Pastoral Messages

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time 8.16.26

Sunday’s Readings: Isaiah 56:1, 6-7; Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8; Romans 11:13-15, 29-32; Matthew 15:21-28

…from your Pastor’s Desk – Food for Dogs? – Sunday’s Gospel can give a headache both to preachers and to people in the pews. Jesus refuses to hear a woman because she is, in his metaphor, one of the “dogs.” OUCH. You know the story. The Canaanite woman cries out for help and Jesus at first will not even talk to her. …

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time 8.9.26

Sunday’s Readings: 1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a; Psalm 85:9, 10, 11-12, 13-14; Romans 9:1-5; Matthew 14:22-33

…from your Pastor’s Desk – Where do you find God? Only in church? Only while praying? Only in times of need or distress? Only in those we expect to be holy or pious people? Too often we look to great people and to the events in our lives to find God, as if our encounters with God have to meet certain standards and criteria in order to be true. …

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time 7.26.26

Sunday’s Readings: 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12; Psalm 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-128, 129-130; Romans 8:28-30; Matthew 13:44-52 OR 13:44-46

…from your Pastor’s Desk – Prayer for Grandparents – Lord Jesus, you were born of the Virgin Mary, the daughter of Saints Joachim and Anne. Look with love on grandparents the world over. Protect them! They are a source of enrichment for families, for the Church and for all of society. …

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time 7.12.26

Sunday’s Readings: Isaiah 55:10-11; Psalm 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14; Romans 8:18-23; Matthew 13:1-23 OR 13:1-9

…from your Pastor’s Desk – Start up your time-machines or jump into your DeLorean – because we are going ‘Back To The Future’. Here is an excerpt from our Parish bulletin dated July 13, 2014. Which was, coincidentally, the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A – just like this weekend. And which, coincidently, was the first weekend of my assignment here. So …

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time 6.28.26

Sunday’s Readings: 2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16a; Psalm 89:2-3, 16-17, 18-19; Romans 6:3-4, 8-11; Matthew 10:37-42

…from your Pastor’s Desk – The Love of the Lord – In the Gospel Reading, Jesus seems to recommend an inhuman attitude: you are not to love your mother or father or your child more than Jesus. In fact, you are not to love your own life more than Jesus. If you do, you will lose what you love. What does it even mean to compare loves in this way? …

12th Sunday in Ordinary Time 6.21.26

Sunday’s Readings: Jeremiah 20:10-13; Psalm 69:8-10, 14, 17, 33-35; Romans 5:12-15; Matthew 10:26-33

…from your Pastor’s Desk – The Be-DAD-itudes – The Beatitudes are one surprising, often overlooked, source Catholic men can turn to for guidance in becoming the men, husbands, and fathers our families need us to be. The late Pope Francis has called the Beatitudes our “guide on the path of Christian life.” …

11th Sunday in Ordinary Time 6.14.26

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’. …