Dear Parish Family,

Show me Love, Show me Compassion, Show me Kindness, Show me Faith, Show me Hope, Show me Peace.

Jesus’ final commandment deals only with LOVE—to love another, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to love our enemies! You got it, Jesus demands that we love our enemies. What if those same enemies are related to us in some way by way of family, community, or on the job, or even within a community of faith?

Dear Parish Family,

May God’s continued blessings be upon you and yours. It is hard to believe that Lent is fast approaching. We have great plans for this coming Lent to help us move more inward, to allow the season to be a time of preparation and repentance.

Dear Parish Family,

Can you imagine going through life day in and day out, waiting for our ship to come in, anticipating the abundance of what is to come? God’s surplus of a bountiful harvest, His provision, our thirst quenched, our hunger satisfied. We all long for the spirit of prosperity, the spirit of abundance, abundance of blessings, that is.

This is the state we find the disciples of Jesus in as their nets are sunk deep in the lake, hoping and waiting for a good catch. Well before they left their nets on the shore to follow Him, they trusted Jesus. After almost giving up, they did as He asked and cast their nets again. They were disappointed and worried because they caught nothing. Jesus changed the outcome in an instant, so much that the nets were filled to the brim and they nearly sank their boat pulling them in. We find these ordinary fishermen tired, frustrated, angry, disgusted with the toil of their labor, and failing to turn up anything—until the Lord intervenes.

Dear Parish Family,

I pray the New Year has been off to a good start. It has been for us as staff, as we manage to continue to achieve some of our goals and tasks in creating our new confessional, hand-crafted by our own Felipe Ruiz. The confessional is a lovely addition, creating the perfect ambiance. We were blessed to receive some much-needed moisture this week, and the beautiful light blanket of snow made for a poetic setting around the parish grounds of St. Catherine Laboure.

How Are You A Conduit of Good News?

Today’s Gospel is meant to inspire in us the reality of how we are connected to living the gospel and magnify the presence of Christ in the world through one another. We are challenged to take a long hard look into our hearts and purify them clean with good will.

Dear Parish Family,

Today’s Gospel gives us an account of Jesus’s first miracle turning water into wine at the wedding at Cana.

This miracle is important because it teaches us that with God there always is an appointed time for all things. How many of us realize this with the inner workings of our own lives?

Dear Parish Family,

There soon will be four avenues of communication used regularly to convey our message--the bulletin, the announcements, the digital marquee, and our soon to launch brand new engaging parish website. These are the only formal means of parish communication.

Our new confessional is in. It is working out nicely. The confessional box is a centuries-old way of providing appropriate space for the sacrament to be conducted.

Dear Parish Family,

Rejoice Gaudete Sunday This third Sunday of Advent we turn the corner toward the coming of Christmas. Our glimmer of hope has pierced the darkness, and we are filled with JOY. Sometimes in the hustle and bustle of life, we forget that it is in the simplest moments that we become replenished and our hope is restored.

Dear Parish Family,

The Divine Remedy is Love! ❤️❤️

The holy season of Advent in meaning is a combination of understandings that celebrate the reality of the First Advent the Nativity of the Lord, and the Second Advent anticipating the Second Coming.

Dear Parish Family,

First Sunday of Advent

The Advent Season is a time of rebirth in our faith as we return to the spiritual womb, where we joyfully anticipate our coming forth. It is here that we sit a while in darkness, only to relish in the return of the light. These darkest days of the year, are symbolic of our journey within, to a place of joy and solitude. Holy solitude is a welcoming place, because it is a time to be alone in the Lord, in a place of sacred silence. It is in the darkness of the womb, that we become strengthened and nourished, turning with every seasonal shift as the Winter Solstice unfolds keeping rhythm and time in step with Emmanuel God with us. The heart of the Advent message is that though we are enveloped in darkness, we are drawn to God’s wonderful light, and that his light is an awakened encounter, causing us to contemplate this holy anticipation of his coming into the world 2000 years ago, and his return in glory. Stay vigilant, prepare yourself, pay attention for we know not the hour. We crave the light more than ever, as we desire to live in truth, and how in the expectation of his coming, we ask ourselves, will we be ready?

Dear Parish Family,

We Choose Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory Everyday!

The reality of Purgatory for most faithful is much closer than we may think, if we find ourselves with one foot firmly planted on the things of above, yet maintain the other foot well anchored in the things of the world. The good news though is there is always the remedy before us in Confession, if more of the faithful enjoyed this sacrament, we’d all be much closer on this road to sainthood. The reality is the line to Communion far exceeds the line to Confession. The month of November first as Catholics is a time of great reflection as we have the opportunity to contemplate our mortality. It’s important to gain perspective on just where we are spiritually, and if our soul carries any potentially threatening attribute of sin that would impede us from enjoying the beatific vision of God’s Plan for us to be eternally before Him.

Dear Parish Family,

The changing of the seasons, as we move from summer to Fall, then Winter, brings to mind some reflection of what we hear in Sacred Scripture today.

The mood is set, as we embark upon change that we cannot stop, and Jesus makes it perfectly clear that “times are a changing” and we are moving toward such change whether we like it or not. What change might we be speaking of is the change that moves us closer and closer to our death and the reality of eternal life. After all, formally this season causes us to purposefully reflect about these mysteries and our place within them.

Dear Parish Family,

Starting Friday, November 15 come out and enjoy an evening of Catholic enrichment as we kick off our monthly evening Mass at 5 pm the third Friday of the month, leading into a Holy Hour for Priests, then the debut of Good to be Catholic.

I will be talking about authentic conversion, and the attributes we strive to obtain along the way.