……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! A mother’s birthday has a special appeal. It usually…

……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.…

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…

…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. The month of May, which started Friday, is dedicated to…

…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. The body of…

…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. So, you and…

…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. Although religion can provide emotionally unstable people…

…From your Pastor’s Desk Happy Easter! A Happy Thought on a Happy Feast: Have you ever considered that this is the only time when people, even strangers, give a spiritually based greeting? Merry Christmas is often replaced by ‘Happy Holidays’ and “Happy Thanksgiving’ has become a secular salutation, but so far “Happy Easter” stands firm in its acknowledgement of what we commemorate.…

…From your Pastor’s Desk Holy Week This week we begin a time so Sacred to us Catholics that it is called ‘Holy Week.’ It is true that as far as individual celebrations go, Christmas seems to overshadow Easter, but Holy Week is more than just Easter Sunday. Today’s Liturgy makes a diametrical shift from the celebration of our Lord’s triumphal entry into…

…From your Pastor’s Desk Spring Cleaning This Friday, March 20th, was the first day of spring. Perhaps it is time we all did a little ‘Spring Cleaning.’ So many of us have accumulated much more than we need. It bursts from our closets, overflows our shelves, and clutters our lives to the point we even rent storage areas. Lent might be a…