Earlier this week, we celebrated the feast of Sts. Martha, Mary and Lazarus. These three figures appear multiple times throughout the Gospel, but perhaps one of their more famous stories is when Jesus visits and teaches in their home. Martha is busy serving at table while her sister Mary is listening attentively to Jesus teaching. Martha complains to Jesus about Mary not helping, and Jesus responds that Mary has chosen the better part and that it would not be taken from her. 

Earlier this week, the Church celebrated the feast of St. James the Greater. He is called “Greater” because there are two James amongst the Twelve Apostles and James the “Greater” was in the “inner circle” with Peter and John. 

This coming week, the Church will be celebrating St. Mary Magdalene. The most common misconception about Mary Magdalene is that she is the woman caught in adultery in John 8. To date, The Chosen is the only portrayal of the life of Jesus that I have seen that has not made this mistake, and I give major credit to them for that. If you look closely at John 8, the woman is never actually named. Instead, Mary Magdalene is identified in Mark 16:9 as having been exorcised of seven demons, as well as listed in Luke 8:2-3 as being one of the women who accompanied Jesus on His journey. What is indisputable about her identity, however, is that she was the first person entrusted with proclaiming the “good news” of the Resurrection (the Gospel). 

In light of the consecration of our new altar at the end of June, a lot of people have been asking whose relics were placed in the altar. I figured this would be the easiest way to share it with everyone. 

There is an interesting point in Roman law that I learned about some years back. Apparently, under Roman law, a parent could disown a child only if that child was biologically theirs. If the child was adopted, it was actually illegal to disown the child. This makes sense, if you think about it: you do not get to choose the children you give birth to; you do deliberately choose the children you adopt. Therefore, the choice ought to be binding. Thus, according to Roman law, if you adopt a child then, no matter what that child grows up to be, no matter what they do, they are yours.

Did you know? Every Mass is offered for an intention; depending on if it is a Sunday or weekday Mass, we always mention “For {insert intention here} for whom this Mass is being offered.” If you look just to the left of this reflection, you should see the Mass schedule, listed with the intentions that that Mass is being offered for. Nine times out of ten, those Masses are offered for someone who is deceased; but the Mass can actually be offered for any intention. Do you know someone who is sick? Have a Mass offered for them. Got a friend or relative who has fallen away from the Church? Have a Mass offered for them. Just had your first child? Have a Mass offered for them. Masses can be offered for any intention that we want to bring to God. 

This week, the Church celebrates the solemnity of the birth of St. John the Baptist. This may seem a little odd to those who follow the feasts of saints. Typically, a saint’s feast day is the day that they died, and yet here we have the celebration of John the Baptist’s birth. This is something that we really only do for Mary and Jesus. So what makes John so special?

Often times, when I am teaching the Mass, I will start by asking the person to define the word sacred. Almost every time, I get the response “holy” or “blessed.” These are not necessarily wrong but they are too broad. A rosary is holy and blessed, but a rosary is not sacred. All sacred items are holy but not all holy items are sacred. Instead, for something to be sacred, it means that that item is reserved specifically for the purpose of worship. 

In the first Eucharistic Prayer (the one with all of the saint names), we hear three names listed apart from the other lists: Abel, Abraham and Melchizedek. Each of these figures have a special significance with the Eucharist, and with this weekend being Corpus Christi, it seems fitting to discuss them.

Earlier this week, we celebrated the Feast of Mary, Mother of the Church. This may seem like an odd title for Mary: how can she be mother of an organization? The first thing that this title calls us to remember is that the Church is more than a mere organization. The Church is not some non-governmental organization or charity group; the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. Just as the human body is compiled of many individual cells united together by a single soul, so too the Church is compiled of many individual persons united together by the one Holy Spirit and united to Jesus Christ her Head. What is it that Mary gave birth to? Jesus. Therefore, Mary is the mother of the Church Universal. 

This weekend, the Church celebrates the great solemnity of Pentecost. This feast is traditionally held to be the birthday of the Church inasmuch as the Holy Spirit is poured out onto the disciples. Just as God breathed the Spirit into Adam to bring him to life, so now God sends forth the Spirit into the Church (the gathered disciples) to bring her to life! 

In my lifetime alone, we have survived at least a dozen of these “end of the world” events. I am referring to things like “Y2K,” the Mayan Calendar with 2012, and a number of predictions by pastors saying they have finally cracked the Bible’s “code” for figuring out the exact date of the end of time. Yet the result is always the same: nothing happens, the world keeps on turning and we are all fine. 

This coming week we will be celebrating the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. Jesus has risen and now ascends into heaven to take His seat at the right hand of His Father. As the Responsorial Psalm for the feast recounts: “God mounts His throne to shouts of joy; a blare of trumpets for the Lord.” However, as with so many of the Mysteries of our faith, there is more at work than just the historical event of Jesus ascending into heaven. 

During Confirmation prep, many of us probably had to memorize the list of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. These gifts are what we receive from the Holy Spirit who is poured out in full into our hearts in the sacrament of Confirmation. But how many of us know what each individual gift is, what they do for us? Well, St. Thomas Aquinas gives us the answer:

This past week, we celebrated the feast of St. Mark. While we rightly understand the Bible and the various books that make it up to be the divinely inspired Word of God, they were still written by human beings. But who is St. Mark, and what makes his Gospel account special compared to the others?

Many of us with non-Catholic friends or family have probably heard the accusation that the Mass is nowhere to be found in the Bible. I am sure many of us know that is not true, but what are some examples of the Mass in the Bible? Some of us may go to the Last Supper scenes, but are there others besides that? Arguably the best example after the Last Supper would be the scene of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, which we hear about in today’s Gospel reading. What happens here? Look closely: the two are on the road to Emmaus and encounter Jesus but do not recognize Him. He recounts the Scriptures to them (readings), He interprets them for the two (homily), and then sits down at table with them and offers the bread and wine and “breaks the bread” with them (Eucharist). This scene is an exact reflection of the Mass. In fact, any time we see the words “breaking of bread” in the Bible, it is referring to the Mass. The books of the New Testament were written before we actually had names and terms for things, including the Mass and the Eucharist. The term “breaking the bread” is what the early Church called the Mass while they still worked to figure out what to call these things.

In today’s Psalm, the text (which comes from the New American Bible) says, “His mercy endures forever.” Meanwhile, in many other translations it says, “His love endures forever.” Love and mercy are not exactly opposite words, but neither do they mean the same thing. 

This weekend, we will be moving from our Lenten preparations to our Easter celebration! The Easter season begins with what is called the Easter Triduum: the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday, the Commemoration of our Lord’s Passion on Good Friday and the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night. This special and ancient liturgy celebrates the primary moment of our salvation: Jesus’ Passion and death on the Cross, paying the price for our sins and winning us freedom from the enemy, and His Resurrection, defeating Death itself once and for all. 

This past week, our parish celebrated our Patronal Feast, the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. What “Patronal Feast” means is that this feast, already so important on its merits, takes on an added significance for us because it is the namesake of our parish. 

This past week we celebrated the feast of St. Patrick. St. Patrick is both the patron saint of Ireland and also the patron saint of our own diocese. So this feast is of special importance for our local church, so much so that it actually gets promoted for us to a solemnity! (Hence we can be dispensed from our Lenten fasts) With that in mind, though, who actually is St. Patrick? What do we know about him?