News RSS Feed

An invitation to confession: This season of Lent is a time for returning to the Lord, so I want to help you prepare for a good Confession. In the story of the Prodigal Son (worth reading! Luke 15: 11-32) we see a perfect summary of the heart of the Father seeking to reconcile with the soul lost in its own sinful wanderings. St. Augustine defines sin as incurvatus in se, “curved in upon itself.” In doing so, we will experience ruptures of communion with God and others as our souls “turn their backs” to those around us. The Father wants freedom for us, and that is what Confession is about.   Please be aware of two special nights of Confession this month. One is this Tuesday from 6-8pm. Every church in the diocese will have Confessions. So if you live closer to another parish and want to be more “anonymous” for Confession, try that parish during those hours.

The Lord’s heart is on fire for you. He wants you to draw close to Him. He wants you to rest next to His Sacred Heart, to hear it beat, just like St. John the apostle did at the Last Supper. God really enjoys Lent. He enjoys it not because He wants to watch you suffer; not because He needs you to obey Him or show how important He is; no, He loves it because He gets to see you drawing closer to Him, even perhaps resting close to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and feeling the intense burning of that love for you. In this season the Lord sees so many trying together (each in their own way) to get closer to Him, and that is exactly why God loves Lent.

I hope your Lent has begun well. Jesus’ time in the desert without eating anything or 40 days may make our Lenten practices seem pretty small, but God is not concerned with your disciplines as much as He is with the spirit in which you do them. If I gave up coffee and wine and chocolate and sweets, only to be a bitter crank all the time, it wouldn’t be an offering pleasing to the Lord. What pleases Him is a contrite heart and afflicted spirit, one that admits sinfulness and honestly is working to grow in holiness, that is, in radical self -gift. May the Lord bless your journeys of 40 days!

Fr. Terry shares some renovation updates and reflections on the beginning of the Lenten season this week.

We are going to look more deeply into each priority of the pastoral plan. Today I want to focus on our third priority, “Accompaniment: Growing Together.” Why “accompaniment?" This pastoral priority (which is also a core value) is something that Pope Francis has stressed since his first days in the role of universal shepherd of the church. He models it beautifully himself, and his teaching in Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), especially paragraphs 169-173, gives us a helpful and convincing picture.

This month, we wrap up Ordinary Time and begin the season of Lent. This penitential season begins on Ash Wednesday and lasts for approximately 40 days (not counting Sundays). It is marked by the three pillars of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

As we have been working through the parish pastoral plan, we now arrive at the final section, the pastoral priorities. I would like to do an overview this week before looking at the priorities individually.

Continuing my exploration of the Parish Pastoral Plan, I now delve into the third Core Value of the Parish Plan – Sacrificial Generosity. There are three bullet points to describe what that means: (1) God first, others second, I am third; (2) I let God interrupt my plans; (3) I have gifts worth giving. Again, I would like to expand upon these bullet points.

You are the salt of the earth, …the light of the world. (Mt. 5) Are we living this vocation in our families, friendships, and other relationships? If we ignore our circles of influence and “travel across land and sea to make one convert” (Mt. 23:15), then who will speak to those we have abandoned? Saint (Mother) Teresa of Kolkata’s response to one who wanted to move to India to serve with her was similar: “grow where you are planted.”

When does Christmas end? The answers - plural! - might surprise you. Depending on who you ask, the Christmas season ends...

The reading today ends with the words of the Father over the Lord Jesus. These words are huge and should be prayed about in depth for every one of us. That’s why I included the next verse above. The first thing Jesus does is He goes to the desert (wilderness) to get away from everything and think about what the Father is doing in Him.   Have you ever let these words, spoken over you in your Baptism, to sink into the core of your being?

In his Apostolic Letter Patris Corde, Pope Francis has asked the universal church to give special focus to Saint Joseph for the year of 2021. As the husband of Mary, the mother of God and thus the foster father of the Lord Jesus, Joseph deserves our attention in a particular way. This call for a year of St. Joseph marks the 150th anniversary of his being named   universal patron of the church. As such a patron, it means every single one of us is able to seek his support.

So many emotions, the heights and the depths, are swirling in the hearts of the faithful nowadays throughout our country and our world. This great day of celebration of Christmas, in the midst of the most severe pandemic in living memory, offers us a unique perspective on what is important in life. While the secular view has its own perspective on what it deems “essential,” with the eyes of faith we are able to see the deeper meaning of life in the story that begins in a manger – with centuries of prelude through the patriarchs and prophets...

With Christmas in under a week and COVID spiking, we estimate larger crowds but manageable ones for the great solemnity. We do intend to use the overflow areas in the gymnasium and perhaps Payne Hall as needed. Pray that it all works well and please help things to be successful by extending patience and mercy.

Happy Gaudete Sunday! The Latin word for "rejoice!" is the first word of the entrance antiphon for Sunday's Mass. With this Christmas soon upon us, we will all rejoice at the near end of 2020, the year of the worst pandemic in living memory...

Please study this and pray with the parish plan to learn how God wants you to be a part of this important work for your own personal discipleship and for the benefit of your parish family and local community to whom we are called to serve and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the back of church you should find multiple display boards that give a visual update to our renovation plans for the church.

Greetings brothers and sisters in Christ! This month, I thought I’d share with you some Advent trivia that you can spring on your friends at all of your (virtual) Christmas (er, Advent) parties.

Big news: our pastoral plan is finally ready! For the past year a group of twelve has been developing a three-year plan for our parish. Based on the results from the Catholic Leadership Institute’s Disciple Maker Index (parish survey) and the parish site-visit, which included interviewing many people in the parish, the “envisioning team” worked through the hiccups of 2020 to establish a vision and set goals for our parish.

In light of today’s solemnity, let us reflect on the immediate precedent of our encounter with Christ the merciful judge, when we end our earthly days and go to Him. Use this meditation from St. Francis of Sales‘ Introduction to the Devout Life in your personal prayer time (10 minutes recommended).

We have just finally received the Vatican’s internal investigation document outlining the highest level scandal of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church: that of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, former archbishop of Washington, D.C. This report, two years in waiting, is over 400-pages in length. It details events from four papacies, beginning with Pope St. Paul VI. It seems to spread the blame to every period of the Church since Vatican II. This is big news...