Ready or not, someday it will all come to an end.  All the things you collected, whether treasure or baubles, will pass to someone else. There will be no more surprises, no minutes, hours or days. Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel into irrelevance. It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed. Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear. So too your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire.  (Read more…)

Today we celebrate Father’s Day remembering fathers in a special way. As we know, Pope Francis has placed great emphasis and focus on fatherhood, reminding us that being a father is a great privilege and also a great responsibility. Many of our parishioners are fathers, and they are challenged to set a good example for their children as they grow in wisdom and knowledge.

In one of his weekly addresses, on Father’s Day, Pope Francis specifically addressed fathers, saying, “I ask that you have the grace to be very close to your children, letting them grow, but being by their side. (Read more…)

When I’m standing up there at the altar, I sometimes wish I could take a time-out and explain what I am doing or why I am doing it, because so much of what we do has long forgotten origins.

One example would be kissing or “reverencing” the altar. I’m kissing the “altar,” which has crosses cut into its corners and a silver dollar sized circle that covers a few bone splinters taken from the catacombs of Rome, a reminder of our ancient roots and the blood of the martyrs. (Read more…)

Today is the great Feast of Corpus Christi, when the Church, with joy, celebrates the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.

In 1247, the Feast of Corpus Christi was celebrated in France for the first time. It gained widespread acceptance throughout the Church after 1300. The Feast is generally considered to reflect the Holy Thursday Mass, but without its sorrowful connection to the Passion.

An outdoor procession has been an integral part of Corpus Christi since its beginning, and may have originated from the procession of the Blessed Sacrament to the Altar of Repose that is conducted on Holy Thursday. (Read more…)

We might have thought that before God created the angels and before he created the people on this planet, He must have been alone out there somewhere.  But when God sent His Son to save us, we learned that God was never alone.  He was always a family, a sharing community of three – Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The three Persons in God are so united in love and submission to one another that the three act as one, always in perfect harmony.  (Read more…)

On Saturday, May 11th, thirteen of our children received their first Holy Communion. They received Jesus Christ our Savior for the first time. There is no doubt that meeting with Jesus in First Holy Communion is an unforgettable moment, a day to be remembered as one of life’s most beautiful.  It is a day of great family celebration.

This was a special day and a happy day for their parents too.  They witnessed their children taking a new step in faith. (Read more…)