Happy Sunday!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful week. I want to share a quote from Pope Benedict XVI that I recently read. He writes, “When God disappears, men and women do not become greater; indeed, they lose the divine dignity, their faces lose God’s splendor. In the end, they turn out to be merely products of a blind evolution and, as such, can be used and abused. This is precisely what the experience of our epoch has confirmed for us.” We do not need to be theologians to notice this. It seems that more and more often our society is trying to wipe away the face of God. We know as well what has happened in our culture alongside this. Men and women lose their true identity, which is only bestowed by God, in the confusing and misleading transgender culture. We see an increase in anxiety and anger throughout society. Notice that Pope Benedict speaks of “divine dignity”. He means to tell us that dignity has some transcendental meaning because it is bestowed by God.

Happy Sunday!

This past week I was in Orlando, Florida for an educational conference hosted by the Catholic Medical Association. It’s always good to be back home and with all of you. I love seeing the parish alive with so many families and volunteers coming and going. I’m grateful especially for all those volunteers helping with Religious Education. The year is off to a great start!

Happy Sunday!

This weekend our readings take us to the beginning of the Bible, to Genesis 2. God recognizes that “it is not good for the man to be alone” and so he creates woman, his helpmate and spouse. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us:

“Holy Scripture affirms that man and woman were created for one another: "It is not good that the man should be alone." The woman, "flesh of his flesh," his equal, his nearest in all things, is given to him by God as a "helpmate"; she thus represents God from whom comes our help. "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh." The Lord himself shows that this signifies an unbreakable union of their two lives by recalling what the plan of the Creator had been "in the beginning": "So they are no longer two, but one flesh." (CCC 1605)

Happy Sunday!

It is so good to see the parish buzzing again! Mass attendance continues to increase. I want to extend a warm welcome to all of our new families. I have had the opportunity to meet many of you but know there are many more. We’re glad to have you join our St. Joan of Arc family!

Religious Education is well under way, Tuesday and Wednesday nights bring lots of life to the parish grounds! Verso l’Alto is also going and we had our largest group of teens at the kickoff night.

Happy Sunday!

Recently I ran across an article about St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta. It reminded me of a list that I saw while I was in college and had forgotten about. The list is 15 ways to cultivate humility. It was a list her sisters were familiar with and which I’ve found very helpful. Humility is sometimes a difficult virtue to understand. The most important thing I have learned about humility is that it is always grounded in truth. False humility is not grounded in the truth. As we strive to grow in humility it can be helpful to ask ourselves if a certain statement or action is rooted in truth. Humility does not lie about the truth or try to cover it up, but acknowledges the truth at appropriate or necessary moments. Here is the list from St. Mother Teresa. I hope and pray you find it useful.

Happy Sunday!

I am very excited to announce that we reached our matching gift! Thank you so much to everyone who signed up for recurring online gifts or who increased their gift. The Diocese of Phoenix informed me that we would receive the match of $27,060 in October. This is a wonderful accomplishment and we are very thankful for all of you in helping us reach this goal.

Dear Friends,

When the children were little it was called “nap time.” When they got a bit older it was called “quiet time,” and so it has been ever since. The idea is that everyone has to go to his or her room for at least an hour and do something quiet. On one level, we all just need a break from each other and from the noise of a busy house. For parents of little children, it breaks up the afternoon and gives the children a schedule. But even as the children get older, quiet time is important. Our college age children come home and ask, “When is quiet time?” They have learned to desire the peace and quiet; it has become a habit for them. I have said that if I were king of the world and could make it so, everyone would have to stop what they are doing and read a good book for at least one hour every day. This is because ultimately quiet time is good for all of us.