“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for He has looked with favor on His Lowly servant” (Luke 1:46) 

For many people, when they hear of the way in which the Church honors Mary, the Mother of Jesus, in the liturgy, they wonder why so much attention is paid to Mary by Catholics. From a theological point of view, I think the best explanation of this is found in the Constitution for the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum concilium), from the Second Vatican Council. In this document, paragraph 103, we read: “In celebrating the annual cycle of Christ’s mysteries, holy Church honours with especial love the Blessed Mary, Mother of God, who is joined by an inseparable bond to the saving work of her Son. In her (Mary), the Church holds up and admires the most excellent fruit of the redemption, and joyfully contemplates, as in a faultless mirror, that which she desires and hopes wholly to be.” Or in much more simple words, the Church celebrates Mary because in her we see what we too hope to be and attain. It is important to note that Catholics do not worship Mary; they venerate her as one they hope to follow. Continue reading →

I always like it when I can start a homily with a good story. I like it even more when I can start a homily with a really good Bible story; and when it comes to Bible stories, they do not get much better than the story about the prophet Elijah.

At a very difficult time in the history of Israel, Elijah was called by God to be a profit and bring God’s message to the people. At the time Elijah was called, the nation was being ruled by an evil King and Queen by the name of Ahab and Jezebel. They had brought false gods into the worship of the country and had taken to worshiping the false god Baal, who was thought to be the god of rain, thunder, lightening, and dew. Elijah was called to tell the people of Israel that there would be a drought for as long as they were unfaithful to the true and living God. Because Baal was thought to be in charge of the rain, for Elijah to claim that the true God had power over it, was a direct challenge to Baal’s authority. Continue reading →

To begin, I would like to thank Fr. Seamus Hogan and the parish staff for giving me a vacation and allowing me a break. It had been almost two years since I had a vacation and a chance to be away for more than a day or two.

It had also been about two years since I was able to be with my parents. Happily, as vaccinated Canadians were allowed to enter the country, they were able to travel once again and return to their Canadian home near Parry Sound. Since I had not seen my mother in two years, I was a little surprised in the changes that had occurred in her since our last visit. She now uses a walker to walk further than a few steps. My father does everything for her. I am reminded by them of the same faithful witness that I have often seen in many of our older parishioners as they care for one another, or their parents or, their family. Continue reading →