First Sunday of Lent

On Ash Wednesday we started the Season of Lent with the imposition of ashes on our heads. It is meant to remind us of our identity and relationship with God. First, it means we belong to God. We are his children. Second, as his children, we have the responsibility to make Jesus’ presence felt and experienced in this world. Third, given the identity and relationship that we have with God, as His children, we are constantly called to holiness of life. (Read more…)

February 17th, is Ash Wednesday, the day that marks the beginning of Lent, a period of fasting and reflection leading up to Easter. The day gets its name from the practice of placing ashes on one’s head as a celebration and reminder of human mortality and as a sign of repentance. Through the placing of ashes on our heads, we are reminded of the frailty of life, God’s call to follow, and the good news that comes at Easter — that good conquers evil, that life triumphs death. (Read more…)

Next weekend, during all Masses, we will celebrate World Marriage Day to honor the husband and the wife as head of the family – the basic unit of society; and to salute the beauty of their faithfulness.

The annual observance of the marriage day takes on new meaning these days as the sacrament and institution and meaning of marriage are facing crucial new challenges from within and without.

More than ever, couples are experiencing problems arising from a widespread mistaken understanding of what marriage truly is; and unity and indissolubility are being replaced by personal fulfillment. (Read more…)

This weekend we will say goodbye to the month of January and hello to February, the shortest month on the calendar. That’s 1 winter month down, 2 to go! Though some will look for a forecast of the remainder of winter by observing a large burrowing rodent, for Catholic Christians February 2 marks something more important than “Groundhog Day.” It is the Feast of the Lord’s Presentation, commemorating the time when the infant Jesus was brought to the Temple in Jerusalem by Mary and Joseph 40 days after His birth. (Read more…)

January 22, 2021 marked the 48th anniversary of Roe V Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that legalized abortion.  Since 1970, there have been over 50,000,000 abortions in the United States.

I wonder how many of those children would have grown up to be doctors, priests, teachers … Would one of those children have been the scientist to cure Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes or cancer?  Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta said that: “Probably the scientist who would have cured AIDS was killed through abortion.” (Read more…)

The week from January 17th—23rd, Catholic Christians celebrate the “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.” The purpose of this week is to remind us that Catholic Christians are called to ecumenism. This is the Church’s commitment to the prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper, in which Jesus prayed “that they all may be one” (John 17:21).

At the Second Vatican Council, the Council decided that the realization of that unity in accordance with the prayer of Jesus was an ecumenical imperative.  (Read more…)