LENT BEGINS
After a crazy winter, with wide temperature swings and some dangerous storms, I imagine you’re ready for spring; I know I am! Who knows what Mother Nature will bring us over the next few weeks but liturgically, Lent – which means “spring” – is almost here; it begins 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 season for reconciliation and renewal. This Wednesday - Ash Wednesday [...]
SAFE HAVEN SUNDAY
As your pastor, I am constantly impressed and edified by the love I see expressed in the families of this great parish. As I’m sure you realize, families are the backbone of this parish, indeed, of any parish and of the Church. As far back as Tertullian, a 3rd century Christian author, the family has been seen as the domestic Church. Yet, as the Universal Church is today struggling with the tragic clergy sex abuse scandal, families are struggling with the tragedy of pornography due to easy access through [...]
BLESSED ARE YOU!
This Sunday, we hear the “Sermon on the Mount” as presented in the Gospel of St. Luke. This great sermon, found in an even more expanded version in the Gospel of St. Matthew, provides us all with the foundation of our lived faith. Recognizing our poverty before God and hungering for union with the only One who can satisfy our deepest longing, we strive to follow the Way His Son, Jesus, taught us back to God. All of us are called to follow this Way. And, we priests are called [...]
CATHOLIC CHARITIES APPEAL
“Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me. …As often as you did it for one of my least brothers, you did it for me” (Mt 25:34-36, 40). For the past 61 years, Catholic Charities Appeal has provided assistance for over 10 million [...]
Parish Pastoral Council Elections (Part II)
As I noted two weeks ago, it’s time to elect three new members for the Parish Pastoral Council. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia Rationale, Principles and Guidelines for Parish Pastoral Councils states so well, The purpose of the Parish Pastoral Council is to foster full participation of the entire parish in the life and mission of the parish and the Universal Church. The parish faith community participates in this mission by: Worshiping God; Creating and nourishing Christian Community; Growing in Faith and Holiness; and Serving those in need, especially [...]
Nominations for Our Parish Pastoral Council
The Parish Pastoral Council is one of the natural outcomes of the Second Vatican Council, which states so clearly that “all the laity have the exalted duty of working for the ever greater spread of the divine plan of salvation” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, #33). This document goes on to state that “[b]y reason of the knowledge, competence or pre-eminence which they have, the laity are empowered – indeed, sometimes obliged – to manifest their opinion on those things which pertain to the good of the Church” (#37). As [...]