Pastor’s Weekly Letter

Six days a week – Monday through Saturday – we live our lives in a highly competitive world.  Nations compete for power.  Politicians compete for votes.  Business competes for customers.  Workers compete for victories.  All of us, it seems, are competing with someone for something that both of us want but only one of us can have.  That is how we live six days a week.  Then on Sunday we come to church at Annunciation-Our Lady of Fatima for worship and encounter a totally different emphasis.  In Church we pray that God’s will might be done on earth as it […]

Most people have a favorite and regular place to sit in the Church.  Standing up in the sanctuary week after week, I learn to look for certain people in certain places.  If on a given weekday or Sunday you are not in your place, there is not much use in looking any further because that usually means that you are not there.  I am not sure what this signifies, except that we are creatures of habit.  We like familiar places and things and faces for the simple reason that they are familiar.  Nevertheless, it was that particular quirk of human […]

In recent years, thoughtful people from all walks of life have become increasingly concerned with preserving and protecting our natural environment.  There was a time when such concern was expressed by only a few scientists; and they, for the most part, were regarded as radicals and alarmists.   The rest of us seemed to think this earth was so expansive and so enduring that we could abuse it forever without  noticeable consequence.  Now, we are being forced to change our thinking.  The years of neglect have started to take their toll, and it is becoming increasingly clear that environmental pollution is […]

I think that sometimes the word “sin” slips through our mind as though it pertains merely to religion and nothing else.  Sin is not some abstraction that the church has dreamed up as an excuse for her own existence, far from it.  Multitudes of people who know little and care less about the Church and her message are firm believers in the reality of sin.  Why is it that government at every level spends millions of dollars to maintain police forces, jails, prisons and courts of law?  The basic reason is sin.  Why is it that automobile manufacturers equip their […]

It is often said that God works in most unusual ways.  His program has nothing to do with political power or military might.  It doesn’t wave banners or shout slogans or do any of the things calculated to grab headlines. Take for example the gospel account of the meeting of the Blessed Mother with her cousin, Elizabeth.  They were both pregnant at the time.  That beautiful story is indicative of the mysterious ways of God.  God’s purpose was to redeem the world.  So where does He start?  Not with a summit conference in Jerusalem or Geneva, nor with the organizing […]