Book of john

Sunday October 5, 2025: A Reason for Hope

Often people in ministry fall to despair. Families are choosing sports over their faith. Practice is more important to them than petitionary prayer, sacks over sacraments. While it can appear this way, we have to begin to unpack what sports can offer a young person. An athlete knows how to be a part of a team, is dedicated enough to accomplish a shared goal, and is often quite disciplined. For these reasons they will practice five times a week to play a single game. 

Families will shape their limited off hours to support their sons and daughters, bringing them to practices, and travel some distance to attend a game. I think to understand a family's dedication to sports we have to ask, what’s in it for them? The sidelines is often where parents make their friends. Even before their little ones begin preparing for First Eucharist, they are spending hours together on the sidelines. When they get there, there is plenty of time to talk, and the topics can be light and happy. 

So, I guess all this time we’ve been asking ourselves the wrong question. Instead of ‘why do they value sports more than their faith?’ we should be asking, ‘how do we offer families what they are looking for, in a way that centers them in their faith?’ It doesn’t have to be one against the other, because you know what, the sidelines can be a mission field for our families. A family alive in faith, can spread the Gospel to their friends through their joy and service. 

So here’s why we have cause to hope, we’re considering these questions in new ways. As a parish we are taking seriously our young families’ need for community, and creating opportunities for our young people to focus their efforts on good works and the Good News. So next time you see young people in Church, and in service, cheer them on, because they could be anywhere else. This week, pray that we can all play on the same team, to continue the building of the Kingdom of God. God Bless and have a safe week.

Sunday September 28, 2025: Confirmation is a Beginning Not an End

During the last year, our faith formation team has had the opportunity to work with, and guide an amazing group of young people, as they work towards an important moment, that is, the day when they become fully initiated in the Catholic Church. This Spring, they will be Confirmed in our Church, and begin a new phase of their life as Christians. 

They will be empowered by the Holy Spirit as they receive the gifts of Knowledge, Understanding, Wisdom,Counsel, Fortitude,Piety, and Fear of the Lord otherwise called Awe. These gifts aren’t a diploma, they aren’t a terminus, they are strength for a much greater journey to come. When you are empowered by these gifts, you don’t just leave them wrapped in a box, you take them out, exercise them, and make the world a better place. 

Here is where the whole parish community needs to come into action. Upon being Confirmed, the 9th grade will have concluded their formal faith formation. They will be called to seek and learn as members of the larger community. We all have to surround them with our prayers as they prepare, and then welcome them into the adult ministries of the parish on the other side. This week, let’s pray in a special way for the 8th and 9th graders who continue their journey of faith towards Confirmation, so that when the day comes that they are fully initiated that they will be fully equipped as disciples, and welcomed to greater life in Christ. God Bless and have a safe week. 

September 21, 2025: What a World We Live in, What Can Be Done?

I would normally use this space during Catechetical Sunday, to write a bit about the new faith formation year. I’d use flowery language to encourage the parents about the pivotal role they play in the education of their children. That all remains to be true. We make a promise at Baptism, and we seek to see it through until our children are making their own religious profession, or baptising their own children, and beyond. That said, there is something a little more important to be addressed. 

We are living in a dangerous time. There actually isn’t much new about that. Christians have been for as long as there have been followers of Christ. Yet there has been a disintegration of faith and life over the last several decades. It used to be that faith, and the family were at the core of life, and Americans took great pride in this. However, today, there has been an increase in violence, often unpredictable, and a recurring theme has been parents, families, and communities, that have failed to raise the alarm when something terrible was about to happen. In many cases there has been hateful indoctrination, or neglect within the homes of those who would go on to carry out hateful and violent acts. Beyond this, political leaders on both sides have failed to react to tragedy after tragedy because of political risk or ideology. 

I am convinced that the only true solutions to these societal ills come from Jesus, and from parents who intentionally pursue the path of peace. We need to pray without ceasing that Christ’s will be done, and model true discipleship for our children, because the solutions to the ills of this world may be outside of our reach, but it is not too late for our children. This week let’s pray to Jesus the Prince of Peace that senseless violence will come to an end, and that our family homes might be a laboratory, and workshop for His peace. God Bless and have a safe week.

Sunday September 14, 2025: Finding Good Media

Remember when I did a bulletin article about the faithful messages that could be found in everyday secular places? I had just gone to see the most recent Fast and Furious movie, and was delighted by messages about family? That was definitely a stretch, but aside from the output of Angel Studies, and the makers of Chosen, maybe some Christian music imprints, we aren’t provided with many bright lights for Christian Entertainment. Sure you can look to places like Formed.org to get your fix (and can do so for free as a parishioner) you have to dig for the good stuff. You aren’t necessarily getting it for easy consumption, alongside blockbusters. 

Good news about the Good News everyone! There is currently a movie out in theaters right now called ‘Light of the World’ a 2D animated film by the Salvation Poem Project. The movie tells the story of Jesus from the perspective of a very young St. John the Apostle. If you are looking for a straight and stiff retelling of the scripture you’ll be out of luck. Early on in the story telling there are action scenes reminiscent of the Disney Film Aladdin. There are powerful tellings of certain miracles, and the feeling and humanity of the story shine through.

The film isn’t completely without reproach. The leaders of the day, such as the high priest are dehumanized as the standard dastardly villain. Certain miracles are left out of the story which is understandable given what a reasonable run time should be. Still other miracles and events that are unique to the Gospel of John were condensed or glossed over. Of interest is the fact that the end of the movie has a call to accept Jesus, with a QR code to some good resources to learn more. If it is a rainy day, and you’d like something to do with your children, I’d encourage you to take the time to go see this in the theaters. We often complain about how there are negative things of great numbers in the culture, I’d encourage you to support something that is decidedly positive! 

This week let’s pray for the creators out in the world trying to share the Gospel, especially with those who’ve never received it, or have rejected it, so that our families, and community can continue to share the Good News with all peoples. God Bless and have wonderful week.

Sunday September 7, 2025: Getting Back to It

The slow down of summer has ground to a halt. Summer work schedules, and the kids are back off to school. This is our first Sunday post Labor Day, and I am thrilled to see that you have all returned. Time to get back to it all. While it is extremely late, it’s not too late to register for Families of Faith if you just haven’t gotten around to it, but come on, let’s prioritize faith formation for our children about as much as we prioritize getting our kids into the Ivy Leagues for College! 

What do we do to make that happen? We drive them to travel league sports, give up family dinners for practices or rehearsals. We buy that super rare instrument so that they can get 1st chair in that orchestra. We give up our weekends to travel for tournaments. We hire expensive tutors to get the grades, we make sure they have the best test prep for the ACTs and SATs and any other acronymed test. We do these things in hope that they will be successful in life, that they can (maybe) do better than we have, so that they can live an easier and more fulfilling life. It’s a great goal, but the truth is, unfortunately even this shall pass. In reality, life is fleeting, and we have to look to even more eternal goals. 

We want what’s best for our children, I think that is somewhat universal. The things that are eternal have to do with our relationship with God. What did we do to make the world like heaven on earth? What can we do to build that important relationship now, so that we can continue that on well past our earthly life. There used to be a time when we worried about hellfire and brimstone. The material imagery we use to illuminate a spiritual reality. When we fail to attain heaven, it is because we’ve rejected a relationship with God our Creator. God is the source of all that is good and perfect. We choose to be distant from Him, from that. 

How miserable do we feel when we are distanced from the ones we love: When we lose them to death, or physical distance? How terrible do children feel if they perceive that their parents don;’t care about them, because they are always busy, or on their devices instead of interacting with them? I imagine that this sort of loss echoes what it is like to be separated from God, just it would be an eternal feeling. 

There are two gifts we can give to our children as the school year begins. Let us share with them our presence, and a great experience of relationship with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This week, as a community, let us pray for the families of our parish, both present, and absent, that they can be better equipped to provide their children with the back to school,  and back to God essentials. God Bless and have an excellent week.

Sunday August 31, 2025: Building a Community of Faith

As a Church, at Immaculate Heart of Mary and beyond, we have to take a deep breath, and consider why we gather together. When Jesus gathered His apostles and disciples, it was for the purpose of building a community. He said to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father,the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

The Lord didn’t gather a rag tag gang, and send them to their own caves to have an individual relationship with God. He didn’t say go to work every day, drop your kids off wherever, and maybe stop in and visit on a Sunday when you aren’t inconvenienced to do so. No! He called us to love God with everything we have, and our neighbors as ourselves. That goes far beyond personal prayer practices and Mass attendance. If living the life of faith was only about checking boxes, and following the rules, the Pharisees and Sadducees had already cornered the market on that.

We are called to be in the world, and not of the World. Our faith is meant to be lived in a strong community of faith, and it is supposed to be multiplicative. We are supposed to be going out and making disciples. That is challenging in a world where we are made to feel like weirdos when we share our faith. Most of us, myself included, fall short of this call at times. 

If we want to do this right, we’ve got to double down on loving our neighbors. That means holding space for our community of faith. We should be supporting our neighbors, through prayer, conversation, and yes advice and concern during challenges. As we do better at this, we need to extend the circle of support. 9/10ths of cradle Catholics are making the decision to leave the faith at 13 years old. We need to double down on building community and a shared culture that supports and cares for all of its members. 

We already have such a strong foundation of welcome and hospitality. As we’ve awakened from the morose of Covid-19,  the isolation, and generated apathy, we’re making great strides, but if we want to be relevant, and more on the mission Jesus has left us we’ve got to double down, and more people have got to be involved. This week, let’s pray for the people at the margins, who aren’t being shown Jesus’ love. Let us pray for those in our community who have great gifts for ministry and mission who need that extra motivation to spread the Good News! God Bless and have a great week.

Sunday August 24, 2025: We Need to Model Life in Christ

Statistics, straw polls, and personal anecdotes show that our faith isn’t popular, and a lot of young people aren’t buying it. Some figures show that the median age where young people choose to leave the faith is 13 years old. That isn’t just for Catholicism, but faced by much of Christianity. As Catholics, we find community in a lot of places. Youth sports builds community, many are privileged to belong to country clubs and social organizations. Few of us find our community within the Church, and this goes double for youths.

We are always trying to consider and reconsider what we offer for our youth, through faith formation and youth ministries. However, if the Church isn’t a primary place of community for our families. Attending faith formation, maybe Mass, and occasionally a youth ministry event, isn’t going to draw a life long connection to the faith. If parents aren’t openly living the faith as more than their Saturday evening or Sunday morning, our kids are going to pick up on that. This was never a major part of my parents’ lives, so why should I care?” or “My parents were always miserable about their faith, why should I care.” 

Our faith has always been counter to our culture. Revenge seems to be easier than forgiveness. Violence can feel more empowered than forgiveness. Looking down on others can make us ‘feel’ better about our own shortcomings and downfalls. However, that is not what Christ came to show us. We as parents need to show our children that faith is more than restrictions, rules, and the mundane. Our faith is other worldly, and should be celebrated. There is more to our relationship with God, than what we cannot do. However, if we live like it’s about rules, we miss out, and our children won’t want anything to do with it.

Together, we need to build a stronger community, reenvision what our community can look like, and make real and lasting change in our community and beyond. We need to go out into the world with the power of the Holy Spirit, and build the kingdom of God everywhere we go. This week, let’s pray for the intercession of St. Monica, that our children will remain in faith, or return if they’ve left, because in the end, at our core, we want the best for our children, and our community of faith. God Bless and have a great week.

Sunday August 17, 2025: The Widows, Orphans, and Aliens 

Jesus’ teachings to the people of His time were radical, but not novel. For instance, through the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus demonstrates two things, first that those in need are our neighbors, and that care for others should supersede blind adherence to the Law or cultural divide. 

Care for strangers and those in need, is not new to Jesus' teaching. Time after time the people of God show inhospitality, such as at Soddom and Gemorrah, and as a result face distance from God. This was because nomads, those without a land of their own, depend on the kindness and care of those they come across. To refuse care, would mean the death of a wanderer. 

This week look up Exodus 22:21-24. Long before the coming of the awaited Messiah, the God’s chosen people were instructed to treat aliens, strangers, or sojourners with dignity, because they knew of mistreatment in Israel. They were also instructed to care for the widows and orphans of their time, because they were the least respected or dignified people of their time. We can easily place our hope, and perspective in the hands of those that notionally regard God and our faith, but worship at other altars. We can worship God, and then defer to national pride over our citizenship as Sons and Daughters of the King. We come by this honestly, and the internalized racism and hatred towards Catholics that feels like a distant memory. 

For instance, people opposed JFK’s candidacy for Presidency, because they thought he would be a papist who would install some form of theocracy which was far from true. Yet a largely protestant America would block Catholics from employment, security and even rental of property. We swayed to an extreme to prove our Americanism, and sometimes that is at the expense of our faith and belief. 

So today when we hear the teachings of Jesus about the care of our neighbors, even if they belong to a culture that we align against, we keep in mind their treatment will guide our final judgment, and that has always been the case, from the beginning, as recorded in the Pentateuch or Torah. This week, let's pray to God that we can love our neighbors as we are called to, even if it goes against our natural prejudices, and inclinations to protect ourselves. That we might be an expression of Jesus’ love for the world, even when, especially when it runs counter towards what feels like our own interests. 

God Bless and Have a Wonderful Week!

Sunday August 10, 2025: Who is the Strongest Hero?

If your algorithm is anything like mine, you’ll get one story about Pope Leo XIV, another about an upcoming movie, one about the weather, and then there will be something different. I’ll find a listicle (list article) about which superheroes can defeat other comic book heroes. Normally, the hero in question is Batman. 

What these power rankings tend to ignore, is that the greatest super power any of them have is something we like to call ‘plot armor’. The hero, whether Batman or otherwise will do what they need to, be victorious over a villain. In these stories, more often than not, Good will triumph over evil, because that is the outcome desired by the author.

So, check this out. We’re always complaining about the evil and suffering that exists in the world. People are doing horrible things to each other. People from all sides of the political discourse, from every nation, are doing unthinkable violent things to the least of these, the people Jesus loves the most. Babies are killed and abandoned communities are literally and figuratively torn and blown apart, the homeless and destitute are being made illegal (because we cannot stand to see them or they don’t want their property value to decline. 

We see all these things, and we must act, Jesus told us we have to. However, he also told us that the gates of hell shall not prevail against His Church. We know that Jesus has prevailed against the powers of Sin and Death. As much as we must cooperate, and love the people He loves, we know the outcome, we are joined to His Victory if we choose to follow Him. We just have to set aside the idols, and ideologues who seek to drag us down.

We have plot armor, even though that doesn’t mean that we’ll live a life devoid of suffering. We have the victory though we may face setbacks. This week let’s pray that we can better cooperate with the will of God, as we face a world in decline, so that we may be builders of the Kingdom not destroyers, that we might be not just hearers, but doers of the Good News. God Bless and have a Wonderful week!

Sunday August 3, 2025: Reflections on the Month of August

August has always been an important time in my adult life. It has been a true time of transition, and adventure. In August of 2008, I moved home from Buffalo, NY where I had lived and worked following college. From that move, I moved again, almost immediately into priestly formation for the Diocese of Trenton. I would go on to spend 4 ½ years in priestly formation, and left Seminary (at the cusp of transitional diaconate ordination) because I had discerned married life. From one adventure to the other, I set out on an unknown path! 

On August 12th 2013, I began my first career in lay ministry, as director of Religious Education at St. Paul Parish in Princeton, NJ. Years later, on the same day, August 12th 2017 I was married to my wife Emily! Suffice to say, I will never forget my anniversary! It was through marriage, and later becoming a father that my understanding of ministry expanded, and grew. In Seminary, in preparation to become a priest, it was so much easier to relate my faith to the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ. However, as a husband and father, I’ve grown to relate more fully to God the Father. It is our Creator who seeks a deeper relationship with us. We were created in His image to live in relationship with Him. As a husband, and a wife, you stick by each other through challenges. No matter the struggle, you are united in facing whatever comes your way. God the Father seeks us out, even in our shame and low moments, just as our spouse will. A father (or mother) through success and failure, loves their children unconditionally, and this is a reflection of God’s unending love for us. Even as our child headbutts us in the face, we return to care and love them, even if we learn to keep our distance!

My whole time serving at Immaculate Heart of Mary, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to work closely with our parish families. Instead of being a principal who oversees classes, I’ve met and journeyed with our faith formation families. A high point for me is meeting with every single 8th grade family at the beginning of their first year of Confirmation prep, and accompanying families as they prepare for First Eucharist! This is unique and important because I know the families, and they know me, and this helps us work together to grow in faith! 

The importance of family when it comes to faith is immeasurable, which is why I am pleased that our parish is prioritizing the accompaniment of families, from Baptism through Confirmation and beyond. It will mean some changes to how we do some things, but let us pray this week that these new focuses will bear good fruit in the lives of our parish families! God Bless and have a wonderful week!

Sunday July 27, 2025: I Wish Someone Would Do Something About…

If all it took was a snap of the finger, or a prayer, what major issues would you seek to tackle? Would it be world hunger, violence, oppression, anthropogenic climate change, war, abortion, affronts to religious freedom? The list we could come up with would be amazing. The reality is prayer isn’t magic, and meaningful change in the world takes action. While God won’t miraculously solve these problems for us, He has given us what we need to live up to the challenges in front of us.

We are called to be the salt of the earth. The thing about salt is that it not only preserves food, it also improves flavor. We are called to be the lamp on the lamp stand. Lamps give off light to see, but also warmth. We are called to use our creativity, and to work together to make necessary changes to how society functions. We are called to constantly work to build the Kingdom of God. We are also called to be in the World, but not of it.

While it is awfully appealing to think that we can fix the world by enacting laws, to change how the world and culture works, that doesn’t accomplish what we are truly called to. We are expected to make disciples, and call people into relationship with the Father, the Son, and The Holy Spirit. Ultimately, to lead others to God and Heaven as opposed to the alternative, Hell and damnation. 

Imposing solutions on others, forces compliance, changing hearts that takes the difficult work of sharing the truth, planting the seeds, and caring for those seeds until they grow to harvest. We are called to sow and tend the seeds, even if the crop faces blight.

So when we wish someone would do something, anything, we have to look into the mirror, and say this reality that we’ve imagined, that is what we need to bring into being. So this week, let us pray for the strength, knowledge, and guidance, to build the kingdom, the world we desire to see. 

God Bless and have a Wonderful Week.

Sunday July 20, 2025: The Love of Parents

My wife and I took our children out to the movies for only the second time in their life, and we went to see the movie Elio. I won’t spoil anything because I highly encourage families, especially with young children to either see it in the theater or as soon as it is on streaming! Why do I recommend this so highly? Because it is an original story that touches upon realities we face as a society today, with humor, heart, and vibrant imaginative imagery. It touches upon the topics of loneliness, abandonment, and even the expectations that society puts on fathers and their sons, in a way that we don’t often see. 

The core of the story is finding acceptance, love, and understanding, through challenges and turmoil. I think it highlights two major needs we need in society today. The first is the need for community. Jesus gave us a Church, not to be a big building with ornate decoration, art, and ritual alone, but to be a gathering of faithful people who come together for the sake of loving God, and supporting each other. 

It also brought my mind to reflect on the unending love of God Our Father. He created us from nothing, to live in relationship with Him. The Father created paradise for us, and we refused it. He made Covenants with less and less expectation of us until He restored us fully to Him through the Life, Death, and Resurrection of the second person of the Trinity Jesus Christ. When you see the movie it’s clear that this is an imperfect analogy. Just know that even though we don’t live up to His expectations. God the Father’s love for us is unending. 

This week let us pray for orphans and the dispossessed, those who don’t know the love of their father, or God the Father, and for those who are isolated and lonely whether old or young. God Bless and have a wonderful week!

Sunday July 13, 2025: The Battlefield of Faith

If only the work of building the Kingdom of God were like a battlefield of war. The process would be short term. We could recruit a finite number of people, over a limited amount of time. You can get almost anyone to help you with a one off project, but a lifelong journey, where you won’t see the results in this lifetime is a harder sell. 

Our Summer Academy has just concluded, and that journey will need to continue. At the beginning of our time together, the parents and children all signed a Family Covenant that asked them to commit themselves to living the faith in community. What they initially enrolled in was a two week formation camp, but they can consider that their faith boot camp. Part of the Covenant Process also asked families to assess their spiritual gifts. Where could they, and would they like to serve. Over the next weeks I will be helping connect those families with the heads of ministries that they showed interest in. This will be a gateway into deeper discipleship, and a refreshment of our community life. 

The tough news here is that we aren’t recruiting for a short term war, we are working to build an eternal kingdom. That kingdom has space for all of us. We are assured victory, because that victory is promised and insured through Christ our Lord. We just might not get to enjoy it, until we reach our heavenly rest. The important thing though, if we begin working on the task together, whole heartedly, we’ll begin to see the fruits of our labor come to fruition. This week let’s pray for our community that we might grow as Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, changing the world, and leading others to eternal life.

Sunday July 6, 2025: From Transaction to Accompaniment 

As a Church we need to empower our young people and families to be Disciples of Jesus Christ. We need to see, and welcome them as full members of our parish, or we’ve completely lost the plot. It is as much on us to build the conditions, and make the path straight as it is for them to make the commitment. This isn’t an excuse for them, but a reality. Last weekend, we asked the families to offer a Family Covenant with the parish, as part of the beginning of Summer Academy. Part of that process was for them to discern what ways they could become more involved in the liturgical life, and service of our parish. This will require the welcome of those families, when I put them in contact with you as the leaders and stewards of our parish.

As a parish it is our duty to form families in the faith, and for the sacraments. For the longest time, the model for this has been to register families on a yearly basis, of course for a fee, and to do the extra formation for sacraments, at an extra fee. Ideally, all families of the parish would be financial stewards of the parish, ensuring budgets were met, and there would be no need to charge for formation or sacramental formation, or for funerals, or weddings or anything beyond the stewardship provided by the community. That often isn’t a parish’s reality. 

That means that we all run the risk of a transactional relationship. In any relationship where you pay for a product or service, once it is paid for, received. Once the contract has been brought to completion, the relationship terminates, until another product or service is needed. We used to be able to count on a young person coming back to be married, or baptised, and in a sense starting 14-18 years of new transactions as they brought up the next generation of their family. With differing cultural context, and feelings on marriage, that is no longer assured. 

The solutions are still out there to be grasped at. However, what I know is that even in this social media world, people are lonely. They desire, even crave for community. That is what we have to strive to be for each other. Pilgrims on a journey walking with each other, socializing, supporting, and accompanying each other. This week, let’s pray for the whole Church, that there might be a revival of community, in such a transactional time. That we may come together, to build the kingdom of God.

God Bless and have a great week!

Sunday June 29, 2025: Summer a Time to Grow in Faith

This Sunday is a wonderful day for our parish. We begin classes for Summer Academy. The parents of the program are having a retreat experience while the kids get started, and we are also celebrating our parish feast! This has been an incredible year for our parish. There have been activities and opportunities to grow in faith, and that has been non-stop. It has been a good year, but we are called to more. We should seek to grow as disciples, and take our faith journey as far as we can. Growing as close to Christ Jesus as we can! This Sunday, as a part of our Summer Academy the families are presenting Covenants to continue to grow in faith during the year. Making a commitment to attending Mass more regularly, to become more involved in our parish life, and to become stewards of the parish.

We’ve added this new Covenant as a part of our Summer Academy as a way to call our families to more. Even as their family schedules are so hectic. It comes at a cost, but if they seek to live faith together parents and children, there will be many rewards, as they grow closer as a family, with each other, and with the generations of faithful that belong to our parish. 

Here is where I throw down the gauntlet. Faith formation families aren’t the only ones who need to make a commitment to be stewards of the parish. They are not the only ones who need to step up as leaders, and fill our community with life. There are plenty of us here who make a commitment to come to Mass, and have a personal relationship with Jesus. Yet Jesus gave us a faith that exists in a community. Even if we are doing the right thing, Jesus and this community are calling us as he did the young man who went away sad. Give until it hurts, give up our possessions (or at least the things and behaviors that own a disproportionate amount of our attention) and follow Him. This week, let’s pray for our entire community of faith, and in a special way for the families that are embarking on a new year of faith formation, and growth as a family. It is as an entire community that we are called to live in faith, hope, and love. 

God Bless and Have a Wonderful Week. 

Sunday June 22, 2025: The Feast of Corpus Christi

This weekend we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi. Even if you’ve been Catholic all your life, it would be excusable if you didn’t know what that means. In fact, there are some practicing Catholics who don’t believe that the Eucharist is Christ’s true body, and blood. I encourage them to keep practicing, because like all of us, they have room to grow in faith and belief. 

The Feast of Corpus Christi, is a celebration of the mystery of Transubstantiation. We acknowledge in amazement that what appears to be simple bread and wine, a staple of daily life (especially at Jesus’ time) changes its substance to become the Body and Blood of Christ, at every Mass, in every Church across the whole world. Amazingly, this isn’t tied to the worthiness of the priest celebrating the Mass, but through the promise of Christ. Jesus told us, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you shall not have life within you. To make such a claim, our loving Lord needed to make that possible for us. So, Christ took what was familiar to the people of His time, and the faith tradition He came from, and transformed the Passover Seder, into the meal we share at Mass today. He transformed the meal, just as through His words, and actions, the bread and wine come to nourish us.

This transformation doesn't end with bread and wine. No, because as we receive Jesus, we are made to become more like Him. This simple meal of bread and wine, empowers us to go into an often hostile world, to spread the Good News. That is, if we truly come to understand and believe what is happening within us. This week, let us pray that we can more fully embrace the mystery of the Eucharist, and welcome the ways that it can transform our lives, and the world we venture out into. God Bless and have a wonderful week.

Sunday June 15, 2025: Don’t Get Caught Up

We are living in a pretty divided time. We as individuals might be quick to write off others, because they don’t think, feel, or act the way that we feel is best. We’re quick to condemn or diminish others because they hold a different political alignment, ecclesiology, or even Mass preference such as those who prefer Novus Ordo or the Traditional Latin Mass. The thing is, that these sorts of divisions amongst the faithful, are not aligned with the teachings of Christ or His Apostles who spread His Gospel. Christ Jesus prayed that we might all be one, not a bunch of people doing our own thing, in our own corner, belittling, and condescending to our brothers and sisters. This was His Prayer in the garden before being taken into custody. 

Early in the Church there were divisions forming, Christians were divided on some really fundamental levels, Jew or Greek, slave or free, and by the person who had baptized them. Early leaders like St. Paul, and St. Peter had to get people straight on the fact that Jesus is the root and foundation of our faith, and those who serve Him cannot overshadow what He taught. A large core of our faith is that we are to love our neighbors, even those we define as our enemies, not alongside our command to love the Lord Our God with our everything, but as an extension, because we are all made in the image and likeness of God. 

On this Father’s Day, we remember that God is Our Father, and He loves us all. He doesn’t pick favorites, and the gifts He offers are available to all of us. We just have to seek Him out. Yes the Saints have found eternal life, and in their name many intercessions have been answered, but that is because they sought the Lord, and prized their connection. We can do that too. As flawed as we can be, Our Father is always seeking to embrace us more fully, through Christ our Lord, and the Power of the Holy Spirit. This week, let us pray in a special way, that we might find unity, in the love of God our Father, and that all the fathers in the world that model their parenthood on the Love of God might be empowered to enrich the lives of their children, and offer them a better future. God Bless, and have a wonderful week!

Sunday June 8, 2025: Be Sealed with the Holy Spirit

What influences you in your daily life? People on social media, the news, what the cool kids are doing? It’s an important question to ask especially as we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. On the Ascension, the disciples and apostles saw Jesus return to the Father, and we sent ahead to Jerusalem to wait. 

Even though Jesus had resurrected, His time with Him was limited. If they had found themselves gazing upon Jesus, there would be no reason for them to go out and do the work that they were called for. No, they wouldn’t be able to sit at Jesus’ feet any more, it was time to touch grass, or rather the path, to go to all of the Nations, and baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So they went to Jerusalem, and gathered in the Upper Room, very likely the place that they shared the Last Supper, to await the Paraclete, the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, that Jesus would send to strengthen them for Mission. 

Just as the power of the Holy Spirit rested upon Jesus at His Baptism, the Apostles and Disciples received their share of the promised strength to go and make disciples of all nations. They healed the sick, cast out demons, gave sight and hearing to those who had lived without. In the name of Jesus they did what they were called to. 

On the day of your Confirmation, you were granted the same share of blessings, the same gifts. Now is the time to reflect, do I use the gifts that I was given, the Wisdom, Knowledge, Counsel, Understanding, Fortitude, Piety, and Awe. Are we influenced by these gifts or every trend, every movement, every blowing of the wind of each day, or the wind the power, and the fire of the Holy Spirit. We pray, Come Holy Spirit, and fill the hearts of your faithful so that we may become truly wise. 

God Bless and have an on fire week.

Sunday June 1, 2025: We Need Your Help

This is an all points bulletin, and you’ll probably receive it in your inbox as well. Preparation for First Eucharist begins in first grade. Throughout the Archdiocese of Newark (and beyond) there is an expectation that families spend two years preparing for First Reconciliation and Holy Communion. 

During the first year, we begin to cover basic concepts of faith. We begin to focus on the Mass, our basic prayers, meet some of the saints, and begin to look at Sacred Scripture. In the second year, we expand on these concepts, but also prepare directly for the sacraments as families. This includes retreats, family gatherings, and mornings of reflection to get ready! So if you know families with young children, tell them to visit our website, or sign up through our website to begin their journey. As a bonus, we do welcome children in pre-k and kindergarten to participate in Summer Academy and Families of Fath during the year! 

Something similar applies to Confirmation. In reality, formation in Families of Faith and Summer Academy should begin in first grade (or younger) and continue through eighth grade. This isn’t because we want to collect registration fees (that cover roughly 50% of the cost of formation) but because if we only prepare for sacraments, we don’t really know our faith. That being said, the bare minimum preparation for the Sacrament of Confirmation, begins in eighth grade, by attending Summer Academy or Families of Faith, and beginning direct formation which meets 8 times during eighth grade, and continues into ninth grade, concluding with Confirmation in spring of 9th grade. While that concludes formal preparation, its a beginning not an end, as we hope to prepare for a life of faith. 

Here’s the square deal. The people we need to connect with, likely aren’t reading this message. They don’t always come to Mass, and won’t get the invitation. We’ve begun reaching out to the community, but experience shows the direct invitation works best. Especially, if the person inviting knows the other person personally. Pray for our families, especially those who aren’t occupying a pew because life is too busy, or they don’t know what’s what, or have never been invited. As a community let’s welcome them because you know what, we are the ones who can make our parish strong, and with missing friends, and family, we can’t be our best. God Bless You Disciples of Christ, Spread the Gospel with Your Lives!

Sunday May 25, 2025: Summer Academy is Forthcoming

In a short amount of time we are going to be starting Summer Academy, a program that really serves as a jumpstart to a year’s faith journey. We look forward to having a Family Sunday Session on Sunday. June 29th. The young people will have a brief opportunity to acclimate to the classroom and peers that they will be learning with, and parents will have the opportunity to do something uncommon, namely talk about their faith, with peers, on the same or a similar journey. 

As usual, the registration process has been a little slow. As you know, making any program like this successful requires three things, preparation, preparation, and more… volunteers. It is challenging to order the right number of books when people register the week before. It is inconvenient to say the least, to scramble to make sure that you have enough volunteers to guide the classes. 

Here are a few things you can do, to make this program, and by extension our parish’s ministry more successful. If you have children, register them sooner than later (if there is a financial hardship or difficulty using the system, contact faith formation immediately) and tell all of your friends to register immediately. If you don’t have any children, tell your neighbors, tell your adult children, tell the Catholic neighbor you only see in the store, that it’s time to register their kids. After you’ve helped immensely with this low barrier of entry task, we’ve got something else, that might be a lifestyle change- for you to consider. Pray about whether you are called to volunteer in the formation of our children, whether in the Summer, or Sundays during the year. If that isn’t for you, I have a demand for you. 

This is a tough one, because it’s going to sound new, and novelty is hard to accept. Are you ready for it? Make every parent who brings their children to Mass feel welcome. Let them know you like seeing them there (even if that isn’t the case). Be polite and supportive, even if a child is misbehaved, or a little “too” spirited. If you want there to be a community here, children and their parents have to start coming more, and that only happens if you are welcoming. Shoot, maybe even consider mentoring a parent, you are a fine upstanding parishioner. Especially, if you take the time to read my hogwash!

We are already a very welcoming parish, and I could feel it the moment I walked into the Church. So let’s pray for a movement of kindness and love in our community, that supports the formation of our children, and even our parents. O that this movement would move beyond the walls of our church, to our schools, workplaces, and even the pickup line!

God Bless, and have a wonderful week.

Sunday May 18, 2025: Habemus Papam 

Normally, I write a bulletin entry on Monday the week before the Sunday when it is published. I don’t have a crystal ball, but generally do a pretty good job being vague enough that what I write is generally correct. That is other than the week before Covid-19th reared its absolutely ugly head. Safe to say, I got that wrong as most people did. 

Oddly, our bulletin publisher needed content for this bulletin 2 weeks in advance, before the conclave took off. Here is what I hope will transpire on May 7th or soon after! It is great to hear that the participants in the Conclave were mature, and spirit led. They came together with the best interest of the Church in mind, and transcended all concepts of Church politics to find a Supreme Pontiff who will be a great steward of the Church moving forward. A man who will uphold the truth of our faith, while properly addressing the modern challenges of the Church and the needs of the younger generations. This is a new time of revival in our Church as we continue the Year of Jubilee of Hope.

The new Pope that they have elected has the Pastoral sense of Pope Francis, the academic prowess of Pope Benedict, and the absolute rock star charisma of St. John Paul the Great. He has never touched political power, seeks out the marginalized, and importantly finds common faith and cause with those who he theologically differs with. He raises them up as brothers and sisters made in the Imago Dei, the Image and Likeness of God Himself. This new young, or mature Pontiff will continue the work of those who came before him. Environmental Stewardship, and Social Justice which were so important to both Francis, and Benedict, while protecting the unborn, those at the end of life, and at the margins of society, reaching out as Christ himself did. 

This week, let us pray for the New Pope, those who elected Him, and for the Church of Christ, which we are well assured even the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it! God Bless and Have a Wonderful Week!

Sunday May 11, 2025: Welcome to a More Mature Catholicism

On Sunday, May 10th we were visited by Bishop Elias Lorenzo, the regional bishop for Union County, and he confirmed over 30 of our young people. During the celebration of the sacrament, he gifted these young men and women with Understanding, Wisdom, Knowledge, Counsel, Fortitude, Piety, and Fear of the Lord otherwise known as awe. 

During 8th grade, we met with families for their initial family interview. While together, I took the opportunity to question the parents. I would ask them “what are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit?” While this might have seemed like a gotcha moment, the purpose was to show the young people that even if your faith is important to you, and you attend Mass, and completed formal formation, there are over 5000 years of faith knowledge to open up, from Abraham to today, so it’s natural that we can always learn new things. 

I then take the opportunity to unwrap two less commonly understood gifts. The first is piety. I’ve always forgotten this one because I mistook it for arrogance. You see a dower faced saint sparkling and staring up at God, with no regard for those around them. Piety isn’t about performative faith. In fact it’s the farthest from that. Piety is love of God for the sake of relationship. Piety is love of God for the sake of friendship and love, and not because you fear hell or the consequences of bad behavior. This isn’t quid pro quo, no this is a true relationship. 

That is what makes the next gift feel almost ironic. I’m talking about Fear of the Lord, or Awe. What this is, is reverence. Awe is like admiring the work of an artist. You regard every brush stroke, or chisel strike, recognizing that each is intentional. When we focus the analogy on God instead, we realize the beauty of creation, the vastness of the cosmos, the improbability of the chance of any of us being alive. Such particular things had to happen for us to even be. It shows God’s intentionality in loving us into existence. Once you realize this, and accept the gift of awe, you have to expand that reverence to what God has created, especially every single human being without any exception, and not based on any criteria other than that they exist. How can we love and show awe for a God that we cannot see, when we cannot love a brother or sister who we have with us? 

This week, let us pray that our lives will continue to be enriched with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and that the young people that we’ve seen Confirmed this weekend, can step up and be the leaders that they are so called, and capable to be in our community, and in the world!

God Bless and Have a Wonderful Week! 

Sunday May 4, 2025: A New Level of Initiation!

This Saturday, our parish was thrilled to welcome some young members of our community to the Altar of Our Lord to receive their First Communion. All the way back at Baptism, these parents made the promise to raise their children in the faith, and this was a major step in this direction. 

As we mourn the loss of Pope Francis, we keep in mind two things that were so important to him. The first is that we are to live out, and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ joyfully, and secondly, that we live in the hope that one day we will be forever united with Jesus in Heaven. I mention this, because a pet peeve of mine, is when I see people young and old receive the Eucharist, and immediately have a sullen face. In that moment, we receive the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and are almost immediately sent out to bring Him out into the world. 

If we cannot be joyful in receiving Jesus, and transmitting Him to the rest of the World, why would anyone want to follow our example, and follow after us towards Him? On Saturday, our children, and young people were so joyous and happy to receive Jesus for the First time, and that is how we should always approach the altar at Mass! What an amazing gift that the Church continues to receive thousands of years after that Last Supper! This week, let us pray that we can receive the Body of Christ with the same joy as these young people did on Saturday, and that our faith and theirs might continue to grow infinitely!

God Bless and Have a Wonderful Week! 

Sunday April 27, 2025: Where are the Young People After Confirmation

Our society is too wrapped up in winning. Just ask Charlie Sheen, or our leaders. It is all about winning, doing better than our neighbors. While making a living, and supporting our family is important, it goes beyond that. It’s not enough to be comfortable, we have to win. The house has to be bigger, the car flashier. To gain those levels of success, it often takes 60 hour weeks, and constant availability on a smart phone. 

That message of winning doesn’t end with adults. No, it extends to our children. Doing well, being happy, and well formed isn’t enough. Competition sports begin while they are practically in diapers. The need to win leeches into everything. We need the best grades, the most trophies, to participate in every sport and activity. 60 hour work weeks, and extracurricular activities every night, and there is no longer time for a family dinner to check in. Parents cross each other’s path as one heads to Wendy’s and basketball practice, and the other to McDonalds and cheer. Family time often has to take a back burner because activities and work get in the way. Schedule creep snags up Sundays, and all of a sudden Mass, faith formation, and participation in things that used to be held as sacrosanct become optional.

When it is all about winning there has to be losers, and I’m afraid that the losers become all of us. Christ made sure to give us everything we needed. As a part of that package, He gave us each other. When one of us is missing, the whole community misses out. We all want to provide safety, comfort, and success to our families, but there is something we have to remember. Jesus Christ became man. He ministered to us, for a very brief moment in history. He suffered, died, and was buried. He rose again, and opened to us an unprecedented relationship with God.

One day Christ will come to judge the living and the dead. The quiz is pass fail, and He already gave us all the answers. Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, care for the sick, clothe the naked and visit the prisoner. None of those have to do solely with worldly success (though success can force multiply for us). None of those have to do with winning, embarrassing our opponents, or having a better house than our neighbor. What they do, is give us a place in His Kingdom, and a place for our children if we do this all right. 

This week, let’s pray for parents, because this isn’t an easy time to be parenting in. That we parents can raise our children in the right way, that balances success with faith and family and keeps everything in the right context. God Bless and have a Happy Easter Season.

Easter Sunday April 20, 2025: Jesus Is Risen and So are We!

In past years, especially since COVID 19 it has been uncommon for our parish to welcome new members through the Easter Sacraments at the vigil. This has been a great shame because this experience is positive for those celebrating, such as Henry and Sofia, but also vital for our parish. Every Easter we reaffirm our baptismal promises, yet how much more meaningful is it for us to witness the rebirth of our members through the newly blessed baptismal waters? The newly baptised are either submerged or poured over by these waters three times, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each submersion representing one day Jesus spent in the tomb, and each time we are pulled out of those waters, represents our own resurrection with and in Christ. 

Then we walk with the newly initiated through their Confirmation. They are sealed with the Holy Spirit, and receive the gifts of Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Piety, and Awe otherwise known as Fear of the Lord. We live out the moment that the Apostles received these gifts at Pentecost. Then, in a new and glorious way, we join with the newly initiated in the Breaking of the Bread. We dine with them at the table of the Lord, and receive the Eucharist, the pinnacle, the source and summit of our Catholic faith. 

This Easter we join Henry and Sofia in this experience. They will continue to grow in faith through an ancient practice of a period following initiation called Mystagogy. We too should take their example, and endeavour to continue on the journey of discipleship. Discern in which ways you can grow in faith, and love. How can we love the Lord our God with our whole being, and our neighbor as ourselves? This week, let’s pray for the newly initiated, for our own continuing conversion, and that many will see our example, and choose to begin the same journey that Henry and Sofia have embarked on, becoming full members of our Faith. God Bless and have a wonderful Joyful Easter Season! 

Palm Sunday April 13, 2025: Hard and Helpful Facts

There was a time when the Church was flush with women and men religious, and they staffed Catholic Schools, or even ran faith formation. These men and women had spent decades of their life digging deep into their own personal life of faith through prayer, and study. Their lives were dedicated to this and only this.

After Vatican II the numbers of religious men and women going to the convent or monastery saw a drop off.

Their strong identity seemed to fade, and a world of opportunities was spread in front of them like a carpet. The Church began to depend on volunteer lay people to form our children in the same classroom model that had existed before. The thing is, many of the well meaning volunteers were only a few pages ahead of what the parents were able to teach themselves. While they may have been more advanced in their personal faith, and more willing to step forward than the general population, they didn’t have the decades of personal investigation that the religious brothers and sisters had. How could they? They were about the work of a secular job, raising children, and trying to fight to build their own prayer life on top of all of that. This is why we’ve had a deficit in formation over the years. One generation after another had been lost to full and robust formation. That is why we and many other parishes, even the Church in general, are focusing more on Family Formation. Parents need to be formed in the work of being formators, and children need to see their parents and community as people living out the faith.

We can only grow in faith and community, by being a community of faith. While it is more clearly the work of the priests, deacons, lay employees, and volunteers, the work of Faith Formation, becomes the job of our whole community. It is only through growing as a community of faith, that lives as such that we can assure that the faith will continue on through the generations, and that we can be sure that our community is still standing. This week let us pray that we can all find our calling in light of the movement that the Holy Spirit is taking in the Church today, that we can become, and raise up generations of dynamic disciples who will carry the faith forward today and always, especially by sharing the joy of Christ. God Bless and have a wonderful Holy Week.

Sunday April 6, 2025: Where are the Young People?

In the coming weeks we’ll continue our series on Hard and Helpful Facts, and try to address the challenging question “Where do Young People Go After Confirmation?” in its own series in the Easter Season.

However, for now, let’s talk about where the young people are after Confirmation in our parish! Some serve as Lectors at Mass and in Children’s Liturgy of the Word. Some are Altar Servers. And others still serve on the Bold Youth Ministry Peer Leader Team.

I bring this up this week, because there is a particular group of teens I hope to praise, for their involvement in the Confirmation Retreat our parish held for our Confirmation Candidates last Saturday! Even though they’ve already been Confirmed, and many would assume that they’d be gone, they spent all or most of their Saturday leading the young candidates of our parish in fun games and activities to prepare them for their full initiation into our Catholic Faith.

They did this through fun games, witness talks, demonstrations, skits, and small group conversations that helped guide the candidates to grow closer to God, and to their peers. They weren’t just here to help our candidates but we also hosted the whole Confirmation group from the Pro-Cathedral of Saint Patrick, Newark, and members of the groups who attend St. Bartholomew and Holy Trinity, Westfield. 

So if you see Erica Giuliani Alexandra Compierchio, Tim Wills, Caden Matulonis, Caroline Grandmaison, Connor Matulonis, Griffin Hough, Liv Domingues, Thomas Riley, Samantha Chesky, Shannon McGuinness, Justin Ellazar, Taylor Piazza and Mackenna Fischer at Mass, please share a hearty thank you to them for the sharing of their time and talents to encourage the younger members of our community. Some of them were recently Confirmed themselves, and others will be heading off to College soon!

Janet Manfredonia from the Office of Faith Formation made sure that our program was well supported administratively, and her husband Emil, a generous volunteer, assisted with setup and hospitality. Deacon Bob as usual made sure that the facilities were clean and ready, and John McNulty set up all of the chairs and tables!   Our somewhat new Hospitality team, specifically Diane McGuinness, Mary Francis Malone, and Geraldine Keogh supported the retreat by serving snacks, lunch and kindness to the young people on retreat!

While we and other parishes can all do better to welcome and encourage the young people of our faith to deeper involvement, these young people give us great reason to be optimistic! This week pray for the young people of our parish preparing for Confirmation that they can take great example from their peer leaders, for the young people who serve so well in our parish, for the parents preparing their children to be leaders in our church, and that our community might continue to grow and thrive in faith. God Bless and have a wonderful week!

Sunday March 30, 2025: Some Hard and Helpful Facts Pt.1 

In the Catholic Church we opt to Baptize infants. That means mom and/or dad, or the responsible guardian of a child, and their godparents accept Christ for their child. When a child hits the age of reason, we can no longer baptize them as an infant. Instead, that child must accept Christ for themselves, and enter the Church through the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults. Meaning, they must receive the Sacraments of Initiation at the Easter Vigil. 

For the sake of this discussion the age of reason has been determined to be around seven years of age. This is why we prepare most children of this age for First Reconciliation and Holy Communion beginning in first grade, and culminating in the celebration of the Sacraments during second grade. 

In an ideal world, all children would begin their formation in first grade. While we do offer some programming and materials for kindergarten (especially because kids begin to have lots of questions) standards suggest that children should prepare for Holy Communion (and Confirmation) for no less than 2 years. If a child doesn’t start within sequence, we’ll work with them, but usually they won’t receive the sacrament until they’ve been with us for 2 years.

Once children receive their First Eucharist, they should continue to attend the program until Confirmation. We spend our whole time in elementary school learning math, history, science, and subjects to enlighten our minds. Why wouldn’t we dedicate at least the same attention to preparing our hearts for our ultimate purpose?

If you insist on taking a break, and neglecting formation after Eucharist. The absolute latest you should return is for the 8th grade. At IHM and many parishes preparation for Confirmation happens in 8th and 9th grade. Most will attend Summer Academy in 8th Grade, and then participate in our youth ministry model of Confirmation prep one evening a month in 8th and 9th grade.

I thought that this was going to be a one week upload of important info, but I realize there is more that I need to share, so come back next week to learn more important information! In the meantime, share this info with your friends, family, and neighbors. Pray for our parents, and the youth that they can make their faith a priority in their lives (and that the community can embrace them in a way that shows them that they are wanted, welcomed, and needed by our community). 

God Bless, hug your family, and have another holy Week of Lent.

Sunday March 23, 2025: Some Hard and Helpful Facts

As we venture further into Lent, my attention has been drawn to an ever present Lenten reality. People of faith post on Ash Wednesday that they’ll be stepping away from Social Media. I’ve always wondered about the motivations for that (I’d ask them directly, but many of them I only have access to on Social Media!). In the past, I’ve even committed myself to making a faithful post to a certain network that starts with an F, to highlight a part of scripture.

This idea, this fast people enter each year got me thinking. Does Social Media inspire vice or virtue? What speaks to us on these platforms? Do posts from others inspire us to do justice, give away our possessions, and take up our Cross and follow Jesus, or does it lead us to jealousy, pride, lust, anger, hatred, and confirm our innermost prejudices. 

The thing is, social media, whether it be Facebook, X, Instagram, Snap Chat, and services I’ve never heard about seek to do two things. The first is to interact with the service itself, the second is to commodify our interaction with them. They lead us to vacuum chambers of ideas we agree with, and to put in front of us the most outrageous garbage that will inspire some of us to follow, and others to excoriate. 

Social media can be an okay way to connect with distant relatives, people from high school that we may have (maybe gratefully) never have spoken to again). We can find people we agree with who will support us, but from a distance. Do you know who these services distance us from? Our family, our neighbors, and those we interact with every day. Do you know what? It also distances us from someone we take for granted, and might not think to connect with, a person who we need silence to hear from. Who, did you guess our own inner world? 

That’s close, but now, I’m referring to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When we are hyper stimulated by the terrible things that politicians we despise, that feud between Kendrick and Drake, or celebrity gossip, we don’t have time for God. 

I am painfully aware that this especially affects the young people (who were born with a smart phone in their hands). So, this week of Lent, let’s direct our prayer towards the young people of the world who are constantly bombarded with negative imagery, and messages, and a culture that constantly seeks to denigrate their status as men and women made in the image and likeness of God! God Bless, touch grass, and have another Holy Week of Lent. 

Sunday March 16, 2025: The Elect

The Elect, the people called by God into Christian faith. At some point in our lives we were all called into the community of faith. 

This weekend, for the first time in my ministry, I had the privilege and opportunity to attend the Rite of Election at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark. Their Cardinal Tobin welcomed 300 Catechumen (those who will receive the sacraments of initiation during the Easter Vigil) into a new stage of their personal conversion. 

Why was I there? Well, because our parish is wonderfully blessed to have two new Elect preparing for their Sacraments, Sofia and Henry Mercedes! Last Lent they began their process of preparation, and during Lent they will finalize their preparations for the Sacraments. 

While in Newark we participated in the Liturgy of the Word, and these two young community members signed the Book of the Elect, and were welcomed by the Cardinal!

Continue to pray for Sofia and Henry, their family, and our community as they complete their preparations, and for their lifelong journey of faith! God Bless and Have a Joyous Lent! 

Sunday March 9, 2025: Do Something, Anything to Build Your Faith

For the past few years, since I’ve started my ministry in Scotch Plains, an enthusiastic group of men have been inviting me to participate in the Men’s Cornerstone Retreat. I could tell that it was a life changing experience for them, that had bolstered their faith, so I wanted to see what was what. Unfortunately for the two years previous, Cornerstone 14 and 15 I was unable to attend because the opportunity conflicted with our parish’s Confirmation Retreat. 

This year they changed the date, and I was able to attend, and I am glad that I had. It feels like a lot to go off for 26 hours. I am here to tell you, if you can swing it, take a Men’s or Women’s Cornerstone Retreat next year. 

You will hear the faith stories of other people of faith, and begin to realize that our challenges of faith and life don’t happen in a vacuum. You will connect with a great group of people who also care about your faith, and move your personal faith in a deeper direction. 

At this point in your life, you might not be ready for a Cornerstone. That is ok, but keep an open mind, and even more importantly, find some way to deepen your faith. It might be that you #TryAlpha, or Men’s Prayer Group, or Women Walking in Faith. Maybe volunteer in a social concern like the food pantry or serving at St. John Soup Kitchen. Our Knights of Columbus and Rosary Altar Society do some great things. Our liturgical ministries like hospitality ambassadors, Extraordinary Ministers, Lectors, and Altar Servers are always recruiting. I cannot outline all of these amazing things that happen here, but when you get up out of your pew, go out and do something with the gift of Christ that you receive in the Eucharist. Receiving Communion isn’t a passive action. It is meant to change us!

We’ll talk about these things more over time! I’d like to take a moment to thank Rick Aiere, John Torzewski, and Mike Talty, members of our parish who served as team members on Cornerstone 16. When you see them in Church, you can ask them what makes the experience special, and they’d be happy to let you in on that secret! Thanks brothers! 

This week, let's pray that we can all grow in faith over this Lent. Every year we make grand designs about what the season should look like, but let’s do one concrete thing to grow our faith. Perhaps that’s an hour in the Adoration Chapel, returning to the sacrament of Reconciliation, praying with family and friends, or even doubling down on making sure we get back to Mass more frequently. God Bless and have a joy filled productive Lent.

Sunday March 2, 2025: #AshesAtIHM

We are all called as Disciples of Jesus Christ, to joyfully lead others into the fold. So even on a day when we are called to “Repent and Believe in the Gospel” or "Remember we are ashes, to ashes we shall return” even in a world when we are told “tempus fugit, memento mori” (time flies remember your death), we are called to live in the joy of Christ.

What can that mean on Ash Wednesday? Well perhaps as we fast and abstain from luxuries and the niceties of life, we can do so joyfully, remembering that we do these practices as a pledge of love and thanksgiving for Christ Jesus who loved us first. 

As we said above, disciples of Jesus Christ, lead others to Him. We should especially seek to be an example for others who’ve strayed, out of a deep hurt, momentum, or even laziness. What I will propose won’t necessarily change lives or other’s behavior, but I’d propose sharing family pictures with ashes on March 5th! What would that look like? Let’s lay it out:

How to Participate:

1. Receive your ashes on Ash Wednesday at IHM Parish.

2. Take a picture (selfie, family photo, or a creative shot).

3. Post it on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.).

4. Use the hashtag #AshesAtIHM and tag IHM Parish.

5. Share what Ash Wednesday means to you in your caption.

That’s what we’ve got for this week! So in the meantime, let’s pray that all of our friends, and neighbors have a wonderfully productive, and yes joyful Lenten season, as we journey together, and seek to bring others with us. God Bless and have a wonderful week! Have an extra beverage or indulgent snack for me on Mardi Gras! 

Sunday February 23, 2025: Some Housekeeping 

I often dedicate this space to offer a challenging message about being Catholic in our challenging culture. Sometimes though, I have to do some straight advertising. This is one of those weeks. 

On Friday, February 28th registration for our Faith Formation Programs will open. If you’ve been registered in the recent past, or completed a New Family Registration through our website, you should receive a welcome email with credentials to log in and register.

We wanted to take a moment to review some important facts about registration, that may be helpful for your family. This way you can pick something that works best for you. 

1. All families that register for Summer Academy or Families of Faith are entitled to year long faith formation. We kick off with Summer Academy, and then carry on with a year of Gospel Weeklies, and Families of Faith Activities which include opportunities for service, fellowship, prayer, and family learning.

2. Families of Faith Fall-Spring are always invited to participate in Summer Academy, even if you are unable to attend the whole period ( we would make arrangements to address content you miss). However, you would need to register for that session. 

3. This year Summer Academy will run between Sunday, June 29th until July 13th. It will run for a total of 9 days. There won’t be sessions on Thursday, July 3rd or Friday July 4th (nor on that Sunday) to allow catechists and families the opportunity to celebrate the holiday weekend). 

4. If you are a parent (older sibling) or grandparent who feels called to be a catechist for Summer Academy, or long term assistant during Families of Faith Fall-Spring, there is a 100% Discount for your children you are seeking to enroll, so please contact us before registering. 

5. The purpose of our faith formation program is to build a whole community of faith. That requires families to engage with our faith community through regular attendance at Mass and community events. This is the best way to build lifelong faith. 

6. Preparation for the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist takes place alongside either Summer Academy or Families of Faith in a family model. These sessions should be seen as supplemental, not in lieu of grade level formation. Formation for Confirmation takes place in a youth ministry model. This supplements participation in Discipleship Academy (during Summer Academy Grade 8) or Study at Home Models, and that formation for Confirmation continues into, and concludes with 9th Grade Sessions. 

As a parish community, we need the prayer and direct action of all of our parishioners to form our parish children. If your adult children haven’t gotten started with the formation of your grandkids, tell them it’s time to come back. Pray for the conversion of the young, and aid us in our efforts to better form a community of faith. God Bless and have a wonderful week!

Sunday February 16, 2025: Are You A Young Adult or Parent with a Young Family? 

The Parish of Immaculate Heart of Mary has seriously been working on initiatives to help parishioners grow as missionary disciples who; believe in Christ, gather as community, grow in faith, lead others to Christ, and love unconditionally. Many of our earliest efforts have led to the gathering of those already well established in parish ministries that gather, that serve, and show love of God through prayer.

Through a soul searching process, our parish leadership has really come to recognize two major blindspots in our offerings. It seems logical to focus on the needs of people who are always right in front of you, but there are two specific groups of people that we are excited to engage in new and meaningful ways. 

Those specific groups are parents with young families, and young and unmarried adults post college and early career, who are settling into their adulthood, and really beginning to identify the role their faith will play in their lives (25-30). We’d like to engage these constituencies in conversation, and identify core leaders from them to help guide new efforts moving forward. 

While parish staff and leadership will support efforts carried out by these groups, the hope is to help establish thriving, self-directed ministries that operate independently, just as any other group of adults do. The idea isn’t to create Youth Ministry 2.0 for adults. It’s to meet the needs of a large portion of the community, in a satisfying, and authentic way. 

Here is the major task, myself and Father Mike are looking for members of these specific groups to meet with us to form a core to these efforts. Soon, we will begin to speak with young adults and parents of young families to make personal invitations. The thing is, parents and grandparents, you probably can think of someone who would have a lot to share (even if they don’t have a whole lot of time). Tell them, I see in you a talent or skill that should be shared, and you should seriously consider talking to John or Father Mike.

We aren’t going to let this drop, because if millennials, and zennials, and gen alpha Catholics aren’t invited, and empowered, in 10 or less years, our beloved community parish isn't going to be the vibrant, active home that we love. So please, pray for these efforts, and ask God how you are called to serve! God Bless and have a wonderful week!

Sunday February 8, 2025: What is Discernment? 

In our fast moving culture, we’re expected to think on our toes, and react to everything immediately. If we were to receive a letter, we’d take the time to consider what was being asked of us, and give a thoughtful well considered response. However, communication is constant and instant. 

If you don’t respond to an email or a text message immediately, people feel slighted, or at the least we perceive that would be the response. If as Catholics, we were to talk about discernment, we might feel compelled to stick it away in a tidy box, and say that the spiritual practice belongs to young men or women, who devoutly consider whether or not they are called to priesthood, diaconate, or the religious life in an order. If we’re lucky, the understanding might also extend to that ubiquitous vocation of Holy Matrimony. 

While the practice is certainly important when deciding how God is calling us for a lifetime commitment, we shouldn’t limit it to such a process. 

Discernment can and should be applied in how we interact with others. Take it to the comment box of a news article. Is it really Christ like to serve humiliation to someone we politically disagree with? Do we need to condemn that neighbor who likes to worship Jesus in another form of the Mass whether traditional or modern? Can we spend our money in a way that better helps those in need, or improves the conditions of the workers providing the product or service? 

I particularly have discernment in mind, as Bishop Lorenzo visits us this weekend. Father Mike is coming to the end of his second term of pastor at IHM. When that happens, the Archdiocese and the parish begin a process of discernment. The Cardinal and Bishops need to discern what is best for our community, and the entire Archdiocese. While I wish to see Fr. Mike, bring the wonderful initiatives we’re undertaking to fuller completion, I don’t see the whole broad picture of the needs of our whole church.

So the best thing we can do during this time of discernment, is to pray for the decision makers. We pray that the Holy Spirit guides the process in a way that will bless Father Mike’s ministry, our community, and the work of the entire archdiocese. God Bless and have a wonderful week!

Sunday February 2, 2025: All Are Welcome

We live in a broken world, where sin and death have placed an indelible mark on the world, ever since that fateful moment when Adam and Eve allowed their relationship with God to become distant and damaged. 

Since that moment God has continued to call us back to Him, and back into the right relationship. In Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection, He destroyed the power of sin and death. However, we have to play a very powerful role in that victory.

While Christ’s victory is complete in itself, He has called us all to be a part of His Body the Church. We have to continually make the decision to renounce sin, and combat the worst aspects of our fallen human nature.

We have to work to renounce the sinfulness that tempts us to break our relationship with God. We need to continue to atone for our sins through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We need to renounce the fear, greed, pride, and feeling of alienation that affect our relationships with family, friends, and the community at large. 

As we look around, we can see a lot of division, on so many levels, the political, religious, cultural levels. In team allegiance (don’t get me started on the Eagles) and a number of other things that divide us. If you look within the Church you have people even divided on the level of high church/ low church, Orthodoxy, Conservatism, and progressivism are as alive in the Church as they are out in the wild.

Yet, one of Jesus’ final prayers was:

21That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” - John 17:21-23 

If we seek to follow Christ, if we desire to be Christian, we must seek to find value in others, whether they completely agree with us or not. It is through our differences that we can find strength. Through our varied talents and perspectives, we can better know the will of God. So this week, let’s pray that God gives us the perspective, and desire to be one in Christ. God Bless and have a wonderful week!

Sunday January 26, 2025: Red Alert: Cancel Culture 

Lately, I have found myself deeply concerned about ‘cancel culture’. Have you heard about this phenomenon? The basic idea is that if people say things that are construed by a majority, or even a vocal minority of the population as problematic, it can hurt your professional, social, and economic standing. Could the canceled parties of our society be the spiritual successors of Christ our Lord, and His Disciples, or is something else going on?

If we follow the history, Jesus called out the rulers, and decision makers of His age. He did so to refocus people on relationships, those relationships were those between God and humanity, and between people and their neighbors. He called for the embrace of the dispossessed, the sick, the poor, the widows and the orphans. Jesus said don’t punch down. If there is anyone due ire, it’s the self-assured, supposed righteous of His day. Jesus was followed to His death, by most of His Apostles, and some of His Disciples. The rulers of Rome, and the Jews found His movement to be dangerous to societal norms, and their own control. Early followers went to their grave, in spite of their love. They were cast off by their families and suffered. 

Here is how we can tell if being cancelled aligns us with Christ or the alternative. If you lose friends and family because of your radical love of others. If you lose because of the way you treat those who are poor, lonely, sad, and cast off, you are a part of the Kingdom of God. If you punch down on those who are suffering for the sake of righteousness, out of pride. If you preach the ‘gospel of prosperity’ and look down upon the poor, if you seek to cast off hurting members of society, it might be a good time to reflect on your motivations for doing so. If you are cast off for this reason, it might be time to reflect. Are you sitting beside the money changers in the Temple courts, or are you sitting at the feet of the Lord? 

This week let us pray for the humility to continually examine our consciences, and when necessary make amends with our neighbors, and take recourse to the sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession). God Bless and Have a Wonderful week of Building God’s Kingdom.

Sunday January 19, 2025: Mining for Meaning 

I wonder if we could gain any insights on life and faith by playing the game Minecraft. I’m sure if we could it would relieve a parent or two, whose son or daughter is just a little addicted to the game. I’ll admit from the outset that I’m seeking to justify my own interest, so bear with me here! The most challenging mode of the game is called survival mode. You have to work quickly to develop a homestead including shelter and a bed. This allows you to respawn in a safe place when you’ve fallen from a tall height or succumb to ‘mob’ hordes comprised of exploding creepers, zombies, skeleton archers, spiders, and others. If you are slain, you respawn at a specific place, and have a very brief period to recollect all of the things you were holding in your possession when you were defeated. Interestingly what you put in the world, the buildings, creations, farms etc, remain, but the tools, riches, and crafts you hold on to are at risk of loss. 

The things you do to change and improve the world remain, but what you seek to hold onto goes away. Life in the Minecraft World, and life in our world are fleeting. The kingdom we seek to build remains. The legacy we build, the kindness we sow, the bricks we lay, the work we do to create the Kingdom of God remains. In Minecraft, and our lives, if what we spend our time building is beautiful, and sound that is what we deposit in the ‘cloud’ or in  Heaven, like St. Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle. If what we build in life is ramshackle and ugly, that will be what is left of us. 

Being made in the image and likeness of God implies a tendency toward creativity, and the generation of good. While what happens in a game doesn’t directly affect what happens in our real lives, we can encourage our children to keep building and creating! This week let’s pray that we are all empowered to more actively build the Kingdom of God in this world, a kingdom of justice, mercy, and creativity. God Bless and have a wonderful week!

Sunday January 12, 2025: New Year, New You? 

As we begin a new year, I am going to draw our collective attention  to the idea of New Year’s Resolutions. I do this every year, and to be honest, I don’t feel like I’ve gotten it right so far. So just like those evergreen resolutions of losing weight, eating more healthfully, and spending more responsibly, I am going to do my self improvement piece by 2025. 

This one is specifically for parents. I feel that our attention is necessarily drawn to all of what parenthood requires from us. Can we pay the bills, are our children healthy, are they succeeding in school, are we doing the best we can in our job, and as providers. Are our kids in the right activities, are we saving well enough for college and retirement. I’m not sure which one of these will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back but it’s likely one of them! The mundane, and material necessities (and frivolities at times) take up all of our headspace. There are few things we can set to the side, without abandoning material reality. What did I mention above that is negotiable? What can we slough off without being in a worse position, or being social outcasts?

Well, these worldly concerns are real, but cannot be seen as the most important, because an unfortunate reality is that we are all mortal, and will inevitably face our eternal life. That’s true for all of us, as parents, grandparents, and children. So in this coming year, we should all focus more of our time, attention, and energy to cultivating our faith, and that of our children. It’s honestly the only thing that we can provide that will never mold, rust, or rot away with time. 

Sports are important and a healthy exercise, but even most star athletes retire in their mid-20s early 30s. Educational and economic success are meaningful, but we all slow down at one point or another. Love of God is something that our children can take with them into eternal life, and it is not fleeting. So whether it is doubling down on formal formation, praying as a family, increasing Mass attendance, or reading the Bible as a family, let’s make 2025 the year that we all resolve to grow as families and as disciples of Jesus Christ. God Bless and have a Happy, Healthy, New Year.

Sunday January 5, 2025: Parent Focus Groups, the Parent Cafe

As a parish we are very happy to be embarking on a process called Parents & Families at the Center of Faith Formation. It is an opportunity for us to get to know the needs of our families more intimately, and develop programs, partnerships, and resources that will allow us to rise to those challenges! Very few of you helped us in the first stage of this process by completing a parent survey. The hope was to collect quantitative data to bolster our efforts. Due to a small response rate, we may revisit polling. However, even if you haven’t completed the survey there is another quality way for you to have your opinions and needs heard. 

This Sunday, January 5th we will be holding Parent Cafes, really a sort of focus group following the 10:00 am Mass and the 12:00 pm Mass (we’re even forgoing the scheduled Family of Faith ZOOM, so that parents can participate). At these gatherings, we’ll have coffee and refreshments, and parents will be seated in groups of 5-8 to discuss important questions. A notetaker will take anonymous notes for our report. Below we’ll share the questions with a few alternative options to participate. If you cannot attend a gathering on Sunday, we’ll also offer an evening session on January 7th at 7:00 pm, and a ZOOM option on Wednesday the 8th at 7:00 pm as well. 

Our parent team (which we’ll be introducing in a later bulletin) had one of these conversations, and it was quite amazing. So,we invite you to make an effort to participate in an in-person gathering. However, we want your input one way or another. So if you are a parent of a child from Baptism to Graduation, and cannot attend in person, we ask you to respond with answers to the following question to johnmcguire@ihmparish.net. 1. What are the most important values you want to instill in your children? How do you do this? #2 What are some of the things you do as a family to live your faith in everyday life? #3 What is one way the church can support you as a parent? #4 What is one way the church can help your family practice faith? On January 11th, our Parent Team will bring this information as well as the result of the survey to the Archdiocesan Center, as we begin to plan and strategize how we will move forward in the coming months! Please pray for our team, and seriously consider participating in a Parent Cafe!

2024

Sunday December 29, 2024: Feast of the Holy Family

If you’ve ever seen the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once or any of the recent output of the Marvel Cinematic Universe during its last phase, you might have gone down the rabbit hole of the multiverse. It's a theory that people prone to philosophical meandering tend to spend a lot of time on. The basic premise is that the result of the decisions we’ve made and could have made lead to an infinity of concurrent realities. 

That sort of fictional and theoretical conceptualizing has led me to consider the importance of the Holy Family. We know all things are possible for God our Creator. That means there is a reality in which God became Man could have been poofed into existence as a fully formed and omnipotent grown man. This God-Man could have come before us like one of the pagan gods do in mythology, and told us everything we were supposed to know and do. There wouldn’t be a need for the Blessed Virgin Mary, or Joseph. There would be no visiting Magi, or jealous Herrod. No, there would just be a god-man who appeared on the scene and performed miracles. 

You know what the problem is with that? We’d never be able to say that Jesus was like us in all things but sin. He’d never experience the struggles and joys of family life. He would have never formed the important bonds that He had with His Mother and Father, or disciples on a real human level. The reality is that God has always been in contact with mankind. From Adam and Eve on. He could always talk to us and lead us in the direction He desired. However, even the holiest of prophets and adherents could not fully gaze upon His Holiness. Not Moses, not Elijah, not John the Baptist.

God entered into our reality through an earthly family, born of Mary, and reared by her and Joseph. God became Man and dwelt among us, as a human being through the context of family. That is why we depend so deeply on the family as the context for formation, and moral growth. This week, let’s pray for all of our families, young and old, that we may continue to experience God’s love through our relationships. 

Mary Christmas, and have a wonderful week! 

Sunday December 22, 2024: Stories and Tradition: Better than Gifts?

So often I’ve told a story about my son Elijah, that It brings great joy that what I’ll be reflecting on today comes from a conversation I had earlier this Advent with my 3 year old daughter Avila! I had asked Avila, what is your favorite part of Christmas. I had braced myself for the obvious answer, ‘the gifts’. Maybe it was because she’d just celebrated her birthday (with multiple different sides of the family) and was totally gifted out? What she said staggered me, she said ‘the books’.

It got me thinking, that Christmas is all about the stories that we share, as families, communities, and as a Church. We have the stories of the faithful that awaited Jesus’ coming over thousands of years, we have the stories or retellings of the experience of the Magi and the Shepherds (and the Gospel writers). We ultimately also have the histories of our Saints (like Nicholas), generations of our own families, and overall the shared traditions of many cultures and nations, that combine to make our shared experiences of faith. 

Gifts are great, our children take their time sharing their lists with anyone who will listen, the anticipation has been building since at least Thanksgiving, and now we get the rush of opening them. However, that will eventually fade, and they’ll begin to look to that next Christmas or birthday. What will live on forever will be the stories of the first bike, the first game system, the feelings and emotions that go with those accounts. 

We only spend so much time in the story of the Birth of Christ, but that always leads us to Easter, and when Jesus ultimately comes again. There is always a next step, and to go with them the stories and traditions. Let us pray this week, that we can make new stories with our families, as we anticipate what is to come in our journey of life and faith. God Bless and if I don’t see you before, Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

Sunday December 15, 2024: Try and Remember

Try and remember an earlier time in your life. You were still early in elementary school, and had a lot of growing to do before you’d be the person reading this today. What did it feel like to be sitting in school on December 15th 10, 20, 40+ years ago? Do you remember the anticipation of school break, the coming celebrations, a visit from Old Saint Nick? 

Back then was likely a simpler time for us. Given how young we were, a day felt like a decade. Everything we desired was so far off, outside of our reach. Now what is the feeling like? For me, the whole of Advent absolutely flew by. The adult responsibilities in ministry and life, the Christmas shopping, the social obligations that come with adulthood, time absolutely flew. I chalk this up to two things. The season of Advent was such a larger proportion of our life in childhood. A day, a week, a summer felt like a lifetime, because of how little we’d truly lived. 

Then there is what we could identify as a deadly privilege of our current age. The people of Israel waited for over 5000 years for a Messiah to redeem them, and free them from tyranny, and the rule of foreign oppressors (or distant relatives). They had waited for so long, to the point where they weren’t even sure that He had come when he did. Because we know that He the Messiah has already come, we can tend to lose the sense of urgency that the people once held. 

They depended on the coming in a way that we lost sight of. In our busyness, what is important can be obscured. In knowing that Jesus has paid the price for humanity’s original sin, we lose track of the fact that Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead. Perhaps this week, you and I can take the time to pray to God, that we might take a breath, slow down, and put our eyes on the real prize, our eternal life, the lives of our families, and all those we see on a daily basis.
God Bless and have a reflective, meaningful, conclusion to your Advent Season.

Sunday December 8, 2024: Let’s Do More Than Shop This Advent

So if you are reading this bulletin while sitting in Mass, stop, and pay attention. There is no more privileged place to be than in the presence of Jesus gathered in community. Okay, now that Mass is over, gather in for some advice beyond my years. I’ve got an idea that can make your Advent more prayerful and reflective than it has been so far. After Mass, I invite you to go over to the Nazareth Center for a Christmas Bazaar. There will be local vendors with a selection of products that can help you knock out your Christmas list, maybe even for some of your more challenging people. Use that feeling of completion into a second half of Advent preparation. 

Take advantage of an opportunity to go to Confession, especially if it has been a while. Take on a prayer practice, especially with your family, that you’ve never done before. Maybe make a commitment to going to Mass more frequently. Find some silence, or some meaningful videos or audio books from the Amen App or from Formed. 

There are many ways that we can focus ourselves on preparation, for the celebration of Christ’s birth, and as we await the moment when He comes again to judge the living and the dead. This week, let’s pray that our families old and young can continue to grow in faith, loving the Lord with all their being, and their neighbors as themselves. God Bless and have a meaningful Advent.

Sunday December 1, 2024: A Surprise!

We have entered the season of Advent, a time of preparation for things to come. Sometimes, something off in the distant or near future seems far off. Back in July, as I was setting the calendar for Families of Faith, I designated today as the day for the children and youth of our parish to write Christmas Cards for the Elderly. However, at that time, it was hard to imagine that

Thanksgiving would be as late as November 29th. Didn’t imagine that families (and I) might be away for this family holiday. It was far off, and unconsidered, but here we are. So, today we will not be making cards, though families can still do so at home, instead we’ll have a station for making greeting cards at the Christmas Market, and Extravaganza on Sunday, December 8th following the 12:00 pm Mass. Along with the market, and making cards for the nursing home a lot is going to be going on. The teens will perform a Living Nativity, Santa Claus will be visiting, we’ll have our Art Contest hosted by the youth of our parish, among many other wonderful opportunities. Our littlest should be on the lookout, because we’ll also have a coloring station, where they’ll be able to do a Nativity Coloring Sheet that will be hung at one of the entrances of the Church for Christmas! Speaking of Christmas and Nativity, don’t forget, our parish will have our Nativity Pageant before the Christmas Eve Family Mass at 4:00 pm on the 24th of December.

If you are reading this on the website or on The Book of John follow this link, https://www.signupgenius.com/go/904044DABA72AA5F49-53241734-christmas or check out the parish website. Sign up your children or grandchildren while there are still slots available! What a great way to celebrate Christmas and the coming of Christ! That is it for me this week. Lots of great things on the way. While we’re at it, let’s pray for the children and all our parish families young and old that they might have a thoughtful, peaceful, and productive Advent season! God Bless and have a wonderful Advent!

Sunday November 24, 2024: Parent Cafes

During the data collection phase of ‘Parents and Families at the Center of Faith Formation’ we’ve already provided you with the opportunity of completing a parent survey. For those of you who have completed it, you’ve provided us with a great first pool of anonymous quantitative data. The folks at NCCL (National Community of Catechetical Leaders) will use that info to produce for us a report, to help our parish team (of parents) identify the strengths and deficits of our community. That is a great first step. However, that can only provide one piece of the puzzle. In a survey with fixed answers, and data points, people can’t speak their hearts and minds, cannot communicate their triumphs and challenges, that can best happen through conversation. If any of you had participated in Synod Listening Sessions, you already have a feel for what a Parent Cafe is. 

Some time either before Christmas, or after New Year, we will invite parents to gather for listening sessions, where a group of 5-8 parents will sit with a facilitator and a note taker, and each parent will have the opportunity to share their response to 4 questions. The note taker will record your response (without attaching your name to those responses) and provide everyone’s answers to our parish team. Here’s the deal, I don’t want anyone to be taken off guard, put on the spot, or to be left out if they are unable to make it to a session. So ahead of the Thanksgiving Holiday, I’m going to share with you those questions. If you are unable to attend a listening session, we’ll see about an opportunity to submit your answers in writing.

#1 What are the most important values you want to instill in your children? How do you do this?
#2 What are some of the things you do as a family to live your faith in everyday life?
#3 What is one way the church can support you as a parent?
#4 What is one way the church can help your family practice faith?

As you can see there are no gotcha questions. It just comes down to the fact that we know that parents want nothing more than the best for their children, and the parish should be on the cutting edge of helping you provide that to them. So this week, I ask that you pray for the success of our efforts in this process, for the families of our community young and old, that we can continue to grow in faith, and love. God Bless and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Sunday November 17, 2024: Building a Parish Team

So now that we are a part of the project called Parents & Families at the Center of Faith Formation, and you’ve helped make sure that we completed the Parent Survey, it’s time to move to our next phase, developing a team. Here we’ll discuss a little more about the project, and its aims, and what a parish team should ideally look like. As we briefly mentioned in our past write up, this project will be a 3 year period of self reflection, aimed at better meeting the needs of our families, and developing programs, structures, and resources to make our findings a reality. The scope of this undertaking will have us commit to improving formation for families with children who’ve just been born and baptized, all the way to High School graduation.

Our parish team will consist of parents of children and youth in all of those stages of life, educators, our pastor, and myself who will serve as project coordinator. Those asked to participate will be given the opportunity to serve for as long as they’d like during the three year process. While consistency is a good thing, we recognize that life circumstances change. So we’ll offer an offramp after each year. Hopefully we can have some consistency, however some turnover provides the opportunity for a diversity of opinion and experience. Our team of 4-10 members, will meet once monthly, either in person or virtually, and will participate in a limited number of in-person workshops hosted at the Archdiocesan Center. The first of these day long sessions will be held on January 11th. 

I’ve begun discussing this project with a few of our parishioners, however, if you think that you’d be interested in serving on this team, let’s have a conversation about it! Next week, we’ll discuss the Parent Cafes that we’ll be holding as we approach the January 11th session! Let’s pray for the success of this process, so that we can continue to grow as a community of faith! God Bless and have a wonderful week!

Sunday November 10, 2023: Entering a New Project for Faith Formation

Back in September, Immaculate Heart of Parish was invited by the Archdiocese of Newark, to be one of only 10 parishes to take part in a new national project called Parents & Families at the Center of Faith Formation. This project of the National Community of Catechetical Leaders is funded by an endowment of the Lilly Foundation. The main idea is to have a team of parents, educators, and ministry leaders from our parish (and the others participating) to come together to envision what is possible for the Family Model of faith formation in order to provide resources, and opportunities for families with children from Baptism all the way to Senior year in high school. What we can accomplish for our community will only be limited to our imaginations, and our ability to follow through!

There are three major steps we’ll need to take in the coming weeks and months to assure our success in this process. Today, I’ll take the opportunity to share the first step with you in some detail, and then I’ll dedicate the next two bulletins to elaborate on the other two. First, the ten parishes of our Archdiocese, and others across the nation who are participating in this process, have been asked to administer a survey to the parents and guardians of children in their parish baptism all the way to Senior year in high school. This anonymous  survey that will take a reasonable amount of thoughtfulness to complete was developed and will be interpreted by the NCCL.

The purpose the NCCL wishes to communicate about this survey:
The Catholic Family Survey will help your parish better understand your family and your life as a parent.The survey results are very important. They will be used to create a parish plan for supporting parents of children and young people, and for engaging the whole family in faith formation - from birth through high school graduation. The survey will only take 8-10 minutes to complete. We appreciate your time and contribution!

Please either complete this survey, or share it with your children and grandchildren who are involved with our parish, so that they can complete it by our deadline of November 15th https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NewarkNJParentSurvey.

In coming weeks we’ll be seeking to develop our team of 4-10 people. Then will follow a series of Parent Cafes where we’ll have listening sessions to better dial in our understanding of the needs of our community! God Bless and thanks in advance for your attention!

Sunday November 3, 2024: What’s in a Name?

At the 10:00 am Mass on Sunday, November 3rd our Year 1 Confirmation candidates participate in the Rite of Names. As they progress on their journey of faith, they prepare themselves to live the life of a mature Catholic. We all know that it matters deeply who we choose as our friends. It will dictate a lot about how we live. 

The young people, as we all have in the past, will select a special patron saint, or Saint friend to accompany them on their faith journey. The decision they make will be influenced by many things. For some it might be based on culture, the name of a beloved relative, or a personal interest. Whatever brings them to the Saint, they can be a great friend of faith. 

What does it mean to be a friend of faith? Well, as Catholics we believe in something called the Communion of Saints. Every believer who has gathered around the table of the Lord for the Sacrament of the Eucharist (or has been baptized in Christ) living and dead, belong together in the Body of Christ the Church. Those who have gone before us and those to come are united through the Mass. All believers can pray for each other, just like a friend we meet on the street. It is just that the Saints happen to be in the presence of God. So when they pray on our behalf, we have strong advocates. 

With Confirmation we have a tradition of taking on a new name. Whether we keep the name of our baptism, or take on the name of a Saint friend, this marks a new beginning in our lives. There are times in Scripture when God gives or changes the name of an individual, and that name reflects what they are called to. Just a few quick examples. A man named Abram was called by God to be a father of nations, and his name became Abraham. A teen girl in Nazareth was addressed by an angel, and that angel said Hail full of Grace, and that indicated that she would be the mother of our Lord. A simple fisherman named Simon, became a rock of the Church and was renamed Peter. A persecutor of the Christian movement named Saul, became a great evangelist named Paul. These conversions marked their mission. 

This week let’s pray for our wonderful young people who’ve begun to embrace their saint friends as great examples for their lives, so that they can bring the renewal to culture and society that is so badly needed. Pray for their families and our community that we can support them in their growth and life of faith. 

God Bless and have a wonderful week!

Sunday October 27, 2024: What is Death?

My son Elijah has been on a sort of kick, what is dying, what is death, dad are you getting old? In the culture we live in, the topic is taken pretty lightly. Heroes of all sorts ‘blast’ their enemies, vengeance is expected, and on any range of topics from abortion to immigration, to humanitarian crises in the Middle and Near East,  one side or another takes the death of those they don’t value to be trivial. It seems fitting to me that this time of year is when my son has taken on this topic. As we approach Halloween we see the spooky, macabre, and outright sadistic. It’s the way that our society addresses topics that we haven’t built our communication skills around. Almost everyone who exists, or has ever existed holds one singular thing in common, that we’ve either died or one day will die. 

If that was the final word on things, we’d be in a pretty bleak place. However, it is not the end. Halloween is actually the Church’s answer to the bleakness. Halloween, or more formally, All Hallows Eve, is a night, or rather observance where we look both forwards and backwards. On All Saints Day, or All Saints Eve, we consider the men and women of faith that have gone before us, that the Church does its best to certify are in fact in heaven, in the presence of our Triune God. 

Then to follow we have a feast that I consider to be even more important, as an aspiration, and as an assurance. We have the feast of All Souls. On this day, we remember the dearly departed, those that we have good faith, and hope that they are in Purgatory. A state of being destined for heaven, but in need of purgation, of purification. On All Souls Day, we are reminded to pray for All the Souls, known and those forgotten, to aid them on their sojourn to their final destination. I take great hope in this,  because let us face it, most of us aren’t getting it perfect. We lie, cheat, miss Mass, steal, gossip, and intentionally or unintentionally wrong others. Yet we also have great love for the Lord, and our neighbors. We are mixed bags, doing both good, and falling short. The idea that we might get our toes into heaven, before our heads and hearts are ready, is hopeful indeed. 

This week, let us pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, that they will one day know their final destination in eternal happiness, in the presence of Jesus Christ our Lord. We should pray for those we’ve lost, and especially those who are forgotten. God Bless, and try to have a wonderful, and potentially more uplifting week!

October 20, 2024: The Fall is a Time to Ready Ourselves

Ever look up at the trees during the Autumn? You get the beauty of the changing leaves initially, and then all fall off. As the weather changes, the trees start to harden, and even the weakest of the branches careen toward the ground. It is a time of preparation for those plants, so that a surprise storm, or early winter freeze doesn’t tumble them over the added weight. 

This Sunday, our families of faith preparing for First Reconciliation are gathering for a morning of reflection surrounding the sacrament. We’ll discuss how our families prepare us for the tougher seasons of life, by modeling forgiveness, and love in the home. Then in the deepest days of autumn, our young people will have their first opportunity to go to Confession with the priests. We prepare to receive the weight of glory of the sacraments. This prepares us to move forward on our faith journey towards even greater mysteries, such as the Eucharist.

During this season of autumn we also remember those who’ve gone before us to eternal life. On November 1st, and November 2nd we memorialize All Saints, and All Souls. During this interesting season of remembrance, and transition, let us all turn towards the sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession, to ready ourselves for the season of Advent, and new life. 

Also, with All Hallows Eve (Halloween) comes the fun and festivity of Trick-or- Treat. Be on the look out for more information about our Table or Treat event which will be held on October 27th following 10:00 am Mass! God Bless, and have a wonderful week.

October 13, 2024: Making Room for the Holy Spirit!

I’ve noticed that there is this trend in employment where corporate headquarters are demanding that employees return. While the employees are often contributing at levels that exceed pre-Covid 19 levels, they make a claim that it is good for the corporate culture for the return to occur. Many of those employees, who perhaps had started their careers during the Covid culture, beg to differ, but that’s a conversation for people much smarter and business savvy than I am. 

I bring this up to drill down into something I do know about. Our Parish community’s culture is harmed by the absence of those who have fallen away since Church shutdowns, reservations, and distancing that was caused by Covid-19. These children who aren’t receiving their sacraments, the parents who once gathered together, and those who used to be the most active or even inactive who fell out of the practice of coming, are all extremely missed. When churches shut down, in their very reasonable response to an international pandemic (that most targeted our largest demographic) it became easy to fall out of the practice of coming here. Perhaps when we were unable to be here the idea planted itself in our minds that gathering together as a community wasn’t as important as it truly is. Other things started to fill the space. Travel sports teams that practice all week and play games on Sundays, other social activities that are irreligious slunk in. People began to select other goods to fill their time. While these activities can and should coexist, demands are so high, that eternal life becomes a secondary concern, the welfare of our community of faith sloughed out of mind, and we began to put off the meal Jesus offered us, in communion.

If you have a friend,relative, or neighbor that no longer chooses to be in fellowship with our community, I want you to let them know that they are missed. Let them know that they are welcomed, wanted, and needed in our community, and we eagerly await them. You have to be the voice of the community because guess what, they aren’t reading my words, as eloquently as they are written. Send that welcoming message, and reiterate it from time to time, but don’t club them with it because guess what… We need to leave room for the Holy Spirit to do its works! Let’s pray for those who have trailed off since Covid-19 that their relationship with Jesus can continue to grow, even in their absence, and that one day they might rejoin His body the Church for a meal and fellowship.

God Bless and have a great week!

October 6, 2024: Getting in the Spirit for All Hallows Eve

On Sunday, October 27th following the 10:00 am Mass, we will be hosting one of my favorite Families of Faith Activities. What we used to call our Trunk or Treat has taken on a new identity, we will have our second annual Table or Treat in the Nazareth Center Gym. All youth of our parish, and community are invited to take part, whether they are enrolled in faith formation or not. If you have a grandkid in town, or a neighbor friend, all are welcome!

Children attending are encouraged to come to the 10:00 am Mass dressed in costume. We ask that the youth avoid scary costumes, but steer towards a costume of someone you admire! Yes, this could be a Saint, or angel, but you could think broader, to movie characters, favorite characters from a book, sports stars, pop stars, or other people that are an example of a well lived life! Additionally, during the 10:00 am Mass, we will have our second Children’s Liturgy of the Word!!!

If a parish ministry would like to sponsor a special treat, or refreshment, or host a game in the Nazareth Center on that day, they are also encouraged to reach out to see if we can make it happen! I’ve already gotten word that the Knights of Columbus will be sponsoring and serving Hot-Dogs for participating families!

One thing that we’ve realized is that setting up before Mass is a bit of a time crunch. We will be hosting a set-up party in the Nazareth Center Gym on Saturday, October 26th at 6:00 pm. We do ask interested families to sign-up to host a table and give out candy. We’ll be serving pizza and refreshment during the event, so we do need signups: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/904044DABA72AA5F49-51916184-table.

This week, and for the rest of the month, please spread the word! Invite friends and family, and pray that this will be an opportunity to reach families that we’ve never met, or haven’t seen in a long time. Community events like these help us to grow together in faith and fellowship! God Bless and have a wonderful week!

September 29, 2024: Revisiting the 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit 

At this point, hopefully you are sick of hearing about the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, because that means that you are probably starting to memorize them, and hopefully practicing their use in your everyday life! This Saturday, at the 5:00 pm Mass the community is/ was joined by the Year 2 Confirmation cohort, for their Covenant Ceremony. 

During this Rite, we acknowledge the young people as candidates for Confirmation in their final months of preparation. This year especially, they will focus on their life of faith, and how they will continue their journey of faith, once they are empowered by the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. These gifts are Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Piety, and Awe or Fear of the Lord. 

These gifts are, or at least should be present in the lives of mature (and maturing) Christians. We build them through prayer, practice, and by following the examples of the saints, and those with admiral virtue we witness in our lives. This year, we hope to encourage the second year Confirmation Candidates to become more involved in the life of our parish. However, this won’t happen out of nowhere, they need to see more of you giving the example of discipleship in action. This week, let’s pray for the young people who are standing before us in their preparation, their parents, mentors, friends, and support structure so that they can live exemplary lives of faith. God Bless and have an excellent week! 

September 22, 2024: Let’s Encourage Each Other 

In the coming weeks, we are going to see some amazing things happening. If you’ve got your head up you may have already! Between teens, children, and adults, a lot of new people are stepping up into important roles. Some parents and teens are now helping reinstate Children’s Liturgy of the Word. Newly Confirmed teens are moving into roles like lectors, and Confirmation mentors, and a range of teens and youth are stepping up to be altar servers as well. If you’ve been involved with anything outside of Mass at Church, you’ve seen a ministry or group led and driven by the motivation, desire, and love of volunteers. Few of the things that happen around here are done solely through the motivation of clergy or professional staff. If there is something that you are passionate about seeing happen here, guess what, that makes you the perfect person to drive that effort! Some things will take grand efforts, but others can be driven by compassion and human decency. 

Today I am going to offer two ways that you can evangelize, and make our parish an even better place to be. These two offerings will help to address 2 major issues that often come up in discussion. First, why don’t families come to Mass? Second, why don’t teens return after Confirmation? You see a family struggling with hyperactive young children, instead of judging, or doing your best to not be annoyed by any disruptions. You take initiative. You sit by the family, offer encouragement, and maybe even help calm the children. You thank them for coming, and tell them you hope to see them soon. What could have been an embarrassment that sent someone running, became a true experience of community. 

You see teens at Mass, they are there for their Confirmation preparation. They seem distracted by their friends, their hormones, or something else going on in their life. Maybe they are a little disruptive. Afterwards, you tell them it was great to see them there, and you hope to see them again. Perhaps you are involved with a ministry, and suggest they get involved in the future. When you see them at Church, or in the store, or around town, you smile and greet them.  You directly counter the feeling the young people aren’t welcome. Might not assure they come back after Confirmation, but maybe later? This week, let’s pray for all the people that God is calling to mission and ministry (so all of us) that we might heed the call, and live up to our full potential in faith.

God Bless and have a wonderful week!

September 15, 2024: What I Celebrate on Catechetical Sunday

There are some ways that we can be described as a unique parish community. We can see this in the kindness of our members. For instance, my family is currently facing a setback. My wife, her mother, and children were in a serious car accident, the last week of August, and many parishioners, especially leaders, lined up behind my family to support us in this difficult time. Whenever there is a call for support for a school supply drive, to support our food pantry, to show basic kindness to anyone in need, the people of IHM line up to help. In my experience, this hasn’t been limited to simple material support, it has expanded to include accompanying others, and offering support through prayer and continued service. 

Another way we are unique, is whether we formally acknowledge it or not, our whole community plays a catechetical role. In lay terms, that means we are all responsible for bringing up the children and youth of our community in their knowledge and practice of the faith. While there are special people who step up to teach at Summer Academy, Connie Boruch, Marielle Carroll, Heba Fortunato, Malissa Morabito, Alyssa Stumpf, Dorothy Klein, Steve Prato, Elaine Carman, Geraldine and Colm Keogh, the Leung-Rykowski family, Katie Wills, and so many teen volunteers, we all play a role. 

Sunday, September 15th is observed as Catechetical Sunday. Today most parishes would bring forward the catechists/ teachers who take over the responsibility for forming our children for a special blessing. That is a great thing, but you know what, I’m grateful that we as a parish are a team, where parents, parishioners, staff, clergy, and some volunteers form families of faith. So today when we have blessings at Masses, participate because you play a role as well. That’s why I like to think that our Hospitality Committee here is offering a free pancake breakfast today! Since they are also forming our community, I’d encourage a free will offering to help defray the costs so that they can continue doing such great things.

This week, let us pray that God continues to lead us in our faith journey, so that we can continue “To give praise and thanks to God, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and in imitation of our Blessed Mother Mary, lead all to an encounter and deepening relationship with Jesus Christ.”
God Bless, and have a wonderful Catechetical Sunday!

September 8, 2024: Ordinary Average Update?

I often try to use this space to tell you some story, or move forward a theological hobby horse. I try to keep relevant, and avoid ordinary average updates of our faith formation schedule or activities. I’m not going to go out of my way to do that this week, because things are about to heat up with our program, and I want you, yes specifically you, to know what that is going to look like. It’s for a simple reason. We often speak about parents as the primary catechists of their children. That kind of allows our community to let itself off of the hook. When young people don’t come back to Church after Confirmation, it allows the broader parish to ask the question, where are they? What did the parents do wrong? How did faith formation and our youth ministry fail to keep them engaged?

Letting ourselves off the hook, we never ask some incisive questions. How could we as a community make young people feel welcome? Did my treatment and scorn of fooling around make them feel unwelcome? How could my ministries have welcomed more involvement from families and young people? I’m focusing on a specific group, because we’re able to put our money (and our attitude) where our mouth is! The first activity for Families of Faith this year is our Covenant Ceremony for young people beginning their first year Confirmation Formation. This will take place today, this Sunday at 10:00 am in Church, followed by a mixer for the students and parents in the Nazareth Center. 

We live in a time, when it is very hard for candidates to find eligible sponsors for Confirmation. People marry outside of the Church, sever their bond with a parish community. There is a breakdown of a sort in the community, where not everyone can think of someone nearby that could help them walk the faith. If we grow to support them better, maybe just maybe that challenge will melt away.

Next week, September 15th, Families of Faith will attend the 10:00 am Mass. Then have orientation following where they will receive materials for the year and learn how to use them. To conclude the morning, they will partake in the pancake breakfast. I welcome you to join them, and enjoy the breakfast and this opportunity for community! This week, let’s pray for a year of growth for the youth, their families, and for the entire community of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish. God Bless and have a great week!

September 1, 2024: I Didn’t Forget! The Sacrament of Holy Orders

We are all called to be a Nation of Priests, a Holy people, bringing the Good News of the Life, Death, Resurrection and Glory of Jesus Christ to all peoples whether they’ve known Him, or have yet to meet Him. This call began when the people of Israel were told in Exodus that they would be a kingdom of priests, a Holy Nation, and was reiterated when Isaiah was told that the people should be a Holy People and a Light to the Gentiles.

Jesus came to show us the way to live out the original mandates and covenants that the people of Israel had entered into with God. That is why He would bolster those original calls with the Great Commission. He called all disciples and apostles to spread the Good News and baptize in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. While as Christians we are all called at baptism to be priests, prophets, and kings, any assortment of people living out an important vision or call require guidance. That is why Jesus left Saint Peter as the first leader or pope, and the apostles with him as the first bishops. By necessity this circle expanded. Disciples, and the followers of the Apostles received a share of the Holy Spirit, and became the next generation of bishops and leaders. One of the most notable of this generation is St. Paul, who had once been Saul of Tarsus, a persecutor of Christians. 

As the community grew, and the assembly of the people for Mass expanded we can read that this group of Bishops led to overseers, and presbyters to guide the people. These early ministers of the Church received authority through that first generation of Apostles, and acted in a sacramental ministry. They shared in the ministry of the Bishops like our priests do today. Out of another level of necessity, namely the mistreatment of Greek widows and orphans by the original Jewish Christians, another ministry arose, that of the Diaconate. Deacons at that time, and even today are servants who assist the priests in the care of the people, and today formally preach the Gospel. We often as Catholics can often get confused, we begin to believe that the ordained ministers are the Church. We forget that trifold call of the baptized and sit back. We can tend to set aside our call as disciples because of what the Church does or doesn’t do. We don’t diminish the importance of the ordained, yet a community that depends solely on their leadership to carry the weight is a Body of Christ, with only a head.

This week, let’s pray that many men discern Holy Orders, that women and men consider religious life, and that out of this true discernment, we also get many holy marriages  so that the whole body of the Church might be vital, healthy, and strong. God Bless and have a great week.

August 25, 2024: Loving is Hard Work

Anyone who has met me, wouldn’t be surprised to hear that my weight has been an issue for a good part of my life. There have been some times when it is better and worse, but it has always been a struggle, and it’s never been a walk in the park (though that might have been a good idea every now and then).

So, when a pushy young man in the mall locked eyes on me, and was chasing me down to buy some candy bars, it wasn’t a scene that I personally wanted to be a part of. When I firmly said no he muttered to himself (but not too well) “you looked like you might want some candy bars” I wasn’t thrilled, in fact I was angry because it brought back some not so fond memories. I angrily responded, and while I didn’t eat all of his candy bars, that altercation ate me up inside a bit. If I wasn’t dealing with diabetes, someone might have told me to eat a Snickers, because I wasn’t myself. I’m sharing this somewhat uncomfortable vignette with you for a reason! At that moment, I was dealing with another human being.

A young man with his own challenges, struggles, and issues. I don’t know his background, but I know mine, as a follower of Christ. What I, what we are called to is love. We are called to love our neighbors, love our enemies, love those who annoy us, and grate on us. That young man might have upset me, but I need to see him as a brother, made in the image and likeness of the Lord our God, and to act accordingly. This interaction is mildly frustrating, it was enough for me to remember a month out. However, it wasn’t by any means an extreme of what we can encounter on our path. We will face instances with individuals who hurt us more deeply than just a couple words. In those times, as challenging as it is, we are called to Love like Jesus. This week, I’m praying for that young man who was probably forced to sell candy bars by some adult in the shopping mall. I encourage you to think of someone who deeply annoys you, has wronged you in the past, or has rubbed you the wrong way, for their good, and your own good.

God Bless and have a great week.

August 18, 2024: Go an Make Disciples 

Most Churches, even, especially the Roman Catholic Church, takes on a pretty corporate structure. You have the Vatican, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Archdiocese of Newark (which has also appointed an auxiliary bishop over Union County). If you know the inside baseball, you know that there are even deaneries of nearby parishes in a territory. If we aren’t careful, it’s really easy to fall into the trap of looking at the parish as the local branch. That would make Father Mike the regional director, Gabe the Assistant to the Regional Director, Fr. Rob an experienced consultant, and the staff as marketing, finance, and programming directors. 

As much as it’s fun to imagine a parish as a remake of the series ‘the Office’, the product we sell is much more important than paper, it’s relationship with Jesus Christ, and parishioners aren’t merely consumers. We are all about the work of disciples, going out into the world and introducing others to Jesus Christ. Our baptismal call is to something greater than attending Mass, and doing some good deeds. It is a call to bring others to Jesus and ultimately eternal life in the beatific vision, present with God for all eternity. I know I am laying that on thick. It is a great responsibility, but guess what, it can start with one small step. Do you know any Catholic families that have been away, distracted, and distant from their faith? Well it is time to invite them back! Let them know why you come, and more importantly that you are here to accompany them (or even buy them lunch afterwards).

Here is my big ask. We’ve had a good number of families attend our summer academy program, and have a great experience. A more modest number have signed up to participate in Families of Faith for the Fall and Spring. The thing is, our numbers are short for the youngest grades (kindergarten and more importantly first grade). Why is that important? Children begin to prepare for First Eucharist in 1st grade. We’re also seeing a gradual decline in 7th and 8th grade formation numbers. While that may be consistent with demographics, we know that we have to be missing someone who should be with us. When we are missing families, our community cannot live up to its fullest potential. Invite the people we are missing to contact our parish. Pray for the return of others, and help us find and care for the lost sheep! This week let’s pray for all of the families that have been absent from our community, especially those who are away because of deep hurts. Pray that they can find healing and welcome today and always. God Bless and have a great week.

August 11, 2024: The Sacrament and Vocation of Holy Matrimony

Marriage has been a part of human society since well before Jesus Christ walked the earth. The societal norms relating that human practice differ from culture to culture, but were all generally a contract between a man and a woman for the sake of merging families for a number of social and practical purposes. Marriages occurred to bring peace between nations, stabilize the economic situation of a community, and in some cases provide some level of protection in a society where an unaccompanied woman (without spouse or male son) were without rights. 

There had always been some societal good in the contract, yet like all things, faith brought depth and new meaning to something practical. For instance, in Judaism there were already rites of cleansing and reparation yet through Confession or Reconciliation that became immediate, personal, and affective. Ritual meals had already existed such as the Passover Seder, yet through the Last Supper were were given the Bread of Life. 

In Holy Matrimony, what was once a practical contract, became a covenant between spouses, before God. Just as with Reconciliation and Holy Communion, Holy Matrimony offers particular grace to the partners. While it is not magic, this can see husband and wife through struggles and challenging situations well beyond their own means to overcome. It takes work for sure, all good things do.

This week every year, I write something about Holy Matrimony, because on August 12th 2017, my wife Emily and I were married at St. Paul Church in Princeton, NJ. While that day surrounded by family and friends was lovely, that day does not define our marriage. Every challenge, and joy that we have shared since, the love we’ve shared defines the marriage more than that one day. So this week, please pray for my wife and I, and even all of the young people who discern the vocation of marriage that we may all know the continued grace of God, especially in the sacrament of Holy Matrimony. God Bless and have a wonderful week.

August 4, 2024: Grandparents Day and Sharers of the Word

Last Sunday was Grandparent’s Day throughout the Catholic World. This day of recognition of Grandparents and the Elderly occurs each year, and falls on the Sunday nearest to the feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and therefore the grandparents of Jesus. I am a week late, but with the current atmosphere, I think you can cut me some slack. However, I did feel the need to circle back to this! Pope Francis set a theme for the observance it’s:

“Do not cast me off in my old age” (cf. Psalm 71:9)

The reality these days is that society does a terrible job caring for our elders. People aren’t getting ahead in the world like they used to be able to, retirement ages are pushed ever back, and agism does play in hiring. Someone who has given of themselves for their entire career, for instance, might be cast off in their old age because their skills and talents aren’t what they used to be. In a world where both husband and wife must work to get by, no one is in the home anymore to care for an elderly or ill parent. With all these things in mind, we as a Church and a culture must do better to uplift the spirits and situation, especially of those who languish in obscurity. We must honor the experiences, wisdom, and talents of those who have blazed the way in front of us. You know what though, human dignity should never be tied to a person’s utility. No, we should honor all people as our brothers and sisters made in the image and likeness of God (even if they sneer at our children for being loud in Church ;).)

Here is the challenge I am going to set out for our community. Do you know of someone who is lonely, ignored? Give them a call, take a visit for tea or coffee. See someone who always comes to Church alone? Ask to sit with them. For our grandparents who are far away from their grandchildren. I have a secret for you. Do you see a family with young children at Church? Guess what, if you were to sit with that family, and dote over their children, and offer them praises, I’m pretty sure there would be a lunch invitation for that Church grandparent!

Even as Grandparents’ Day has passed within the Church, let’s pray to God for the strength to do better, living out the life of Christians, and respecting the dignity of all people, no matter their status! God Bless and have a great week.

July 28, 2024: Princes, Powers, and Our One True God

If you’ve been reading my contributions to the bulletin for a while, you might know that one of my favorite pieces of scripture comes from the Psalm 146: 3-7
”Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.”

Public policy is very important. How we are governed affects our lives, and the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves. So our participation in the system as voters, advocates, outspoken critics of injustices (even within the parties we belong to) is critical, and can even be considered a duty of ours as good citizens and Christians. So, I share this, because a few weekends ago, when something pretty scary happened, God gave me the grace of understanding something very important. In a part of my past that I don’t often speak about, I was studying political science, and by extension was very involved with the political process. As such, I’m apt to get over invested, and concerned with the process. In the past I would be apt to become too worried, and involved with the politics of the day. To the point where it would obscure my faith. 

During the weekend I mentioned, I had traveled with my wife and children to Mount Sacred Heart, the mother house for the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. (You may recall I profiled this order during Keeping it Orderly). We were there for an important celebration, 5 women of faith were celebrating their 50th or 60th Jubilee (or anniversary since vows). Between that group of women, there were 320 years of service to the people of God. They had seen the rule of 6 popes, and the government of 12 different U.S. Presidents. Through their lives they’ve seen extreme swings of governance and culture. They have seen the funeral of popes and presidents alike. They’ve lived under reforms, policies, and have outlived plenty of government budgets, wars, and more than their share of social unrest. All those things aside, they have kept their eyes on Christ the King Ruler of the Universe, and His will over any partisan agenda. They live simply, love their neighbors/ enemies, and above all else love the Lord their God with all their hearts, strength and mind.

No matter how shaken we may be by these divisive times. No matter how skeptical we may be of the intentions of others, we should following the example of these brave women of faith, and love those God puts in our path. Let us pray for this nation, for a ceasing of violence and damaging rhetoric, and for the blessing of the Lord our God on our nation, and our community. God Bless, have a wonderful week.

July 21, 2024: A Misunderstood Sacrament: Anointing of the Sick

Until the early 1970s, the sacrament of healing, referred to currently as Anointing of the Sick, was known as Last Rites, or extreme unction. This was because the sacrament was often administered only when an individual was nearing the end of life, or had good reason to believe that they would.

The sacrament is primarily meant to bring forgiveness of sins, and the spiritual gifts of peace and courage to an individual suffering the extremity of old age, chronic illness, or other significant physical, emotional, or spiritual suffering. In rare but no unheard of individuals will also experience physical healing. In reverting to the old use of the sacrament, we rob ourselves of the grace of this beautiful encounter with Christ in an often neglected sacrament. 

If you or someone you know and love is suffering any sort of illness, or challenges of aging, and you think that Anointing of the Sick would bring them comfort, there are two ways to experience it. You can call the parish to schedule an appointment for anointing, or the parish offers two Anointing Masses each year, generally in Advent and Lent. 

For your scriptural reflection I offer: Is anyone among you sick? He should summon the presbyters of the church, and they should pray over him and anoint [him] with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. James 5:14-15

This week, let’s pray for everyone in need of any sort of healing in their life, that they can more fully experience Christ’s love in their lives and suffering.

God Bless and have a wonderful week!

July 14, 2024: Looking Back and Forward: Summer Academy 

What an amazing Summer Academy we had at IHM Parish! For the first time in the program, the nine days included two Sundays. We kicked off the first day with a family session on Discipleship with John Poitvent of Great Catholic. For a year now parish leadership has been working with John on the development of discipleship strategies and this was an invitation for our families to get more involved! We are called to discipleship through the seven sacraments. At baptism we become part of the body of Christ, and therefore are called to discipleship! Then all of the other sacraments help us on the journey. Reconciliation offers us forgiveness, Eucharist strength, Confirmation spiritual gifts, Anointing of the sick healing. The context for our faith is the family, so on Sunday, June 30th our parents were joined by Steve Serafin D.min who talked about communication in the family unit and tools for growing together as parents. This led us to our final days focused on the sacraments at the service of Communion, Holy Matrimony and Holy Orders.

This was a successful start to the formation year of our families, and there wouldn’t have been a program without our teachers and various volunteers, Connie, Marielle, Heba, Cecilia, Alissa, Malissa, Dorothy, Steve, Elaine, Colm, and Geraldine who led our classes. Amanda, Sophie, Rob, Nancy who made the art room such a success, and Katie, who led music. Our pastor Father Mike, and our priest in residence Father Rob preached at such a relatable level for our daily masses, and Janet Manfredonia assured us that all of the paperwork lined up just right.

Over 16 teen volunteers assured that things ran smoothly, and continued their growth as leaders of our community! Ferdie Nieva cleaned and maintained our facilities, and parish staff made sure everything ran smoothly. I could write another ten pages with names, and important people in this process, but would be remiss to mention our parents, and the children themselves who assure the programs are as wonderful as they are. Continue to grow for the spiritual growth of our community today and forever! God Bless, thank you, and have a wonderful week!

July 7, 2024: Independence from Sin

Over the last two weeks of Summer Academy, we learned about the seven sacraments and sought to plant the seeds of faith for our continuing journey. We ended on July 2nd, because that was most convenient for our teachers, and families. That offered us the opportunity to offer Sunday morning sessions, that allowed the parents, and maybe even older siblings the opportunity to get more involved in the journey of the younger children and teens of our parish. If we had continued through the Fourth of July, I would have selected the topic of Reconciliation for that Thursday. Why do you ask? Because on the Fourth of July we celebrate the Independence of our Nation from the tyranny of another nation that maintained control of our affairs, though it was so far away from us. 

When Jesus died on the Cross for us, He conquered the powers of sin and death, and provided us a path to eternal life. He picked us up, and distanced us from the tyranny of sin and death, just as our former nation was across an ocean from us. When we declared our independence it did not prevent that distant party from mustering its resources to cross the distance to assert its control and power both in the revolution and the war of 1812. Even though Jesus has distanced us from the power of Satan, as humans we continue to be tempted, and fall to that temptation to sin, to live a life less than what we deserve. So to gain our ultimate independence from the powers Jesus has defeated we need special tools. We need to avail ourselves of the healing power of confession (or reconciliation), the weekly reception of the Holy Eucharist, and recourse to the sacraments such as Anointing of the Sick when we so require it.

With Jesus’ sacrifice, and these fonts of grace that He has provided us, we can claim ultimate independence, as we seek out eternal life. This week, let us pray for a deeper connection to Christ through the sacraments, so that we can grow ever closer to Him. God Bless and have a wonderful week.

June 30, 2024: The Journey Continues

So the Summer Academy portion of Faith Formation will come to an end, and families, especially parents will have to make an important determination. How will we continue our faith journey together? How important is this to us, how will we ‘Go Make a Difference’ as Disciples of Jesus Christ and members of this faith community? If you hope for your family to grow in faith, and this hasn’t been checking a box, or living up to someone else’s expectations, our program includes a few opportunities that you should take advantage of. 

First, we challenge you to go to Mass every (or at least most weeks) at IHM or wherever you happen to be on vacation, or with your travel teams. Growing in faith requires a connection to that faith. Second, every Summer Academy child/ youth grades pre-k through grade seven will be provided with a series of resources called Pflaum Gospel weeklies. These will prepare you and your child for Sunday Mass every week, in a low effort, high reward way. Third, and maybe most importantly, we are asking all of our families participating in our Summer Academy to attend 3-10 Families of Faith activities during the year. That program is included in your registration, and will generally meet twice a month. These events will include fellowship, prayer, and service. We’ll also be inviting leaders of parish ministries to come be involved, so you can find other wonderful opportunities in the parish. 

Those preparing for sacraments should also be on the lookout for more information about preparation for Reconciliation/ Eucharist and Confirmation Preparation (in 8th and 9th grade). This week let’s pray for all of the families that are participating in faith formation now, and will in the future. We are called to gather as a faith community in support of the generations of Catholic children and teens that will bring us forward to our 100th anniversary! God Bless and have a great week.

June 23, 2024: Welcome Back for Summer Academy 2024

No matter what some preachers may tell you, Jesus won’t likely make you rich, or even materially wealthy. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer we pray, “give us this day our daily bread” not “give us this month’s rent, let alone a mansion”. So it is very understandable that schooling, and things that will propel us to higher education, professions, and trades take a very high priority in our lives. Being successful in our lives, and supporting our families is important, and being the best, or really good at what we do, is important. It can even make it more possible to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because it puts us in places where people might be more interested in wealth, power, and success than salvation. 

This is really a long way around, to tell our Summer Academy families that we are very happy to have you back for our summer intensive program this year. There are many priorities for our families, so putting focus on faith is a wonderful gift to your family, and to the community. The hope and expectation is that this will be your entry into deeper participation in our parish community. Hopefully, our opening speaker empowers, and encourages you to grow as disciples, and attend Mass within the community consistently, and participate in Families of Faith activities such as prayer, fellowship, and service throughout the year. 

To aid you in your participation in the Mass, in September we will be providing each faith formation child Pre-K through Grade 7 with a series called Pflaum Gospel Weeklies. This helps whole families prepare for Sunday Mass, September through May. We ask that you watch for the release of those materials, pick them up, and utilize them to enter deeper into your faith. We ask the community to continue to pray for our families, that they can grow deeper in love with God, feel welcomed, and participate more fully in the faith of our community. God Bless and let’s have a great first week of Summer Academy!

June 16, 2024: A Fathers’ Day Message

This Fathers Day, I would like to share a story with you, about how I became a father. Because it is the very lens from which I see my ministry to the families of our parish. In late 2019, my wife and I sought medical assistance to try and have a child. My wife Emily had been told for most of her life that it would be nearly impossible without some assistance. 

So, before she could take medication, she needed to take a blood draw pregnancy test. Shockingly, it showed that Emily was already pregnant. That was a Friday, so at 5:00 am Monday, before work, we went to the OB for an ultrasound. We were shocked and amazed to see a fully formed spine, and skull. We were overjoyed and shocked to see our child was there, and far advanced, 4 months along. Emily is prone to be concerned, she feared at the possibility of loss of pregnancy (something indicated by her medical condition, but not at 4 months). Just as we left the consult, I was struck, as by lightning. “Your son will be fine, and his name is Elijah!” At that point the doctors were unable to declare gender, but from that day forward we knew. Beyond sharing something personal, this is my long way around to a point. There are so many things that can estrange us from our fathers. Death, disagreement, emotional distance, court orders surrounding divorce, physical or emotional abuse, and the decision of father or child to dissolve the familial bond. 

This is particularly damaging because a mother’s bond to a child is at least partially biological. The bond generally begins from an imperative and a physical bond. A father on the other hand, is the first person beyond the mother to meet the child, to embrace them, and makes the choice to love them. This is the first member of society to choose to love that child, and thus represents each time that decision will be made out in the world. Rejection is so very painful. Here’s the core of this message. Even before I knew Elijah, loved him, and accepted him, he and every child is known and loved by God the Father. Even when dad is present, we can relate to what God said at Jesus’ (and our baptism) Behold my dearly beloved Son, my dearly beloved daughter, who with I am well and truly pleased. 

This Fathers’ Day let’s pray for every father and father figure who have stepped up in the lives of the children (and adult children) in their lives. Pray for the fathers who have gone before us. Especially let us pray for the fathers who are absent, by their own fault, or by circumstance to heal the loss they may be incapable of feeling. God Bless and have a wonderful week!

June 9, 2024: A Sacramental Detour: The Initiation Process Formerly known as RCIA

So many of us have been raised Catholic, and especially for a certain age group it means that we were baptized as infants or children under the age of 7, attended CCD or Catholic School, and received all of our sacraments as an extension of all of that. This is a common experience, but it is not the only, or universal process. Every year, people who have chosen to become Catholic, either in adulthood, or because of circumstances that put off infant baptism, and traditional Catechesis, are welcomed to our Church at the Easter Vigil. God willing we’ll be a parish that welcomes newly initiated Catholics next spring! What we see, and what was behind it, are two different things. We may see them receive Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist at the Vigil, but a lot of preparation goes into that moment (and hopefully leads to a continued journey of faith). I’ve made brief comments about the order that they receive the sacraments (in past submissions and videos) but here, I’m going to break down the process in brief. Keep in mind that no process is exactly the same, but they all hold these steps in common.

The first step is inquiry, you don’t become what you don’t know. Those approaching the faith will investigate, discern, and consider if they will commit to the faith, or at least formally enter the process! Then comes the Catechumenate, and the individual has decided, so they begin the process. Learning the faith and accepting it for themselves, they take ownership of their faith, particularly by sticking close to the lectionary, or readings of the Mass. 

Once you’ve decided to pursue the faith, and have entered the Catechumenate, you come to the point of choosing to formally enter. The Lent before your initiation you take part in more intense and focused formation, this period is called Purification and Preparation. There are special Rites of the Church at this time, and a community with those preparing will stick to Gospel Cycle A which throws people from their personal Missals, and closely relates to the process for those to be initiated. Only after these stages have occurred with the Catechumen be Initiated at the Easter Vigil! That’s it right? 

Wrong, as in our ancient tradition, these newly initiated are to be accompanied on their faith journey, mentored by other members of the community, and invited to live a fuller life with Christ. This period of the life of the faithful is called Mystagogy. Over time, we will see this process slowly transition to being called the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults. There will be enrichment of the process, but what will remain, is the age old process of growing as a community, and accompanying our newest members. This week, let’s pray for those who entered the Church this Easter, and for those who we look forward to welcoming to be initiated  next Easter Vigil in 2025. God Bless and have a great week!

June 2, 2024: Reconciliation or Confession

There was this movie, where a Spanish colonist and slave trader basically ran away to the Paraguayan jungle, in part out of shame because he slew his own brother who had run off with his fiance. He came across a priest to hear his confession, and refused to accept absolution because the penance he was given was to light. So this led the penitent played by Robert Deniero to throw a bunch of heavy armor down a steep hill and drag it up and throw it over and over. Eventually the ‘protagonist’ broke down in tears over the grace of the forgiveness he had received. I saw this movie over a decade ago, but it was seared in my memory for that scene. That moment of film resonated with me, because of the reality it presents. God through His priests offers us enduring mercy, freely given to those who seek it. Yet, out of pride, fear, shame, or in some cases self hatred, we are much harder on ourselves than God is. 

So a brief and lazy bit of research shows me that a decree on going to Confession annually did not occur until the Fourth Lateran Council in around 1215 AD. Yet a perusal of Scripture (your homework for the week) sets the foundation. Matthew 6:12 (from the Lord’s Prayer), 1 John 1:9), Matt 9:1-6,8 and John 21:20-23 shows the grounding of the sacrament. Then we can explore the Didache and the Church Fathers to see the importance of the sacrament well before 1215. If you are interested in diving deeper into these sources, check out this tract from Catholic Answers What the Early Church Believed: Confession | Catholic Answers Tract. 

A final thought on this topic, we often hear people say “why do I need a priest, why can’t I confess directly to God?” In the case of minor venial sins we can. However, our mortal sins harm more than our relationship with God. They harm us, causing us to live a less full life than we are called to. Sins also cause harm to the community. While representing Jesus in Confession, a priest also stand in the place of our neighbors, to offer the forgiveness of the community (and commensurate penances). So this week, let us pray for a deeper love of an often neglected sacrament, that we might grow in faith, and holiness as we seek to grow closer to Christ and our neighbors. God Bless, and Have a Wonderful week.

May 26, 2024: The Eucharist, a Poetic or Historical History of When We Receive

We live in a society that tends to hold higher esteem for more rare occurrences that happen later in life. For example, a doctorate is greater than a masters, than a bachelors, than a high school diploma, than a middle school graduation, than an elementary school completion, than a pre-k moving up ceremony. The older we are x the rarity of the accomplishment= greater value and prestige. I bring this up, because many of the dioceses in the United States, with few exceptions have made the age of Confirmation something that occurs later in life, therefore requires greater preparation. You must understand Confirmation at an 8th, 9th, 10th, or 11th grade level, because that is when you will receive it. There are notable exceptions, but that’s not the point! 

Because Confirmation happens once in our life, generally at an older age, more value can be placed on it than Holy Communion. That of course happens in 2nd grade, and then an infinite amount of times following. This may seem strange considering Holy Communion, the Eucharist is the Source and Summit of Christian Life! As per the Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraph 1324. 

So, if the reception of the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ is the pinnacle of Christian life, why does it happen when we don’t understand it as well? I’m going to offer two answers to that question. One will be poetic and theological, and the other will be true and historical. You be the judge. Jesus offered His body to the disciples at the Last Supper, and told them to do that whenever they gathered in remembrance of Him. Jesus then later told the same disciples He would have to ascend to the Father before the Paraclete, Advocate, Holy Spirit could be sent at Pentecost, so it follows that we receive Jesus before we are ready to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. 

Alternatively, there was once a time when any baptized Christian would be Confirmed as soon as the local bishop could travel to a Parish. The number of Catholics, and the size of Dioceses grew, and transportation was primitive. The wait to see the Bishop became longer and longer. At that same time, the faithful wouldn’t receive Holy Communion until around 14. At that time, much like with RCIA/OCIA, the order of initiation was Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist. During this same time, around 1910 (surprisingly recently in the history of the Church) Pope Pius X, decreed in Quam Singulari that children deemed at the age of reason (around 7) should be admitted to receive the Eucharist. This was a return to the early church and seems fitting with what Jesus said, “let the little children come to me” Matthew 19:14. 

Lord, continue to strengthen our faith through the reception of Your Body and Blood in the Eucharist, and call those who have received strength from the Holy Spirit to continue union with you at your table.  God Bless and have a wonderful week. 

May 19, 2024: A Lesson on Confirmation

We very recently did a series here on the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, Council, Fortitude, Piety, and Fear of the Lord (also known as awe or reverence). We spent that time because we believe that these gifts are imparted, not just symbolically, but in reality through the Rite of Confirmation. So practically what are the parts of the Rite? First the community presents the candidates to the Bishop or his representative. Presumably much like with converts at the Easter Vigil these candidates have discerned and were formed to live a Christian Life. The Bishop accepts the candidates and the sacrament continues. Then the Candidates renew their Baptismal vows. Most, if not all, were baptized as infants and were spitting up, drooling, or sleeping when their parents and godparents did this on their behalf the first time. While the faithful will do this at the Easter Vigil, it’s likely that this has been a first for those being confirmed. Then the Bishop recites a prayer and extends his arms over the group for the Laying on Of Hands. Traditionally (and in some cases still today) a Bishop would actually slap the young people (usually lightly). This was an old military gesture, and still today, tells the young people that they are in the fight for Jesus. 

The most recognizable aspect of the Rite is the Anointing with Oil. The Bishop or other appropriate minister will use Sacred Chrism, that was created at the Chrism Mass on Monday of Holy Week, to seal each candidate with the Holy Spirit. In the Eucharist we believe that the host is Christ and we receive Him. In Confirmation we look at Chrism as the presence of the Holy Spirit. After they are sealed each Candidate is called by their Confirmation name, and wished peace by the Bishop. At Confirmation, we continue what occurred at Pentecost. Jesus told His community that He had to ascend so that He could send the Advocate, the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit. When those followers gathered together in the Upper Room, they were empowered by the Holy Spirit, and went to spread the Gospel, cast out demons, heal the sick, and in some cases raise the dead. Because of that we have a Church today. 

We have good reason to believe that this anointing continues past that one gathering. A great example is St. Paul. While Pentecost was taking place, Saul known later as Paul was likely out persecuting Christians, and overseeing their stoning. Likely those followers were locked in that Upper Room avoiding what he would do. Yet he was converted, and did great wonders. It is quite possible that we, and especially the newly confirmed can do just the same today. This week, let us give thanks that God created us to be a community of Faith, and provided us with the sacraments to strengthen our faith, and guide us in His ways. God Bless and Have a wonderful week.

May 12, 2024: A Different take on Motherhood 

Very recently our parish celebrated the sacrament of Confirmation with the young people of our parish. Bishop Elias Lorenzo presided over the celebration. While he preached, to the families gathered, I was led to reflect on the Church as our mother. A mother who loves her children sacrifices a lot to bring up strong, confident, and self assured adults. This often takes a significant sacrifice from a mother, setting aside her own self-interests to provide for her children. This takes place from the moment of conception, to when they are launched into the world, and never truly ceases. 

The Church is not a building, it is not just the Pope, Cardinals, Bishops, Monsignors, Priests, Deacons, and lay employees who make up the Church, it is the entire community. While the laity may feel like the low women (and men) on the totem pole, in decision making terms, their attitude and practice make the most difference. How the body of the Church lives and moves in the world determines how effectively the Gospel can be spread. What we bring into our homes, communities, workplaces, and extracurriculars, will determine how widely received the Gospel will be. 

This weekend many will mourn their mothers because they passed this year, or decades ago. Some will mourn their estrangement from a mother they have fallen out with, or have never known. This week let us pray for all of the dispossessed, the lonely, and those who mourn a great loss so that they may know the embrace of their mother the Church. Additionally, as Bishop Elias says, “mothers and fathers, when you go home today, tell your children that you love them unconditionally, because that teaches them the most important lesson of faith, the unconditional love of God.” God Bless and have a wonderful week.

May 5, 2024: Easter: A Sacramental Season

A man, seemingly crazed, dressed in a way, dined in a way that made others uncomfortable, mainly on locusts and wild honey went out to a deserted place, and called out for repentance along the Jordan River. As odd as he seemed, the people were hungry for a new perspective, a change in the status quo. With this man John the Baptist they found a form of ritual cleansing, a baptism of repentance. Though He was like us in all things but sin, our Savior Jesus Christ sought out this voice in the desert, His cousin, to receive this baptism. While Christ was without sin, this was a critical moment (that we’ll revisit during our next installment on Confirmation). This ritual cleaning performed by John was a precursor to something greater, just as John himself was the forerunner of Christ. After Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection he spent time with His Apostles and Disciples, and commissioned them for ministry. They were being sent to go and make disciples Baptizing in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

This baptism was no longer for purely repentance, no those who experience baptism of our Lord receive new life in Christ whether they are infants, or adults. It is interesting to consider how the sacraments interplay with each other throughout their history. We consider Confirmation to be somewhat of a completion of this important rite. Even more interestingly, baptism is in fact for the forgiveness of sins. Earlier in our history, the sacrament of reconciliation hadn’t been developed, so some notable figures, emperors, notables, and ordinary people would hold off their baptism till later in life, because they feared sinning after the forgiveness of baptism. Baptism has always been a one shot deal, a dedication of one’s life to Christ. As such, even those who leave the faith later in life, are seen by Church law as still being Catholic. This week in particular, let’s pray for those who have been baptized and have strayed from the faith, and those who have never known Christ.

God Bless and have a great week!

April 28, 2024: Easter: A Sacramental Season

Traditionally, the season of Lent was a time where the Church refrained from celebrating the sacraments. With an absence of Holy Water, baptisms would not occur until the new Easter Waters were blessed at the Easter Vigil. Holy Matrimony would not take place during Lent (save for on Laetare Sunday).

During the Easter Vigil, those who have been preparing to enter the Church as adults or older children receive the Sacraments of Initiation, Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. Our parish looks forward to celebrating these with three members of our community at the Vigil next year!

For these reasons, a character of the Easter season is one of joyfully celebrating the sacraments with the faithful at all stages of life. On Saturday, April 26th our parish celebrates First Communion with our families who have been preparing all year. On Monday, April 29th we rehearse for Confirmation, which will be celebrated on May 4th with Bishop Elias! To our candidates on May the Fourth we’ll be with you for that wonderful step in your faith journey!

As this is a season of sacraments, over the next several weeks, we’ll take the time to reflect on all seven sacraments, Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Holy Matrimony. This will be the perfect series to lead us through Pentecost, and to our Summer Academy, which will focus on the Sacraments, Discipleship, and Family Life.

This week let’s pray for the continued Easter joy, as we prepare to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost (May 19th). God Bless and have a wonderful week!

April 21, 2024: God’s Love is the Point

It is very easy to get caught up in what is expected of us as Christians. The Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, Corporal Works of Mercy, the golden rule. There are countless Papal Encyclicals, teachings about morality, justice, and how we should go about our lives in the modern world. When you focus on these things as restrictions, as opposed to guidelines for a fulfilled life, they become tedious and monotonous. Those things that can bring us abundant life, are overshadowed by a negative mindset.

If we relate fully to the suffering of Jesus’ passion and death, if we become fearful and nervous like our Lord's closest followers, and scatter, without considering the joy of the resurrection we become numb to the amazing gift that we have been given. If we get totally down on ourselves for Lent with abstinence and restriction, for the whole 40 days of Lent, and neglect the joy of Easter for the 50 days of the season, what have we gained? Overzealous seminarians are reminded to fast and feast with the Church!

For the remainder of the Easter Season let us joyfully recall the fact that God loved the world so much, that Jesus Christ took on flesh, taught and reinforced the most important guidance we can follow for a full life. Then only after doing this died on the Cross to provide us with the gift of salvation, then took a victory tour to restore His Community which would build up the Church we belong to today! This week let us pray that we can see the teaching of scripture and our tradition as the foundation of a full life in union with God and our neighbors. God Bless, Happy Easter, and have a wonderful week!

April 14, 2024: We are an Easter People

50 days of Easter continue moving forward, and we remain in the joy of the knowledge of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. This singular event, and the thousands of years of salvation that led to that moment, should define who we are, and what we do from the very moment we had accepted Jesus Christ as our personal, and communal Lord and Savior. The question " Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior" might seem to have been trivialized in some circles, but maybe that question runs deeper than what it appears to mean. There is one thing to know and accept a fact of history, like that Jesus was born, ministered, then suffered, died, and was buried, and rose again on the third day. It is quite another to take that knowledge out into the world, and center our relationships on it.

Jesus defeated the power of sin and death over us. He opened the gates of heaven for us, to the point where in the passion narrative it says that the dead rose. So, what does that mean for our everyday life? With the knowledge of this great truth do we pray and have a relationship with God? Do we go out of our way to act good towards others, even when our human nature prompts us not to? Do we run into the fire of hostility to pull those who hate us, from the fire of their own deceit and hatred? Do we do even the simplest thing of receiving Jesus joyfully in the Eucharist, and then giving another person the right of way as we attempt to leave the parking lot. These are just some things to consider as we seek to live the joy of Easter, and reflect what it means to us in our daily lives. Let us pray for supernatural gifts of joy and understanding as we too bring the mission of Jesus Christ out into the world! God Bless and have a wonderful week!

April 7, 2024: It’s Still Easter

What did you give up for Lent? Was it chocolate, dairy products, meat, dessert, or streaming on your favorite platform? Did you fast from your favorite social media, or a specific genre of music or media that you absolutely love? If we gave up things that are generally healthy for us and did so that we could better focus on our relationship with God, that was great! That was a very commendable practice, and you should be very proud.

Now here’s an Easter Challenge for you. Is there a way that you could enjoy your favorite sweets in a way that draws you closer to God? Perhaps by sharing that treat with someone who is lonely? Could you indulge in a favorite food that you had given up, in a way that included someone who would otherwise do without? Can we show love for streaming material that excels in decency, and virtue? Could we share good music, fiction, and art with others who would benefit from discovering it? Could we use social media to promote the good, true, and beautiful instead of doom scrolling and comparing ourselves to others? 

I think the answer to all of these things is an emphatic yes! During this whole Easter Season, we could and should use the good things that we abstain from to grow closer to God, in relationship with Jesus Christ, use our Uno Reverso Card with them, and gain the same benefit from having them be a part of our life, in a mindful way! This week, let’s pray that we can keep the Easter Joy alive in our hearts, so that we can continue to grow closer to Jesus Christ, and our neighbor, especially as we await the reception of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Those gifts being understanding, wisdom, knowledge (or insight), counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord (otherwise known as awe). God Bless and a Wonderful Easter Season.

March 31, 2024: 50 > 40
We need to live our lives recognizing that fifty is greater than forty. It’s simple math, but we don’t tend to express it with our lives. We’ve just completed our forty days in the desert of Lent. It was a time of reflection, abstinence, and penance. If we had done it right, it was a time of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Now it is time for 50 days in the dessert, or rather the joy of Easter. Today, we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the culmination of thousands of years of salvation history. Jesus in His Innocence laid Himself down in sacrifice, and destroyed the powers of sin and death. 

While one day our lives will end, we will one day know a new life, eternally. While in this life we know struggles with sin, illness, broken relationships, and even pain, we will enter our new life as sons and daughters of our Creator, and brothers and sisters of Christ our Lord and Savior. As such, we will ourselves experience unknown joy. When we were baptized we died, and raised up with Christ, so as we mark the joy of the resurrection, we will remember our baptism, and be sprinkled with the new Easter waters. So let’s put that joy into perspective. We’ve fasted and abstained with the Church for 40 days as we sought to prepare for this very day and season. So please, when you receive Jesus in the Eucharist do so joyfully, when you go out into the world afterwards do so joyfully, and when people ask you what has changed tell them of your salvation.

This Easter Season, let us pray for all of those who continue to suffer, who live in an eternal Lent, without the joy of Easter, so that they may know the love and peace of our Lord. God Bless, Happy Easter, and enjoy your time in the dessert!

March 24, 2024: The Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
General understanding: “The love of Christ impels us!” (2Cor 5:14). Up to this point in time, we’ve looked at orders, in which the founders were male saints, who founded orders initially or primarily for men. For our final look of this run, we’ll look at a community founded by a woman well on her way to sainthood, Blessed Mother Clelia Merloni, founder of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

The Apostles were founded on May 30, 1894 in Viareggio, Italy. Mother Clelia founded the order using her inheritance from her father who converted to Catholicism on his deathbed. The continued existence of her order today is a miraculous testament to her spirit though, as a priest assigned to manage her inheritance (at a time when women had fewer property rights) stole that inheritance, causing a contraction of the order. Please dig more deeply into this biography a place to start is with this video: Life, Work and Spirituality of Mother Clelia Merloni - English

What are the charisms of the Apostles? Reading their charism we learn that they seek to be Apostles like the original ones, that means spending time with Jesus in prayer, and then taking what they receive to those in need. They seek to be Apostles of Love through their care for those in need. Finally, they seek to be Apostles of Reparation, they seek to repair the Image of God in their most wounded brothers and sisters. The most defining characteristic of the order is Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by restoring the dignity of the children of God through mission and ministry. This order would be identified as a mendicant order. The sisters serve in educational ministries, pastoral and diocesan ministries, health ministries, and social services and human services ministries. The sisters are engaged in service across 5 continents. There are approximately 1205 sisters in Italy, Brazil, Latin America, and the United States.

March 17, 2024: Keeping it Orderly: The Salesians
As a guy with an Irish name, you might expect me to write about St. Patrick today. All I will say is that St. Patrick was a man from Roman Britain taken as a slave to Ireland. So the patron Saint of Ireland, in a sense is a missionary saint, who brought the Gospel to a new land, as a response to terrible life circumstances. Our topic of the day is an order founded by a man who sought to help young men in tough situations to thrive in life and faith. 

General understanding
The Salesians of Don Bosco, originally called the Society of Saint Francis de Sales, was founded in what is now Turin Italy in 1859 By Father (Don) John Bosco. The order began as a movement to help poor and migrant boys during the industrial revolution. I’ve come to understand that the help for the poor actually came before the order or rule, and many early priests and members of the community came from those the Father Bosco sought to help. There are three pillars of life for the Salesians, A Universal Call to Holiness, because all are called to Holiness, that state must be accessible to all, and the order is called to Live the Gospel. While in seminary, I studied alongside several Salesians, who were already in ministry, teaching, leading sports activities, and doing their best to lead the youngsters they served towards holiness! 

Significant Saints to Look up on your own!
St. John Bosco, St. Dominic Savio, St.  Aloysius Versiglia, Callixtus Caravario 

Carthusians on Prayer
Friend of the young, Teacher in the ways of God, Your dedication to empowering the needy inspires us still. Help me to work for a better world, where the young are given the chance to flourish, where the poor’s dream for justice can come true, and where God’s compassion is shown to be real. Intercede for me as I bring my needs to you and to our heavenly Mother, the Help of Christians. Saint John Bosco Pray for us!

Food and Drinks that Support the Community! 
Help support Salesian’s mission of providing food and other aid to those in need! WORLD FOOD DAY: Salesian Missions highlights feeding programs - Salesian Missions

Don Bosco on Formed.org
Saint John Bosco: Mission to Love - FORMED St. John Bosco: Mission of Love

March 10, 2024: Keeping it Orderly: The Carthusians
General understanding

The Cross is Steady While the World Turns- Stat crux dum volvitur orbis
This week we look at a completely different type of religious order in the Carthusians. Whereas, the Franciscans and others we’ve spoken of have been mendicant orders, that focus outwards in ministries the Carthusians are a contemplative order of monks and nuns. Those names mean something different than brothers or friars and sisters. They characterize these people as monastic religious. When thinking of the Carthusians there are two words we can consider. They are a cenobitic order, which means they live a community life, with a community rule. They also observe aspects of the eremitic life (as hermits) so solitude. The Carthusian Order was founded by  St. Bruno in 1084. The order takes part in a disciplined prayer life, marked by both solitude and self denial. The rule of the community is called the Statutes. 

Significant Saints to Look up on your own!
The most well known saint of this order is their founder St. Bruno. 

Carthusians on Prayer
https://chartreux.org/moines/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/A-Carthusian-Prayer-of-the-Heart.pdf 

Food and Drinks that Support the Community! 
Carthusian Chartreuse, a captivating liqueur crafted by Carthusian Monks in the French Chartreuse Mountains since 1737, is a true elixir steeped in history and mystery. Hope this has been a meaningful reflection on a spirituality that you might not have considered in the past. God Bless and have a wonderful week!

March 3, 2024: Keeping it Orderly: The Franciscans

General understanding
St. Francis of Assisi never said ‘preach the gospel always, when necessary use words’. No, Saint Francis did found a religious community in 1209 AD, he was ordained a deacon (but never a priest out of humility) and did great work to restore neglected churches. A way we reflect his life today is through our continued use of Nativity scenes! The order he founded still continues today, and branches of that community continue to grow, the most recent addition to that trunk that I am aware of is the Franciscans of the Renewal (C.F.R.) which some of our community may be acquainted with, founded in 1982. The four pillars of Franiciscan life are Spirituality, Formation, Fraternity, and Apostolate. For a layman’s understanding of this spirituality let's break it down. Friars or brothers living in community (fraternity) are called to communal and individual prayer as the center of their daily lives (spirituality). The result of brotherhood and prayer is that the members of the community share the Gospel, and material assistance to the communities in which they reside (apostolate). Finally, the integration of the pillars of spirituality, formation, and apostolate into the life and routine of the brothers is accomplished through ongoing (formation). 

Significant Saints to Look up on your own!
Saint Joseph Cupertino, Saint Lawrence of Brindisi, Saint Benedict The Moor, Saint Bonaventure, Saint Claire of Assisi, Saint Marianne Cope, Saint Thomas More, Saint Junipero Serra and more! 

The Prayer of Saint Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace; Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; And where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master,Grant that I may not so much seekTo be consoled as to console; To be understood, as to understand; To be loved, as to love; For it is in giving that we receive, It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, And it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. Amen.

Significant Franciscan Literature
Check out this amazing source for Franciscan writings and biography The Internet Guide to St. Francis of Assisi (franciscan-archive.org)

Food and Drinks that Support the Community! 
The Sisters of Saint Francis of the Providence of God sell a special Franciscan Blend of Coffee to support their community this can be purchased here: Franciscan Blend coffee - NOW IN FLAVORS! (arbucklesgourmetcoffee.com)

Hope this has been a meaningful reflection on a spirituality that you might not have considered in the past. God Bless and have a wonderful week!

February 25, 2024: Keeping it Orderly: The Return

Last February we offered a series of write ups on 4 religious communities, the Benedictines, Carmelites, Dominicans, and Jesuits. In that series we considered the foundational pillars, significant saints, a simple prayer, and specific writings of note that are significant to each order. Over the next four weeks, we’re going to revisit this format to consider the Franciscan order, Carthusians, Salesians (and what might be unique about that group). In our final week, we’ll consider an order of devout sisters called the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (the order my wife once belonged to). 

We’ll take breaks for any important parish news, but otherwise let’s strap in for an enlightening ride! Whenever possible, we’ll also try to highlight food products and drinks these specific communities may produce for their support, so that families can purposefully indulge in those things during the Easter Season, to make their joyful celebrations even more meaningful!

As individuals we all experience the love of God, and prayer in diverse ways. Perhaps as we consider these faithful communities, we can each take something away that will enrich, and deepen our experience of faith! This week, let us pray for all of the faithful men and women in the world that have devoted their life to the service of God, and in many cases their neighbors, in consecrated life. Let us pray that men and women continue to dedicate themselves to religious life, and other important vocations within the Church. God Bless and have a wonderful week!

February 18, 2024: Out of Order Gifts of the Holy Spirit: Pt. 7 Knowledge

As we conclude this series on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, we remember something we heard in our youth (or at least relative youth) “Knowledge is Power”. I am not going to give you a drawn out philosophy lesson with this segment, but it’s helpful to dwell on the philosophical for a moment. Imagine this a super basic introduction to the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas (that my philosophy professors would probably want to cane me for). God is pure substance and being. Everything that exists, does because of, and through God. Everything that exists has to have a source,and that source is God. 

In this sense, all creation exists in and subject to God. Our best existence is one where we acknowledge God, and follow our best call to follow Him. Our greatest path to perfection is the one in which we live to our best potential. Knowledge helps us to know God, see His presence, and follow His will for us in our lives. Knowledge in concert with wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord is our best path to Eternal Life, but not without making the world a better place for our neighbors first! This week, let us pray for a revival in all of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, but especially in Knowledge that helps us to see God, and follow Him in all things. This concludes our brief series on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, watch here, to see what’s next! God Bless and have a wonderful week!

February 11, 2024: Out of Order Gifts of the Holy Spirit: Pt. 6 Fortitude

A young Steve Rogers, holds up a trash can lid, and guards himself from the blows of neighborhood bullies. At that time he had not grown to his full strength and potential, and yet he stood firm and said “I can do this all day”. While Mr. Rogers is a fictional character who would one day be called Captain America, he demonstrates this, one of the most commonly remembered gifts of the Holy Spirit, called fortitude. 

Fortitude can best be described as both courage and endurance. Think of that one high school student who stands up for a fellow student, the loner, the one others pick on or exclude. That young man or woman shows courage, in light of what might be a backlash. That young person continues to stand up for any outcast in spite of the consequences. They demonstrate fortitude. 

Another individual who showed great fortitude was St. Valentine. We like to celebrate him (or maybe the composite of 5 men and martyrs of that time), by trading little cards, flowers, and candies. We show tokens of affection to family, friends, spouses, perhaps even forgotten and lonely neighbors. These are great things to do. However, St. Valentine is believed to have been a priest at the time of one of the Roman persecutions, at a time when Christians were forbidden marriage. St. Valentine, is believed to have, out of love for God and the couples he ministered to, continued to celebrate the sacrament of Holy Matrimony. He was ultimately martyred for his actions. This is fortitude. 

This week, let us pray that we can grow in the spiritual gift of fortitude, so that we can better stand against the tides of selfishness and individualism that cause disunity and disagreement when what the world truly needs is the strengthening and bolstering of the common good.

God Bless and have a wonderful week!

February 4, 2024: Out of Order Gifts of the Holy Spirit: Pt. 5 Counsel

In times of legal challenge we seek good counsel. When we are in school we seek the support and guidance of a counselor. We have an innate sense that our own judgment can serve us well, but that external perspectives are helpful if not necessary. 

We are all endowed with  a conscience; a sense of what is right and wrong. While we possess this sense of events, it is not inerrant. The conscience requires that we inform it, through our reading, the preaching we hear, and doing the spiritual work of shoring up our understanding or right and wrong. We need to have a firm grasp on moral philosophy and even theology to be a proper judge.

The spiritual gift of counsel informs and fortifies our sense of right and wrong. It takes good judgment and a well formed conscience to another level. Have you ever witnessed an individual with an amazing sense of social justice, who was pained to see wrong doing in the world? This person likely was endowed with a strong sense of the spiritual gift of counsel. These people tend to be excellent examples to others, and spiritual directors, because they are more in tune with the Mind of God. 

This week, let us pray that we can grow in the spiritual gift of counsel, so that we can better navigate a world that doesn’t always make sense, so that we can be and do better. God Bless and have a wonderful week!

January 28, 2024: Out of Order Gifts of the Holy Spirit: Pt. 4 Wisdom

When I hear the word wisdom, I immediately think of King Solomon. We may think back to an account of the king being approached by God in a dream. A question was posed, “what gift do you wish from me Solomon?” Most other worldly rulers may have asked for riches and fame, but Solomon requests the wisdom to judge what is important, meaningful, and purposeful to appropriately lead the people entrusted to him.

The discussion might also lead us to a few figures that are overtly or covertly people of faith, Aristotle, Socrates, St. Thomas Aquinas, or even Abraham Lincoln. These people through age, experience, or even supernatural gift could cut through frivolity and even self interest to find the true and beautiful, the path of wisdom.

Have you ever heard the phrase “wise beyond their years”. A great example of this statement is Blessed Carlo Acutis. A young man who loved sport, and video games but loved the Lord, specifically in the Eucharist, more than all else. He even created a website about miracles that you can still visit today, MIRACOLI EUCARISTICI - Mostra Internazionale Ideata e Realizzata da Carlo Acutis e Nicola Gori.

You may even have a young person in your life who works to employ this gift in their lives today. So let us all pray for a deeper connection with the gift of wisdom, and the Holy Spirit that grants this gift.

God Bless and have a wonderful week!

January 21, 2024: Out of Order Gifts of the Holy Spirit: Pt. 3 Piety

This is the Gift of the Holy Spirit that I always forget when I am trying to recall the seven gifts in a discussion with parents or youth. That’s probably because of my internal biases, and a misconception over what the gift is.

You see, when I think of piety, I think of a certain level of pompousness. When we envision the pious saint, they are the one dressed all in white, with their hands folded neatly, and an emotionless gaze to heaven. If that is what Piety is, I don’t want anything to do with it, at least that’s the internal, erred monologue.

Piety simply boils down to obeying God out of love instead of fear of hell and damnation. The gift of Piety is a gift of extraordinary love. Think back to the old canned Act of Contrition, ‘I have sinned against you who I should love above all things’. We can build piety by praying that line intentionally enough that it becomes a part of our being.

This gift helps us to mature in faith. For an adult to obey out of fear instead of love is childish (not child like). After all a pet or livestock can be made to obey commands out of fear. This gift of the Holy Spirit helps us to, and calls us to grow into a mature sense of faith.

To obey God out of love doesn’t have to be boring or sanitized. No it can call us to supernatural resolve, and love of our neighbors and those around us. To be on fire with this and the other gifts is to be fully alive in Christ.

This week, let's pray to, and seek to grow in piety, to love instead of fear the Lord, and that the young people preparing for Confirmation might begin to grow in this way as well! (N.B. Fear of the Lord, the other gift of the Holy Spirit does not negate this gift, because it can be better envisioned as Awe.)

God Bless and have a wonderful week!

January 14, 2024: Out of Order Gifts of the Holy Spirit: Pt. 2 Understanding

There are three gifts of the Holy Spirit that for the sake of memory can be grouped together (as long as you aren’t trying to recite in the traditional order. Those gifts are Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge. This week let’s focus on understanding. 

We can start by breaking down the word, it is a compound word after all! We have the words  under and standing. We literally are faced with what stands underneath the surface. So how can we break this down as a spiritual gift? Well, we can know about something without being able to know what makes it tick, or supports it. For instance, we can follow a celebrity on social media, in magazines, and see them act in a movie, participate in a high level sporting event. We may have secondary knowledge of their relationships, likes and dislikes, and the such, but we don’t know their deeper thoughts, dreams, and ambitions. We know but don’t understand. 

Another example, we can walk on a floor. We can appreciate it for what it is, depending on it every day. Yet, unless we are the builder, or architect, we don’t often think or have knowledge of the framing, or support structure that is underneath. This gets philosophical so you may want to check out but… God created everything. By virtue of existing everything participates in God’s substance. In other words, God the Creator and Architect is responsible for all creation, and therefore to understand all of Creation, we need the spiritual gift of Understanding. So this week, let’s pray for an increase in the gift of Understanding, for all of those who have been Confirmed, sealed in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and for all of those who are currently preparing to receive the sacrament! God Bless and have a wonderful week!

January 7, 2024: Out of Order Gifts of the Holy Spirit: Pt. 1 Fear of the Lord

If you are really advanced in your faith formation, or remember my reflection from last week, you might know that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord. Each year I meet with the families of 8th graders beginning their process of preparing for Confirmation, and I’ve asked the parents if they could name these gifts (because it would take the pressure off of me to remember them). 

I have a hard time remembering them all, many parents do, and most people who haven’t been in faith formation since they were in 7th grade struggle with them as well. No wonder people so easily look at Confirmation as a graduation. If we don’t frequently cultivate and intentionally use these gifts out in the world, how can we expect the young people to rise up and do better than us? 

We’re going to do this out of order. This week we’ll focus on Fear of the Lord, because it strikes us the most odd. It stands out on the list (especially if you know what Piety is). Otherwise known as Awe of the Lord, this gift is the farthest from what you experience at a horror movie. No, what we are talking about is like when Mary was approached by the Angel Gabriel. She was in awe of the magnificence of God’s Messenger. An experience of God with any of our senses is life changing. 

Fear of the Lord is the ability to distinguish what is magnificent from what is mundane. You may be able to appreciate the artistic design of a billboard on the side of the road. However, that won’t be life changing or earth shaking. Yet when you go to a famous gallery to witness a masterpiece like the Mona Lisa, Starry Night, or the statue of David, these stand apart from the everyday. Fear of the Lord is being able to distinguish creator from creation, and paying proper reverence.

This week, let’s pray that the young people preparing for Confirmation might be fully prepared to receive this gift, and that all of us who already have received the sacrament might also fully embrace the Fear of the Lord. God Bless and have a great week!

2023

December 31, 2023: A Resolution to Use our Gifts

Have you set a New Year’s Resolution? How has that worked in the past? Have you ever set a resolution that has absolutely changed your life for the better? Sometimes we set goals for our health or personal wellbeing. Maybe we’ve lost some weight, or taken on counseling to address some trauma or unresolved issues in our lives or relationships.

New Year's resolutions can be meaningful, but more often than not those gym memberships go unused (or underused), the summons of chocolate, confections, or special drinks overpowers us, or that counseling relationship falls to the wayside, maybe even before February, or March if we’re lucky.

Not trying to throw a wrench into any of our planning, but I am going to suggest running our resolutions through a new level of scrutiny. We ask, how does my resolution help me to love the Lord our God with all my heart, mind, and strength, and my neighbor as myself? My guess is that if the answer is that the resolution doesn’t, it probably won’t last until the end of January, and more importantly won’t significantly change our lives.

For extra points, we can focus on something even more proactive. As adults in the Church most of us have received Confirmation. If that is the case, we’ve all received the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord. This week let us pray for a successful year of growing in faith and love of the Lord as a community of believers. God Bless and Have a Wonderful New Year!

December 24, 2023: The Greatest Gift 

Thousands of years. We seem to forget that people had waited thousands of years for the Messiah. They were judges, kings, prophets, common people, and the thing that they had in common was struggle under empires. There were the Assyrians, Babylonians, and finally the Romans. I think we would have to think back to childhood to even begin to conceive what that must have felt like. Remember waiting for Christmas as a child? We were waiting for Santa, and it felt like forever, even though it was only ever 1 month of Advent. What we were waiting for was presents. They were waiting for freedom from oppressors. What did they get when the Messiah finally came? Imagine as a child, you wanted a video game console. You wrote to Santa hundreds of times. You dreamt of it when you went to sleep. Then on Christmas day to open your gift, there was a trust worth billions of dollars under the tree. You would be confused, and wouldn’t know the value of that trust, or what it meant. The people of Israel awaited a great general to free them from oppressing empires, and Jesus freed them from the powers of sin and death. The Incarnation of Christ our Lord, Savior and Messiah is an amazing gift beyond what we could ever expect, or think to ask for! We still try to understand the depth of this today, thousands of years after thousands of years of salvation history came to fruition! Prayer for a joyful, and peaceful Christmas season for you and your families. Let us pray for those of us who are facing challenges, loneliness, sorrow, and pain in these otherwise joyful times, that they may receive the comfort of our Messiah the Lord Jesus Christ. God Bless us Everyone, have a wonderful Christmas Season. Don’t take down your decorations in two days!

December 17, 2023: My Favorite Christmas Story

One of my favorite pieces of media that I like to watch every Advent, in preparation for Christmas is the literary classic, directed by Bob Clark, based on stories by Jean Shepherd, A Christmas Story. Leg lamp, frozen tongue, rabbit suit and all. Such a classic, it came out just a month before I did, when it was released on the big screen in November 1983. Now you can find it on a cable channel playing 12 times over a 24 hour period. Amazing. If you were shocked by this declaration, take heart, that was intentional. As amazing as it would be to try and do a deep dive into the advent messages of that movie, that is not the story I’ll be reflecting on.

Our Catholic faith is quite unique in the fact that it calls us to participate in the past. Every year we celebrate the birth of Jesus as if it were just happening. We are reminded to live in the present as we show love for those who are hurting around us. We are also led to wait in joyful hope for Christ as He comes again. Ebenezer Scrooge was shocked into conversion by three ghosts. One representing Christmas Past, one Christmas Present, and the final Christmas Future. Just as pretending that A Christmas Story was a great advent story, this man needed to be knocked out of his status quo to do the work of Advent.

So without the need of ghosts, let’s use the concluding days of Advent as an opportunity to reflect on our past, and the miracle of the birth of Jesus. Reflect on our present, on how we can grow, and do a better job of loving those around us, and how we show Christ’s love to others. Then prepare our hearts for a future in which we come face to face with our Lord Jesus Christ. Just as in that great Christmas tale, let us pray that we never shoot our eyes out. That we might find true conversion of our own hearts, and like the ghosts of Christmas lead others to do the same. God Bless and have a meaningful conclusion to your Advent Season.

December 10, 2023: Who are You Waiting For?

Who are you spending more time preparing for this Advent, for the coming of Christ our Lord or Santa Claus? I think this second week of Advent, that is the most important question to ask. Making way for either of these people takes a certain level of devotion, and preparation. While there is some overlap, There are distinct differences. Preparing to welcome Santa Claus is somewhat external. Trim the tree, set the table, bake the cookies, and shop, shop, shop for the gifts. Parents harry themselves, and children are called to behave, lest they receive coal for the fireplace. The modern concept of Santa is applied to instill a sense of wonder, but also compliance. Listen to your parents, teachers, and authorities, or there won’t be gifts (though Santa almost always seems to come through ;) Preparing for the coming of Jesus requires much more. Our Lord requires transformation over compliance. We are called to change our hearts to love, and not just those who are easy to love. Rend your hearts for those who already break them. Prepare your hearts, not just your homes. Care for those who are hungry, thirsty, imprisoned, and sick. Then you are ready for Jesus. So, even as we prepare for Santa, let’s spend some extra time in prayer and action, to ready our hearts for the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ, both in His birth celebrated at Christmas, but also as He comes again! God Bless and have a wonderful Advent.

December 3, 2023: Goats, Sheep, and President Xi

A group of Iowan farmers welcomed a seemingly insignificant agriculture minister from a foreign country into their homes, and community. They brought him on tours of corporate farms, to sites significant to Mark Twain, an author he was enamored with, and were generally kind to him. To this day this man and the farmers and families are in contact, and friendly. What none of them could have known was that they were welcoming someone that would be one of the most powerful leaders in the world, President Xi of China.

They didn’t extend welcome to this stranger because of fear or reverence, but because they were being decent to another human being. I bring this up today because we are beginning Advent. A time of preparation for our Lord Jesus Christ’s coming. A commemoration of His coming as a child, and preparing for when He comes again to judge the living and the dead. The word Advent hearkens to when a town would welcome a conquering Emperor after victory. We see trappings of this in the use of regal purple vestments. Yet I like this anecdote about Pres. Xi, because it seems more fitting for this season than the entrance of a conquering emperor. Jesus told us how we would see Him in the world. Think of the story of the sheep and the goats. The sheep fed the down and out, gave drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, visited the sick and the imprisoned. They did so because those people were in need. The goats might have done this, if they saw Jesus in His glory, but ignored those destitute, lonely, or socially insignificant.

This Advent, let us pray that we may act as the sheep, or to extend the analogy of these Iowan farmers. Welcoming those in need of hospitality, because we acknowledge their inherent dignity, and thus perhaps find ourselves favored by Jesus Christ, Our Lord, King of the Universe. God Bless and have a blessed Advent.

November 26, 2023: Who is The King of the Universe?

Today as we celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, we have to recognize that we as Catholics are called to live in seeming paradoxes. We acknowledge our savior Jesus Christ as the King of the Universe. Yet, how many kings do you know who would die for their subjects? In the time of feudal lords and kings, these leaders would press their people into service as serfs and slaves, and all that they did would benefit their ‘lord’. The ruler wants more property, more commodities, or more people to rule? They rouse the people below them to suit up for war, and send them. In this scenario lesser‘nobles’ and servants would be an afterthought for the nobles, even as they suffered incapacitation and death on the battlefield.

As long as the king of that realm got what they desired, no level of sacrifice would be out of the question. Jesus Christ our King, flipped this around. To serve, and not to be served. To identify Himself with the starving, thirsty, exposed, lonely, and imprisoned. Instead of sending others to die on His behalf, He claimed His throne through suffering brutality, and laying down His own life. Jesus’ sacrifice transformed the world. Because He flipped the script on what it means to be a King, His reign continues, even as over the thousands of years, all of the great empires have fallen. Jesus calls us to live a new sense of royalty.

Through Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, and the sacraments we are to be transformed into the family of Christ. We take whatwe receive and we model the love He has for us to the whole world. As we prepare for Advent let us pray that this can be a time of growth, renewal and a closer following of Jesus Christ. God Bless and have a wonderful week!

November 19, 2023: Thanksgiving the Secular Eucharist

Give thanks to the Lord for he is God, His Love is Everlasting. Psalm 136

As we prepare this week for Thanksgiving, I feel inclined to provide you with a deep theological dive into the meaning of the word Eucharist, spoiler alert, it means giving thanks. The sacrament of Holy Communion (Eucharist) is the evolution of the shared meal of Judaism. There was a blessing for the bread, and a blessing for the wine. Part of that blessing was giving thanks to God for those elements, and Jesus quite literally Christened that practice at the Last Supper. That isn’t what I’m going to focus on today! You’re welcome! We as Catholics, or Christians in general, often feel that our faith is imposed upon by modern society. Morality involves in ways that can benefit people, but often sacrifices the dignity of those taking the actions. It can feel dire at times. Yet we can have some cause for hope, even in a culture antithetical or our faith because there are in fact breadcrumbs of hope.

One such breadcrumb, or perhaps dressing of hope is the national feast of Thanksgiving. While this day too has its imperfections (black friday sales, low waged workers forced to be away from their families, and questions about the treatment of indigenous populations). In practice this day finds families of diverse backgrounds, ideologies, and faiths, gathering together around a meal, and giving thanks. It is the closest thing to a secular Eucharist that we have. So, this week, while gathering with family, even those who sometimes irk us with their political hot takes, questioning about how many kids we do or do not have yet, and who makes a better pie: just remember that disciples are called to love unconditionally, and our ability to do so comes directly from Christ and His Body the Eucharist! I pray for you and your families, God Bless and have a wonderful week!

November 12, 2023: Reframing Reconciliation 

How many of us think that our sin angers God? When we sin we have to go to confession because God the creator of the universe is angry with us, and if we don’t make reparations, this all-mighty being will smite us? Whether we will admit it or not, I think many of us got this impression when we were children in CCD or faith formation. Our sin hurts and angers God, so we have to make things right! What is amazing to me, is how easy it is to believe in this way, and the audacity we have to believe it.

God’s love is infinite, to degrees well beyond earthly mother and father. God is not angry or distancing from us, but we put up our own barriers as a response to sin as the result of shame, pride, or embarrassment. Recently I looked back at the story of the Garden of Eden. Specifically at when God banished Adam and Eve, and I had noticed something that had seemed inconsequential in the past. Before banishing Adam and Eve, God remarks: “Then the LORD God said: See! The man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil! Now, what if he also reaches out his hand to take fruit from the tree of life, and eats of it and lives forever?” Genesis 3:22

For context, Adam and Eve begin to know shame, are cursed to toil, and suffer in childbirth as a result of taking the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If they were to remain in Eden, and eat of the fruit of the tree of life, they would be subject to debasement for eternity, not just until death, and salvation would be out of reach. This upcoming week the young people of our parish preparing for First Reconciliation will take part in the Potter’s retreat where they will get to reflect on the power of Confession. This week let’s pray for those children and their families, and begin to reflect on how Confession can better and further our life of prayer and communion. God Bless and have a great week!

November 5, 2023: Inspired by Saints, Spectators to Participants

When I was Confirmed, we had to select a saint and write a paper on them. I chose John the Baptist, because I was inspired by his outsider status, his wildness, and the fact that he made way for our Lord. I also selected him because documentation was scarce, and I couldn’t be expected to know any important dates, or less spiritual information. When we were Confirmed, the Saints felt like just another box to check, another paper to write.

At our parish, there is a brief form to complete, not a paper, but we ask the young people why this person inspires them. Then this selection process culminates in the Rite of Names, which we intentionally paired with the week of All Souls and All Saints. These people are meant to be an inspiration for us, as we seek to live a life united with Christ. As we hear a Litany of Saints at the 10:00 am Mass we should think about how these holy women and men went before us, and spread the Good News, and how they are present with us in the celebration of the Eucharist. Over the past weeks we’ve been considering the Eucharist as the source and summit of our Catholic faith. Have considered the training needed to make such a great climb. I’ve hinted at the fact that we can serve as guides to friends, family, and neighbors. This is accomplished through invitation and accompaniment.

We are called to be more than spectators of the Mass, after we reach the summit, we are called to also lead others up the mountain. However, to do that, we first need guides and examples. These can be friends and relatives who are members of the Church today, the clergy, and others in our community. However, we can also look to the saints in heaven. At each Mass we unite with the communion of Saints as we worship Jesus in the Sacrifice of the Altar. Then as the saints we are called to lead others in the same direction. This week let’s pray for our Confirmation Candidates, their families, and all the members of our community that we might follow the example of the saints, and find fellowship with them and other members of our community. God Bless and have a great week.

October 29, 2023: Summit Series- Communion and Community

We must all take the time to consider how we represent our faith in the community, and ask “what does that say about our faith?”. At times colleagues in my field, and I’m not an exception, fall into the trap of taking ourselves, and our roles too seriously. “If I don’t do this well enough, this family will never know the fullness of their faith” or, “if I don’t make sure these families are going to Mass, I’ve failed as a faith formation leader”. These concerns have a foundation in truth, but so do all temptations to a lack of faith. The reality is that it is the work of the whole community to form the young people, and the families of our community. The whole community includes clergy, professional staff, volunteers, parents, and the community at large.

When someone in my position, or anyone in the church takes their personal role too seriously, it can put us all at risk of becoming dour and dire, and falling into the trap of becoming doom and gloom all the time. When this happens we do a poor job of showing our joy in Christ, and in this light why would anyone want to get on board with us? That is why our community is setting aside a morning of programming to hold a Trunk or Treat following the 10:00 am Mass. This is an opportunity for our families and parishioners in general to joyfully gather in community. To socialize, and invite others into the joy of our community. There will be a brief lesson on all Saints Day, and the example of Saints to follow, however, that only takes place following a joyful social experience.

Hope to see you there, make sure to have a joyful wonderful week! Maybe even have and share some candy!

October 22, 2023: Summit Series- Mature Faith- Seeking Reconciliation

What are the ways that we can prepare ourselves to reach the source and summit of our faith? How can we properly approach the mystery of the Eucharist, in its fullest expression, the communal celebration of the Mass? Those who are preparing their hearts and minds to receive Jesus, have to first come to terms with their flaws, sins, and how they have fallen short. Because First Reconciliation usually takes place in 2nd grade, we make the mistake of thinking that it is a childish thing.

However, it is not until we are older, wiser, and more worldly that we can truly begin to grasp the momentous grace available to us, when we approach Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This week, our young people are meeting to ramp up their training to climb the mountain of our Lord. Their basecamp will be preparation for Reconciliation. Pray for our parents, that they may find the beauty and relevance of this sacrament while accompanying their children, and that the children of our parish may more fully experience the love of our Lord, and His forgiveness. God Bless and have a wonderful week!

October 15, 2023: Summit Series- Are We Ready to Climb?

How often is a climber's first summit Mount Everest? Do many quarterbacks throw their first ever touchdown pass in a Super Bowl? How many actors skip commercials and tv movies to star in a blockbuster movie (no, I don’t mean a straight to video movie we might have rented from a Blockbuster in the 90’s). Either by law or the markets, almost no one gets to that level immediately. The Eucharist, and therefore the Mass are the source and summit of Catholic life and theology. Yet, when we seek to introduce someone to Catholicism, or bring them back what do we usually think of as a first step? Come to Mass with me. We bring them to the rarified place, where the air might be too thin to breathe, or where they won’t have context or appreciation for what is going on. Before they get their grip strength, before they have their initial hours of climbing in, we feel inclined to bring them to Mount Everest. Will they reach the summit, or will they never return.

There is a reason children attend first grade, and second grade religious education before they approach the altar for the first time. They become part of the community before they are further initiated. This doesn’t mean to abandon all hope of bringing family and friends to Catholicism, or the Eucharist. No, this is just a caution, that we should attempt other methods of introduction. Christmas is a time that we try to bring people back. Here are two ideas.

Find a Christmas Concert to attend with someone you care about who is away. Our parish will hold one with St. Helen’s again this year. Also on December 10th following the 10:00 am Mass we’ll once again have the Living Nativity, a vendors fair, and pictures with Santa. There will be members of parish staff, ministry leaders, and enthusiastic parishioners around to offer welcome, information, and invitation! So, this week, let’s pray for all who are away from the Church, or who have yet to embrace Christ, and those who seek to aid them find that relationship. Pray that as a community we might create encounters with Christ as we grow to be disciples of Christ. God Bless and have a wonderful week!

October 8, 2023: Let's Create a Community of Parents

Catholic parents have to do a better job of building community, and that isn’t the job of priests to do. The thing is, we do not live in an insular society. We are not called to seclude ourselves from the world we live in. Jesus told us to be in the world, but not of the world. That didn’t mean that we were supposed to hold ourselves above others around us, but that we are to be examples of following Christ. This can be extremely demoralizing if we’re doing this alone. In our families and friend groups, we are very likely to come in contact with morality directly in conflict with what we believe in. Wildly non-traditional relationships, weird mysticism and Eastern Philosophies, deception, and a lack of reconciliation in time of deep hurts. We as followers of Christ are called to do better, heal a broken world, and again be a light to others. How can we do this alone? How can we find joy in our faith? Through developing deeper Catholic/ Christian friendships and support. This doesn’t mean isolating ourselves from all that we encounter. I’d actually say the opposite. Having stronger relationships with those who follow Christ is a way to empower us to face what we encounter more gracefully. I bring this up, because I lead the family faith formation of our parish. So often when I say that, someone envisions CCD. Children sitting in a classroom being talked at for 45 minutes to an hour. That is slowly fading away. What I find my personal ministry to be is a Family Ministry. So parents, that raises an important question. How can our parish staff develop deeper connections among the families in our parish? What needs are currently not being met? How can we grow together? This week, pray that there can be an increase in fellowship among Catholic families, that we can better go about the building of the kingdom of heaven. God Bless and have a good week.

October 1, 2023: A Lifelong Journey 

How long do we spend in our lives being educated? To work gainfully in this world, for anyone short of a savant or an entrepreneur/inventor we might need to go as far as a Master’s Degree or Doctorate for employment. Whatever degree we receive will get us in the door, and perhaps allow us to provide for our families (at least after we clear the educational debt). Then when we have that career, especially a profession, we sometimes grudgingly continue on with continuing education to keep on top of our field. If you’d believe it, I’m constantly doing programs with the Archdiocese and outside organizations to make sure that my thought processes are in line with current thought and the needs of our community. Fr. Mike, just as many other dedicated priests, will do this as well. When it comes to education, and employment, we devote an awful lot of time to maintaining a career. That employment might last us 40-60 years, but we should keep in mind that that will one day come to an end. All of our work and toil will end in retirement, or eternal rest. That is the reality that we face.

That is a long path to my next question. How do we prepare our souls for our eternity? How do we learn about our soul, our callings, and our Lord? We spend so much time focused on what we need to do to succeed in our finite life, which isn’t a bad thing, but often neglect consideration of our eternal, infinite life. In October and November, we will commemorate All Saints, and All Souls. This is the perfect time to begin to think of our own mortality, and reflect on how we can seek God more intentionally! This week, let us pray for deeper clarity, and for a better orientation towards what is everlasting. God Bless and have a great week!

September 24, 2023: An Intro to Families of Faith 2023

It is so wonderful to kick off another year of family programming at IHM Parish. Just last week, our Families of Faith gathered together for orientation, Mass, and a delicious pancake breakfast sponsored by the Pastoral Council Hospitality Committee.

Keep on the lookout for some exciting opportunities to grow in faith with our families. For instance, on select Sundays when Families of Faith gathers, parish youth and their families will be invited to sing in a family choir. This is available for our Summer Academy, and Fall/Spring tracks of Families of Faith!

We are beginning to recruit for a Parent Formation team. The purpose of this group will be to direct our programming to be a Family Ministry more than an old school CCD type program! Keep tuned in to hear about new programming, which might include a father’s group, mother’s group, parent’s night out for prayer and fellowship, and brief weekly prayer opportunities!

September 23rd at the 5:00 PM Mass is/was our Covenant Ceremony. Young people in year 2 of their Confirmation Preparation stand up, and claim their participation in their formation, and declare that they desire to be fully initiated in our Church. Parishioners are asked to take it upon themselves to pray for, and support these young people in their journeys of faith! If there are any left, please take a cross with the name of a young person preparing, to remind you to pray for them! These will be available at the church doors. Lots of great things to come! God Bless and Have a great week!

September 17, 2023: Creating a Sense of Welcome

This is the time of year where we all begin to settle back into our routines, and daily lives. The Third Sunday of September is always celebrated by the Catholic Church in the United States as Catechetical Sunday. It is a day where we honor all of the parents, volunteers, staff, and clergy who work to form our children as disciples of Christ. You may notice that there are more families than normal in attendance, that is because we are beginning our formal programming for Families of Faith! This week, please welcome a family you haven’t seen in a while, and pray that they might delve more deeply into their faith journey.

God Bless and have a great week!

September 10, 2023: Rite of Promise and a New Curriculum

This Sunday, September 10th, at the 10:00 am Mass, many young people preparing for Confirmation were in attendance for the Rite of Promise. This event is the first time that these young men and women, many in 8th grade, stood forward, and declared their intention to prepare for Confirmation. Please pray for them as they embark on this faith journey. As has been outlined through email blasts and all of our calendars, next Sunday will be the orientation for Families of Faith. Our families will gather for the 10:00 am Mass, attend the parish pancake breakfast, and receive a new resource called Pflaum Gospel Weeklies. Whether they were enrolled in Summer Academy, or are joining us to begin in the Fall, all faith formation families will be provided with this new resource. Each week families will bond over preparing for Sunday Mass with this new resource that will guide them through each week’s Gospel, introducing amazing saints, public figures, and concepts from scripture that will make what they hear during Sunday Mass all the more relevant to their modern lives! I look forward to seeing all of our families for orientation next week. Please pray for all of the young families in our parish, that they might continue to grow in faith, hope, and love through their family expressions of Faith and Community!

God Bless and have a great week!

Through that act, we are called to participate more fully in the divinity of Christ. So, I guess in summation, God doesn’t much mind these trophies, in fact, he gives them out to us on a daily basis. This week, our First Eucharist families gathered together to participate in Jesus Day, an opportunity to grow in relationship with our Lord, and prepare for the Sacrament they will receive April 29th. This week please pray for our families preparing for the Sacrament of Holy Communion, and for our whole community that we might all better participate in God’s plan for our lives. God Bless and have a great week!

This week, and always, please pray for our candidates, and their sponsors, that they might all, through their relationship and faith community grow ever closer to our Lord. God Bless and have a great week.

March 12, 2023: Bedlam: When Learning Ends
Wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear or awe of the Lord. How many of us felt compelled (or were compelled to memorize) the gifts of the Holy Spirit to speak them back to the Bishop? These are the gifts that those gathered in the Upper Room received, and took out to all of the corners of the Earth. They are also the gifts we all receive at Confirmation. This weekend is our Confirmation retreat for our candidates who await their celebration of the sacrament on May 20th. They may feel like they are moving quickly towards something like a graduation. I think we all may have felt that way when the time came for us. 

What I would like to challenge them to, is to imagine a world, where we stopped learning math, science, literature, composition, or basic life skills, when we completed freshman year in High School. The world would cease to function, and we would never learn anything deep, or interesting.

If we cease to engage with our faith at Confirmation, if we give up on our curiosity, we will never grow to understand a small portion of the mysteries of our faith. Even worse, it will make our church a less vibrant, more boring place, if we are to go on without the presence of our newly Confirmed. So please, those to be Confirmed, dwell on those gifts that you are about to receive in your Confirmation. Pray, and reflect on how you can use them to better our Church Community through your presence, and how you can make an impact on your world in general.

This week, let us pray for our candidates who are so close to their Confirmation, and for all of us gathered as a community, that we can be an example for them, in living out our own call to holiness. God Bless and have a great week.

Saints of Note from the Carmelite Order: St. Thérèse of Lisieux, St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Jesus (of Avila), St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), and St. Simon Stock (of Scapular fame).

Some notable writings: The Rule of St. Albert, Story of a Soul by St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross, Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Jesus.

Some writings to dig deeper: St. Ignatius of Loyola,The Spiritual Exercises , John O’Malley, S.J., The First Jesuits, Harvard University Press, 1993. James Martin, S.J., The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life, HarperOne, 2010.

A Simple Prayer

May Christ our Risen Lord, Open our minds and Strengthen our hearts, To follow Him, All our days.

Amen

A Short Prayer to St. Benedict:

Admirable Saint and Doctor of Humility, you practiced what you taught, assiduously praying for God's glory and lovingly fulfilling all work for God and the benefit of all human beings. You know the many physical dangers that surround us today often caused or occasioned by human inventions. Guard us against poisoning of the body as well as of mind and soul, and thus be truly a "Blessed" one for us. Amen.

For those following along at home, let’s pray for the gift of mindfulness, that we might better meditate on the Word of God in Scripture, and in our own prayer. God Bless and have a wonderful week.

The 4 pillars of the life and spirituality of the Dominican Order are study, prayer, common life, and preaching. It is easy to remember these if you think of them as a progression. You love what you do not know, so you study. Knowledge alone does not form a heart connection, so you pray. God exists in community, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and Jesus ministered with and through His apostles and disciples, so you share a common life. You cannot give what you do not have, so through study, prayer, common life, you have a foundation for your preaching. If you would like to learn more about these pillars, check out this website: The Four Pillars of Dominican Spirituality | Dominican Friars (opcentral.org)

This week, let us pray for the intercession of St. Dominic the founder of the Dominican Order, that we may find it in us to study the Scripture and our world, devote more time to prayer, live a life in common with our families and neighbors, and preach the Good News! God Bless and have a wonderful week!

Please check out our website for a list of interesting Dominican Saints, Dominican Prayers, and for suggestions for Dominican writings. Maybe you will find something to nourish your faith life!

Saints to get to know: St Dominic de Guzman (Founder), St. Albert the Great (Helped develop modern science in relationship to faith and Doctor of the Church), St. Catherine of Siena (Church Reformer and Doctor of the Church), St. Thomas Aquinas (great scholar and Doctor of the Church who studied theology through the lens of Aristotelian Logic and metaphysics).

Dominican Prayers: The Rosary (St. Dominic is associated with the spreading of the Rosary as a Devotion) The O Lumen Prayer (Prayer to St. Dominic) and Litany to Dominican Saints. For a deeper dive, check out this website: Dominican Prayer Life – Lay Dominicans.

Dominican Writings of Note: Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas, The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena, True Devotion to Mary: with Preparation for Total Consecration by St. Louis de Montfort.

It just takes the time to set the shopping list, and build the diet that will best nourish you. Are you the intellectual type, who finds joy in academic pursuits, and knowledge? You may do well to sample from the Dominican tradition of our Church and scholasticism. Do you thrive within structure, and a dedicated rule of life? Benedictine or Jesuit spirituality might fit your tastes. Do you find yourself contemplating, and reflecting on every aspect of your life? Perhaps you would be drawn to Carmelite spirituality.

The truth is that there are tons of books, movies, recordings, practices, and other resources out there that can help you to nourish your faith. One such resource is Formed.org which the parish has gifted to everyone in our parish. It is a Catholic library containing all sorts of content for your entertainment and edification. Cartoons and comics for the kids, dramas, biographies, audio dramas, and books for the whole family.

This week, let’s pray that we can find ways to better nourish our bodies and souls. Then maybe afterwards we can catch an episode of the new Night Court, because we can always make room for dessert. God Bless and have a great week.

Jesus may have ascended into Heaven over 2000 years ago, but guess what, there are still ways that we can know and love Him, but it takes a commitment much stronger than attending for two weeks in the Summer, or gathering twice a month. The families that have the best chances of remaining fully engaged in their faiths, are the ones who make a fuller commitment to know and love Jesus. Here are a few ways that we can move in that direction. First, commit to attending Sunday Mass weekly. Come to your parish. If you happen to be away, go where you are vacationing, or after that travel sporting event.

Consider setting aside a time for family prayer and meals. A few times a week sit down for a homemade or take-out dinner, and pray a prayer of thanksgiving. Spending even a little time as a family considering blessings, and struggles as a family brings you closer to Jesus. Commit to unmandated service. Work at a soup kitchen, or at our food pantry. Visit a nursing home or a lonely neighbor. Bring gift cards with you when you visit the city, and provide the homeless with access to a warm meal. When we serve the most down and out people in our community, we see Jesus in them. This week, let us pray for a revival of faith within our own families, and the strength to be a guiding light for those who have gone astray. Also pray that Jesus’ casual fans, or insta followers can be led to truly know and love Him. God Bless and have a wonderful week.

2022

December 25, 2022
Merry Christmas to you and your family from the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, especially from the faith formation staff. If you recall, even before Halloween in October, and Thanksgiving in November, the stores began to roll out Christmas decorations, candies, and gifts. Even before we could enter into the season of preparation, Advent, we could see the trappings of Christmas.

I am the last one to complain about this, because it is a last vestige of secular society honoring the season in its own way. However, what I do have a gripe with, is that our neighbors will often start dismantling Christmas on December 26th. The feasts are done, the gifts are open, and everyone just moves on from the celebration. We spend four weeks of preparation through Advent, and then all of a sudden, after 1 or 2 days Christmas is over? No, Catholic tradition and some other Christians celebrate 12 days of Christmas. So please do not feel pressured by neighbors or an HOA to end the festivities!

This is not a call for nonstop feasts, or  multiple days of gifts, instead this is an invitation to find some way to honor Jesus, and celebrate His coming in some way. This might manifest as continued feasting and snacks, singing of Christmas Carols, and watching your favorite Christmas movies. How you keep it is up to you and your family, but just to keep it will add balance to your life of faith. Why should someone spend four weeks preparing for a holiday that only lasts one day? We are called to fast and feast as the Church does.

This week, let us pray for those who are lonely on Christmas, for those who have yet to find Christ, and for those who struggle to find the joy of Christ with family and friends. God bless us every one. Merry Christmas and have a happy healthy New Year!

December 18, 2022
How has your Advent been going for you? Did you make plans for how you would have liked it to go? Was there a goal for your faith life that you set that you accomplished? Was there something that did not receive the attention you hoped it would?

If the season was so busy for you, that it got away from you, I have some good news. We have one week left until Christmas. You may have to reevaluate your goals, make them more realistic or attainable, but there is still time. Even better news, if one of the unmet goals you set was to experience the sacrament of Reconciliation, there is one more opportunity.

On Monday, December 19th, at 7 pm, there will be a Penance Service, with the opportunity for individual Confession. Are you feeling a little rusty on the procedures for celebrating the sacrament? Great news, you can use the free Formed.org membership the parish has provided you with, to watch a few episodes of the Forgiven Series! Forgiven: The Transforming Power of Confession - FORMED.

Living an intentional faith life can be challenging, and there are many barriers to living up to even our own expectations. That is why we are lucky to belong to a faith of new beginnings, constant conversion, and a yearly liturgical calendar. Do the best with the time that you have this year, and if you didn’t accomplish your goals, they can always be revisited.

This week, let’s pray for the insight to evaluate our goals, and reset them as needed, to accept the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and to grow ever more faithful in the days to come. God Bless and have a great last week of Lent.

December 11, 2022
An alias in witness protection, a pledge name in a sorority or fraternity, nickname in a friend group, or just how you are referred to by your loved ones, what do these all have in common? Given or chosen, these names indicate something about who we are, or are perceived to be by those around us. This Sunday, at the 10:00 am Mass the first year of Confirmation Preparation assembled for the Rite of Names, where they were called by the names they have chosen for themselves, from the Saints, and stood to be recognized with others who share that name. Names have power, what we are called is important. Throughout Scripture, which I am sure we are all familiar with, there are many occasions where someone is given a name that corresponds to what they are called to. Early on in salvation history, there was a man called Abram, who was called by God to be the patriarch of a great people. As a sign of what God had called him to, his name was changed to Abraham, and that means super father, or father of a multitude, indicated what he had been called to. In the New Testament, there are two individuals who received a name indicating their calling. First there is Simon, who became Peter. He was called to be the foundation of the Church by Jesus. Then Saul the persecutor was called to be the Apostle of the Gentiles, and became Paul. The young people preparing for Confirmation are selecting names that hopefully indicate something about the faith lives they are aspiring to live. This week let’s pray for them, that they have a long and fulfilling life journey ahead of them. God Bless and have a great week!

December 4, 2022

December 3, 2022 will hopefully be a day to remember for over a dozen of our young people, because that is the day when they received their First Reconciliation. These children, and their parents experienced Jesus’ love in a special way, as through the function of the priest, they heard Our Lord’s forgiveness poured out upon them. I would go out on a limb, and make the claim that none of the children who attended their First Reconciliation were guilty of a mortal sin. However, the experience of going to confession at an early age, and doing so somewhat consistently, builds an attitude of receiving the grace of God, and empowers young people, especially as they face greater trials and challenges in their lives. I say this out of love and not judgment, but parents, at every opportunity that I have made Reconciliation available to young people, particularly during Summer programs, or Confirmation retreats, they have told me two things. First, they were nervous because they hadn’t gone since their First Reconciliation in second grade. Second, the opportunity to go, and unburden themselves, was one of the most meaningful experiences of the program. 

Here is what it comes down to, if we want children to embrace their faith, especially what is unique to their faith, our parents, and entire community, have to build a culture that exemplifies that aspect of our faith. The children have to have access to the sacrament, see their parents approach it, and even see other adult members of the community approach it. We need to topple any barriers that keep us from it, because this is one way we can truly approach Jesus! Let’s pray for the children of our parish who have just experienced this sacrament, their parents, and our whole community that we can build an atmosphere of reconciliation, and forgiveness. God Bless and have a great week!

November 27, 2022

Imagine a grand victorious parade was gathering, and would soon pass by your house. Who is in that parade you might ask? The army assembled with an array of vehicles, horses, and soldiers? No, keep guessing!

The parade that will pass through your community is that of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. He does not stand victoriously at the head of an army, or a championship squad, Jesus has Conquered the powers of Sin and Death, not for a nation or a city, but for the entire universe.

Did you know that the word Advent comes from the Latin word Adventus, which means coming. This word was most readily applied to reference the arrival of the Emperor or a victorious army into a city in the Roman Empire.

While we often rightfully think of Advent as a time of preparation for the coming of and celebration of Jesus’ birth, what we often miss is that it is also a time of preparation for the Second Coming. If you knew that Jesus was coming back this Christmas, how would you spend this season preparing for this coming?

While it is great to purchase gifts for family and friends, and to prepare our homes for celebrations, let us make sure that this can be a time of preparing our hearts and families for the greater reality of what is to come. No one knows the day or the hour of the return of Jesus, or our own time. This week, let us pray for God’s guidance in our preparations and festivities. God bless and have a wonderful week.

November 20, 2022

On the fourth Thursday of every November we celebrate a national feast called Thanksgiving. What is served at that feast is determined by each family, and their personal traditions. However, one thing is generally held in common, that we all give thanks for our blessings. The idea of sharing a meal and giving thanks is by no means an invention of the New World. During the Passover Seder, Jewish people take part in the thousands of years old meal giving thanks for God’s saving actions to free their people from Israel. I won’t go too deep into the details, but at this meal the people gather together, share a meal, and give thanks for God’s saving actions. What is unique to this practice is they do not simply remember the first Passover, they participate in it. 

It might be surprising to consider this, but the Last Supper would have been a Seder meal. Jesus with His followers shared a meal, and gave thanks. As they shared the meal together, they would have an understanding that they were taking part in the original Passover meal. So when Jesus said to continue this meal in His memory, the people He was addressing would draw the connection to the Passover meal. So whenever we gather for Mass for a weekday, Sunday, or Holy Day of Obligation, we are sharing a meal, giving thanks, and participating in the same sacrifice that Jesus had shared with His Disciples. Every Eucharist is a meal and offering of thanks, that truly connects us with Jesus in the same way that He did with His early followers. 

So while we can enjoy the celebration of Thanksgiving with our family, and should, we acknowledge that our greatest giving thanks or Eucharist takes place in Church, and is shared with our even larger family, the Church that first gathered for the Eucharist at the Last Supper and continues to do so today. This week, as we prepare to celebrate with our families, let us give thanks for the great sacrament of the Altar the Eucharist. God Bless and have a wonderful holiday.

November 13, 2022

The expectation of our Families of Faith participants is that they should be attending Mass every week during the year. It is important to learn about the faith through texts, and conversations, and special events, but separated from our broader community, something is lacking from the experience of faith formation.

That is why I appreciate when members of our community are particularly welcoming of our families when they do make it back for Mass. It is much easier to fall out of a good pattern, than it is to develop a new one. When we become self conscious about missing Mass or going to confession, the shame surrounding that can really put up a barrier to resuming that good practice.

Next Sunday, November 20th, no matter what Mass they normally attend, we are making a big push for Summer Families of Faith and Fall/Spring Families of Faith to attend the 10:00 am Mass, followed by a formation experience. In a special way, I would like to ask you to be particularly welcoming, and positive with people that you see there, that you don’t see every week.

As a community, it is all of our responsibility to act as a community for each other. To evangelize each other, and to be a Church family. When we see the parish as a place for prayer, socialization, and service, it becomes a more important part of our lives.

This week, I would like to ask you to pray for our Families of Faith, that they might continue to participate, and grow even closer to Jesus. You might be surprised with how this practice, and the presence of our families, might just help you to grow in faith, and how their spiritual gifts might uplift our entire community. God Bless and have a great week.

November 6, 2022

It feels like just yesterday we were gathering back together for all of the early fall festivities. Families of Faith had just kicked off, prayer groups reconvened, and those who were away for most of the summer returned. Now, the holiday season is underway. The starter pistol sounded, and all the runners got in place as we celebrated Halloween and All Saints Day.

This weekend, we are having our Thanksgiving Food Drive, and hopefully, our family festivities will look more like November and December 2019, than those of 2020. As we can hopefully return, we have to be aware of an insidious danger. Can you guess what that is?

You’ve got it, getting wrapped up in the busyness of the holidays, and neglecting the holiness of the holidays. Sumptuous feasts, Christmas cards, original and thoughtful gifts go a long way to make the upcoming season special. However, it is very important to take the time to make a plan as a family, of how to make Advent and Christmas a spiritually meaningful opportunity to better love God and neighbors.

One activity to help our families get started will be on Friday, December 2nd from 6:45 pm- 8:45 pm. We will gather in Church for a Family Advent Service, and conclude with a service project in the Nazareth Center. We will discuss a fun family activity (a reverse Advent Calendar), and a liturgical calendar will be available for all families in attendance!

This week, let us pray for an eventful, and meaningful Advent, and Christmas season for our families, and the continued success of collections in support of our food pantry, especially as the holidays approach. God Bless and have a wonderful week.

October 30, 2022

I have always found autumn to be a particularly appropriate season to observe the holidays of All Saints, and All Souls Day. Have you ever taken the time to reflect on what happens during the autumn? The days grow shorter, and the air grows crisp. The leaves begin to change color, and eventually fall.

This happens with the trees because they have to prepare for winter. If the leaves were to remain on the trees, and the limbs failed to quicken with the drop in temperature, those trees would be crushed by the weight of snow, ice, and winter conditions.

This is a great analogy for the interplay between All Saints and All Souls Day. On All Souls Day, we acknowledge all of the souls in purgatory. We are reminded to pray for the anonymous deceased who have gone before us, and await the day when the weight of their transgressions have been purged, so like the trees, they can be prepared for the unbearable love and light of Jesus Christ in Heaven. Our prayer prepared them to be in Jesus' presence.

When we celebrate All Saints Day, we acknowledge that many more than those officially acknowledged by the Church are in Heaven. All the anonymous souls that have moved from purgatory to eternity are in joy and peace with Jesus. Beyond the named saints, we have reason to believe that plenty of our family and friends, and historical figures that loved and professed Jesus’ name are in Heaven, and ready to intercede for us! This is a great sign of hope for all of us who seek sanctity, and redemption.

This week, let us pray for all of the souls in purgatory, and to the anonymous saints in Heaven, for the peace of all those who have gone before us. God Bless and have a wonderful week!

October 23, 2022

As I have been settling in with the parish, my main focus has been on providing formation, support, and programming for families with children ages kindergarten through 9th grade, and offering programmatic assistance to the high schoolers in youth ministry. This is by default because a parish normally will focus a great deal of its attention on those preparing for sacraments and getting started with their journey.

However, Faith Formation isn’t just for growing families. It is a lifelong process that we should engage in throughout our lives. Here at IHM we’ve got some great opportunities for growth, and for those at different stages of their life. Alpha is great for seekers, and those returning to more active faith. Rosary and Altar Society, Knights of Columbus, and Men’s and Women’s prayer groups offer a place for those more established in their faith.

While these groups are happy to welcome younger members, there is a group, an age level that often does not find its niche within a parish community. Those are members of the faith from say 21-40, who are either young parents, newly married, or single.

Let's face the facts, making adult friends after college, especially in the age of remote work and bar/restaurant closures is difficult, and it is even more challenging to find people of a similar faith and belief system to connect with. I know that my wife and I have felt somewhat isolated as newish parents during Covid-19 with family and friends far-a-field, and that probably isn’t a unique situation to be in.

I do not currently have a solution to this issue, and I know one answer does not fit all. So, here is what I am asking, if you are, or know someone in the age group post college, to early 40’s who is trying to find their place in the Catholic Church, put them in touch with me. I am open to having conversations, meetings, and brainstorms with everyone interested.

This week, let us pray for re-engagement within our parish community, especially for those who feel that they are isolated, or do not fit in. That they might connect with, or create ministries that help to meet their needs, and strengthen our community, and our shared faith. God Bless, and have a great week.

October 16, 2022

I am not working with any empirical data, but I think it is safe to say that Confession or Reconciliation is the most underrated and underused sacraments amongst practicing, and casually involved Catholics.

It would be really easy for me to start drawing connections between the importance of visiting a doctor for a yearly physical examination,or taking advantage of counseling. In fact, in my last parish these were my go to analogies. To be honest, those are only tangentially helpful. The truth is a lot more powerful. 

When we go to Confession in preparation for an important moment in our lives, or as a part of our ordinary spiritual practices, we are sitting in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sure we could pray to Jesus any time, in any place, but when we sit with Jesus through the priest in this sacrament, He is able to offer us a verbal answer, and forgiveness in the name of both God and the community. The priest truly represents the Body of Christ the Church, and therefore our community.

What instigated this conversation, is some wonderful news. On Sunday, October 23rd from 8:45 am- 12:15 pm, we’ll be holding our first formation retreat, for the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the young people preparing for this sacrament and their parents. We’ll be learning about the meaning of the sacrament, working on adopting new attitudes about it, joining together in Mass as a community, and then sharing a wonderful brunch!

If you happen to have the time, even as you are reading this, please take a moment to pray about and reflect on your own attitude about the sacrament of Reconciliation, and for the families that are actively preparing to celebrate this important moment of their faith, in early December. God Bless and have a wonderful week.

October 2, 2022

Dear Parish Families,

Over the past few years, Covid 19 has made life more difficult. Even the things that we would prioritize or call non-negotiables had to be put to the side. Tough decisions have had to be made to assure the health and well-being of our families. This has caused some families to be sidetracked in the areas of faith formation, and life in the church in general. Be assured it is never too late to come back.

Traditionally preparation for the sacraments of First Reconciliation and Holy Communion begins by participating in faith formation for first grade. Then in second grade, they would take part in both faith formation and sacramental preparation that leads to the reception of Holy Communion during the Easter season.

We invite those of you with first or second grade students to join us in our formation process. If your child has yet to be enrolled in faith formation in first or second grade, or an older student who has yet to receive First Eucharist, please contact the Office of Faith Formation at faithformation@ihmparish.net. We will work with you, or the family, to create a plan appropriate for the needs of your family. We would also invite you to share this information with other family members who might find themselves in this situation. Deferred, displaced, or out of the groove, we want to welcome you back to faith formation.

Peace,

Fr. Mike: Pastor IHM Parish

John McGuire: Pastoral Associate for Faith Formation1ST EUCHARIST INVITATION

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