25th Week in Ordinary Time 2025 - Monday - Deliverance from captivity

 For a period in Israel’s history known as the Babylonian Captivity, the people of God were cut off from their Temple, their families, and their land. While in captivity, the stories could not be told, the traditions could not be practiced, the faith could not be passed on. 

So, a generation of Jews grew up without knowing about God freeing their people from slavery in Egypt; they grew up without knowing the promises God made to Abraham—without the knowledge of the ten commandments or the promised land.  They grew up only knowing the gods and practices of Babylon-- a culture which practiced child sacrifice, polygamy, and other behaviors condemned by Jewish law.

This is not hard to imagine. So many children and grandchildren these days do not know their faith, and have been totally assimilated by the culture. 

Today’s reading from the book of Ezra details the turning point in this sad chapter. In 539 BC, the Persian King Cyrus defeated the Babylonians. A year later King Cyrus decreed that he would allow the captive Jews to return to their homeland. 

“The LORD inspired King Cyrus of Persia” to free the Jews, and he even decreed that the Jews should be assisted in rebuilding the house of God—the Temple—in Jerusalem. God was faithful to his promise to deliver his people from their captivity.

Similarly, in our own day, God is at work to deliver the peoples of the world from the captivity of sin. And what instrument does he use? Us. The Church. 

It’s our mission to convert hearts to God—the hearts of kings and presidents and mayors and city councilmen and union leaders and heads of businesses and heads of families. This is why St. Paul writes to Timothy, as we heard in the Gospel yesterday, “First of all, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority”

As we are faithful to our mission—there will be liberation; but when we neglect our mission, captivities continue. 

In the Gospel, the Lord instructs his disciples that lamps are not given so that they may be hidden under a bushel. The light of lamps is to be shared for the good of all. The light of faith, which we have given, isn’t simply for our own sake, for what we do inside of Church buildings. It is meant to shine out in the world—in our words and deeds—especially in our charitable works.

May we be faithful in sharing the light of faith with those we encounter today and every day, that those in captivity may be freed, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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“That our parishes, animated by a missionary spirit, may be places where faith is communicated and charity is seen.”

That all Christians tasked with the spread of the light of the Gospel, may be faithful to that same Gospel in every dimension of their lives. We pray to the Lord.

For all those who have fallen away from the Church, those whose lives are darkened by sin, for the conversion of all unbelievers and those who have fallen into error, and the conversion of all hearts.

That the love of Christ, the divine physician, may bring healing to the sick and comfort to all the suffering. 

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

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.

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025 - The Virtue of Justice toward God and Neighbor

 

One of my favorite features of any Catholic Church are often the stained-glass windows. Some Churches depict scenes from scripture, some depict the sacraments, some depict saints.

I remember when Pope Benedict XVI visited the United States for the first time. Upon visiting the marvelous St. Patrick Cathedral in New York City, he commented that stained glass windows illustrate the mystery of the Church. He said, You don’t really get to experience the beauty or message of stained-glass windows from the outside of the Church.  “It is only from the inside, from the experience of faith and ecclesial life, that we see the Church as she truly is: flooded with grace, resplendent in beauty, adorned by the manifold gifts of the Spirit.” One of our duties, as Christians, is to welcome people to come inside, so that they can learn and experience the presence of God, and behold the truth and goodness and beauty of the Church from the inside. 

Yet, even those of us who are inside of the Church, should take some time to consider the meaning of the art and symbols that surround us. 

The stained-glass windows here at St. Clare contain a variety of symbols. And they are not just randomly placed. The first seven windows are the seven gifts of the holy spirit: wisdom, understanding, knowledge, council, piety, fortitude, and fear of the Lord. Next, are the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and love. And then there are the four cardinal virtues: justice, prudence, temperance, and fortitude. 

I’d like to consider the symbol for one of those stained glass windows today, the symbol for justice: the scales. From ancient times, scales have been used in trade and business and engineering to ensure right measurement and fair transactions.  Scales utilize two flat plates or bowls hanging from a central beam. You put the item you want to weigh on one plate. Then, you add weight to the other plate until both sides are perfectly level. When they are level, it means the weight on each of the plates is the same.

The scale shows whether one side is heavier than the other, the “heavier” side symbolically represents a debt, something yet to be repaid, evened out. So scales are a symbol of justice because justice is all about what we owe to others and what we owe to God.

Our readings this weekend each speak of justice, in their own way. In fact, the first reading even contains mentions of scales. The prophet Amos describes how immoral, unjustice and wicked people of his day can’t wait for the Sabbath to be over so that they could get back to cheating their customers. Amos describes them fixing their scales for cheating. 

Their unbalanced relationship with God led to an unbalanced relationship with their neighbor. They were unjust toward God, and that was reflected in their unjust treatment of others. 

And so Amos had a stark message for them. God was well aware of their injustices. “Never will I forget a thing they have done!” In other words, there would be eternal consequences for injustice, if they did not change their ways.

The message is timeless—what we do in this life matters, how we treat people, what we give to God and what we withhold from God out of selfishness, has consequences, for both society and the individual. So many of Jesus’ teachings have to do with how we treat the poor and downtrodden—we owe them care and charity—the same care and charity we would want for ourselves if we were in their shoes.

In the second reading today, St. Paul writes to Timothy about another matter of Justice: one of our Christian obligations to our neighbor, especially our leaders is to pray for them. St. Paul writes, “First of all, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority.”

If we want our government officials, our civil leaders, our bishops and priests to be righteous and good, we need to pray for them. We need to pray that they may have wisdom and prudence to govern well, and fortitude—because leadership is hard and affects many lives. There are temptations that our leaders face to tip the scales in their own favor. So we need to pray that they may be just in their duties. If justice demands they govern rightly, justice demands the governed pray for our leaders.

St. Paul goes on to explain the reason why it’s important to pray for our leaders: “that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity.” When leaders govern wisely, families live in peace, society flourishes, the Church is able to worship God and spread the Gospel in peace. Injustice and poor leadership, on the other hand, spreads disorder and harm to many. 

No doubt, some of the leaders Paul had in mind (like Roman emperors) were hostile to Christians — yet Paul still insisted they be prayed for. Jesus told us to pray not only for friends but also for enemies—"love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” Justice before God means we pray for and seek the good of all people, even those who oppose us, especially those whose hearts are so misaligned that they would persecute the Body of Christ. 

In the Gospel, we have this strange parable where the Lord appears to endorse the practices of a dishonest steward. When the steward recognizes that he had neglected his duties, does something drastic and cunning to save his job. 

This too is a story of justice. The steward does what he can, he utilizes his unique position and authority— in order to make things as right as possible. He exercises cunning and takes drastic measures to make things right. 

The message to Christians is that we are to do the same. We have been given time, talent, earthly and spiritual treasures from God. We owe it to God to use these things for his purposes. Unlike the world, which uses people to gain things, we are to use our things to gain people for God.  Our possessions are not simply for our own comfort and pleasure. They are to be utilized for the mission of the Church. 

Now, sometimes we neglect or turn away from Justice because we believe that giving will make our lives emptier, but our faith shows us, over and over, that giving makes our lives not emptier, but more full.

The people that we most admire are those who are generous and self-sacrificial. “He would give the shirt off of his back to help someone” is one of the highest complements we could receive. The saints, the martyrs are those who give of themselves and so become filled with the life of God.

Justice is such a vital virtue for all of us to cultivate. In a sense it encapsulates all of the virtues and really the entire Christian life because it stands for everything that we owe to God. 

The Word of God and the lives of the saints show us that justice brings peace. Justice restrains deceit, it protects and cares for the helpless and most vulnerable. It ensures a good peaceful life. It leads us to pray as we should, give as we should, worship as we should, love as we should. Justice brings peace for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

September 19 2025 - St. Januarius - Why Miracles?

St. Januarius was a bishop of the early church in Benevento, Italy, not too far from where my own maternal grandparents families were from.  Januarius was martyred in Roman Empire’s last major persecution of the Church, that of Emperor Diocletian.  

It is said, that Bishop Januarius was arrested while visiting a fellow Christian who had been imprisoned for his faith and was awaiting execution.

Januarius is a saint beloved by the people of Naples who call him San Gennaro. And due to the large number of Napoletani in New York, a large multi-day festival is held each year. This year is the 99th annual San Gennaro festival in New York.  

There is a very unique relic connected to the feast of Januarius, a vial of the saint’s blood, which has dried up.  However, several times a year, including today, his feast day, the relic is brought out for public veneration, and the crusty, dried up blood liquefies.  This miracle has been occurring for over 600 years and it’s one of the most scientifically studied miracles in the world. Scientists have been unable to explain this miracle.  

Why does God perpetuate this miracle? Perhaps because it reminds the world that He is God of awe and wonder and awesome works and strange ways. The miracles of the saints show us that God is at work in human history. 

Miracles also humble us, reminding us that not all things can be explained by science.  Science is not the great savior of the world. There are limits to human reason, things which we must accept by faith. 

This miracle also reminds us that the blood of the martyrs continues to have power. The blood of Januarius, spilled for Christ, encourages us, and reminds us that God sees and treasures our sufferings for the Church. Their blood inspires us and encourages us to work for the Gospel with the same fervor, to seek to love God with the same love that filled their hearts.

Our efforts for God’s glory are precious in His eyes. Every drop of martyr’s blood, every ounce of suffering for the sake of goodness, for the kingdom has value—our fasting, our penance, our mortification, the mockery we endure for the faith—our venturing out of our comfort zones to help people, like St. Januarius visiting the imprisoned—it means something to God—our sufferings will be remembered for eternity and will be rewarded.

May the sufferings of Januarius and the martyrs continue to speak powerfully to our fallen world. May their blood continue to work the great miracle of the transforming our hardened hearts to love God more fully and to serve him more devotedly for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That religious indifference in our country and around the world may be transformed to radical commitment to the Gospel of Christ.

For the transformation of all attitudes which lead to war, violence, racial hatred, and religious persecution.

That Christians who are persecuted for their faith may be sustained by God’s love and the encouragement of the Body of Christ.

That the love of Christ, the divine physician, may bring healing to the sick and comfort to all the suffering. 

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

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.

24th Week in Ordinary Time 2025 - Wednesday - Pillar and foundation of truth (school mass)

 

If someone told you 2 + 2 = 5, would you believe them? Why not? Because you know the truth. Or if someone said the sun is cold, you’d know that’s wrong.

In the first reading today, St. Paul wrote to a young bishop, named Timothy, and explained that the Church—the Church established by Jesus—is the pillar and foundation of truth, meaning the Catholic Church makes sure we don’t get tricked about what is true about God, about love, about how to live rightly in the eyes of God. The Church is like a giant light that shines so we don’t get lost in the dark.

In the Old Testament there is the story of Moses leading the Israelites through the desert on their way to the promised Land. They had to travel hundreds and hundreds of miles, on foot, with no map, no GPS, no google maps to guide them. But God created a pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night to guide them, so they wouldn’t get lost.

St. Paul, in calling the Catholic Church the pillar of truth, certainly wants us to think of that Old Testament story. Like that pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night guiding the Israelites through the desert on their way to the promised land, God has erected the Catholic Church as the pillar of truth, so that we may be guided to the promised land of heaven. 

This is why we have priests and bishops and Popes and trained teachers, who teach us about Jesus and what it means to follow Him. Because God doesn’t want us lost in the desert. He wants us to make our way through this life with clarity about how we are to live, with truth to guide our actions and decisions and behavior. 

So when you come to Mass, when you listen to your teachers, when you read the Bible, the Church is helping you learn the truth about God—the truth that God wants you to know.

For, Jesus didn’t want His truth to get lost or forgotten, so He gave us the Church. And just like that pillar of fire—shining with light in the darkness-- the Church shines with the light of God’s truth for the world that Jesus is real, that He loves us, that he truly is the Son of God, that He saves us, and that He is with us. 

In the Gospel today, Jesus described the people of his generation who turned their backs on the truth about who he was. So, too, in our own generation many people turn their back on God. Nonetheless, we have the responsibility of learning the truth, making God’s truth the foundation of our lives, living the truth, teaching the truth, shining with the truth of God for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time 2025 - The cost of discipleship...and what is gained

 

From now to the end of the liturgical year, our second readings will take us through each of St. Paul’s letters to individuals. So, starting today with St. Paul’s shortest letter, the one-chapter epistle to Philemon, over the next few weeks until Advent, we’ll then read from the apostle’s letters to St. Timothy and finally St. Titus. Today is the only day in the three-year cycle of readings that we read from Paul’s letter to Philemon. So, we should spend some time with it, shouldn’t we?

Around the year 60, Paul was arrested and imprisoned in Rome. Imprisoned with Paul was a slave who had been arrested for running away from his Master. The slave’s name was Onesimus. Imprisoned together, Paul got to know Onesimus; he shared the Gospel with him, baptized him, and formed him in the Christian Way. When Onesimus’ prison sentence had concluded, he was to return to his master, named Philemon, to whom Paul composed the letter we read from today. In this letter, Paul urged Philemon, who himself was a Christian, to free Onesimus from his bond of slavery, and allow Onesimus to return to Rome to assist Paul in his ministry.

This 2000 year old letter is an important testimony to the Christian belief in the equal human dignity of all persons—and the equality and unity of the baptized. 

According to the law of the land, Onesimus was Philemon’s legal possession. But, Paul urged Philemon to recognize that Onesimus was more than a possession, he was a brother. “Do what is proper” Paul urged Philemon: release him.

Now, consider what Paul was asking Philemon to do. Paul was urging Philemon to change his way of thinking and to give up something that he valued. Paul’s request was going to cost Philemon something. Philemon would have to change his lifestyle, change his household, change the way his family operated. Philemon no doubt relied on people like Onesimus. And now Paul was asking him to give something up that he relied on—to sacrifice comfort, societal norms, and his own preferences for the sake of the Gospel and because it was the right thing to do.

Paul knew that this request was going to be difficult—and costly to Philemon—but Paul made this request because it was the right thing to do.

In the Gospel this weekend the Lord speaks of how following him is costly to us--the cost of discipleship. Unless you give up family, you cannot be my disciple. Unless you carry the cross, you cannot be my disciple. Unless you renounce all of your possessions, you cannot be my disciple.

Discipleship has a cost—a cost from each of us. No one can pay it for you. It’s yours. Your responsibility. Your sacrifice. 

This is a hard message for us. Just like it was a hard message when Jesus taught it back then. St. Luke tells us in today’s passage that great crowds were following Jesus. A great number of people were with him. Moms and dads and kids and grandparents all walking together.

But then Jesus turns around and faces them, and addresses these moms and dads and kids and grandparents and says, “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”

This crowd of families just like you were walking with Jesus, but he says, if you want to follow me any further, if you want to follow me to my ultimate destination, it’s going to cost you something, something dearly. Your loyalty to family needs to come second, from here on out. Oh, by the way, your very life too, your impulse of self-preservation. You have to be willing to embrace the cross, to endure crucifixion—suffering and death. 

At this point in St. Luke’s Gospel, Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem. He was walking toward Jerusalem, on a sort of death march toward his Passion. And did any of these people end up following him there? Were any of them crucified with him on Calvary? Nobody, except two thieves. Not anyone from this great crowd, not his most beloved disciple. Some stood and watched and wept. But Jesus went alone, where fallen humanity was too fearful to go.

It’s not until after his resurrection when it finally clicked for us—when we understood--when the courage to follow Him unto death was truly bestowed upon us. 

Why should I give-up family loyalty and material wealth in order to follow him? Because it leads to resurrection and life everlasting. We don’t lose hope and turn away from God when we are presented with our crosses because we know God brings about tremendous good through them. Joy and life and profound transformation are discovered when we are faithful. When we go beyond our comfort zones to engage in the works of charity and to share the Gospel, when we resist temptation and willingly do penance—lives are transformed—minds and heart are filled with glory and light. We see it over and over in the lives of the saints.  St. Clare, left the luxury and wealth of her home, she left her family, despite their opposition, in order to devote her life to Jesus through radical poverty, like that of St. Francis. 

Ordinary people—transformed—filled with glory—because they were willing to follow Jesus when it cost them something. 

If the practice of the faith isn’t currently costing you something, you might not be heading in the direction the Lord is trying to lead you. And if that’s the case, pray for courage, pray for strength, ask him to help you, ask him to lead you where you are to fearful to go, if it be the will of God.

Because when you trust him, and follow him beyond your wants and fears and ingrained habits and prejudices and plans for your life, you will gain so much more: freedom, joy, blessing and life everlasting for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

September 5 2025 - St. Teresa of Calcutta - Transformed through prayer and charity

 

While a college seminarian, I spent a semester studying in Rome. Once a week, a few other students and I would walk down past the Coliseum. And right next to the Church of St. Gregory, the same patron saint as this church, there was and still is today a home for destitute and homeless men run by the Missionary Sisters of Charity the Religious Order founded by St. Mother Teresa

And at this house for the destitute, men would come off the streets, and the dear sisters would feed them, and offer them a bed for the night, a shower, medical care if need be.  

The sisters were breathtakingly patient, gentle, and kind as they treated these men as they would treat Jesus himself.  Mother Teresa took the words of today’s Gospel very seriously. “That which you did for the least, you did for me”.

I never met Mother Teresa , she died when I was still in high school, but I’ve met a number of her sisters, who had met her, who were inspired by her to give up their lives in service. And so many of those sisters possessed this charism of charity—that is certainly Mother’s lasting legacy to the Church.

It’s said that when anyone met Mother Teresa, they were often shocked at the fact that no matter how busy she was and no matter how many other people were around, when she talked to you, you felt like you were the only person in the world. She gave you her total attention, her total love, her total self every moment. She wasn’t looking past you to see if there was someone more important in the room. She wasn’t checking her social media.  She didn’t appear to be worrying about the other duties she had to attend to. She wasn’t trying to get back home so she could sit on her couch to veg-out or binge her favorite television show or get home to get dinner going. In her presence you experienced love.

One reason she was able to do this was because she gave Jesus her full-loving attention in her daily prayer. She would make holy hours of Eucharistic adoration daily. And because she gave Jesus her full, loving, attention in prayer, she was able to give you her full attention. And she didn’t just give Jesus her prayer, she gave him her service in everyone she met.

“That which you did for the least of my brethren, you did for me”. And you’d think that after day after day, week after week, year after year Mother and her sisters would be tired of helping people. But no. They are among the most fulfilled joyful people I have ever met. True joy. Not just bubbly, not just artificially cheerful, not putting on an act. When you allow love, charity to transform you, you receive the gift of joy.

May St. Teresa's holy example of loving service, charity for the poorest of the poor, care for the least, help us, inspire us, teach us, and challenge us, that, like her, we may be transformed through prayer and works of charity for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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Let us bring our prayers to the Lord with humility and trust.

For the Church throughout the world, that she may be a clear sign of God’s love for the poor and forgotten, and that her members may serve others with the selfless charity.

For all religious sisters, especially the Missionaries of Charity, that their lives of prayer, simplicity, and loving service may be strengthened and bear much fruit for the Kingdom of God. And for an increase in vocations to the consecrated religious life.

For the poor, the homeless, the sick, and the dying, those who feel unloved, forgotten, or abandoned, that through the care of Christian hearts and hands, they may know their dignity and the love of Christ.

For those who have died, the deceased members of our families, friends and parish, and for the forgotten and the poor who died alone, and for all the souls in purgatory, that they may come to see God face to face

God of love and mercy, You inspired St. Teresa of Calcutta to be a light to the world through humble service. Hear our prayers and grant that, following her example, we may love You with undivided hearts and serve You in our neighbor.

September 3 2025 - St. Gregory the Great - Striving for true greatness (School Mass)

 Throughout the year, we celebrate the saints as our heroes of Christian greatness. St. Clare, St. Francis, St. Paul, St. Benedict, St. Catherine—each of them show us what Christian greatness looks like. 

Today we celebrate a Saint, Saint Gregory, who is one of only a very few number of saints, in fact, a very few number of people in all of human history, who has been given the title “the great”. He is known as Saint Gregory the Great.

St. Gregory is known as “the great” for a number of reasons: he served the Church as Pope, and had great administrative skills. He served with the Gospel with great diligence, sending missionaries all over the world. He had great care for the poor. He ensured that the priests of the Church had a love for the poor and would go out into the streets of Rome to find and care for the poor in person. He had a great impact on the intellectual and spiritual life of the Church. And Gregorian Chant—the type of latin chant that has been used in the Church for over 1400 years is named after him—so he has a had a great impact on the Church’s worship.

But, in the end, most importantly, Saint Gregory is known as the great, not just because he a competent administrator, theologian or liturgist, but because he poured himself out in service to Christ.  He knew that true human greatness is found when we make serving God the most important thing in our life. 

In the Gospel today, the apostles are arguing about wanting to be great. And Jesus instructs them that true greatness isn’t about having power over people, about the number of people that owe you favors. True greatness isn’t about the number of followers you have—on the internet or real life. 

True greatness is about using your time, gifts, and resources to serve others—to help others.

Again this is why St. Gregory, and clare, and benedict, and paul, and francis are all great because they recognized the importance of serving God through service of others.

Jesus himself is the great exemplar of this—he serves the will of the Father to provide the greatest service to humanity possible, the salvation of our souls. Without Jesus’ great act of service—the service of his self-sacrifice—humanity would be lost forever.

Today, we do well to consider, how we are called to strive for greatness. Yes, we should strive to be great students, great teachers, great leaders, but not so we can hoard power over people, or be most famous in the eyes of the world. Rather, we strive for greatness in the eyes of God—great holiness, great imitation of Jesus, great charity, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

Labor Day 2025 - Engaging in God's work and rest

 

For over a century, Americans have celebrated Labor Day on the first Monday in September. This national holiday was established in the 1880s for two reasons: to mark the irreplaceable role of the American worker in making this country prosperous and strong; and to have time to attend speeches and events on the spiritual and educational aspects of work, the worker and the good that comes from work.

From the very beginning of our Sacred Scriptures, God the Creator is revealed to be quite different from the gods of the various pagan religions. Unlike the greek gods who lay in luxury on Mt. Olympus, for example, aloof from the toils of man, the God of the Bible is very clearly a worker. He’s more like a farmer, gardener, a sculptor, and builder than an apathetic aristocrat.

God is intimately involved in His creation, getting his hands dirty to bring about his salvific plan. He cultivates land into a garden. He fashions man out of the clay of the earth.

It follows then, that created in God’s, image man and woman, too, are to be workers—filling the earth, subduing it. God personally creates, sustains, cultivates, and redeems the world, and so our work is a continuation of God’s own labors. Whether you are a factory worker, a teacher, a nurse, an engineer, a parent, or retired but still giving your time in service, work is the way we participate in God’s creative action.

Good honest work is also at the service of others: The person who garbage man is making life safer and more pleasant for his neighbors. The parent who prepares a meal is serving the well-being of their family. The student who studies hard is preparing to offer their gifts to society in the future.

But work is not meant to consume us or define us entirely. God Himself rested on the seventh day, teaching us that while work is good, it is must not be all-consuming. Our ultimate dignity does not come from productivity but from being children of God. That’s why Labor Day, like the Sabbath, calls us not only to honor work, but also to remember the importance of reflection and renewal in God.

In the Gospel today, those who use the talents given to them by their master are praised by the Lord, and those who squander them and hide them, are condemned.

Labor Day is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on how you have used your talents for the glory of God and for betterment of your family and fellow man, to repent of those times when talent has gone squandered, and also to listen to the voice of inspiration. Even if you are retired from formal work, you do well to consider what new project might God be calling you to, in order to serve the community and the Church.

As we prayed in our Psalm today, may the Lord grant success to the work of our hands, and in all things, in all pursuits, in all our labors help us to serve Him, for the cultivation of the earth, for the building up of His kingdom, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That all Christians will work together in harmony for the building up of the Church and the spread of the Gospel

That our young people, especially those at risk of disengaging from society, may come to discover the fulfillment found in work and self-sacrifice.

For the unemployed and underemployed, and that all who work may receive a just reward for their labors.

For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation, addiction, or disease: may they know God’s strength and peace and the assistance of the Christian people.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, those who have supported us by their work, those who fought and died for our freedom, for all of the souls in purgatory and for X, for whom this mass is offered.

Gracious Father, you created us in your divine image, hear our prayers, and grant us the help we need to work always for your Holy Will, through Christ Our Lord. 

 

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025 - Conduct your affairs in humility

 During my Sunday homily, about a month ago, I reflected upon one of my favorite passages from the poet Dante—from the second volume of his Divine Comedy—the purgatorio. After making his way through the inferno, where he encounters the souls of the damned, Dante must make his way up the mountain of purgatory. And there he meets the souls, like himself, still in need of purification before they can enter heaven. 

In purgatory, the first group of souls Dante meets are those needing to be purified from the sin of pride. And these souls were undergoing a very unique type of purification—a remedy for their pride. Do you remember what it was? The souls of the prideful humbled themselves by carrying heavy weights on their backs, bowed down to the earth, and through prayer—particularly by praying the Our Father.

They refused to bow down to God as they should, in life, and they refused to pray as they should, so now, before entering heaven, they carried those heavy weights to teach them to humbly bow down to God as they should. And they prayed the Our Father, over and over, so that they could internalize that beautiful prayer of humble trust and surrender to the Will of God.

Humility. Humility is at the heart of our readings this sunday. In the first reading, the great Old Testament teacher, Sirach, taught his young students, “conduct your affairs with humility”…the greater you are, the more you need to humble yourself. 

Sirach here is certainly foreshadowing the teachings of Jesus. In the Gospel, Jesus told a parable all about humility: take the lowest place at the banquet, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted". 

Humility. It is to be one of the defining characteristics of our lives as Christians, because it was defining characteristic of Jesus himself. Though he was God, Jesus “humbled Himself” by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross.

The Gospels recount the humble nature of Jesus’ birth. He was born to a humble virgin and wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger in straw poverty. He grew up in obscurity. The Gospels have nothing to say about the majority of his life, except that he was humbly obedient to his parents in the house of Nazareth.

His humility is seen throughout his public ministry; Jesus did not have a house of his own. While in Capernaum, he stayed in the house of Simon Peter. He surrounded himself not with the rich and powerful, but poor fishermen. He associated with public sinners, and ministered not primarily to the wealthy, but those who could not repay him: the poor, the sick, the lame, and the demon possessed.

So many of his teachings are about humility: “blessed are the poor in spirit” are the opening words of his great sermon. In other words, if you wish to become great in the eyes of God, you must become completely dependent upon God. 

Jesus tells stories highlighting examples of humility like that of the tax collector and the pharisee. It is the tax collector who humbly admits himself to be a sinner in need of God who is exalted by Jesus, and not the supposed religious expert who thought he was doing everything right in his own eyes.

When his disciples argued about which one of them would be the greatest, Jesus rebukes them, saying, “The kings of the Gentiles lord their power over their subjects … But it must not be so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you be as the youngest, and the leader as the servant.”

Humility. St. Augustine, doctor of the Church, whose feast was this last week on August 28 said, “If you should ask me what are the three most important virtues, I would tell you they are humility, humility, and humility…if humility does not precede all that we do, our efforts are meaningless.”

St. John Vianney said: “humility is to the various virtues what the chain is to a rosary. Take away the chain and the beads are scattered; remove humility, and all the virtues vanish.”

Humility is the foundation for the life of holiness and for all the virtues, which is why humility, “poverty of spirit” is listed as the first of the beatitudes. 

So what does it mean to “conduct your affairs with humility” as Sirach teaches? Well, what affairs? Humility is needed in our family lives, towards your spouse, toward your children, toward your parents, towards your bishop, towards your fellow parishioners. It is needed in your business decisions, toward strangers, toward cashiers and waitresses, and slow bank tellers when you are in a hurry. 

Humility. It’s the recognition that I am not more important than anyone else. It means putting others’ needs before our own, even when we’re tired or inconvenienced. It means asking, “How can I serve?” rather than “What do I get out of this?” 

Humility does NOT mean simply having a low-open of yourself, or inflicting an inferiority complex on yourself. As C.S. Lewis famously observed, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.” Do you see the difference?

We spend an awful lot of time and energy thinking about ourselves, comparing ourselves to others, and we are sadder for it. Constantly worrying about social standing leads to social anxiety. Constantly focusing on what others have leads to envy and resentment, which makes us bitter.

Humility on the other hand, frees us from self-preoccupation, from the pride which poisons joy.

A humble person understands that their life, abilities, opportunities, and even their faith are gifts from God, not entitlements or achievements of their own making. And in recognition that God is the source of our blessings, the response of the humble heart is gratitude. A humble heart, is a grateful heart.

Humility isn’t easy. If it was, the word of God wouldn’t spend so much time teaching and commanding it. Humility takes effort. Cultivating gratitude over envy, shifting from self-preoccupation to service, takes real effort. But this is the Way. This is the Way of Christ. Without taking humility seriously, we will never progress very far in the spiritual life on earth, and we are likely setting ourselves up for a very very long and uncomfortable purgatory.

So, let’s ask the Lord to help us to grow in this most Christ-like of virtues, after all, he wants us to grow in it. We’ll certainly be happier for it, and holy, too, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

August 29 2025 - The Passion of Saint John the Baptist - The Precursor

St. John the Baptist plays a prominent role every year in our Advent preparations for Christmas. John is the great preparer, proclaiming “Prepare Ye, the way of the Lord.” John is a precursor or forerunner for the Lord in a number of ways.

The angel Gabriel told Zechariah that John would go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers toward children and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to prepare a people fit for the Lord.” So, John’s very conception and birth were oriented to his role as Jesus’ herald.

John’s ministry of preaching and baptism prepared people for Jesus’ ministry. “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I…he will baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire”

Today, we read the Gospel of John’s martyrdom. In his martyrdom, he foreshadows Christ’s own suffering and death. Just as he heralded Christ’s birth, he also precedes Him in dying unjustly at the hands of corrupt rulers.

The Old Testament prophets foretold how a Precursor would precede the coming of the Lord. Speaking through Malachi God said, “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.” Jesus himself references this prophecy about John as the forerunner.

St. Augustine, whose feast we celebrated yesterday, spoke about John as the forerunner and precursor. Augustine wrote, “John was the voice, but the Lord is the Word. John is a friend, but the Lord is the Bridegroom. John was placed at the frontier of both Testaments: he pointed out the coming Christ, and by dying before Him, he was His precursor in death.”

So it is clear, through scripture and the Church Fathers that God made John the Forerunner, but WHY? Why did God choose to act this why? He didn’t need a forerunner, yet he chose to arrange salvation history in this way.

All throughout salvation history, God prepares before He acts. Before the Flood, God prepared Noah by warning him and telling him to build the ark. Before the giving of the Ten Commandments, the people were to prepare themselves through consecrations, washing, and abstaining. Before David is made King, Samuel is sent to anoint David. Before serious judgments like the Babylonian exile, God sends prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel to call Israel to repentance.

God gives us a chance to ready ourselves, to turn our attention to the activity of God. God is no doubt preparing each of us right now for something later. God prepares us for heavy crosses by sending us little ones first. God prepares us to teach the faith, by giving us opportunities to learn it ourselves. God prepares us for acts of generosity, by blessing us with good things now, so we can give them away later. God prepares us to be the saints of the 21^st century, by drawing us to honor the saintly witnesses of those who have gone before us.

May we prepare well for all that God has in store for us, through repentance, and study, and gratitude for our blessings, and readiness to serve his Holy Will for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

- - - 

 

With trust in God’s great providence, we entrust our needs for the good of the Church and the world.

For the Church: That, like St. John the Baptist, she may always prepare the world to receive Christ by proclaiming the truth with courage and humility.

For world leaders and rulers: That they may govern with justice and integrity, and not follow the example of Herod who shed innocent blood, but instead protect the dignity of every human life.

For those who suffer persecution or injustice: That, they may remain steadfast in faith and know the consolation of God’s presence.

For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation, addiction, or disease: may they know God’s strength and peace and the assistance of the Christian people.

For our beloved dead, especially those who bore witness to Christ in their lives: That, like John the Baptist, they may rejoice to behold the Bridegroom in eternal life.

God our Father, you sent St. John the Baptist as the forerunner of your Son, to prepare a people fit for the Lord. Hear our prayers and prepare us by your grace for the glory of eternal life. Through Christ our Lord.

 

 

August 27 2025 - St. Monica - Tears of a grief-stricken parent

“Do not weep” the Lord said to the mournful mother. For any grief-stricken parent, those are challenging words. How does a parent hold back their tears at the death of a child?

The grief of a parent who loses a child is unlike any other kind of sorrow. There is shock and disbelief. Even if the death is expected through illness, the reality of loss often feels incomprehensible.

It is a grief that brings with it fatigue and body ache. A parent feels as if their identity is shattered—are they really a parent if their child is gone? Even when the loss is beyond their control, there is a sense of failure.

The Lord drew near to the grief-stricken mother with compassion, and as members of the Church, we are to do the same. We have a special obligation to the grief-stricken—those who have lost their children or spouses or family physically. Our bereavement ministry is one type of outreach, but we do well to pray often for the grief-stricken.

This reading has been especially chosen by the Church for the memorial of St. Monica, who wept for her son, Augustine, as he engaged in a life of mortal sin.

Augustine was not unlike many modern Catholic young people. After moving out their Catholic home, they stop going to church, they engage in licentiousness, they adopt behaviors and ideas that are totally inconsistent with the path of life. Monica wept for her son, who had a child out of wedlock and became involved in strange cults. I know many parents who are filled with similar grief.

St. Ambrose, who was instrumental in Augustine’s conversion, wrote how the whole Church weeps for the fallen away. He wrote, “Let the Mother of the Church weep for you, she who intercedes for all as a widowed mother for only sons, for she suffers with the spiritual grief…when she perceives her children urged on to death by mortal sins”.

For that is why Monica wept: she dreaded that her son would die in mortal seen and be separated from the Lord of Life in eternity. But Monica did not just weep or dread. As a woman of faith, she prayed and entrusted her Son to the Lord day after day. She brought the intention of Augustine’s conversion to the altar as she attended mass.

Years later, in his spiritual autobiography, Augustine writes about how his mother was instrumental in his conversion: “Lord, while she constantly wept over me in your sight as a over a dead man, it was over one who though dead could still be raised to life again; she offered me to you upon the bier of her medication, begging you to say to this widow’s son, ‘Young man, arise, I tell you,’ that he might live again and begin to speak, so that you could restore him to his mother.”

St. Monica trusted that Augustine, though apparently dead, could be raised. St. Monica is a model of patience, persistence, prayer, faith and trust in the Lord of Life. May she assist all those who grieve, and pray for all those for whom we grieve, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

- - - -  

With confidence in God who hears the cry of the sorrowful and answers the prayers of the faithful, let us place our petitions before Him.

For the holy Church of God: that, like St. Monica, she may persevere in prayer for all her children, especially those who have wandered from the faith.

For parents who grieve the loss of a child: that they may find comfort in the Lord who draws near to the brokenhearted.

For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation, addiction, or disease: may they know God’s strength and peace and the assistance of the Christian people.

For all our beloved dead, that they may be raised up in Christ to the joy of eternal life.

God of mercy and compassion, you heard the tears and prayers of St. Monica and brought about the conversion of her son Augustine. Hear our prayers this day, console those who grieve, and bring back the lost to your Church, through Christ our Lord.

 

21st Week in Ordinary Time 2025 - Tuesday - Seeking Holiness - (Opening School Mass)

 

Welcome, everyone to our first school mass of the new school year. 

One of the most important things that we can do together as a Catholic school is to gather for Mass.

At Mass, we listen to the sacred scripture—readings from the bible—the Word of God—in which God speaks to us. And we celebrate the Eucharist—the sacrament of the altar—in which bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Jesus. 

In the first Scripture reading today, St. Paul talks about the great effort he has undergone to bring the Gospel to a place called Thessalonica. St. Paul had undergone a journey of thousands of miles to travel to Thessalonica. Remember, St. Paul began his journey in Jerusalem, where Jesus died and rose again. And he desired with all his heart to bring the good news of Jesus’ saving death and resurrection to people all over the world. So he journeyed on foot and by sea, through mountains, through country filled with bandits and murders, areas plagued with disease, to places that he had never been before, to share the Christian faith with the world. He nearly died, many times on this journey. He was arrested. He was beaten. He angered people who did not want to believe in Jesus. But he did so because he believed the spreading the Gospel was the most important thing he could do with his life.

And why did he believe that? Because he had met Jesus. And he understood that believing in Jesus, and following Jesus, and learning from Jesus, and changing our lives to become like Jesus by becoming holy like Jesus, was the most important thing any of us can do. 

This is why we have a Catholic school. This is why we have a beautiful catholic church. Because believing in Jesus and following Jesus and changing our lives to become like Jesus by becoming holy like Jesus is the most important thing any of us can do. 

In the Gospel passage today, Jesus himself talks about becoming holy. Jesus was talking to a group of Pharisees—a group of people who thought they knew all about becoming holy. They thought that you become holy if you dress like a holy person dresses. And Jesus says, no, being holy isn’t just a game of dress-up. Holiness is not play acting. You don’t becoming holy by what you wear on the outside, but by what you change on the inside.

Jesus said, if you only wash the outside of the cup, but ignore the inside, you still have a dirty cup. It’s the same thing with people. Catholics believe that we must allow Jesus every day to clean our minds, and clean our hearts, and clean our choices—to change our selfishness into generosity, our pride into humility, our fear into courage, our hate into love.

Throughout the school year you will be coming to mass every week, you will be learning about the message of Jesus during your school days. Really listen to Jesus’ message and consider each day how that message is meant to change your minds and your hearts and your attitudes and the way that you treat people. And as you take Jesus’ message to heart, you will find him dwelling there---for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

- - - -  

Please respond to each of these petitions, “Lord hear our prayer”

As we begin a new school year, we pray that God may bestow gifts of wisdom and understanding upon our students, and that teachers may share their knowledge with gentleness, diligence, and patience.

May the message of Jesus be taken to heart, may it transform us, and guide us in the ways of true peace.

We pray for our families, that the peace of God may dwell in them—for parents who struggle with many challenges—that God may give them strength.

We pray for our nation—that God’s word may guide our government leaders—and help them to work for true and lasting justice and peace.

For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation, addiction, or disease: may they know God’s strength and peace and the assistance of the Christian people. 

For the deceased members of our family, friends, and parish, and all of the souls in purgatory: may they share in the joy of life-everlasting with the Risen Lord. 

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ Our Lord.

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025 - Strive to enter the narrow gate

 Nine days ago, we celebrated the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, body and soul, into heaven. After a blessed life, devoted to serving the will of God—with a heart which embraced sorrow and suffering and unexpected joys, a mind which pondered God’s mysterious ways, Our Lady was assumed body and soul—certainly a unique entrance into heaven.

Entrance into heaven is the topic of conversation in the Gospel passage today. Who can be saved? Who can enter into heaven. Is heaven a promise only to a few?

And how does our Lord answer. Well, he doesn’t give a number. And he doesn’t say that yes, there will only be a few able to enter heaven, nor does say that everyone goes to heaven.

Rather, he describes the way by which all people are to seek heaven—the mode, the method, the manner, the attitude: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.”  We are to strive for heaven.

The word “strive” in the original New Testament Greek is a really interesting word. It’s Agōnize-es-the, from which we get the word agonize. Jesus tells us here to agonize to enter heaven—we are to struggle and strain for heaven. To borrow an image from St. Paul we are to be like athletes running exerting all of our strength to reach the finish line, pushing themselves through emotional and physical limits to reach the goal. 

Is that how most of us would describe our efforts to grow in holiness? In the practice of prayer and good works and seeking out souls, are we struggling and straining to use the time we’ve been given for the work of the Gospel? Most of us would need to admit, no we don’t. Which is why we pray over and over, Lord have mercy upon us. 

“Strive to enter the narrow gate” Notice the Lord doesn’t say, it’s important to have striven for heaven at one point in the past or it’s okay if you put off striving for heaven for when it is most convenient for you. Agōnize-es-the isn’t a past tense verb, it’s not a future tense verb, it’s in the present tense: “agonize now and don’t stop” The Christian life requires constant effort for heaven.

Now, there are some protestant denominations that seem to profess that as long as at some point in your life you’ve acknowledged that Jesus is God and Savior, that you are basically automatically guaranteed heaven. Some of us Catholics treat baptism with the same attitude. But that doesn’t align with the biblical data. Why strive if heaven is guaranteed? Baptism isn’t the end of the race; it’s the starting point. 

Throughout the Christian life, we face the constant temptation to slacken in our efforts for sanctification: I’ll begin to take prayer seriously tomorrow, I’ll go to confession next month, I’ll engage in some charitable work when it’s more convenient. I’ll begin reading the Bible just after binge watching this new show on Netflix: But what happens when we put off spiritual growth until tomorrow? To quote Meredith Wilson: “You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays.” Excuses about not getting serious about the Christian life leave us emptier and sadder for it.

The pursuit of heaven, the pursuit of spiritual growth, conversion from sin, docility to the inspirations of the holy spirit, this is to be first in our life. Seek first the kingdom of God. But then, on top of this immense, all-encompassing agonizing effort on our part to reach heaven, what does the Lord say next? He says, the gate of heaven is narrow. The width of the door to Heaven is the span of a needle’s eye, something that is anything but easy to pass through. 

Entering the narrow gate requires us to change. The behaviors and attitudes that are incompatible with heaven need to change:  our selfish clinging to sinful pleasures, our grudges and hatreds, our prideful self-aggrandizement. It needs to change into temperance, self-control, generosity, forgiveness, and humility. They need to change into Christ—who is Love.

Now many who presented with the demand for conversion have a negative reaction. Instead of conforming themselves to Christ, they complain about how narrow the gate is, how small it looks.  Many, when presented with the commandments of God and the teachings of the Church, say, 

“no, too narrow, too rigid, too outdated, for me”.  They lobby for the Church to change her teachings instead of exercising the humility and fortitude to change themselves. But that’s not what Jesus asks. “Strive to enter the narrow gate”.

It is a tough gospel, a tough lesson. But, isn’t it the message of the cross? The key to the narrow gate of heaven is the cross that the Lord has told us to take up and carry, each and every one of us.

“If this is the case, who can be saved?” we might find ourselves saying, like the apostles. God of course has not left us to accomplish the impossible on our own. He provides us the necessary grace, the strength, the assistance of the angels and saints, and the gift of us very life in the Eucharist. 

Jesus doesn’t leave us agonizing on our own, with all our weaknesses, staring at the uphill narrow road as a sheer, unscalable cliff. He gathers us together every week: guiding and teaching us by his word, bolstering us through our prayer together, joining us in the bonds of charity to accompany, encourage, and assist each other. And He feeds us the spiritual food of the Eucharist so that we might come to the eternal banquet of heaven.

And that’s how the Gospel today ends doesn’t it? With that beautiful image. Those who strive and strain to enter the narrow gate, from east, west, north, and south, will come to recline at the heavenly table in the kingdom of God. 

May we find our strength, our life, in the Eucharist today, to carry the cross, to strive to enter the narrow gate, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

August 6 2025 - Transfiguration and Cross

 

Today we celebrate the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. Why? Why August 6? It seems like such a random day. We read the account of the Lord’s Transfiguration of Mount Tabor every year on the 2^nd Sunday of Lent, but Scripture is not clear that the Transfiguration took place near Good Friday, only that the Transfiguration occurred shortly after the Lord made his first prediction of his Passion.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the feast was adopted in the liturgy about the tenth century in many dioceses, and was celebrated mostly on 6 August. In 1456, Pope Callixtus III extended the feast to the Universal Church in memory of a victory over the Ottoman Turks in Belgrade on August 6, 1456.

Many have noted that August 6 is 40 days prior to the feast of the Exultation of the Cross, which is a much older feast, going back to Constantine’s dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in 335.

And that explanation makes sense to me, the Transfiguration cannot really be understood apart from the cross.

The Transfiguration occurs in Luke’s Gospel directly after Christ calls His followers to pick up their Cross and follow Him: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it.”

The liturgy itself makes this connection. In the Eucharistic preface, we will hear that Jesus “revealed his glory in the presence of chosen witnesses and filled with the greatest splendor his bodily form which he shares with all humanity, that the scandal of the Cross might be removed from the hearts of his disciples”.

The Lord foretells how being his disciple includes carrying a cross, suffering, enduring challenge and trial, and dying to self in order to accomplish the Father’s will. And yet, in the Transfiguration, the Lord gives us a glimpse of heavenly glory. St. Paul writes to the Romans, that we have been made “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.”

Heavenly glory awaits those who are willing to suffer with Christ to accomplish God’s will on earth. This is why we labor and toil and risk persecution. The promise of heaven. The cross is the road to transfiguration.

May we bear our crosses with faith, hope, and live, dying to self, that we may live for God, dying with Christ, that we may live with Him forever, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

 

For the Church, that inspired by the glimpse of glory revealed in Christ's Transfiguration, we may have the courage to take up our crosses daily. Let us pray to the Lord.

For our parish community, that our participation in the Eucharist may transfigure us and provide us the strength to bear witness to Christ in our daily lives. Let us pray to the Lord.

For those facing trials and sufferings, that they may find strength and consolation in the promise of Christ's glory, just as the apostles were strengthened for the journey ahead. Let us pray to the Lord.

For those who have died, that they may share in the fullness of Christ's glory in heaven, which was glimpsed on Mount Tabor, especially N, for whom this mass is offered. Let us pray to the Lord.

Heavenly Father, You revealed the glory of Your Son on Mount Tabor, strengthening the disciples for the journey ahead. As we bring these petitions before You, transfigure our hearts with Your grace, that we may faithfully bear our crosses and reflect Your light in the world.

 

August 05 2025 - St. Mary Major - Entrusting ourselves to Our Lady

 

Typically the Church’s Liturgical Calendar calls for the celebration of a holy person, but today we celebrate the dedication of a holy place: St. Mary Major, one of Rome’s four principal basilicas.  The others are St. Peter’s, St. John Lateran, and St. Paul outside the Walls.

The basilica is the largest Marian church in the world.  It stands atop one of Rome’s seven hills, and despite many restorations, still has the character of an early Roman basilica, containing ancient mosaics and a breathtaking shrine containing the relics of the crib of Bethlehem.

The basilica is of particular importance to the Christians of Rome, for it contains the ancient and venerated image of Mary, the Salus Populi Romani, depicting the Blessed Virgin as the help and protectress of the Roman People.

According to legend, this image of Our Lady holding the Christ child, was painted by the St. Luke. The story goes that after the crucifixion, the pious women of Jerusalem urged St. Luke to visit Mary in the home of John the Apostle to memorialize her image. While he painted, the Mother of Jesus spoke of the life of her son. This explains how St. Luke’s Gospel contains the all those marvelous stories from prior to the birth of Jesus. St. Luke brought the painting back to Jerusalem where it remained until it was discovered by Saint Helen in the 4th century

Holy Father Pope Francis would visit this image of Our Lady before and after his apostolic journeys. In his last will and testament, the late Holy Father wrote, “I wish my last earthly journey to end at this very ancient Marian shrine where I would go to pray at the beginning and end of each apostolic journey to confidently entrust my intentions to the Immaculate Mother and to thank her for the docile and maternal care.” And so, according to his wishes, it is now where Francis’ remains are laid to rest.

Customarily, the pope celebrates Mass at Mary Major each year on the feast of the Assumption of Mary, Aug. 15. So Pope Leo will be celebrating at Mary Major on the upcoming Holy Day.

The Church universal calls upon our Lady today who we delight in honoring in statutes, shrines, churches, paintings, sculptures, medals, basilicas, and even naming our children after her. Like the late Holy Father, we do well to turn to her image or at least call upon her before and after our endeavors. In doing so, we give glory to God, we entrust ourselves to our spiritual Mother’s maternal care, and we seek her aid in living out our Christian duties, particular vocations, and apostolates, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

- - - - 

For the Church, our Holy Mother: That she may continue to nurture and guide the faithful through her teachings and sacraments, bearing Christ to the world in word and deed. Let us pray to the Lord.

For those who feel distant from the Church: That they may experience anew the maternal love of Mary and the Church, finding their way back to the family of faith. Let us pray to the Lord.

For vocations to the priesthood and religious life: That many may respond generously to God's call to serve as instruments of His love and mercy within Mother Church. Let us pray to the Lord.

That all government leaders may be awakened to the supreme dignity of every human life, and that all people of our nation may work together for an end to the culture of death.

That members of the Church may be attentive to the needs of those who suffer, and that sick and the poor may be open to the merciful grace of God.

For the deceased members of our families and parishes, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, and for N., for whom this Mass is offered.

We pray, O Lord our God, that the Virgin Mary, who merited to bear God and man in her chaste womb, may commend the prayers of your faithful in your sight. Through Christ our Lord.

 

 

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025 - Vanity of vanities

 The book of Ecclesiastes was written about 300 years before the birth of Our Lord and is part of the Old Testament known as the Wisdom literature, along with the book of Proverbs and Psalms. The Jewish people read from the book of Ecclesiastes every year during the festival of Booths, when they celebrate the fall harvest. And there is some wisdom there. In the midst of the abundance of the harvest—the abundance of earthly things—they read “vanity of vanities all things are vanity”—a reminder that the things of the earth pass away, they are as ephemeral as a breath.

We are to take the wisdom of Ecclesiastes to heart: that the purpose of life isn’t simply to toil for earthly things—to hoard up earthly treasure. In the end our earthly pursuits really aren’t that important. Scripture calls it foolishness to spend your life toiling away just to make a bunch of money to pass onto children who will likely squander it.

Rather, we are to live wisely. Wisdom seeks what is highest and most important. We are to live in such a way in which we seek not what is earthly, but what is timeless, in which we are oriented not toward the earthly but to the eternal, to accumulate and pass on to future generation not simply earthly wealth but eternal wisdom. Wisdom is more valuable than wealth or earthly accolades. What good is winning an earthly race if you lose the heavenly one.

When confronted by someone from the crowd who is clearly overly concerned with earthly matters, Our Lord in the Gospel this today teaches, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” Greed—the love of money—the love of possessions—is a powerful motivating factor for a lot of people, in ancient Israel, in Jesus’ day, and in our own. And so the Lord says, take care to guard against this temptation. Take care, exert effort, to make sure your life is properly oriented.

And then to drive home his point, the Lord tells a parable in which a man who foolishly hoarded earthly possessions dies and ends up with nothing.  “Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.”

If we are focused more on earthly things than heavenly things we are dead inside, we are not on the path of life that leads to heaven.

The Scripture readings throughout Ordinary Time are wonderfully challenging. They help us to ensure that our priorities are straight, our lives are in order, that we are properly oriented to running the race that matters most to God.

Consider what we’ve heard over the last three weeks. Three weeks ago, we heard the story of the Good Samaritan. What matters to God is that we exercise charity to all, we expand our definition of a neighbor to include those whom the rest of the world overlooks. What matters to God is that we become Good Samaritans to all.

Two weeks ago, we heard of Jesus’ visit to the home of Martha and Mary. When Martha complained about being overwhelmed with earthly matters, we heard what mattered most to Jesus is what Mary was doing: she was nurturing a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus by listening to his words, sitting in his presence.

And then last week, we heard how Jesus taught his disciples to pray. He taught his disciples the perfect prayer, the Our Father. What matters to God is that we seek His Will over our own, that we approach him with open-hands daily instead of relying on our own self-sufficiency, that we practice unconditional forgiveness, that we seek God’s protection and deliverance from all evil every day. The Our Father is a sort of checklist. Are you seeking God’s will every day, are you turning to God for your daily bread, the help you need that can only come from God, are you seeking to become more merciful every day. If not, conversion, change is needed.

Then today’s parable about earthly stuff reminds us that God is not impressed by the quantity of our assets. Heaven—eternal life— is not obtained by the number of trophies, degrees, social media followers and likes.

What impresses God is the quality of our our souls, whether our lives are filled with his truth, goodness, and beauty, or not.

In the Second Reading, St. Paul says bluntly: “put to death, the parts of you that are earthly:” Here’s the remedy for our tendency to love the things of earth more than the things of heaven.

The parts of us that are obsessed with storing up things that do not matter to God, put them to death, bury them and leave them behind. The things that cause you to forget about heaven, your Christian duties, your Christian identity, sever your relationship with them.

Paul says put to death “immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry.”  Do everything you can to stop following impulses which are soley focused on earthly pleasure, earthly gain.

God wants to share his very life with us, to make us like himself, full of generous self-giving and limitless charity. But we need practice discipline toward the earthly, so that we may say yes to God.

At this Holy Mass Jesus comes once again to renew us in Word and Sacrament, may he continue to free us from the desire for earthly things and increase our hunger and thirst for holiness, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

17th Week in Ordinary Time 2025 - Monday - Growth of the Kingdom of Heaven

 In the course of his public ministry, the Lord employed parables to teach about discipleship, faithfulness, and charity.

Today’s Gospel contained two short parables to describe growth—growth in the kingdom of heaven.

Before we consider the parables, what does the Lord mean when he uses that phrase, “the kingdom of heaven”. The kingdom of heaven is a constant topic in the Lord’s teaching. The phrase is used over 30 times in the Gospel of Matthew. A number of the parables describe what the “kingdom of heaven” is like. So, it’s a multi-faceted idea. Sometimes the kingdom of heaven seems to be describing the body of believers, sometimes the dominion of God, sometimes the presence of God in the individual soul, sometimes all these things at once.

Today’s parables speak of the kingdom of God as a reality that experiences growth. It starts off small, even barely visible, even undetectable to physical sight, but it can grow, and grow even beyond our human expectations.

The small seed growing into a large bush big enough for all of the birds of the sky to dwell in its branches makes us think of the Church. The Lord’s mission in establishing the kingdom of heaven began with very small beginnings but encompasses all nations, all people, and all time.

So too with the life of charity in the individual soul. It often starts off small, the small seed planted at baptism, the first hearing and reception of the Gospel. And then it has the potential to bloom into a magnificent sight, as seen in the lives of the saints. We must certainly do all that we can to cultivate the life of the kingdom of heaven in our hearts. 

But also, this Gospel certainly challenges us to never underestimate the power and importance of small acts of charity and sharing the Gospel with single individuals. This is how the kingdom of heaven grows. Again look at the saints. Most of these people started off as uneducated unremarkable people, and became bright, shining, majestic souls because someone, often a parent, or an ordinary Catholic like you and me, took the time, took the risk, to share the Word of God with them.

I remember, Pope Benedict warning Catholics to resist what he calls “the temptation of impatience”, that is the temptation to insist on “immediately finding great success” in “large numbers”.  “For the Kingdom of God and for evangelization, the parable of the grain of mustard seed is always valid.”  This new modern phase of the Church’s evangelization mission is likely not one of immediately attracting the large masses from the secular world or people who have distanced themselves from the Church” to begin attending mass. 

Rather, start with your neighbor, the individual looking for God, looking for fulfillment in something more than the culture has to offer. Believe in the power of God to transform the mustard seed, and act accordingly, to build up the kingdom of heaven, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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Trusting in the power of God’s grace, let us bring our petitions to the Lord:

For the Church throughout the world: That she may remain faithful in planting the seeds of the Kingdom through word, sacrament, and service.

For all Christians engaged in the work of evangelization: That they may resist the temptation of impatience and find renewed hope in the slow but steady growth of God’s grace in the hearts of others.

For those who have strayed from the faith or feel distant from the Church: That through the witness of faithful individuals and small acts of love, they may rediscover the beauty and truth of the Gospel.

For those who suffer in body or spirit, especially the lonely and forgotten: That they may find shelter and hope in the branches of God’s mercy and the compassion of His people.

For the faithful departed: That the seed of faith planted in their lives may now blossom into the fullness of eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven. 

God of mercy and love, hear our prayers and give us the grace to cooperate in Your work of salvation, trusting always in Your power to transform our efforts, through Christ our Lord.

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025 - Purification from Pride

 The Catholic poet, Dante Alighieri, wrote a famous poem, over 700 years ago now, called the Divine Comedy—La Comedia Divina.  In the three books of La Comedia, Dante chronicles a pilgrimage he makes through hell, purgatory, and heaven.   He describes the horrific sights and sounds of the punishment of the wicked in hell for their failure to repent from their self-centeredness. He then makes his way up the mountain of purgatory, where he meets the repentant souls undergoing purification from the effects of their life’s sinfulness. Dante finally visits heaven, il paradiso, where amidst glorious celestial light he meets the blessed saints, who free from all selfishness, now enjoy the beauty of being in God’s presence.

Of the three books of La Comedia, I always enjoy reading the purgatorio. Dante structures the purgatorio according to the seven deadly sins: pride, envy, wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lust, in that order. Even in structuring the book this way, Dante is inspiring hope. Because what is he saying? He’s saying that even if you’ve committed these sins—if you repent and do penance, you can begin to make your way to heaven.

As he first arrives at the base of the mountain of purgatory, Dante meets a very large group of souls, the largest he encounters in purgatory—those needing to be purified from sins of pride. And this is the largest group because for Dante, every sin can be traced back to pride. In a sense, all sin involves that prideful turning away from God, claiming to know better than God, pridefully rejecting God’s will.

Pride is a sin condemned by Jesus himself. Explicitly, Jesus condemns the pride of the Pharisees: not only have they pridefully placed themselves in the place of God and misguided God’s people, they pridefully refuse to recognize Jesus. 

The prideful in purgatory are the largest group also because pride, for most of us, takes the longest and most effort to be freed from. How many people here are totally free from pride: not me. And we are the ones that recognize that we have a problem! Consider all the people out there that don’t even recognize the need to pray, to come to church, to keep God’s commandments, and to repent from sin.

As a remedy for their pride--as part of their purification--Dante describes the repentant souls as willingly doing two things: firstly, he describes them as carrying a huge weight on their back which weighs them down to the ground. Why? For, in life the prideful refuse to bow as we should: we pridefully refuse to humbly bow to God as we should, to God’s will, we pridefully refuse to bow in deference to the needs of our neighbor. So the souls willingly carry this heavy spiritual weight, to teach them how to bow. 

Additionally, the souls are depicted engaging in an act of humility taught by the Lord himself in today’s Gospel. Until they are totally freed from their pride, they pray—they pray the prayer taught by Jesus himself, the Our Father, the Lord’s prayer.  Their purification from pride, the healing of their willfulness and self-centeredness, the conversion of their sinful egotism, was to recite over and over, humbly and devoutly, the Lord’s prayer.

Why does Dante see the Our Father as a fitting purification for pride? Sinful Pride claims “MY WILL BE DONE”, you should all bow to me, my way of doing things, my wishes, my desires, my plans, my whims. And the Our Father prays, the opposite, not my will, but God’s will be done. It is a prayer of true humility. 

And, this is the fundamental disposition of the Christian, to acknowledge that this life is not about me. The point of all of this, the meaning of life, if you will is to learn to bow to the Father in all things. Anyone who is serious about obtaining Everlasting Life in Heaven will do all he can to bow to the Father’s Will.  Obedience to God is to be given without limit. For, there is no room in heaven for disobedience, just as there was no room in the Garden of Eden for the disobedience of Adam and Eve. Jesus shows us that the way to the Father is one of obedience. And Jesus doesn’t simply give lip-service to the Father, he doesn’t just tell us to be obedient. He is obedient “even to death, death on a cross” as St. Paul writes. 

The Our Father is one of the first prayers we learn as Catholics: we commit it to memory; we pray it at every celebration of Mass. I remember committing it to memory in first grade PSR. 

Having committed the prayer to memory, the danger of course, is that we just rattle off the words without considering how their meaning is to shape our life. God preserve us from praying this most fundamental prayer mindlessly. 

A good priest once suggested to me that our holiness as a Christian can be measured by our ability to pray the Our Father from the heart. In Dante’s purgatory, the Our Father is prayed over and over as an act of purification from pride, until these souls truly learn to pray it from the heart, with a heart in union with the heart of Jesus. 

To pray the Our Father from the heart means to pray it from your very depths, to mean every phrase of it, to pray it with the heart and the mind of Jesus Christ.  As a spiritual exercise it is helpful from time to time to pray the Our Father, very slowly, reflecting upon every word, what those words really mean for us as Christians.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church, by the way, is a wonderful resource for this, the entire final 100 paragraphs of the Catechism deal with each line and each phrase of the Lord’s Prayer.

Consider even the very first word of Jesus’ prayer. Where pride focuses on me, me, me.  The Lord’s Prayer teaches us to focus on us, on we.  We are to address God as part of a community.  The first word of the Our Father is Our.  

In teaching us to pray, Jesus teaches us to focus not just on ME, my life, my needs, my desires, rattling off my wish list. For Christianity is not a mere private affair.  The Church Jesus founded is not just a gathering of isolated individuals, but persons who have been brought into a new communion with God and one another.  We go to God together.  

Look at Sunday Mass.  We cannot fulfill our Sunday obligation by sitting in a room, by ourselves, communing with God.  We are meant to come together, at least every week, in united prayer. Anyone who claims that they don’t need the Church to be Christian needs to reexamine the data and the teachings of Jesus Christ.

I think that may be another reason why Dante depicts those in purgatory repentant of pride as this large group of people—it’s reminiscent of the Church. We are this large of group of people, who pray the Our Father together, who learning how to be humble, how to serve, how to obey, together. 

That’s why even leaving early from mass right after receiving communion doesn’t make a lick of sense. What are you saying, “I’ve got my jesus, I don’t need you people, I’m leaving, I’ve got places to be”. Stay, slow down. We need each other if we are going to fulfill our mission. Pray for each other, be blessed together, and go out together. Care about each other.  The people in this church with you aren’t meant to be strangers. They are your brothers and sisters in Christ. And we’ve got work to do, together, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.