Holy Family 2025 - Example and Virtues of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph

 Shortly after the close of the Second Vatican Council, sixty years ago, in order to continue the spirit of engagement of the Church in the Modern World, Pope Paul VI established what is called the Synod of Bishops. The Pope wanted Bishops from around the world to continue to meet periodically to discuss and provide him counsel regarding questions and important matters facing the Church.

Prior to his passing, Pope Francis called for a Synod on Synodailty. Kind of abstract, but he wanted the bishops to help him reflect upon what it means for the Church to be constantly examining her mission in light of the new challenges and changes in society.

10 years ago, Pope Francis called another synod discuss an issue deeply important to the Church: the pastoral care and promotion of marriage and families.  

It wasn’t the first synod on the family. Pope St. John Paul II called a synod on the family back in 1980, after which he issued his great post-synodal apostolic exhortation called, Familiaris Consortio. Listen to the Pope’s insightful words:

“The family in the modern world”, wrote Pope John Paul, “as much as and perhaps more than any other institution, has been beset by the many profound and rapid changes that have affected society and culture. Many families are living this situation in fidelity to those values that constitute the foundation of the institution of the family. Others have become uncertain and bewildered over their role or even doubtful and almost unaware of the ultimate meaning and truth of conjugal and family life.”

In other words, from the Pope’s perspective, there are those families who understand to build their families on the teachings of Jesus,  like so many of you. Then, there are those who are confused about what that means. And, then there are those who are clueless about the importance of building one’s family on Christ. And the Church has a mission to each of these types of families—to all families, and each of us should consider how we are called to help each of these types of families. 

Fast forward to 2015. Pope Francis calls another synod on the family, he listens to bishops, and not just to bishops but he also gathers a number of ordinary families, like yours gain insight about their struggles, and he compiled all of these thoughts, plus his own, into the post-synodal apostolic exhortation called Amoris Laetitia. And in this document, Pope Francis enumerated a number of challenges facing families today. 

He mentioned materialism. Materialism, the love of stuff, seeking meaning and purpose in stuff, keeps families from fulfilling their mission, loving God, loving each other and spreading the Gospel as they should. He mentioned narcissism. “Narcissism”, he said, “makes people incapable of looking beyond themselves, beyond their own desires and needs.” Narcissism within families can be a tremendous source of dysfunction. 

He spoke of the cultural ideologies that devalue marriage and family and the fear that some young people have of entering into such a commitment. He mentioned the false notion of overpopulation fueled by world politics which leads to a mentality against having children. He spoke of “spread of pornography and the commercialization of the body, fostered also by a misuse of the internet,” and of course, “the weakening of faith and religious practice” which has had disastrous consequences for society. 

Today is the Christmas Feast of the Holy Family, a feast instituted only in the 1920s, but a feast vital for our time, in which we ask God to help us amidst all of these cultural and interpersonal challenges to imitate the example and virtues of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. In the Gospel today we read of Joseph listening to the voice of an angel guiding him to protect his family from the evils of his time: the murderous plot of King Herod. So, meditating on their example and virtues of the Holy Family is so vital in helping us to act rightly amidst the evils of our own day. 

The first evil Pope Francis mentioned was materialism. Where society values materialism, we see the Holy Family practicing holy poverty. The Christ child was born in the straw poverty of the Bethlehem stable. At his presentation, the family could only offer the oblation of the poor—two turtle doves. When Joseph received word from the Angel regarding the murderous intent of King Herod, the poor family took refuge in the foreign land of Egypt. 

They were poor, but they humbly trusted in God and treasured the things of God. Together, they embodied the first of the beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit” placing their trust and confidence in God rather than trusting material possessions and earthly power to bring them happiness. 

Secondly, where society values narcissism, we see the Holy Family practicing selflessness. Scripture portrays their sweet and Holy Charity. We read of Our Lady going in haste to help her elderly cousin Elizabeth, and Our Lady at the wedding at Cana shows holy attentiveness to the needs of the newly married couple. St. Joseph looks to the needs of Mary and Jesus, as the great guardian of the holy family, protecting them from Herod’s murderous plots, providing for them through years of labor and sweat. Charity towards each other and toward their neighbor filled their lives, so too must it be for us.

Thirdly, the purity, chastity and self-control of the Holy Family stands in contrast to the perversion, indulgence, decadence, and other habits of instant gratification of our modern society. In their purity and chastity, the Holy Family fulfilled another one of the Lord’s Beatitudes, “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” They remind us of the need to guard our eyes and our minds from those evils which keep us from seeing God. 

Fourthly, we see in many countries, including our own, a sharp decline in religious practice and fulfillment of religious obligations among families. The Holy Family shows us the importance of fulling our religious duties. The Holy Family was accustomed to making the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover. And even though it required sacrifice and effort to make that pilgrimage, they were faithful. And their fulfillment of this obligation was not without drama, as it is for many families. But they were faithful. They remind us to be faithful, too.

In the holy family we see the remedy for many of the evils that beset us, but also we see the power of holy families. God chose to enter the world as Savior, through a family. So too God wants to use the holy families of our Church NOW. The world needs holy families—the holy families of our parish—to be open to being used by God in so many ways, but primarily to lead others to heaven, to Christ. Holy families are a powerful evangelical instrument God uses to draw souls to Himself.

As we continue this Christmas season, allow the Holy Family to help your family love and trust God in all of your family activities, to value the things of heaven over the things of earth by imitating their poverty, to practice purity and chastity, to show the world the importance of right religion by seeking first the kingdom of God for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

December 25 2025 - Christmas - Save us from slop

 Merry Christmas every one.

Since 2003, every year Mirriam-Webster dictionary has declared a Word of the Year. Typically, the Words of the Year reflect cultural events from the year prior.

For example, the Word of the Year in 2008 was “bailout” due to the government’s role that year of bailing out banks and financial institutions due to the 2008 financial crisis. In 2004, the Word of the Year was “blog”—a new concept at the time—where writers would post a log of activities or thoughts on the world-wide-web—a web-log, a blog. In 2020, the word was “pandemic”. And in 2022, the word was “gaslighting” due to a growing sense in society that we might not be getting the whole truth about world affairs.

This year, Mirriam-Webster declared that the Word of the Year is “slop”.  “Slop” is defined as “the constant flow of digital content of low quality that is usually produced by means of artificial intelligence.”

“AI Slop is Everywhere,” warned The Wall Street Journal earlier this year. The internet, but also, our culture in general seems to be filling-up with machine-made junk-content that’s cheap, endless, and hard to escape.

And it’s not just media content, is it? Everything seems cheap lately. Companies are cutting corners; products don’t seem to be “made-to-last” as they used to. Everything seems to be low-effort, artificial and lacking deep meaning.

We’ve been experiencing cultural decline for several decades now, but this flood of slop in the last year or two is deeply concerning as it seems like it slop and sloppiness has infected just about everything from government and the education system, to our food, our architecture, our music, even our human relationships—low-effort, artificial, lacking deep-meaning.

Why do I bring up this idea of slop on this most holy Christmas evening? Because to us is born a Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord.

Tonight we celebrate the birth of the one who is the remedy for the infection of slop. Again, that infection is not simply technological, economic, or cultural. Those are symptoms. The deeper illness is spiritual. What we are experiencing as slop—the cheapening of truth, beauty, work, and even love—is the fruit of the human heart wounded by sin.

From the beginning, in the Garden of Eden, Sin always involves lowering our standards—seeking less than what we were made for. Instead of striving for what is true, good, and beautiful, we sin seeks what is easy, convenient, and artificial. Instead of meaning, we accept distraction. Instead of communion, we accept consumerism to make us happy.

Yet, into this world marked by corruption, the Savior was born. Not in power and spectacle, but in poverty and silence. To save us from sin, God did not send a lecture, or a policy, or a technological fix. He took on our very flesh to redeem us. The eternal Son of God enters our broken human condition from the inside. He does not stand at a distance diagnosing our sickness; He takes it upon Himself, and becomes our remedy. This is what the name Jesus means: “God saves.” He comes not merely to inform us and to inspire us, but to restore us and redeem us.

Where sin trains us to settle, Christ reawakens our desire for wholeness and holiness once again, by reorienting us to God.

And we might be surprised to learn that God desires our wholeness and healing even more than we do. The Incarnation is God’s refusal to let humanity remain degraded. In the Child of Bethlehem, God declares that human life is worth saving, human nature is worth redeeming. Humanity is not cheap and artificial, it is worth saving. It is worth dying for.

And that is why Christmas matters so much. Christmas is not about presents and recreating nostalgic feelings. It’s about allowing God to reorder our lives to what is most important, allowing God to heal us from the root of our being. God wants to save precisely those parts of us that settle for artificial substitutes for the meaning and life that comes from Him.

Those of you who only come to church once or twice a year, might wonder, why every year at Christmas, the priest invites you to come to church more often. It’s because God loves you and wants more for you than artificial substitutes and a superficial relationship. True meaningful purpose is not found on the outskirts of the Church, but by drawing as near to Christ as you possibly can, by practicing our religion as fervently as you can.

Artificial intelligence cannot save this world. Nor can politics or economics, or some lazy amalgamation of religious ideas. Salvation cannot be found in an idea or technology, but in the person of Jesus Christ who founded a Church and died for our sins and wants a profound relationship with each one of us.

As we heard in our second reading from Paul to Titus: “The grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age…to make us eager for what is good”

That is the alternative to slop. Learning again how to honestly and authentically seek what is truly good for us.

Christ is born to enable us to live as fully human beings again: men and women who seek truth instead of convenience, beauty instead of novelty, communion instead of consumption, and holiness instead of distraction.

If you feel exhausted and unhappy, disillusioned, or unsatisfied—if you sense that much of what the world offers feels hollow and thin: that restlessness is a sign that you were made for more. And A Savior has been born for you. A remedy has been given. Seek him wholeheartedly, love him profoundly.

May the peace of the newborn King—who alone can save—fill your hearts and your homes this Christmas for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

December 23 2025 - He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children...

 

This last full day of Advent, we read from the very last verses of the very last book of the Old Testament. The book of Malachi was the last of the Old Testament prophets, and in our bibles, Malachi is the very last book before the New Testament.

Like Isaiah and Jeremiah before him, Malachi foretold how a Savior would come to redeem us and usher in the kingdom of God’s peace. In today’s passage we read Malachi’s prophecy of the events that would occur just prior to the arrival of the Messiah.

There would be a forerunner to prepare his way—a messenger to point out to God’s people that the Messiah is coming soon. And in the Gospel, we read about the birth of the forerunner, John, who would preach from the banks of the Jordan, calling Israel to repent, to prepare their hearts for the imminent arrival of the Savior who will restore and heal Israel, and bring justice.

And then the very last thing Malachi says, the very last verse of the Old Testament, is a prophecy about family: “He will turn the heart of fathers to their sons, and the heart of sons to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the land with utter destruction.”

The peace and restoration and justice the Messiah will bring will involve the restoration of families. The Messiah will restore the brokenness in the human family, and he will enable families to fulfill the vocation established by the Creator. Malachi is also clear that there are consequences when that order is rejected: “the land will be struck with utter destruction.”

Pope St. John Paul echoed Malachi’s prophecy when he gave his famous quote on the family. He said, “As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.” In other words, the quality of familial relationships directly impacts the well-being and future of nations and subsequently, the entire global community. Families are the building blocks of society; they are where values, traditions, and beliefs are instilled in individuals from their earliest days

Within the family children are to learn important virtues of love, respect, forgiveness, and diligence, which are crucial for fostering a peaceful society. While most, if not all of our cultural ills, can be traced to the breakdown of the family—to the many distortions of the order designed by the Creator. Family sins like abandonment, neglect, selfishness, violence, godlessness have ripple effects in the lives of children and society.

During Christmas time many families will come together. It is often clear when Christ is at the center of family life and when he is not. Whatever our family life is like, chaotic and dysfunctional, or blessedly peaceful and joy filled, we pray that we may do our part in contributing to the health and salvation of family life by bearing the peace, goodness, and love of the one born for us at Christmas, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

 - - - - 

As we stand on the threshold of Christmas, awaiting the coming of the Savior who restores all things, let us place our prayers before the Father.

That Christmas may find us bearing the peace, goodness, and love of Christ in our homes and relationships.

For society and its leaders, that respect for the family as designed by the Creator may be renewed, and that public life may be guided by policies and decisions that protect and strengthen family life.

For those from broken or wounded families That Christ, born into the human family, may bring healing, consolation, and hope to all who suffer from abandonment, neglect, violence, or division.

For the faithful departed, that they may share in the eternal peace of God’s kingdom.

For the petitions in our heart and for…

Father of mercy, You sent Your Son to restore what sin has broken and to reconcile the human family to Yourself. Hear these prayers and prepare our hearts to receive Christ with faith and love. Through Christ our Lord.

December 17 2025 (school mass) - O Sapientia (O Wisdom)

 

Today, December 17, begins the last stretch of Advent before Christmas—what is called late Advent.

And beginning today until Christmas Eve, as you heard just before the Gospel, the Church sings these beautiful musical phrases called the O Antiphons. Today, I first sang the verse in Latin then in English because the O Antiphons were first written in Latin, 1500 years ago—in the sixth century. Before America was discovered—before English was even a language spoken by human beings—the Church was singing these beautiful O Antiphons in latin in preparation for the birth of Jesus at Christmas.

In each of these O Antiphons, the Church asks God for special help—help to prepare well for Christmas. Today, the O Antiphon asked God for Wisdom. O Sapientia, Sapientia is the latin word for Wisdom. I sang O Wisdom which comes forth from the mouth of God, help us to order our days rightly and prudently.

What is wisdom? What does it mean to be wise? Wisdom helps us to get our life in order—the right order. Particularly during these 8 days before Christmas, we want to make sure our life is rightly ordered—that we are not being foolish with the time we’ve been given. And wisdom does just that—wisdom helps us to know what matters most.

Wisdom isn’t just about being smart and knowing a lot of things. Your mind might be filled with a million facts about science and technology and sports and literature and art and music. But just because you know a lot of things doesn’t make that you make good choices. We need the wisdom, the instruction that comes from God, to make good choices that help our souls grow in holiness.

And right at the beginning of Late Advent the Church turns to God, and asks God, God grant us wisdom, that we might use the time we’ve been given to prepare our hearts for the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ on Christmas. Help us to be prudent with our time and our abilities to prepare well for Christmas.

In the Gospel today, we heard the long genealogy, the long family tree of Jesus stretching all the way back to the beginning of the people of Israel with Abraham, through King David, and finally to Joseph the husband of Mary. From all time, God had been ordering the generations of the human family to prepare for the birth of His Son. And if he can do that, he can certainly help us order our lives to get ready for Christmas.

To wisely prepare for Christmas, we need to think about Jesus every day, we need to pray every day, we need to make sure that evil and selfishness are not taking root in us, and make sure that we are practicing the kindness, gentleness, patience, and generosity we are capable of.

By practicing wisdom, we come to recognize that Christmas isn’t just about getting presents, but about celebrating the birth of Jesus who came to save us, reconcile us to God and grow in union with God, who enables us to be the people God made us to be, wise and prudent, good and holy for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

3rd Sunday of Advent 2025 - Joy in stillness

On the first Sunday of Advent, our Scripture readings urged us to be mindful of the need to prepare well during this holy season. On the Second Sunday, last week, we heard John the Baptist urge us to repent—to prepare for the Lord’s coming by turning away from our sins, detaching from worldly distractions, and making straight the pathways in our lives for God.

On this third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday—we are presented with images of joy—the joyful exultation of Israel as God’s promises are fulfilled, and the Lord pointing to the example of John the Baptist, who leapt for joy in his mother’s womb at the drawing near of the savior. Jesus sends John’s disciples to tell the good news to John, now in prison, that the signs of the Messiah’s coming were now being fulfilled by Jesus. Even in prison, this would have brough John joy.

Joy, it is the deep longing of the human heart. Each one of us longs for joy. No one ever complained about having too much joy in their lives. Rather, the opposite is true, we tire of the joyless, and often jump from one pursuit to the next looking for that elusive joy. 

The brilliant Christian author, C.S. Lewis well-known for his “Chronicles of Narnia” books like “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” also wrote a sort of spiritual autobiography, in which he details his conversion to Christianity from Atheism—a book titled “Surprised by Joy”. In it, Lewis describes how every human being who has ever existed desires joy—we crave it; each of us are on an eternal quest for lasting joy.  Yet, joy, Lewis admits, is the most elusive of the virtues: we are all searching for it, but few seem to find enduring joy.  The authentically and fully joyful person is rare.  

Lewis explains that joy is often so elusive and hard to find because so many people are looking for joy “out there”—as if joy can be acquired if I just obtain the right object, or the right amount of cash in my bank account, in some earthly thing or activity or set of circumstances 

This is why our culture always seems so exhausted once Christmas is over. Our consumeristic, materialistic culture is convinced that joy can be purchased and found in material things like playstations, iphones, televisions, new wardrobes, and the like.

Lewis writes, “No, “Joy does not come from out there,” Lewis says, rather “Joy comes from in here.”  Joy comes into the heart when we are in right relationship with God—joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.  Only when the heart is firmly planted in Christ and doing the works of Christ, will the fruit of joy truly bloom.

Joy is most elusive, but there are a group of people who have discovered Joy. The saints! If you’ve ever met a truly holy person, they are filled with joy. The saints show us that joy is truly found in the Lord. They sing along with Psalm 16: “[Lord] you make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy.”

The saints also show us what is required to tend the soil of one’s heart so that joy may bloom. In the saints, we see that joy is cultivated primarily in two ways. 

Firstly, why are the saints so joyful? Because they have learned to live for others. They show us that joy is cultivated not through selfish accumulation, but by giving oneself away in service. Joy is not found in stuffing yourself to the gills day after day, but in feeding the hungry. Joy is not found with meticulously assembling the perfect wardrobe by keep up with the newest fashions, but by clothing the naked. Joy is not found in mindlessly doom scrolling on your phone and trying to convince people that you have the perfect life on social media, but disciplining and structuring your life around intentional generosity and self-sacrifice. They show us that the way of Christ—putting the teachings of Christ in practice, particularly those lessons of charity—is the pathway to joy.

So, firstly, the saints cultivate joy through self-sacrificial good works. Secondly, they show us the indispensability of prayer. And when I say prayer, I’m not just talking about rattling off an our father or hail mary once a day if you remember to do so, or saying grace before meals. Those prayers are important, however, the prayer of the saints is practice by quieting the mind and the soul, seeking God in the stillness of one’s soul. The saints practice prayer to such an extent that they learn to encounter the living God who makes His dwelling in the soul of the baptized. Prayer, for the saints becomes a living fountain of joy. 

This week in OCIA we talked about one of the great teachers of prayer, St. Theresa of Avila, the great Carmelite mystic and one of the four female doctors of the Church. Doctor, by the way, doesn’t mean that she was a medical doctor. The word ‘doctor’ means learned one—someone with something to teach. And the doctors of the Church are the ones learned in the faith and the spiritual life. St. Theresa of Avila is a doctor of the Church because what she has to teach us about prayer.

The doctor of prayer, St. Theresa wrote extensively on prayer and the spiritual life. Her masterpiece on prayer, called “The Interior Castle” was written for those who want to make serious progress in the spiritual life and the practice of prayer. Though it was written over 500 years ago, the language is easy to understand and quite accessible—you should check it out.

Throughout the chapters of her book, Theresa describes how the human soul is like a mansion. And as we enter deeper and deeper into the mansion of the soul, we come experience a purer and purer encounter with God. The journey through the inner mansion of the soul is transformative; we are changed as we grow nearer to God—we grow in joy, in purity of love and intension, detachment from sin, we grow in simplicity, and willingness to suffer for the sake of others. Growth in prayer, growth in holiness, brings growth in joy, as we grow nearer and nearer to God—the source of all joy.

The season of Advent, especially today, Gaudete Sunday, has this character, of seeking to enter more deeply into communion with God, seeking the joy and fullness of life that only He can bring, the joy that the soul longs for.

Throughout her writing, Theresa repeatedly emphasizes that it is not only we who long for God, but God who longs for us, and God desires union with each one of us. And that union doesn’t just begin when our earthly life comes to an end, Yes, we are meant for union with God in eternity, but that experience and growth in communion with God is to start now, in this earthly life—again through prayer, and the life of charity.

We will be happier, more joyful and fulfilled, when we make the inner journey, stripping away all that keeps us from that encounter with Christ, who draws near to us, and makes his dwelling among us, in our very souls. Gaudete in domino semper, rejoice in the Lord always. Dominus enim prope est. Indeed, the Lord is near. 

A week and a half now before Christmas, let us make good use of the time we have been given, to draw near to the Lord who has drawn near to us, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

2nd Week of Advent 2025 - Wednesday - God's promise of renewal

In the first reading, God promises strength for his people. Isaiah says, “They that hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar as with eagles’ wings: They will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint.”

To Isaiah’s original audience, this promise was not a vague spiritual encouragement. It was a concrete proclamation spoken into one of the darkest chapters of Israel’s history. Recall that this promise was being given to a people exiled in Babylon. The Jews had lost their land, lost their Temple, lost their monarchy, lost their identity as a nation, and wondered if God had abandoned them. They were a defeated people with no political leverage and no military strength. They experienced the exhaustion of futile existence and defeat.

But to these people, God assured them: I will restore you, I will rejuvenate you. Your defeat will not get the final word. Hope in the Lord, he will come for you. God remains faithful despite appearances. 

Throughout Advent, we read these promises from Isaiah to understand the spiritual state of humanity awaiting the savior. Israel’s exile was the consequence of their persistent unfaithfulness—idolatry, injustice, hard-heartedness. The loss of the Temple, the land, the kingship, and the city was not just political—it was identity-shattering.

The promises of Isaiah are not just significant for historical Israel, but for all of humanity. God would restore what was lost through sin, he would restore dignity, identity, mission, renewing the human heart enabling us to become the people God made us to be. 

In the Gospel today, Jesus identifies himself as the one who brings the strength and rejuvenation Israel and all of humanity longed for. “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” Rest. Rejuvenation. New strength. Renewal. Jesus is the answer to humanities longing. He is the font of new life.

We know how the burdens of life and the demands of mission of the Gospel can be quite demanding and exhausting. Raising a family in the faith, being faithful to the demands of our particular vocation, caring for the poor in all the ways God is calling us, fighting against temptation and worldly distraction. Sharing the Gospel to a world that mocks us, hates us, persecutes us. The Christian pilgrimage can be exhausting.

But during Advent, we are to take the time to renew our hope and trust in the Lord, quieting down, turning away from worldly distraction, so that we can be rejuvenated, strengthened when the Lord comes. 

The Christian life isn’t just about gritting our teeth, relying on our own talents, pushing through on our own, but learning to hope in the Lord in times of difficulty. Those who hope in the Lord will be strengthened. Those who turn to the Lord will have strength for the long haul, strength to do small things with great love, strength to embrace great challenges, for the building up of the Church, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls

 

Trusting in the God who renews the strength of His people and who calls us to find rest in Him, let us offer our prayers.

That during this Advent season, the Church may deepen her hope in the Lord and draw renewed strength from Christ, who restores what sin has broken, and for renewal in our parish.

That all who serve the poor, fight against injustice, experience Christian persecution or witness to the Gospel in difficult environments may receive fresh strength from the Lord to continue doing good without growing weary.

That parents, spouses, and caregivers, may be strengthened by God’s grace to persevere with patience, love, and hope amid life’s demands.

For all of the sick, and that those who feel burdened, defeated, or forgotten—may find renewal in Christ.

That all who have walked the pilgrimage of faith and now rest from their labors may rejoice in the fullness of the Kingdom prepared for them.

God of strength, You renew the hearts of those who hope in You. Hear the prayers we place before You and grant us the grace to find in Christ our rest, our renewal, and our salvation. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

December 8, 2025 - Immaculate Conception - Behold your mother

 On Calvary, on Good Friday, from the Cross, Jesus gave a commandment to his followers. With his final breaths, he said, “Behold your mother”. Behold your mother. Even in his agony, he was thinking of his mother Mary. And he commanded that we do the same. One of the dimensions of the Christian life, part of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ, is to behold Mary, to behold her. After all, Jesus told us to do so.

We behold Mary in a number of ways. We depict her in art. Mary, the mother of Jesus, and our mother in faith, has been depicted in art, in paintings, statues, stained glass windows, murals and mosaics, more than any person in human history. She was even painted on the walls of the catacombs. 

We behold our mother by considering her faith—meditating on her countless virtues. We meditate upon how she responded to God with humility and trust at her annunciation. We meditate upon how she went in haste out of charity to her cousin Elizabeth who had become pregnant in her old age. We meditate upon how Mary rejoiced at the birth of Christ in the poor stable of Bethlehem—how she faithfully brought Jesus to the temple and pondered the words of Simeon who foretold how her heart would be pierced by swords of sorrow. We meditate upon her strength, as she stood at the cross of Christ, her only son, consoling Him as only a mother’s presence can. 

Beholding our mother by meditating upon her faith and virtues is always fruit for us—how we, like her are called to respond to God, the mission and role God has for us in salvation in history. 

We also behold our mother by considering the special graces given to her by God. And today we celebrate one of those graces, one of those special favors and privileges that God chose to bestow on Mary. 

Today, beholding her, we look, not to the end of her earthly life, not to a moment when she was influential during the ministry of Jesus or even his childhood or infancy when she birthed him and nursed him. We look to a moment even before Mary was an infant herself, born of her parents Joachim and Anne. We behold our mother, today--looking to the very first moment of Mary’s existence as a human person, her conception in the womb of her mother. 

And beholding her at the first moment of her existence, we are taught that God did something he had never done before, and never will do again. He made her immaculate. 

By virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, savior of the human race, God preserved Mary from the stain of original sin from the moment of her conception. That’s what it means to be immaculate—to have been made without stain.

Could God do this? Of course. He is God. Nothing is impossible for God. God is all-powerful. To say God couldn’t do that is to assert that he is not Almighty. But he is. He could make her immaculate if he so chose. And he did. And Christians have believed that He did since the beginning of the Church.

In the early church we see the great Fathers teaching about Mary’s Immaculate Conception. Hippolytus around 235 writes, ““She was the ark formed of incorruptible wood. For by this is signified that His tabernacle was exempt from putridity and corruption.” St. Ephraem around 370 writes, “[Jesus], Thou alone and thy Mother are in all things fair, there is no flaw in thee and no stain in thy Mother.”

The bishop and doctor of the Church, St. Ambrose, whose feast was yesterday, December 7, in 388 “Mary, a Virgin not only undefiled but a Virgin whom grace has made inviolate, free of every stain of sin.” 

Why did God make Mary this way? Because he wanted to—he saw it fitting—to make Mary immaculate—to prepare a worthy Mother for His Son. He made her Immaculate so that the Word might take his sinless flesh from the sinless flesh of an immaculate mother.

We honor and obey God by doing what we have been taught by Jesus Himself—we behold our mother. So make sure you do. Love her. Get to know her. Imitate her virtues. Turn to her in prayer. Behold her today and all days. Don’t let a day go by without beholding her in some way. For Jesus commanded it so. He gave her to us to be our mother also, a mother filled with special graces to help us be the people God made us to be—to use the graces he has bestowed on us in His service, for the building up of the church, for the mission of the Gospel, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

December 03 2025 (school mass) - St. Francis Xavier - Purpose

 

On just the third weekday of Advent this year, we wear not Advent purple, but white, as we celebrate the obligatory memorial of a saint of the Church, St. Francis Xavier: a reminder, that the purpose of the season of Advent is to make us saints. The purpose of Advent prayer, Advent Symbols and songs, Advent charitable-giving, is to make us saints.

St. Francis Xavier was filled with zeal for helping others prepare their hearts to receive Christ. Francis Xavier was a Jesuit priest sent by the founder of his Order, St. Ignatius of Loyola, to spread the Gospel to the people of India, Japan, and the Philippines who did not believe in Christ. In the course of only 10 years of teaching people about Jesus, he baptized over 80,000 people.

Why did Francis Xavier leave his home and travel to the far reaches of the world? As we heard in the Gospel today, Jesus gave a command to his followers: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

God the Father sent his Son into the world so that none of us would perish. And Jesus sends his followers to continue that mission: to help people believe that Jesus is truly the Son of God, and by becoming his followers we come to eternal life.

Again, that’s why I’m here, that’s why your teachers are employed here, that’s why Corpus Christi Academy is here, that’s why St. Clare parish is here, to help you believe in and follow Jesus.

During the season of Advent, each of us does well to consider what we must do to follow Jesus more faithfully, to understand his teachings and the purpose for which he came into the world, and to make our hearts more like his: loving, peaceful, joyful, devoted to doing the will of the Father. St. Francis Xavier was led by the Lord to preach and teach to India, Japan, and the Philippines.

Where might God be leading each of us? God how are you calling me to use my gifts to build up your kingdom? To lead others to you? How by my words and actions are you calling me to better witness to your goodness, truth, beauty, and love? What sins are you still at work to save me from? How are you calling me to make my heart more like Christ’s for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

1st Week of Advent 2025 - Monday - The Centurion's Advent Faith

 “"Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.” On this first weekday of Advent we read the powerful Gospel passage of the faith of the Centurion. The Centurion, a non-Jew, like us, believed that Jesus had the power to heal.

Out of all of the Gospels, why does Mother Church present us with this Gospel in particular on the first weekday of Advent?

Advent starts with desire: the ache for God to come close, to save, to heal, to set things right. The Centurion’s simple cry—“Lord… only say the word”—is the voice of every human heart waiting for Christ. Advent begins not with the instruction to make sure we buy the right presents or decorate our homes with the right amount of tinsel, but with a plea for mercy—humble longing, confident trust, and the recognition that we cannot save ourselves.

The fact that the Centurion is a Gentile is a signal that Christ came for all nations. So, On Day 1 of Advent, the Church reminds us: The Messiah is for the whole world. This echoes a constant theme we’ll hear from Isaiah throughout this season: of all nations streaming toward the mountain of the Lord.

The Centurion believes without seeing — Advent is a season of unseen hope. Jesus does not go to the house. He speaks a word. The servant is healed. Advent involves this kind of faith: a willingness to trust God before the fulfillment is visible, to believe the promises before the manger is filled, to hope for what we do not yet see.

And yet, this exchange between Jesus and the Centurion certainly foreshadows Christmas, at which we celebrate that God enters under our roof—not because we are worthy, but because He is merciful. 

Hence, the Centurion teaches us how to wait for Christ: with humility, with faith, with hope in God’s power to save, with a universal vision of a Messiah for all people, with the readiness to welcome Him under our roof

It is the whole spirituality of Advent packed into a single moment of great faith.

As the Lord enters our roof in the celebration of Mass today, in Word and Sacrament, may we learn from the humble Centurion in preparing well for Christmas for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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With humble trust in the Lord who speaks the saving word, let us present our prayers and petitions.

As we begin a new liturgical year and the season of Advent, we pray for the gifts of hope, peace, joy, and love to fill the Church, the world, and our hearts.  Let us pray to the Lord.

That Christ may guide the minds of those who govern us to promote authentic peace and justice according to God’s Holy Will. Let us pray to the Lord.

For the protection of our armed forces, police, and firemen and all those who risk their lives to preserve our security and freedom. For peace in those war-torn areas of the world and God’s protection of persecuted Christians. Let us pray to the Lord.

That, like the Centurion’s servant, those in need of healing—physical, emotional, or spiritual—may experience the saving word of Christ spoken over their lives. Let us pray to the Lord.

That as we receive the Lord in Word and Sacrament today, we may welcome Him with humble longing, confident trust, and a renewed desire to prepare well for Christmas.

For our beloved dead: That those who awaited the Lord in faith may now behold the fulfillment of every promise in the Kingdom of heaven.

God our Father, in Your mercy You sent Your Son as Savior of All nations. Hear these prayers we bring with faith, and grant us the grace to welcome Christ under our roof with humility and hope. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

1st Sunday of Advent 2025 - Preparing Well

 Happy Advent Everyone.

The most important things in life require some preparation, don’t they? When parents discover they are expecting a new child, they prepare a room for the child and a crib—clothes are purchased, a baby shower is thrown. When a couple becomes engaged for marriage, they prepare, they plan. They meet with the priest for marriage preparation, they attend a pre-cana day, the reception is planned, the wedding garments are acquired, a home is made ready. 

Similarly, when a young man realizes his call to the priesthood, his seminary formation involves nine years of theological training, experience in different ministerial settings like visiting the sick in hospitals and nursing homes, visiting the imprisoned, learning how to craft a homily, teach in the classroom, and celebrate the sacraments.

We prepare for big tests, big presentations and tasks at our jobs. We prepare emotionally to tell someone difficult news; we prepare our wills for the end of our lives. A priest friend of mine would often say, “everything prepares us for something else.” 

Often the sufferings of the past and present help to prepare us for some future task that will require mature faith and endurance. St. Paul even says that our sufferings prepare us to console others who suffer.

The two most important feasts of the Liturgical Year are so important that they both have entire seasons to prepare for them. The season of Lent prepares us for easter, and the season of Advent which begins today prepares us for Christmas.

So how does Advent prepare us for Christmas? Well, certainly by helping us focus our time. We have 4 weeks to prepare. 4 weeks to space out the physical preparations, the shopping, the planning of parties and gatherings, the decorating, the baking of Christmas cookies.

But more importantly, yes? Are the spiritual preparations. Through the Advent scriptures and liturgies and Advent symbols Mother Church helps us to prepare our minds, hearts, and souls for the celebration of the birth of the Christ-Child?

On each of the four Sundays of Advent we read from the book of the prophet Isaiah. Throughout Advent we hear Isaiah’s message for God’s people to practice justice, the need for repentance, the reality of judgment, God’s promise of salvation and proclamation of mercy; Isaiah urges God’s people during times of darkness to practice faith and hope. 

All of those lessons are important to meditate upon, but Isaiah is read during Advent particularly because the book of Isaiah contains Scripture’s clearest proclamations of the coming of the Messiah. God will intervene in history. History filled with so much strife and chaos, war and oppression, injustice and sadness. And Isaiah proclaims the promise that the Messiah will enter history to bring mankind the peace and reconciliation and salvation that our hearts long for. 

If possible, during Advent spend time each day with the Church’s scripture reading, meditating on Isaiah’s promises. If you can’t make it to mass throughout the week, the scripture readings are available on the US Bishop’s website every day. You can even sign-up to have them emailed to you every day. 

Reading through the daily scripture readings will help you to be spiritually prepared for Christmas.

Active, intentional preparation is vital, so vital, that Our Gospel contains a message about preparation from Our Lord Himself. In this passage from near the end of Matthew’s Gospel, teaching in Jerusalem during Holy Week, Jesus teaches about the consequences for not being prepared.

He says the people of Noah’s day were not preparing for what was to come, but, instead they were eating, drinking and having a good time, preoccupied with earthly matters and so were unprepared and unrepentant when the flood came. Moses and his family were spared the flood because they were listening to God, they prepared for the flood by listening to the instructions of God, building the ark, battening the hatches, preparing for this mighty act of God which would cleanse the earth of wickedness.

Similarly now during Advent, Christians need to take time to listen to God. The rest of the world is busy busy busy with all of the physical preparations for Christmas. But Christians don’t just prepare like the rest of the world, we prepare spiritually as well which will enable us to experience deeply the flood of grace at Christmas, which the world will ignore.

Here the Lord gives us a warning and our marching orders for Advent. “Stay awake” he says. Make sure you are prepared for God wanting to break-in to your lives. Make sure you are engaging in sufficient prayer, reflection on the Word of God, acts of charity and repentance of sin.

It is certainly appropriate during the season of Advent to make a good confession. For what better way to prepare our soul for the Lord coming more deeply into our lives, than by confessing and receiving absolution for those sins which weigh us down, our failures to love the Lord as we should.

“You know the time;” Paul says,  “it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.” What are the spiritual practices that will awaken you from whatever spiritual lethargy has crept into your life? What do you need to do to remain spiritually awake throughout Advent? Today is a great day to come up with a good spiritual plan for Advent: what will your Advent spiritual reading consist of, when will you make your Advent confession, what are the good works you intend to engage in (even if that just means baking a plate of cookies for the lonely widow next door). 

We will never regret the time given to the Lord to prepare spiritually for his coming, to prioritize faith during this busy season, to prepare room for him to live and dwell in you this Christmas, for the glory of God and salvation.

32nd Week of Ordinary Time 2025 - Friday - Beauty of the Natural World and Vigilance for the Coming of Christ

 

In the 5^th century, the great Doctor of the Church Saint Augustine wrote about how the beauty of creation points to the one who created them. “Question the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air, amply spread around everywhere, question the beauty of the sky, question the serried ranks of the stars, question the sun making the day glorious with its bright beams, question the moon tempering the darkness of the following night with its shining rays, question the animals that move in the waters, that amble about on dry land, that fly in the air; their souls hidden, their bodies evident; the visible bodies needing to be controlled, the invisible souls controlling them; question all these things. They all answer you, 'Here we are, look ; we're beautiful.' Their beauty is their confession. Who made these beautiful changeable things, if not one who is beautiful and unchangeable?”

It is good to behold the beauty of the world, but everything beautiful in this world points beyond itself.

Both our first reading and psalm speak too of how examining creation points to the existence and glory of the creator. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.” The reading from Wisdom suggests that you have to be a fool to study the works of creation and not to come to the belief in God.

Before we pat ourselves on the back for being more enlightened than the fool who disbelieves in God, Wisdom also admits how easily it is to be distracted by the things of creation: “They are distracted by what they see, because the things seen are fair.” We know how easily it is to become distracted and wrapped up with earthly things that we neglect heavenly things.

Jesus gives the same warning in the Gospel: “They were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building…” and were consequently unprepared for the coming of the Son of Man.

None of those things is sinful in itself — but people became so absorbed in everyday life that they lost sight of the coming judgment and God’s presence.

This warning of the Lord is important for all of us. At all times, we must be spiritually ready, detached, and alert — not lulled into complacency—by our earthly endeavors.

The Alleluia verse commanded this: “Stand erect and raise your heads, because your redemption is at hand.” Christians must constantly lift our eyes from earthly things, to ensure that our efforts are being dedicated to the things of God: infusing our minds with the light of God’s wisdom through study of our faith and reading of the scriptures, sufficient prayer and meditation, and intentional acts of charity for the good of others.

We do well to examine how we use our time, to ensure that the ordinary is not keeping us from seeking and pursuing the extraordinary, the natural is not keeping us from seeking the supernatural, that earthly beauty is not keeping us from seeking the source of that beauty—for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

- - - - 

 Trusting in the God who reveals His glory through all creation and calls us to lift our eyes toward our redemption, we bring our prayers before Him.

 For the Church throughout the world: that she remain faithful in pointing humanity to God and to be vigilant and ready for the coming of the Son of Man.

 For our world, so often distracted by material pursuits: that hearts may be turned away from what is passing and lifted toward what is eternal.

 For all who are burdened by illness, anxiety, or distraction: that Christ may raise their heads, strengthen their hope, and make His nearness known to them.

 For those who cannot see God’s goodness because of suffering or hardship: that the Lord may illuminate their lives with signs of His love and care. Let us pray to the Lord.

 During this month of November, we continue to pray for all of the faithful departed:  that having sought the face of God in this life, they may behold the fullness of His beauty in the life to come. Let us pray to the Lord.

 Heavenly Father, source of all beauty and author of all creation, hear our prayers, guide our hearts, and keep us ever ready for the coming of your Son. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

November 12 2025 - St. Josaphat (School Mass) - Martyrdom and Truth

 

The month of November began with the great feast of All Saints. There are many types of saints canonized over the centuries. Saints who were Holy Popes, priests, and deacons; saints who were married or widowed; saints who were religious brothers and sisters who remained unmarried and consecrated themselves to Jesus for their whole of life; saints whose names and stories we know, and saints whose names we will only learn in heaven.

A very special group of saints is known as the martyrs. The word martyr comes from the Greek word for witness. The martyrs witness, they testify, they tell the world about Jesus, not only through their preaching and teaching, but to the point of death.

Today, the Church honors the martyr St. Josephat, a Catholic bishop who was killed by a mob of people who hated the Pope. St. Josephat witnessed to the truth that Jesus created the Church and organized it to have a spiritual leader, the pope, who governs the Church in faithfulness to Jesus. Not everyone believes this, but this was the will of Jesus. For defending this truth, Josephat was killed.

Christians like Josephat are worthy of our praise and imitation: Christians who are willing to stand up for the truth, even when it brings them the hatred of the world.

In his most famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” Here Jesus makes a promise. If you are willing to suffer for preaching and seeking the truth that comes from God, your reward will be heaven.

The martyrs, like St. Josephat are counted among the blessed ones of heaven because they were willing to be persecuted, hated, mocked, arrested, tortured, and killed for the sake of what was right—the truth proclaimed by Jesus and His Catholic Church.

Josephat didn’t water down the truth. He taught it with clarity. He didn’t hide the truth. He taught it boldly. And he did so because He loved the Truth—He loved Jesus and His Church and wanted to gather everyone into the unity of the Church, as Jesus prayed for, as we heard in the Gospel today, “I pray that they may be one”.

Through the intercession of St. Josephat and all of the holy martyrs, may each of us have the wisdom to seek the highest truth, the truth revealed by the Most High God, and the courage to witness to it, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

31st Week in Ordinary Time 2025 - Friday - Cunning Missionary Disciples

Early on in the pontificate of Pope Francis, God rest his soul, the pontiff began to focus his teaching on a particular aspect of our faith—that all Christians are called to be missionary disciples. We find the phrase already in one of his first apostolic exhortations back in 2013—Evangelium Gaudium—“On the Proclamation of the Gospel in the World Today”. 

The entire people of God are called to proclaim the Gospel. Evangelization is the task of the Church—she is an agent of evangelization. “In all the baptized, from first to last,” he wrote, “the sanctifying power of the Spirit is at work, impelling us to evangelization… In virtue of their baptism, all the members of the People of God have become missionary disciples.” And we live out that identity of being missionary disciples in our faithfulness to Jesus in whatever part of the world or society we find ourselves. 

In the first reading today, St. Paul talks about his particular calling to be an Apostle to the Gentiles. Paul describes how God has called him to bring the Gospel to places where it has never been brought before. 

And there is an important dimension of missionary discipleship as well. Each one of us is called to bring the Gospel to places where it has not currently taken root. And where might that be?

We must certainly ensure that we are bringing the Gospel to our own minds and hearts. We are to be faithful to Jesus in every dimension of our lives. Christ is to be the center of our professional life, our leisure time, how we use our minds, how we use our words, how we use our bodies. We are to develop skills to be used in God’s service. 

But also in our relationships—with family, friends, and strangers. Recognize where the Gospel could be stronger in those relationships—where the peace of Jesus, the kindness of Jesus, the charity, and self-sacrifice of Jesus is to be imitated and lived out. 

In the Gospel, the Lord tells a parable about cleverness. The worldly are often very clever in pursuing their ends and their goals. Well, Christians need to be clever too in working for God. We are to exercise ingenuity, creativity, and cunning in our missionary discipleship. 

We need to be more clever in organizing charitable activity than head coaches in organizing victory for their franchises. We need to be more diligent in disciplining our minds and hearts than professional athletes in training their bodies. We need to be more clever than Wall Street bankers, in storing up treasure, not on earth, but in heaven. We need to be more dedicated to the Gospel, than world-class musicians and artists are in developing and pursuing their art.

We aren’t to just give God our leftovers, but our very best. Just as God made each of us unique, there are places and people to whom God is calling us uniquely to bear the Gospel. And we are to do so with courage and fortitude and patience and wisdom like that which St. Paul and so many of the saints show us for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

- - - 

That all Christians may endeavor to put their time, talent, treasure, creativity and energy into serving the mission of the Church. Let us pray to the Lord.

That our young people may be blessed to be raised in faith filled homes, that they may be protected from the evils of our culture, and be granted a firm knowledge of their vocation to holiness. Let us pray to the Lord.

That Christ the Good Shepherd will draw close to all who suffer, the sick, the needy, victims of injustice, and the dying.

We pray in a special way during this month of November for all the faithful departed, all deceased members and benefactors of our parish, our deceased family members and friends, deceased clergy and religious, those who fought and died for our freedom and for X. for whom this mass is offered.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

31st Week in Ordinary Time 2025 - Wednesday (school mass) - "Love God"

 

Yesterday, I was able to visit a number of the classrooms, and I spoke about one of my favorite subjects and activities: prayer—different types of prayer, different ways to pray, when we should pray, why we pray, and we even talked about the five-finger method of prayer, how our fingers can remind us for whom to pray.

We talked about the sort of prayer that asks God for help—help for those closest to us, help for our teachers, help for those in charge, our leaders, prayer for the week, the suffering and the sick, and prayer for ourselves.

We talked about the sort of prayer which asks God for mercy when we’ve sin. “Lord, have mercy on me a sinner.”

We talked about the importance of offering prayers of thanksgiving: thanking God for the gift of life, thanking God for the shelter, food, and health, thanking God for the beauty of creation, thanking God for Jesus dying on the cross for us and the gift of our salvation, and the church, and the sacraments.

Lastly, we talked about the sort of prayer that most of us probably don’t do enough—the sort of prayer that simply tells God, “I love you.” “I love you, Lord”.

The more we love God, and express our love for God in our words and actions, the happier we will be. The saints show us this over and over. Their joy is great because their love for God is great.

Some people do not love God at all—they love money, and fame, and pleasure, and power, but they do not love God—and deep down, they are miserable for it. Some people love God only a little, and that’s a start—they know about him a little, but God makes little difference in their life—and they go from pursuit to pursuit, relationship to relationship, chasing happiness, but never really finding it, because they don’t believe God is the source of happiness. But Christians are taught by Jesus to love God with our whole heart mind soul and strength. Love for God is to be the driving force of our lives, the motive behind all our actions.

It is the reason I became a priest, it’s the reason I am here right now.

And daily, many times a day, we need to reconnect with the love of God, to call it to mind, to remind ourselves that love is to be the reason for my decisions, my choice of words, how I treat people, what I do with my time and my body.

As Jesus makes himself present at Mass today under the appearance of bread and wine, express your love for Him. “Jesus, I love you. Lead me and guide me.” For the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

November 2 2025 - All Souls' Day - Grief and Hope

 A number of years ago, during my first parish assignment at St. Columbkille, in Parma, All Souls Day fell on the first Friday of November. On first Fridays we had the practice of bringing Holy Communion to our homebound parishioners, as some of our Eucharistic ministers do here. And so my first communion call that day was to a woman named Josephine, and elderly woman with a thick polish accent to whom I had been bringing Communion for several years.  

Prior to administering Holy Communion I asked her a question I didn’t always ask during my communion calls. I asked her if she had any particular intentions that she would like to voice as she received Holy Communion that day. And she replied that since today is the Feast of All Souls she would like to pray and offer her Communion for her father who was arrested and killed in the Concentration Camp at Auschwitz during World War II.  After we prayed, and she received Holy Communion, she asked if I would like to see a picture of her father.  I said I would.

She went into the bedroom and brought out a rectangular photograph of very thin man, dressed in a prison outfit, in three poses: a profile looking to the right, one where he was looking up and to the left, and the middle one, he was looking directly at the camera with a haunted expression on his face. I thought of the horrors he witnessed in that Concentration Camp—they seemed reflected in his eyes--and I had to sit down.  

Josephine then said, Father, I try to think of good memories, but so often I am overwhelmed with sadness.  Why do we always remember the hurtful things?

After a moment, I said, I think it’s important not to forget our loved ones, as hurtful as their memories are, so that we can pray for them, and to pray that terrible things like war and genocide never happen again.

She said, “All Souls Day is always a very sad day for me, but it is also the anniversary of our coming to this country and escaping those horrors.”  How providential, I thought! Because that’s what All Souls is all about. On All Souls’ Day we pray that our loved ones arrive at their heavenly homeland. 

Today can be a sad day; to remember the faithful departed whom we loved in this life can evoke strong emotions.  And  sometimes we think of those we’ve encounter on life’s path—and those memories are not always sweet. So, today don’t only pray for those who were good to us in this life, but also those who may have hurt us—they need our prayers too. No matter who they were in life, how they acted, who they loved or hurt, we pray for all of the souls in purgatory today, that they may be open to all of the purification they need in order to enter eternal life with God.

Today is also a day of hope. All Souls Day reminds us to pray, but also it is a reminder that we hope to be reunited with our loved ones in the new and eternal life of the resurrection. That word hope was mentioned in the opening prayer: “Listen kindly to our prayers, O Lord, and, as our faith in your Son, raised from the dead, is deepened, so may our hope of resurrection for your departed servants also find new strength.” The preface for the Eucharistic prayer will also speak of the hope of resurrection.  In the face of sadness, it is so vital for us to renew our hope in the promises of Christ—that those who die with Him as Lord shall be raised with Him in the resurrection to come.

We also acknowledge today the power of our prayers.  Our prayers are powerful and effective in helping those in purgatory make their way to God and to prepare for the resurrection. When are overwhelmed with grief for our loved ones the best thing to do is to turn to God in prayer for their souls and to renew our hope in the resurrection. As Saint Thomas Aquinas said that the greatest act of love we can perform on behalf of the dead is to pray for them.  

May perpetual light shine upon our departed loved ones. And as we continue the celebration of the Mass for the repose of the faithful departed, we do so, not as a mere remembrance, but as a powerfully effective way of loving them and helping them, a duty that all Christians share, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

November 1 2025 - All Saints (PSR Mass) - The saint God made us to be

 

Dear ones. Happy Feast of All Saints. In school or by a family member, you may have been asked, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” If I asked every individual here, I bet I’d hear a whole host of answers. Some of you might say that when you grow up, you want to be a professional athlete or a teacher, a doctor or nurse or veterinarian, an actor or musician or artist, perhaps a soldier or police officer or fire fighter. At different times in my life I too considered different professions: there was a time I wanted to be an archaeologist and uncover ancient cities, later I wanted to be a mathematician. It wasn’t until I was a little older, in college, that I discerned that God was calling me to be a priest.

Well, no matter the profession, I bet every single one of us could answer that question, “when I grow up, I want to be happy. I want to do something that makes me happy.” No one wants to grow up to be unhappy or bored.

Well, what if I told you that being happy in life, being fulfilled, is not simply the result of your job or profession. Being happy isn’t based on the amount of money you make, the amount of power or responsibility you have, it’s not based on how popular or famous you become.

The key to happiness is to discover and pursue the reason God made you. Why are you here. Why do you exist? Why were you born, not 700 years ago, not 200 years ago, but now?

And the answer to those questions is partially hidden—it takes a while to figure out what we should be doing with our time, with our abilities. But the answer is also partially known. As Christians, we know what we should be doing with our time. We should be trying to become like the people we celebrate today. The saints. Because we, like them, are made by God, to become as holy as we possibly can.

If you want to be happy, if you want to be fulfilled, you should do everything you can to be a saint. That doesn’t mean you can’t be a musician or a doctor or a construction worker. St. Cecilia was a musician. Saints Cosmos and Damien were doctors. St. Francis of Assisi was a builder, he built a chapel for God, St. Luke was an artist. St. Sebastian was an athlete. St. John Bosco was a juggler and magician. St. Catherine was a philosopher. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was a teacher. There were Saints who were simply moms and dad who loved their kids. And saints who were politicians, even kings and queens of nations.

But choosing to be a saint is more important than choosing your profession. It’s more important than where you live, what language you speak, where you go to school. There have been saints that have done very well in school, and saints that had a very difficult time with their studies.  But what was most important is that they aimed at being saints, no matter what they did. Whether they were plowing their fields like st. Isidore, or engaging in priestly duties like St. John Vianney, or a missionary like St. Paul, a website designer like St. Carlo Acutis.

Seeking to become a saint is the most important thing we can do in this life. For in the Gospel today, did Jesus say blessed are you when you win trophies for your athletic accomplishments? No. Did he say, blessed are you when you are well-known in your professional field? No. Did he say, blessed are you if you have more friends, more money than other people? No.

What did he say? Blessed are you when you are merciful, blessed are you when you are pure of heart. Blessed are you when you seek to be righteous so much that you hunger and thirst for it.

One of the great tragedies of our time is that there are many people who do not consider their call to be a saint. There are a great number of people who have turned their backs on God and will fail to become the person God made them to be. And because they have turned their backs on God they are miserable and causing great problems in the world, for their family and countries.

Don’t be like them. Don’t get so swept up by the world that you begin to forget about God, about why God made you.

We celebrate the saints because they are our heroes in the faith, but they also show us what all humans are capable of when they trust in God, when they say yes to God with every ounce of their being. God made us not to be selfish, lazy, or fearful. He made us to have generous hearts, active hearts, courageous hearts in knowing, loving, and serving Him in this life, so that we can be happy with Him for eternity.

The Saints challenges us to aim higher—to aim higher than spiritual mediocrity, and the idiotic examples of celebrities.

God made us to be saints. And today, we ask the saints of heaven to help us become like them, to love Jesus more than anyone or anything. We look to their example, and seek their prayers, that we may become the saints that God made us to be for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 

30th Week in Ordinary Time 2025 - Friday - Jesus nourishes, heals, satisfies

All four Gospels contain accounts of the Lord eating and dining. All four Gospel record the Lord dining with his apostles on the night before he died at the Last Supper. Some stories of Jesus’ meals are shared between Gospels, some are unique. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record the Lord dining in the house of the tax collector Levi, while St. John is the only to record the Lord’s attendance at the wedding feast at Cana.

St. Luke is the only evangelist to record the meal in today’s passage in which the Lord heals the man with dropsy in the house of a pharisee on the sabbath.

It is not the only story in which the Lord heals someone on the sabbath, but it is the first time he heals someone at a meal—combining the two actions of healing and eating. It’s also interesting who he heals; he heals a man with dropsy. What is dropsy? Dropsy is a medical condition involving the build-up of fluid in a person’s tissues. Consequently, because of this imbalance of fluid, the person with dropsy is always thirsty—they are perpetually thirsty. And so in this story the Lord combines healing and eating and satisfying unending thirst.

What does that makes you think of? I don’t know about you, but this certainly makes me think of what we’re doing right now. In the celebration of Mass, the Lord feeds, the Lord quenches thirst, and the Lord heals.

In the Eucharist, the Lord feeds us with his body and blood, giving us spiritual nourishment for the work of the Gospel and the pilgrimage to heaven. In the Eucharist, the Lord heals us of sinfulness, pride, grief, loneliness, division, and estrangement from God. And in the Eucharist the Lord quenches our thirst for the infinite God—like a dry weary desert, our souls’ thirst for Him, and here that thirst is quenched.

Commenting particularly on the healing properties of the Eucharist, Pope Francis, said a few years ago, that the Eucharist is “powerful medicine for the weak”. We have many weaknesses: fear in preaching the Gospel, timidity in doing the work of the Lord, weaknesses of the flesh, the lack of willingness to suffer for Christ, temptations to sin, concupiscence. And the Eucharist is medicine for these weaknesses. Those who deprive themselves of the Eucharist, refusing to go to mass, deprive themselves of real medicine the Lord wishes to apply to their souls.

The Eucharist is also medicine for the greatest of our weaknesses: mortality.

Writing soon before his own death, St. Ignatius of Antioch, writing to the Ephesians said that the Eucharist is the “medicine of immortality… the antidote which wards off death.” It “yields continuous life in union with Jesus Christ.”

Today and whenever we come to Mass, we do well to consider: what is the work for which the Lord wants to nourish us, what are the weaknesses the Lord wants to strengthen, what are the wounds he wants to heal?

May our souls be well disposed to the grace of the food from heaven, the food that strengthens, the food that heals, the food that quenches for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

We have gathered here dear brethren to celebrate the mysteries of our redemption; let us therefore ask almighty God that the whole world may be watered from these springs of all blessing and life.

 

For those who are deprived of the Eucharist, for lapsed Catholics, for the unbelieving, for those who doubt the Lord’s real presence, for those who have hardened their hearts toward God, and for a deeper appreciation of the great gift of the Eucharist among all God’s people. Let us pray to the Lord.

That young people will be blessed with good Christian example from their parents and fellow Christians, and that the word of God might be cherished, studied, and practiced in every Christian home.

During and following this month of October, dedicated to the Most Holy Rosary, Catholics may take up this devotion with renewed vigor and trust in Our Lady’s never-failing intercession.

For the healing of all those afflicted with physical, mental, emotional illness, for those in hospitals, nursing homes, hospice care, those struggling with addictions, for those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for deceased clergy and religious, for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

 

May your mercy, we beseech you, O Lord, be with your people who cry to you, so that what they seek at your prompting they may obtain by your ready generosity.

30th Week in Ordinary Time 2025 - Wednesday - How many will be saved? (school mass)

 

Last week, I was able to visit the kindergarten, first grade, third grade, fifth grade, and seventh grade, and I was able to share a bit about my priestly calling—how I discerned and came to know that God was calling to me to be a priest.

In the first reading today, St. Paul talks about our calling—how each one of us are called to particular purpose. Each one of us, every single one of us here, every person ever born has purpose—a God-given purpose.

On one hand, we all have the same purpose—God gave us life—so that we might become holy and live with him for ever. Why did God make you? “God made you to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in heaven.” Next time I visit the classrooms, I might ask, you to repeat that answer: “Why did God make you? “God made you to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in heaven.”

In the Gospel, Jesus is asked a question, that very much relates to the purpose for which we are made. Jesus is asked, “how many people will be saved?” “How many people will fulfill that purpose for which they were made? How many people will choose to seek to know God, love God, and serve God, and come to that place prepared for them, so that they can be happy forever?” What’s the number? Of all the humans from the beginning of time to the end of time will fulfill the purpose for which they were made?

And notice, Jesus did not give a number. He didn’t say, oh, about half, or 99% or 1%. How did he answer? “Strive to enter the narrow gate. For many won’t make it, so make sure you do”

Many will be lost. Many will fail to fulfill their purpose. Many will fail to get to heaven. Why? Because they choose not to strive to get there.

So, make sure you do. Make sure you seek to know God, love God, and serve God as well as you possibly can.

Again this is why we have a Catholic school, this is why we have Catholic parishes, so that souls like you and me can come to discover how God is calling each of us to be holy. May we make good use of the time we have been given, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.