My friends in Christ, Why did God make us? I think this is a question that many people do not think about, and many more do not know the answer to. The classical answer is that God made us to know him, to love him, and to serve him in this life, so that we … Continue reading Helping the poor will get us to Heaven

My dear friends in Christ, Christ is risen! We have made it through these past 40 days of lent, and now we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I am so grateful that I am able to look out and see so many people in the pews this morning. This time … Continue reading Christ is Risen!

My dear friends in Christ, The coming months and years will be difficult ones for us as Catholics. The secular society will become more hostile against us. Our Catholic beliefs and values will be attacked and ridiculed. We will be pulled in different directions as our country continues down the path of polarization and disunity. … Continue reading “What are you looking for?”

My Friends in Christ, Our second reading today comes from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Philipians. While many of Saint Paul’s epistles deal with problems that the different communities he founded were having, his letter to the Philipians is a letter of encouragement. The Philipians were those who lived in the major city … Continue reading Christian Hope will have the final say

My Friends in Christ, Our readings this Sunday are very applicable for our time. We hear from both Saint Paul in our Epistle and Saint Matthew in the Gospel of the mercy of God. Paul recalls for us the fact from salvation history that while the majority failed, a remnant was preserved. Because of this, … Continue reading Have Confidence in the Mercy of God

Friends in Christ, Earlier this year, thankfully prior to the current lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, I was able to travel with my seminary class to the Holy Land for a 9 week pilgrimage. To be honest I did not really want to go at first. I was worried about being in a place so foreign … Continue reading The Ascension of Our Lord

My friends in Christ, As we come to yet another Sunday where we are unable to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass together in our Churches, let us try to make the most out of this time of pain and trial. In the readings today we are being called to prepare ourselves to proclaim … Continue reading “Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”

Some of you may be wondering why the priest wears rose, not pink, vestments today. Well, the answer is in the entrance antiphon that we sung at the beginning of Mass. We sang “Gaudete in Domino semper:  iterum dico, gaudete..” That is: “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice… The Lord is at … Continue reading Rejoice in the Lord always

Today is the second Sunday of Advent. Advent is the first and shortest of our liturgical seasons and in my opinion, it is the most beautiful. Sadly though, in our culture today, Advent doesn’t exist. Christmas starts sometime in mid-November when the radio stations decide to start playing Christmas music and it goes until December … Continue reading Preparing a worthy dwelling place for the Lord