In searching for us, God’s Son did not stride the earth like a giant but came rather as a pilgrim, clothed in our own human nature. His pilgrimage took him to the depths of the human experience, for he rescued us from oblivion by undergoing the oblivion of the Cross – the very mystery that...Read More
The Gospel proclaims a message of hope and consolation, as indeed you pastor is called upon to offer hope and consolation to you, his people, especially in time of illness, loss, weakness, and uncertainty.Read More
Advent, as we know, marks the beginning of a new liturgical year, and I could not think of a better way to begin this Year of Grace than by paying you a long overdue visit, and on this occasion, to install officially your pastor.Read More
The Feast of Christ the King invites us, not so much to scrutinize our leaders as to look carefully into our own hearts and ask to what kingdom have we given our allegiance: The kingdom of this world in its many forms or the kingdom of God? Today Jesus says to us anew: “Everyone who...Read More
Just as loving families keep alive the memory of those who have died, let us continue to cherish the memory of these our deceased brothers – remembering gratefully what the Lord enabled them to accomplish, remembering that we build on what they have left us, thanking God for their lives and their priesthood.Read More
For now we pray that we, all of us, may shine with that same splendor as we bear witness to the beauty, goodness, and dignity of human life from the moment of conception until natural death, and by our love of mother and child and our love of the sick and frail elderly, win many...Read More
What we hide from ourselves in darkness, the Lord Jesus brings to light, not to shame us or to make us feel bad but to renew, repair, and rebuild us, so that the glory shining on his face might shine from deep within us.Read More
In the graces of Holy Orders, we were urged configure ourselves to the Christ who came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life in love.Read More
Perhaps the greatest proof of the Church’s divine origins is the mere fact that, like St. John Lateran, the Church has survived, not as an artifact of history but as the living, breathing Body of Christ of which you and I are the members.Read More
Both the Book of Deuteronomy and Jesus himself in Mark’s Gospel instruct us that the first and greatest commandment is to love God with all one’s heart, and Jesus adds, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” – that is to say, from the very depth of your heart.Read More
But we should also take great comfort the existence of purgatory – that state of being further purified even after death, that is to say, made ready for heaven, where we are to receive and reflect the infinitely pure and beautiful love of the Triune God with which all the saints are resplendent.Read More
Just as Fr. McGivney encourages priests to holiness and charity, so too the amazing array of saints, canonized and uncanonized, encourage all of us to embrace our baptismal call to holiness, to missionary discipleship and to a life of charity – all summed up by Blessed Michael McGivney in a few words: charity, unity and...Read More