Pastoral Message

You are the light of the world…your light must shine before others. In 1988, President George H. W. Bush described his vision for an engaged and generous society in this way: “For we are a nation of communities…all of them varied, voluntary and unique…a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.” He was encouraging a spirit of volunteerism that, if embraced by all, would replace the expensive and often ineffective efforts

In our Gospel today, we’re reminded of a very familiar pericope (fyi., a pericope is a literary/rhetorical term that means a passage, often from the Bible, that forms a unit of thought). If you’ve been hanging around Church for a while, we’ve all heard preachers eloquently waxing on about this pericope, Matthew 5:1-12. Preachers focus on being “poor of spirit,” being meek, hungering for righteousness, etc. – really those virtuous qualities Christians should embrace. Other times, usually at funerals, a preacher would

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Today is Word of God Sunday. The Church asks us to focus particularly on the essential importance of God’s Word in our worship and in our everyday lives. There was a time when Non-Catholic Christians accused Catholics of not reading the Bible. To some extent, they may have had a point. However, the Second Vatican Council focused Catholic worship in a very clear and

Hey Y’all When I was a kid - a kid who bore the name “Reynold” - I wondered if I would be any different if my name was Mike, or John, or Biff, or Ringo (remember I was a kid in the early 70’s). While I could fantasize about who I might be if I had had a different name, I realized in truth and in fact, that I am me, and I’m called Reynold. I was always going to be

Today, we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany. As we hear in the Gospel, this feast commemorates the day on which the Magi from the East came seeking the infant Jesus, to bring Him gifts, and to pay Him homage. The term “Magi” referred to learned (or “wise”) men who studied the stars (practicing what today we call astrology) and probably performed some types of magic. It is unlikely that the men were kings or that there were exactly three

Hey Y’all! Happy Feast Day, remembering our Blessed Mother, and a happy and blessed year of grace, 2023! Let me just get down to business! This year, like previous years, the staff and I wanted to give you a little book as a gift. The only difference this year is we’ve got some different books from which to choose. And it’s a gift that will hopefully keep on giving because we’d love for you to read the book between Epiphany (next Sunday)

A little while ago we started a little something called “Parking Lot Prayer”. The way it works is that we have a couple of good and holy souls who spend an hour each Wednesday afternoon from 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm sitting on the curb in front of the Church. Anybody who wants to can stop by and then our good and holy volunteers will pray with that person. If nobody shows up seeking immediate prayers, then our good and

Hey Y’all, Last Tuesday morning, like lots of Tuesday mornings during the school year, the youngest pupils at our school came to Mass. I like saying Mass for these young ‘uns. They’re squirmy, and fidgety, and picking various body parts, but they are like little human sponges. They hear things, picking up new knowledge even if you don’t think they’re paying attention. But every time I start my homily, they are paying attention! The first reading last Tuesday is the same reading

Therefore, stay awake! At its foundation, the message of the Advent season is “Be Prepared!” This goes hand in hand with the warning that Jesus gives us in this weekend’s Gospel: “Stay awake!” The problem is that many of us don’t take this warning seriously. We refuse to admit (or, perhaps, don’t realize) that we are sleeping through our lives; too drowsy to recognize where we are falling short of the great promise of salvation; too “out of it” (or, perhaps