled with about 300 tags suggesting gifts for women and children who will be spending Christmas at Mercy Hospice and Women of Hope – are gone; so are all the tags! Over the past few weeks, so many of you have so generously taken the tags and [...]
FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT (Year C)
Micah 5:1 - 4a This Sunday, we will hear from the Book of the Prophet Micah. Like Baruch and Zephaniah of the last two weeks, we don’t hear from Micah very often – in fact, we only hear from him once in the three year Sunday liturgical cycle and five times in the weekday cycle – so let’s review what we know about and his book. Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah, as you will see from your Bible Timeline. Unlike Isaiah, however, he was not native to Jerusalem – [...]