Happy Sunday!

This weekend we celebrate the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time. In our Gospel this weekend, we hear the Lord Jesus reminding us, "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Here we learn once more from the Lord about the need for complete abandonment into the Father's hands. Our life is only truly found in Jesus Christ. To find one's life and then to lose it means to recognize and live from the truth that everything comes from God and goes back to him. If I find my life, I must surrender it back to Jesus who is the desire of ever y human heart. If I lose my life for his sake, then it is as St. Paul says, "Christ who lives in me." This is one of the paradoxes of Christianity, that to find my life I must give it away.

In the summer of 1989, on the Solemnity of Mary’s Assumption, Pope St. John Paul II gave the Church an apostolic exhortation on Mary’s husband, St. Joseph (Redemptoris Custos [RC], “The Guardian of the Redeemer”). In this exhortation, the Pope wished to shed light on Joseph’s fatherhood, highlighting that he was not an “apparent” father or a “substitute” father of Jesus. Rather, Joseph was a true father in every sense of the word because, through the mystery of the Incarnation, he “fully shares in authentic fatherhood and the mission of the father in the family” (RC, n. 21). The Pope said that Joseph is more than just a “model” of fatherhood, or that he merely “shares” in God’s Fatherhood; he also authentically gave a fatherly face to the human growth of the Incarnate Son. In fact John Paul II went so far to say that God the Father in some sense made a kind of “covenant of fatherhood” with Joseph, giving him a role more important than Abraham!

Happy Sunday!

This weekend the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, or the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of the Lord. We celebrate and revere the great reality of Christ's presence with us in the Eucharist. In the Mass when the bread and wine are consecrated they no longer have the substance of bread and wine, but are actually transformed into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Pope Benedict XVI reminded us of this mystery in 2011 when he said, "changing the substance of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ is the fruit of the gift that Christ made of himself, the gift of a Love stronger than death, divine Love which raised him from the dead. This is why the Eucharist is the food of eternal life…" Not only do we encounter God physically and tangibly in the Eucharist, we encounter Him to our benefit. God literally gives Himself to us for our own good. This is the great gift of the Eucharist, that in receiving Him we continue to receive from His bounty.

Happy Trinity Sunday!

With great joy the Church celebrates Trinity Sunday this weekend, the first Sunday after the Easter Season. In seminary we took a course on the Trinity which was called "God Revealed". I remember thinking at the time that they should have just called it "The Trinity". However, God Revealed is a great way to understand it. We speak of the Trinity often, we know we refer to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but the novelty is that God has revealed Himself as three persons. That is, the Trinity is not something we have discovered by our own powers, but rather God sharing with us His life.

In every generation, Jesus has called upon men and women to literally be His hands and feet, to act on his behalf as His messenger and speak for Him directly, either to His Church, to a specific culture or to the world at large. Those men and women who said "yes" to Christ and did what He asked them to do, accomplished the Will of God with His help in amazing ways. Many of them have been recognized officially by the Church for their heroic witness to Christ. We call them saints.

Happy Sunday!

This weekend is the 7th Sunday of Easter, but we also commemorate the Feast of the Ascension today. Typically on Thursday of the 6th week of Easter, many bishops choose to transfer it's celebration to Sunday. The Ascension marks forty days since the Resurrection when Jesus, by His own power, ascended into heaven in the presence of the disciples. It's a unique event which Christ wishes to draw us into as well. The Ascension of Jesus reminds us of the beauty of humanity. When Jesus' earthly life had run its course, he didn't discard his humanity, but brought it with him into heaven, thereby affirming its inherent goodness. It is a reminder for us as well that our bodies are not an occasion of sin, but something that God wishes to entirely redeem and bring into the heavenly kingdom.

Happy Sunday!

What a week! We resumed daily mass at a limited capacity. While we still practice safe social distancing we are grateful to be resuming some "normalcy" to life. I write normalcy in quotes because the truth is normal can have odd connotations attached to it. Is it normal to be quarantined and sheltering in place? I suppose not. But what is normal? My point is that in whatever situation we find ourselves, just because it may not seem normal does not mean we cannot achieve holiness. It does not mean that life is on pause. St. Josemaria Escriva liked to say, "Don't say 'this person annoys me', say 'this person sanctifies me'." I think the same can be said now. The situation is not a pause from our call to holiness, rather in the midst of it God invites us to a deep holiness. Many of you feel this way as well. I have been so impressed by how many people offer to help other members of our community, even without knowing them. There is truly a wonderful spirit here and I would hope not to return to "normal".

Happy Sunday!

This past Sunday brought some much needed relief. After a month and half without Mass, we were finally able to distribute communion to those who watched the livestream Mass. A big thanks to our ushers and volunteers who helped things run so smoothly! We are grateful to God to be able to invite people to receive the Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. This is the beginning of coming back to full strength in our active life as a parish community. I am grateful to God for each of you for your patience during this time. It has no doubt been incredibly difficult, and yet we have seen so much beautiful growth in people's spiritual lives.

May has arrived and we dedicate this entire month to the Blessed Virgin Mary out of reverence for her great dignity. One of the signs of this honor is placing a beautiful crown on her head. Pope Saint Paul VI said: "For this is the month during which Christians, in their churches and their homes, offer the Virgin Mother more fervent and loving acts of homage and veneration; and it is the month in which a greater abundance of God's merciful gifts comes down to us from our Mother's throne." (Mense Maio) During this month, we invite you to decorate an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a crown made of flowers in your homes in unison with the images at the church. Please note, if the image has the Child Jesus in Mary's arms, the crown gets placed on him too. Offer prayers for the church, the world, the sick, and the most vulnerable such as children in the womb, the elderly, good health and your own family intentions. During Eastertide (Easter through Pentecost), the Regina Caeli is prayed at dawn, noon and eventide. Below is the prayer:

Happy Sunday and Happy Easter!

Jesus Christ is risen! In the midst of the wildness in which we find ourselves we still celebrate the Lord's Resurrection. We are very privileged to have had the Church remain open for private prayer and to have the adoration chapel continue. Thank you to our wonderful adorers who continue to spend an hour with the Lord every week. This has been such a great gift to our parish and to many others. In fact, during the Triduum, I met two young people who had driven from Tucson to pray in our Church! The Lord is truly at work.

The Lord is risen! We are in strange times yet beautiful times! Never before have we celebrated the Triduum in private. These past four weeks have been without the public celebration of the Eucharist, and yet I have heard many wonderful stories of how your faith has been nourished. As the Church celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus, we are reminded that He is the Lord of all. He is not only the Lord of each of us, but He is Lord of life and death. Jesus is the one with true dominion over all things.

Happy Sunday!

We are very glad to welcome Fr. Dan Estes SOLT, this weekend to preach our Masses in preparation for our parish mission. The theme of the mission is "Hope for our Times". Fr. Dan is a member of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity. He has been ordained for eighteen years and served on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota for four years as an associate pastor and as a principal for a small Catholic school. He also served for four and a half years in Benque Viejo del Carmen, Belize, as the Pastor of Mount Carmel Parish which included three missions, four primary schools and a high school with over 2000 students. In 2008, he was assigned to Our Lady of Corpus Christi, a liberal arts institute, as Vice-President. From July of 2010 until July 2017, he was the director of Our Lady of Corpus Christi, which serves as a retreat center. Since July 2017, he has been the director of Santa Maria del Mexicano which is a home for children and elderly serving some 200 children ages 618 and about 25 elderly located in Colón, Queretaro, Mexico.

Fr. Dan has given parish missions, retreats to religious, as well as retreats based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and healing retreats.

Happy Sunday!

On this Second Sunday of Lent we hear in our first reading about the call of Abram to become a great nation. God invites and Abram responds. This is a simple but important rule in the spiritual life, to listen attentively to the voice of God and respond. The Collect Prayer for mass this Sunday reads, "O God, who have commanded us to listen to your beloved Son, be pleased, we pray, to nourish us inwardly by your word, that, with spiritual sight made pure, we may rejoice to behold your glory." In this prayer we are acknowledging that God commands us to listen to Jesus, and when we do this we are better prepared to behold his glory. For Abram, this was realized in a material sense as God blessed him with abundance. In our own day, we set our sights, presently, on the glory of Easter, and eternally, on our heavenly homeland.

Happy Sunday and Happy Lent!

Just like that Lent has begun! Thank you to everyone who helped with our preparations for Ash Wednesday liturgies. Thank you as well to everyone who has volunteered to work at the Fish Fry. Last year I arrived in the middle of Lent and I was so pleased to be able to attend the Fish Fry, eat delicious food, and see how much everyone cares about our amazing parish. I am looking forward to year 2!

Throughout the season of Lent the Church invites us to consider, in a particular way, how to grow in holiness through the practices of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer. Each of these practices helps us to move our hearts and minds closer to the Blessed Trinity. When we fast, whether through days of fasting, or abstaining from certain types of foods, the absence of food is an invitation to turn our thoughts to God. One of my favorite prayers to pray when offering up something, whether in terms of fasting or in another difficulty comes from Our Lady of Fatima. "O my Jesus, I offer this for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary."