Today we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday.  Pope Francis has urged us to embrace this day and truly reflect a spirit of mercy, repentance and reconciliation in our lives.  On this day, one week after Easter, we are reminded why Jesus rose from the dead: and one of the reasons was to shower the world with divine mercy.

This is what the Church has to say in part about this great feast: “During the Church’s millennium celebration in 2000, Pope John Paul II declared that the Second Sunday of Easter be known as “Divine Mercy Sunday”.  (Read more…)

Today, with Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, we embark on the HOLIEST of weeks, the first and most important in our liturgical year.  Each day provides a renewed opportunity to celebrate the Passion, Death, life-giving Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion: This year we walk with the Lord during His final days, proclaiming the Passion according to Mathew.  Each of the Passion narratives has a different feel to it, as the evangelist emphasizes some subtle themes.  (Read more…)

This 5th week of Lent offers us a final week before Holy Week to encounter Jesus, our Redeemer and Savior, and to emerge stronger in our resolve to walk in his footsteps and to experience Jesus’ pardon and peace.

Pope Francis has challenged us to take the season of Lent seriously and to make spiritual progress in our lives. Our Holy Father has called Lent a time for repentance, spiritual renewal, conversion, and transformation. He has urged us to avail ourselves of the Sacrament of Reconciliation during this season of Lent, acknowledging that we are all sinners in need of God’s mercy. (Read more…)

During the weeks of Lent, the Scripture readings and Mass prayers at our weekday Masses invite us to seriously respond to the call to conversion of heart that we heard on Ash Wednesday and to continue in our efforts to enter into the season as best we can.  We are called to turn away from our sinfulness and to turn towards God.  The traditional Lenten penances of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are held up before us as excellent ways of responding to this challenge to faithfully live the Lenten season. (Read more…)

This Tuesday, March 17th, we celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day.  It is a very special day for people of Irish heritage.  Pope Francis urged Catholics to “keep St. Patrick in St. Patrick’s Day.”  Our Holy Father criticized the commercialism that unfortunately has become part of the day, and which tempts people to compromise their spiritual integrity.  He urged all Catholics to “…awake in the morning and ask St. Patrick to pray for us” before carrying out our daily routines.  (Read more…)

Today we celebrate second Sunday of Lent.  Lent is the time, approximating forty days, of reflection and penance leading up to Easter.  Pope Francis stated, “Lent comes providentially to reawaken us, to shake us from our lethargy.”  He said that Lent is meant to wake up Christians and to help them see that God can give them strength to change their lives and their surroundings.

One of our leading Catholic scholars has described Lent as the desert time in the Church year.  (Read more…)