Sunday’s Readings: Exodus 19:2-6a; Psalm 100:1-2, 3, 5; Romans 5:6-11; Matthew 9:36—10:8

…from your Pastor’s Desk – Nobody Sunday? – For the last 16 Weekends every Sunday has had a title from ‘The First Sunday of Lent’ on March 22nd up until last week’s feast of ‘The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ’. So, when I first looked at the readings for today – I saw it was just ‘The 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time’. I jokingly said to myself – aha – ‘No-body Sunday’. …

Sunday’s Readings: Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a; Psalm 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:51-58

…from your Pastor’s Desk – The Eucharist and SCUBA – People have commented that when I raise the Host after Consecration, I hold it up longer than most priests. Well, if I do, I am not doing it for dramatic effect! When I hold up the Eucharist after Consecration, you and I spend a moment in adoration. At that moment I know that you and I are exactly on the same page. …

Sunday’s Readings: Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9; Daniel 3:52, 53, 54, 55; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; John 3:16-18

…from your Pastor’s Desk – Beyond Human Reasoning – The Holy Trinity, today’s feast, is quite beyond human reasoning. “Two is company, three is a crowd” is a popular expression. But the New Testament would have it otherwise. There, the figure three symbolizes completeness and perfect symmetry. …

Sunday’s Readings: Acts 2:1-11; Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13; John 20:19-23

…from your Pastor’s Desk – HAPPY BIRTHDAY! – A few years back, we had a very cool conflation of celebrations. Mother’s Day and Pentecost were on the same day. And, as was brought to my attention just before mass that day, a mother and her daughter were both celebrating their birthdays on that same day! … Pentecost Sunday is the birthday of our faith mother, The Church. At Pentecost, we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit on the disciples to begin a new life between them, …

Sunday’s Readings: Acts 1:1-11; Psalm 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9; Ephesians 1:17-23; Matthew 28:16-20

…from your Pastor’s Desk – Ascension Day – Parting messages have their own impact. The last words said by someone moving away or even going away for a long time hold special places in our hearts. I remember the many deployments I went on in my years of military service and how touching were those words between husband and wife and parent and child. … Christ’s words as he left His disciples on Ascension Day are no exception. …

Sunday’s Readings: Acts 8:5-8, 14-17; Psalm 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20; 1 Peter 3:15-18; John 14:15-21

…from your Pastor’s Desk – Many people are deeply concerned about what is happening in our world. And not just rising gas prices. And not just National Security. It seems, rather, that there is a growing sense of National Insecurity. The secular world says people are returning to church because they are afraid. That may be so in some instances, but I feel that they are just ‘returning home’. …

Sunday’s Readings: Acts 6:1-7; Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19; 1 Peter 2:4-9; John 14:1-12

…from your Pastor’s Desk – The Lovely Month of May – As I sit down to write this, looking out my office window I see the trellis covered with roses. Dozens and dozens. Also, beautiful Lilacs, one of my personal favorites. It’s May! May has been a favorite time of year for many Catholics. …

Sunday’s Readings: Acts 2:14a, 36-41; Psalm 23: 1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6; 1 Peter 2:20b-25; John 10:1-10

…from your Pastor’s Desk – SHEPHERD SUNDAY – During Jesus’ time, shepherds protected their flocks with their own bodies. Many of the sheep pens were merely a wall of loosely connected rocks with a single entrance. At night the shepherds slept across the entrance so that their bodies became a protection for the sheep from their own straying or from marauders. …

Sunday’s Readings: Acts 2:14, 22-33; Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11; 1 Peter 1:17-21; Luke 24:13-35

…from your Pastor’s Desk – On The Road to …Santa Rosa * – This is a ‘Work of Fiction’ inspired by a writing of a favorite Jesuit, John Foley. A modern-day allegory based loosely on the Road to Emmaus Scripture Story …today’s Gospel. This ‘story’ takes place March 22, 2020’. Two days after the first ‘Lock-Down’. Remember what was happening then. …

Sunday’s Readings: Acts 2:42-47; Psalm 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31

…from your Pastor’s Desk – “Thinking Thomas” – No Doubt. – There is something to be said for doubt at times. It is a good thing to be able to doubt oneself, provided it doesn’t become an addiction that cripples us; to doubt one’s ideas, one’s principles, one’s work and to doubt much of what we hear. …