Pastor’s Weekly Letter

May 25, 2018

Letter From the Pastor – May 27, 2018

Yesterday, May 26, several young men from St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, Yonkers, were ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of New York. Our best wishes and prayers go with them as they begin their new ministry in the name of the Lord. Hopefully we here at Annunciation – Our Lady of Fatima pray fervently today and every day for an increase in vocations to the priesthood, deaconate and religious life. Our Holy Father makes a special point of the truth that the local parish community and, in fact, each and every family ought to be the source of vocations. […]

May 22, 2018

Letter From the Pastor – May 20, 2018

Do you think that superﬁcial optimism and unbounded encouragement are counter-productive? Well-intentioned but misguided friends often increase the pain they originally came to erase. Much too often someone mouths much too easily: “Well, it’s God’s will” or “Time heals everything.” How is one to deal with the queson, “Will everything turn out all right?” We Catholics ought to be the genuine realists in this world. Often, we are not. We are victimized, it seems, by that shallow optimism which is portrayed in the media and which wants everything to be all right. So, we simply act as if it is. […]

May 11, 2018

Letter From the Pastor – May 13, 2018

A few years ago, I heard the story of an exceptional woman. I thought it would be appropriate to repeat it for you this weekend. Her husband was a stroke victim, paralyzed and bedridden. She had three small school-aged children and another in her arms. She worked to support her family. After work, she rushed home to cook, wash, scrub and care for her husband and children. Surprisingly, she had a faint smile on her face as she told her story. “It’s God’s will,” she said. There were no tears. She reminded me of the poet Wadsworth’s words about an oak […]

May 4, 2018

Letter From the Pastor – May 6, 2018

Do you remember the Gospel passage in which Jesus was a guest at a wedding in Cana of Galilee? It must have been a festive occasion because the wine was gone before the celebration was over. The Blessed Mother told Jesus about the problem and He came up with a marvelous solution. At His instruction, six stone jars were filled with water. Then some was drawn out and taken to the head waiter. He tasted it and then said to the groom: “People usually serve the choice wine first, then a lesser […]

April 27, 2018

Letter From the Pastor – April 29, 2018

In the middle years of the nineteenth century, a clergyman named Charles Kingsley was the personal chaplain to Queen Victoria of England. He was a man whom she greatly admired. The story is told that one day she asked him the secret of his beautiful life. To which he replied, “I had a friend.” Most of us would not think of describing our own lives as beautiful. And we would probably be embarrassed if someone else should do so. But we would doubtless agree with him that whatever beauty there is within us is largely attributable to our friends. People […]