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?

There is a lot going on in the Church at the moment, both in our deanery area as well as in the diocese at large. With so much going on, it can perhaps be a bit much to keep track of. Currently, we have a number of areas where fundraising is going on or being looked at. With that in mind, let me briefly review:

Starting this weekend, we begin the stage of Lent called the “Scrutinies.” These ancient and sacred rites are given to those preparing for Baptism and Confirmation at the Easter Vigil. They are preparatory rites, purifying the person and enlightening them in stages as they journey closer and closer to Christ. But what exactly are they? What do they entail?

A couple of years ago, I helped lead a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Naturally, one of our stops was the Mount of the Transfiguration. A church was built on this holy site that is meant to reflect the beauty and splendor of that moment. It is uniquely built facing north-south, rather than east-west. This is so that the sunlight can enter the church fully and illuminate the mosaics and other artwork throughout the interior. Centermost of these is a mosaic depicting the Transfiguration as well, which is positioned perfectly to catch the sun at certain times of day. At those times of day, Jesus’ body in the picture shines just as brilliantly as it did in that moment! 

Lent is now in full swing. Many of us typically think of Lent as a season to prepare for Easter, and there is truth in that. But did you know: Lent was originally something different. If you look back at the ancient Church, Lent is actually about the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA). 

This coming Wednesday, believe it or not, is Ash Wednesday! Every year, we commemorate this occasion by prayer, fasting and (most notably) by putting ashes on our heads. But have you ever wondered why we do this? Why do we start Lent by rubbing (or sometimes sprinkling) ashes on our heads?

This weekend, we welcome three Dominican priests to lead our parish mission as the start of our anniversary celebrations. As a way of introduction, I wanted to devote this bulletin reflection to talking about the Dominican order a bit.

Tomorrow the Church celebrates the Feast of the Presentation. Believe it or not, this traditionally had been the conclusion of the Christmas season. That’s right: Christmas is more than just 12 days; it was actually 40!