Pastor’s Weekly Letter

A favorite Old Testament story of mine tells of a time when Joshua confronted the people of Israel with an imperative choice.  He stood before them and said: “Decide today whom you will serve.  As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” That seems to me to be an accurate statement of the option that faces every human  being, especially parents.  We all have a choice as to whom or what we will serve.  But choose we must, because it is inevitable that we will serve something or someone.  From the day we come into this world, […]

Have you ever noticed that there is a direct correlation between current events and our overall attitude toward life?  When things are going well, we are hopeful and optimistic; but when things take a turn for the worse, we lose heart. This is a tragic way to live because it places us at the mercy of events totally beyond our control.  Instead of acting upon life, we end up merely reacting to it.  Good times turn us into giddy optimists, while bad times transform us into gloomy prophets of doom. But St. Paul’s approach in his letter to the Romans […]

“In the cities the wounded and dying cry out, but God ignores their prayers.”  This cry of Job must be one of the most poignant statements in the Scriptures.  Although the scholars keep telling us this is an anguished cry for help from a man in intense pain, it sounds more like a cry of despair.  After all, this is the Job who also cried: “I give up, I am tired of living.  Leave me alone.  My life makes no sense.”  But the scholars must be right:  knowing Job, basically a man of faith, his outburst must have been a […]

August 15, 2018 Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Dear Member of the Family of the Archdiocese, Yesterday’s report of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury that investigated cases of the sexual abuse of minors committed by priests and deacons once again brought forward the pain and suffering of those who experienced that abuse, and the shameful way that those in positions of authority, including bishops, responded – or failed to respond – when informed of the abuse, and in many cases permitted it to continue and new victims to be harmed. I am sure that everyone, particularly victim-survivors […]