Dear Parishioners, Happy Easter! Or in the ancient Greek: Christos Anesti (Christ is Risen). To which we make the response: Alithos Anesti (Truly, He is Risen). Nothing is more important than what we celebrate on Easter. As St. Paul reminds us: If Christ has not been raised, our faith is vain. The Resurrection is central to our faith; sin and death defeated. Please click the title to read more.
Dear Parishioners, Five weeks ago, we stood in the church and received ashes. We were reminded of our mortality, our sinfulness, and our need for penance and prayer. Those ashes were the remnant of Palm Sunday branches from last year. This year we once again receive new palm branches. This symbolizes new growth and rebirth. This begs the question: have we experienced new spiritual growth and rebirth these days of Lent, or are the only things new in our lives the palms in our hands? Click the title to read more.
Dear Parishioners, Beginning this weekend on the Fifth Sunday of Lent, the last two weeks in the season of Lent are called Passiontide. Now the Church shifts her focus from Christ in the desert (the Gospel for the First Sunday of Lent) to Christ during His Passion. Our Lenten Mission begins this week Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights at 7:00PM. Fr. Jordan Zajac O.P. will teach us how to “Holy Week and a Holier You: Understanding the Sacred Triduum.” In addition, on Monday night at 6:00PM we will have confessions available. Holy Week is all about the Passion account in the Gospels, but what is it? Click the title to read more.
Dear Parishioners, Back to regularly scheduled programming. We have the dates for our parish Lenten Mission: March 18th, 19th, and 20th. Each day the mission begins at 7:00pm. On Monday, March 18th at 6:00pm we will have two priests hearing confession prior to the talk. Finally on Wednesday, March 20th in addition to the talk, we will also have Eucharistic Adoration. The theme this year is: “Holy Week and a Holier You: Understanding the Sacred Triduum.” Each night of the mission details a different way we can understand Holy Week. The mission preacher is Fr. Jordan Zajac, O.P. from Providence College. Fr. Zajac is an excellent preacher and devoted follower of Christ. He teaches in the English department at Providence College. Click the title to read more.
Dear Parishioners, I would like to pause my usual Lenten reflections to comment on a recent news headline and the corresponding Church teaching. A few weeks ago, an Alabama supreme court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered “extrauterine children.” In other words, embryos, whether inside or outside the womb, are human beings. This ruling came in response to a lawsuit by several parents who used a process known as “in vitro fertilization” or IVF. IVF extracts sperm and egg from a man and a woman, and then those are joined in a lab to conceive an embryo. In this process several embryos are formed. These embryos are then either implanted in the woman, or they are stored using cryogenic freezing. The lawsuit came about because a patient at a hospital with a cryogenic nursery entered the nursery and dropped embryos on the floor, killing them. The parents of those embryos sued. The ruling of the court made a simple claim: “The Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location.” Click the title to read more.