Pastoral Message

I’ve got a pagan friend. Or he might introduce himself as a heathen. He, himself, uses both terms - pagan and heathen - interchangeably. And while a serious pagan or a serious heathen might say their beliefs are grounded in pre-Christian traditions of different origins, my friend uses the terms colloquially to say he doesn’t subscribe to anything Christian. This friend of mine was raised as a Christian. His father was even a minister for a while. So his parents

“The sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light.” When our son was young, he was generally a “good kid” but, every now and then, he would do or say something that needed some “corrective action.” On a few of those occasions, when my wife and I were alone, we would commend his “cleverness” even though we properly punished him for his misguided actions. Initially, this week’s Gospel appears to portray a

Hey Y’all, We’ve had a few little building issues come up in the last few weeks. Like in the Church, the audio/visual sound system design folks have had to rethink some of their original plans once we dusted off and showed them the original building plans. The building plans we’ve got are old-fashioned blue prints. The designers didn’t expect to find some beams, pipes, and ducts in the soffits where the original plans indicated so they have had to go back

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. This weekend we celebrate Labor Day. Early leaders of the labor movement established the holiday in the late 19th century as a day celebrating the commitment and effort of workers and giving them a day of rest. On June 28, 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed a law establishing the federal holiday of Labor Day on the first Monday in September. Informally, Labor Day also marks

Hey y’all, Just a quick little word this week. I wanted to use this bulletin space this week to introduce a couple new folks to the parish. They’re both joining the parish/school staff, helping lead in faith formation, sacraments, and family ministry. So read below these little introductions to our sisters, Denise and Rhea. And then, go and meet them when you have a chance. They’re coming to Mass. They’re working in the school and the parish office. And they’re around

What will happen to us when we die?” In today’s world, the question leads to much debate. For those without faith, this life is all there is. For them, death is the end. However, for those of us who believe in Jesus Christ, death is actually the beginning rather than the end. Either way, both believers and non-believers should agree that there is no way for us to scientifically know or to prove what will happen when we die. When

Hey y’all I had a conversation not too long ago with someone I’ll simply refer to as a free-spirit. He was driving a van seemingly held together by stickers reflecting religious or political themes. He parked right next to where I was getting out of my car. I didn’t think too much about it. I took my walk along the beach. Then when I returned, I saw that “free-spirit” had opened up his van and set up camp in the parking

“Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.” Jesus encourages us to be vigilant, yet, in our busy lives, endless distractions interfere with our journey of faith. When we pay attention to distractions, we move away from God and fill that space with even more distractions. If we think of our journey of faith as a drive in a car, we can immediately see the danger of being distracted. After all, who wants to be in a

All things in this world are relative to one another. On cloudy mornings, before or after Mass, people will say to me, “Oh, Father, it’s so cold and gloomy this morning.” Yet, relative to New York, our cloudy summer mornings are much more pleasant than the heat and humidity that they feel even at 8 am. Relative to Portland, our cloudy mornings are much more pleasant than a steady drizzle. I govern my reaction to a cloudy morning in Huntington

Ever since the other priests and I started working here at Saints Simon & Jude, we have heard about a collective desire for the parish to become more youthful. To grow young so to speak. Therefore, for the past couple of years I’ve been thinking about this and trying to figure out how to achieve such a goal. To begin to reach this goal I hired a faith formation staff to help, because when Frs. Mike, Thanh Tai and I first