We celebrate this weekend our parish’s titular feast day, the Solemnity of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. This feast takes place on June 29th, but over the last few years we have switched its celebration to the nearest Sunday so that it may be celebrated more solemnly at our Sunday Masses. It is obvious why we call Saint Peter our titular saint— the parish being named Saint Peter’s; but perhaps the connection to Saint Paul is not so clear. It is because of the many years of faithful service that the Paulist Fathers rendered to this parish that we also honour Saint Paul as our parish’s other titular saint. Continue reading →

“Know that the Lord is God
It is He that made us, and we are His;
We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture”
(Psalm 100)

This weekend, as our society celebrates Father’s Day, this Sunday’s readings present us with the reality that God is the Father and creator of us all, and they challenge us to examine whether we recognize His authority in our lives and are willing to accept the authentic freedom that He offers us through Christ, His Son.

In the first reading from the Book of Exodus, we are told of the way in which God delivered the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt. As God leads the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land, He says to them: “Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all peoples.” The people of Israel, God’s children, are invited to know authentic freedom by listening to His Word and living the authentic freedom, for which He created them, and offered them life anew in the Promised Land. In the Old Testament, the Promised Land is where Israel once again is offered the opportunity to live in God’s presence and be the people whom God had created them to be. If they accept this invitation, God tells them that He will make them a priestly people and a holy nation. For us today, the question that we must answer is:  In what ways do we allow ourselves to be enslaved by ignoring God’s Word and not listening to His commands? Through baptism, we too have been invited to live in God’s freedom, and be His holy people. However, this invitation rests upon the premise that we are open to doing His will and not turning away from Him to live in slavery to false gods and ideologies. Continue reading →

As Catholics, every time that we pray, we begin by invoking the names of the three persons of the Holy Trinity, whose feast we celebrate this Sunday. This custom can be so habitual that at times we may do it without realizing how profound the words are that we are saying. Each time we name the three persons of the Holy Trinity, we are articulating a great mystery about God and his proximity to us that has been revealed to us by God Himself. The only way that we know about the Trinity and the names of the persons contained within God is because Jesus Himself has told us about Them. As the Son of God sent from the Father, Jesus has told us to call God “Our Father” and has repeatedly spoken to us about the Father. During His life Jesus promised His disciples that He would send them the Holy Spirit after He had returned to the Father. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Church by Jesus and His Father in Heaven. That the three cannot be separated is witnessed to in the Gospel passage from Matthew where Jesus commissions His disciples to baptize all people “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”  Everything that we know about God as the Trinity has been revealed to us by the Trinity Himself. We can learn so much about God’s love for us in reflecting upon this great mystery of our faith. Continue reading →

Every year on Mother’s Day, I love to tell the story of an episode of Sesame Street that I recall from many years ago.

The muppet puppets were featured in a story in which a little boy was separated from his mother. As the boy was crying in the town’s piazza because he could not find his mother, the king of that town came upon him and asked him why he was crying. The little boy responded that he had been separated from his mother and could not find her. Continue reading →

The most famous Psalm in the Bible is that which we hear proclaimed this Sunday – the 23^rd Psalm.  Almost every Christian knows it. Those powerful words—”The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want…Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff – they comfort me”—are often proclaimed at funerals, or other liturgies. It speaks of a profound trust in God, despite the difficulties and trials of life. The Psalm contains words of Christian hope, that speak of a confidence in Christ and His Resurrection to overcome all of life’s challenges, and that this living God who has destroyed death, is with us all the time. Continue reading →

Have you ever noticed how people speak to one another when they fall in love? Once they have first gained the courage to tell the other person that they love him or her, they begin to use this expression quite frequently. As it begins to lose some of its impact, they begin to use expressions like “very much,” or “very, very much.” Ultimately, people who are in love tell the other person that they love the other so much that they will love them “forever,” or for “all eternity.” In fact, if the person you love ever tells you that they love you so much that they will love you until next Thursday, you can be pretty sure that your relationship is in trouble. Continue reading →

There was a popular song that was written in the 1960’s that proclaimed: “What the world needs now is love, sweet love, it’s the only thing that there is just too little of. What the world needs now is love, sweet love. No not just for some, but for everyone.”  Even though this song is now more than fifty years old, it is hard to think of a song that better describes what it is that our present world, city, and our own hearts are in need of, better than this song.

When we listen to the news, go out into the streets, or even examine our own hearts, it is clear that since the pandemic, the world has become a crueler place and humanity has become a bit unhinged from its foundations. The stories in the news are of war, random acts of violence and a coldness toward others that looms large over our entire society. I am sure that many of us thought that once the pandemic was over, and the mask and vaccine mandates were lifted, we would go back to the way that world was. That has not been the case. Something about the world; something about us has changed—and not for the better. Continue reading →

Jerusalem is, and has been for several millennium, a great walled city that must be entered through one of the several gates in the city’s wall. It is a holy and sacred city. For the Jews, Jerusalem is that city where God dwelt among His people in the great temple at which they could visit Him and offer Him sacrifices. In His Holy City, God would listen to His people and they could be assured that they were standing in His presence. Whenever there was a great feast for the Jewish people they would go up to the city of Jerusalem to be near to God and celebrate with Him. For the Jewish people to live within the walls of Jerusalem—the Holy City—was the perfect life; it was equivalent to living with God on earth. In the mind of the Jewish person, the perfect place to die was within the walls of Jerusalem. To die within the walls of the Holy City meant that one had died with God in His Holy City and had indeed lived a blessed life. Continue reading →

As we hear the story this Third Sunday of Lent of the thirst of the People of Israel as Moses leads them into the desert, and of Jesus and the Samaritan Women at the well, we are challenged to ask ourselves: what is it that we thirst for and how do we satisfy that thirst?

The thirst that Jesus offers to quench for the women at the well does not refer simply to a biological or physical need. In fact, it is Jesus’ request to her for water that leads Him to engage her in a deeper discussion about the human person’s more profound thirst for the satisfaction of spiritual and emotional needs. As she tells her story, we learn that her desire to be loved and accepted has caused her to seek this love from five different partners; and despite all of these partners she continues to thirst for a love and acceptance that will ultimately satisfy the longing of her soul. It is only as Jesus listens to her story and voices His acceptance of her, and His desire to satisfy her longing for love, that she is satisfied and recognizes Him as the Messiah who is capable of satisfying her longing. Continue reading →

“See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil” (Deuteronomy 30:15)

There is a beautiful passage from the Book of Deuteronomy that summarizes what Lent is all about. It reads:

“See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in His ways, and by keeping His commandments and statutes and His ordinances, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you this day, that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life that your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice, and clinging to Him; for that means life to you and length of days, that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them” (Deuteronomy 30:15-20).

In this passage, the people of Israel are being offered a choice as they enter the Promised Land—a choice to follow God and live, or reject God and face the same death which Adam and Eve chose. Here, the Promised Land is regarded as a physical location that will allow the People of Israel to once again live in communion with God, as had Adam and Eve. For us Christians, the invitation is given to us that we might freely live in communion with God by choosing Christ and living in communion with God through the power of the Holy Spirit within the Church. As the choice of the old Adam broke the communion which once existed between God and humanity, by choosing to be followers of the New Adam—Christ, we are offered life. Continue reading →