Usually around the 4^thof July, I begin singing just a few lines of Winter Wonderland: ‘sleigh bells ring are you listening…” My staff yell at me that it is too early for Christmas music and that I am wishing my life away. But before you know it, it’s the First Week of Advent. The awareness of this moment is surely a metaphor for the message of the Scriptures today: we don’t know when the hour will come. It will be unexpected. This is why the true disciple must be vigilant, watch and be ready.

This Advent time offers us the opportunity to build up our faith, a faith we know from Scripture that comes from listening. It is this listening that God speaks to us and re-enforces our relationship with Him.

God offers us time to be still. In this stillness, we are able to lay down our anxieties and fears and rest a bit in His Presence.

If you would take just five minutes, maybe ten each morning to place yourself in the Presence of God and without words or thoughts give yourselves over to the silence of that moment with only the name of Jesus on your lips, you would have a better day, a holier Christmas and a healthier life.

Do you hear them sleigh bells ringing? Be vigilant then, He has already come!

These last two weeks before Advent, the Scriptures speak of the end of time when all things will be made new. The Church gathers us together to help us prepare. At the end of our life, what will we be able to say?

This month dedicated to our praying for the poor souls in purgatory gives us the opportunity to think about what purgatory is and the likelihood of us being there.

Purgatory is a period after our death, when we are suspended from seeing God. It is a purification of love that purifies our souls from sins for which we have not repented or for which we have not done penance.

Continue reading “Have the children learned to pray for souls?” →

Today a young man of our parish wishes to be fully initiated into the Church as a Catholic. He is willing to open his heart to the gifts which will soon be called down upon him in order that he might be able to produce good fruit for the sake of souls in the world; for the sake of manifesting the Kingdom of God on earth, among us and within us: Charity, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Generosity, Gentleness, Faithfulness, Modesty, Self-Control and Chastity.

It will take courage to be such a man, a true defender of the faith, a true preacher of the Gospel in a heathen world. And for this the Holy Spirit will descend on our brother and give him Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude,Knowledge, Piety and Fear of God.

Continue reading “Act on your gifts, you will not be far from the Kingdom” →

This is World Mission Sunday and our minds and hearts reach out today to people who in extraordinary ways make it their business in life to live out the Gospel of Jesus on the Continents of Africa and Asia, and in South America. “For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

These catechists remind us that we share this mission here in America, and in Europe where the faith is weakening and our silence deafening. Christ needs us my friends, to be catechists in a new generation of disciples. In these very public times, we have an opportunity to express Christ’s teaching as servants of both the Word and the Sacrament, in the way the Church reveals that Truth to us.

Continue reading “World Mission Sunday” →

In the Pope’s letter Familiaris Consortio, John Paul explains that the Church must be vitally concerned for the pastoral care of the family beginning with the spousal family of husband and wife. It is here, at the core of the life of the family that we find also the seeds of the Church which is the Spouse of Christ.

It is not easy for husbands and wives to build and nurture a family in these hard times. Difficult decisions have to be made about securing a lifestyle that is practical and sensible. Many times, there are no support systems to help them build a secure and safe environment in which to stabilize a good network of family and friends. Societal expectations and peer pressure present options for couples that do not support the unity of the family or communion with the Church.

Without a good foundation, many temptations and a lack of direction can lead to confusion, a loss of commitment and an unwillingness to persevere in what can appear to be an impossible task.

Continue reading “Help young families become bearers of the Gospel” →