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This year Holy Week will pose terrible temptations and challenges to us, both in the Gospel of St Matthew for this Palm Sunday weekend and for Good Friday’s reading of the Gospel of John—their narratives of the Passion.  The problems are more pervasive in the Fourth Gospel, but one line in Matthew makes for more devastation: “His blood be on us and on our children.”  I’ve written about this passage before, and I’m writing about it again (because we need to hear properly).  

These are simple words: “Let it be [done] to me…”  But they are also the pivot-point of the history of salvation.  Mary’s surrender is the conception of the Redeemer--the birth, ministry, death, and resurrection of her Son are all of a piece with this moment.  And it is commemorated every 25th of March as a great Solemnity (even if not a “Holy Day of Obligation”).

St Joseph is the patron saint of the universal Church; his name was added to the Roman Canon (now, Eucharistic Prayer #1) before the ending of Vatican II by Pope St John XXIII; it was added to all the other Eucharistic Prayers later, by Pope Francis.  Jesuits have a special devotion to St Joseph (witness the chapel on the campus of Spring Hill College, or the Jesuit church, now shuttered, in downtown Mobile).  He gets two feast days in our liturgical calendar:  this Monday the 20th (the transferred Solemnity from the 19th since nothing takes precedence over Sundays in Lent), and St Joseph the Worker on May 1, the Catholic answer to communist May Day celebrations of workers’ rights.

          In the course of the General Congregations [gatherings of cardinals] leading up to the conclave that elected Pope Francis, around 130 speeches were given [5 minutes or less].  This is a great example of “synodality,” by the way!

          [This essay is an excerpting and “unpacking” of Pope Francis’ Message for Lent 2023.]

This Friday the Mass will be in remembrance of the Seven Founders of the Servite Order.  It’s not one that many folks have even heard of, much less know anything about.  We need to change that.

There is not a combination of Scripture passages that are more scary than these, from Sirach and Matthew, as we hear them this weekend.  This is because the implication is that if we do not keep the commandments, it is (solely?) because we choose not to.  But can we really claim that we have kept the commandments of the Lord as they are presented to us this weekend and the next, as we move through what are called the “Six Antitheses”?  Can we really choose never to be angry, or lustful, or always to love whomever we regard as ‘enemies’?

One translation of “synod” is “walking/journeying together.” It’s the ideal that respects the voice of the Holy Spirit in every member of the Body of Christ. For centuries, this was how the Church dealt with issues, questions, practices—especially focusing on the local or regional churches. Folks may be surprised to know that the American Church engaged in this form of governance in the 19th century, with the Plenary Councils of Baltimore in 1852, 1856, and 1884. They were what ultimately produced and approved the famous “Baltimore Catechism.”

If you followed my posts on Facebook, you probably think all I did in Assisi and Rome was eat!  That’s not true, and I want to share some of the spiritual highlights of my retreat (really!).

Now that you’ve had to look up the citation of this title (which will be no surprise to you!), I’m sure you’re thinking that this essay is all about Catholic Charities.  In a way it is, but in a way perhaps more important it isn’t.

As I write this, I’m in Assisi as part of my winter retreat.  I have been blessed with many moments of grace, and I want to share some of them with you to let you know what my time away means and does for me.

This Sunday is the Solemnity of the Epiphany.  Because it is a Sunday, tomorrow will be the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord and the conclusion of our liturgical Christmas season.  We’ve been “cheated” out of another Sunday and some other days in-between for singing our carols.  Oh, well!  

January 2023 is here.  I cannot honestly say “At last!” since it seems like we’ve been moving forward at a drag-racer’s pace.  But here we are.  Is it a “new beginning”?  Do we think our “New Year’s resolutions” will last to Epiphany?  We try…  

Today!  Today!  The Latin word “Hodie” (today) reminds us of the joy that is beginning as of this morning’s birth.  The Latin texts of the Entrance Antiphons for the Vigil, Midnight, Dawn, and Christmas Day all celebrate this word or its sense.

     This Sunday is our 4th and last Sunday of Advent.  Monday is also the beginning of Chanukah, the Jewish festival of lights marking the re-dedication of the Temple after its desecration by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Some of you may remember the wonderful evening we had a few years ago (everything these days is dated pre- or post-COVID), with Rabbi Silberman and me, marking Christian and Jewish festivals of lights (the Hanukkiah, the 9-branch candlestick) the Christian 4-candle Advent wreath).  It was a joyous time of fellowship.

This week upcoming is bracketed with two festivals in honor of the Blessed Mother: the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception this past Thursday, and the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe this coming Monday. At first glance they seem perhaps to be very disparate in their focus, but I think there is a great coherence to these two celebrations.

In short order we’ll be marking Halloween, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day. November is our month for remembrance of the departed, and we know the celebrations in Mexico, for example, with Dia de los Muertos, honoring all those in our families and of our loved ones who have “…gone before us, marked with the sign of Faith…” It is an ancient custom.

This weekend’s multi-cultural festival is an important event for our parish, not only because of the opportunity to gather and celebrate (which we hadn’t been able to do, properly, for two years), but because it also reveals to us a basic truth of our Faith: that the Catholic Church is a catholic Church. What does the word “catholic” mean?

By Fr. David This past Friday we marked the (optional) Memorial of Pope St Callistus I, a martyr in the middle of the 3 rd century. He is worth remembering.

By Fr David DDPART VI      This is the last installment in the series on Desiderio Desideravi.  What I would like to do is describe the final vision of Pope Francis and add my perspective to it, with (perhaps) a few recommendations.      The congregation (and even more, the presiding priest) is formed by the action of the Liturgy.  The priest is “…not seated on a throne… He does not rob attention [to himself]…” (#60).  Rather, the pope wants the Liturgy to be celebrated in such a way that (like all sacraments) it conveys the Presence it signifies.  The goal is to shape priests and people to engage in the Liturgy in such a way that this regularly happens, rejecting calls for “the sense of mystery” and instead helps us to see and experience the “wonder and astonishment” that is there:  “For this reason we cannot go back to that ritual form which the Council fathers…felt the need to reform, approving, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit…the principles from which was born the reform.  …so that the Church may lift up, in the variety of so many languages, one and the same prayer capable of expressing her unity.  As I have already written, I intend that this unity be re-established in the whole Church of the Roman Rite” #61).