Letter from the Pastor

Religious faith brings out all sorts of qualities in the lives of the people whom it touches.  It lays hands on some, making them generous, kind and loving.  It takes hold of others and makes them cold, harsh and cruel.  St. Francis of Assisi was motivated by religious faith to renounce a   personal fortune and lead a life of selfless devotion in service to the poor.  Many terrorists today are motivated by religious faith to lead lives of brutal persecution that results in the execution of hundreds and the imprisonment or displacement of thousands more.  Religious faith, strange to say, […]

There was a story recently told of a young woman whose life had gone from bad to worse.  She had experienced emotional problems and all of the things that go along with that. Talking with a counselor, she was trying to figure it out, and her conversations went something like this:  “When I was small, my mother and dad hired a nurse who was with me night and day.  When I got older, they sent me to a boarding school.  When I was old enough to drive, they bought me an expensive sports car.  After high school, they sent me […]

Several centuries ago our Lord prayed for the unity of all who live on the face of this earth.   Specifically, His words were these:  “I pray that they may be one, as we are one – I living in them, and you living in me – that their unity may be complete.  Of all the prayers that Jesus ever prayed, this one sometimes seems the farthest from being  answered, especially in light of the events of recent times.  Within the Christian community, for example, there must be at least a hundred different denominations and scores of divisions under each of […]

We are living today in a time of religious change.  The past forty years or so have witnessed many changes in the life of the Church, and it seems rather certain that this millennium will  witness many more.  Living in the midst of it, we might suppose that all of this change is unique to our generation. But the truth is that religious change is nothing new.  It is, in fact, as old as religion itself.  You can trace it through the Bible from beginning to end. Our Catholic faith was born in an atmosphere of change.  Jesus went beyond […]

Jesus once asked His disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”  Peter, as was often the case, spoke for the group:  “You are the Messiah.”  You and I can hear those words with little or no emotion; but to those first disciples they were dramatic beyond measure.  From the beginning they had taught, hoped, even dared to believe that Jesus might be the long-awaited redeemer, spoken of by the prophets.  Now they were sure of it. Then, at that very point, Jesus began to teach them that He had to suffer, be rejected by His own people, and die.  […]