Happy Sunday!

Three years ago I was appointed Associate Director of the All Saints Catholic Newman Center at Arizona State University. As you know it was difficult to leave St. Joan of Arc. Many questions and concerns crossed my mind. Will the university have students on campus? As I began to observe, very few students were present on campus. It was an eerie sight as we were accustomed to seeing thousands of students everywhere.

Greetings and blessings!

On July 10th, our Knights of Columbus Council here at St. Joan of Arc installed new officers which included my appointment as chaplain. I am grateful for the past Grand Knights, past officers and current members who fulfill their duties with the council. I offer my sincere congratulations to our new Grand Knight Chuck Reader and the rest of the officers. After attending the ceremonies, the brotherhood of the knights was inspiring as the men were reminded to embrace the cross of Jesus Christ. This brotherhood resembled a portion of the Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary vision prayer: “In brotherhood we strive to be discipled by Jesus in all things; to embrace joyfully His cross.”

It’s not uncommon to hear people complain that we Catholics often fail in communicating our faith. Fair enough. We can and should improve there. But it’s interesting to notice that Jesus himself was implicitly accused by his disciples of a similar failure. This week in Matthew’s gospel they are perplexed that he speaks to the crowds in ambiguous parables. The Lord’s riddles leave many people more confused than before. He responds by pointing out that his parables have an intentional dual purpose: to hide (for some) and to reveal (for others) his Gospel: “Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted” (Matthew 13:11). Is Jesus being unnecessarily difficult, obscurantist, or, worse, elitist?

Blessed Sunday to all!

Thank you for the warm welcome back to Saint Joan of Arc parish! My heart has experienced an immense amount of joy and excitement this past week. The homecoming was also met with beautiful and ornate arrangements of decorative artwork around the church.

Happy Sunday!

While giving thanks and praise to almighty God, my return to St. Joan of Arc was received with tremendous joy and acceptance. This is the parish where I learned to be a priest for three blessed years from 2017 until 2020. As I return to being the pastor of souls, the Parochial Administrator, my heart is filled with gratitude and my intent is to fulfill this function with the diligence of a good householder. The advantage comes from the previous years of getting to know many of you. Since then, we have grown as a parish and I look forward to meeting our new families and the newest additions to the growing family. I am aware of some faithful departed members and I will miss them. In your kindness, please let me know who has gone before us.