Clergy Bulletin Articles

In some recent homilies, especially Christmas and Epiphany, I used some space illustrations to lead to some theological points. My starting illustrations were the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope on Christmas Day, which by the way all has gone very well with that mission so far, and the fact that scientists say the universe has no center. I won’t go into any detail about those things here other than to say when you learn about them, it fills you with a sense of awe at the mysteries of our enormous universe.

 

The Archbishop’s Call to Share (ACTS) kicks off this weekend. This is an annual appeal to fund many important ministries of the Archdiocese that we could not do alone as a single parish. It is the equivalent of our annual parish stewardship which funds our parish ministries, except this appeal funds Archdiocese-wide ministries which benefit us and many others (see examples below). I know our 2022 ACTS goal is increased, but I don’t have the exact number at this time.

Merry Christmas, Happy Epiphany, Happy New Year and Thank You! Thank you for all the cards, gifts, goodies, and prayers you have given to me! We continue to celebrate our Christmas season, especially this Sunday with the Epiphany. We also enter a new year of 2022. Have you made a New Year’s resolution? I’ll save you the trouble of googling it—below is a list from a Nielsen survey from a few years ago of the top ten most common resolutions and what percentage of people make them. Of course, I have to add my own commentary to it. :)

 

Merry Christmas! The angels sang at that first Christmas, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:14) I pray you too experience peace in these days. At the Christmas Eve Masses, you likely will hear the Midnight Mass readings which include a first reading from the Prophet Isaiah that gives us this gem line:

 

For a child is born to us, a son is given to us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:5)

 

On this Fourth Sunday of Advent, as we draw near to Christmas, let’s become cave people! Not Neanderthals or “Complain About Virtually Everything” (CAVE acronym) people, but people of the cave at Bethlehem, the crèche, the nativity scene! If you visit Bethlehem, the traditional site of the birth of Christ is a cave. Caves are common in the rocky area of Bethlehem, and people used them as we use our barns, to house their animals. So it is quite probable that the nativity scene was indeed a cave.

 

In our Gospel, the crowds asked John the Baptist, “What should we do?”

First, rejoice! Christmas is less than two weeks away from this Sunday and this is Gaudete Sunday! “Gaudete” is Latin meaning “rejoice”, and we light the rose/pink candle (ours has some pink ribbons around the base).

 

This second week of Advent is a powerful one. In our Sunday Gospel, we meet St. John the Baptist and hear his preaching. On Monday, we celebrate St. Nicholas. On Tuesday, St. Ambrose. Then on Wednesday, Dec. 8th, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary—a holy day of obligation. But also on December 8th, we conclude the Year of St. Joseph. 

 

Welcome to the Season of Advent! We begin a new Church liturgical year and enter Year C, focusing on the Gospel of Luke for our Sundays. Advent is a bit longer than average this year, 27 days out of a possible 28 (including Christmas Eve), since Christmas Day falls on a Saturday making the fourth week 6 days long out of possible 7. By the way, Christmas on a Saturday makes for quite the full weekend, so heads up now, there will be no Saturday evening Mass or confessions on Christmas Day, Saturday the 25th.

This is the last Sunday of our Church’s liturgical year. The Church celebrates the Solemnity of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Jesus is not only Lord of all space but also Lord of all time from the beginning to the end, as is stated in our second reading from the Book of Revelation: “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty.” (Revelation 1:8) In a year that seemed dominated by the awful Delta-variant of COVID-19, we need to remember that Jesus is still has dominion and power over everything, from A to Z.

Eschatology is the branch of theology concerned with the study of the last or final things. The word comes from the Greek “Eskhaton” meaning “last”. As we come near end of the Church liturgical year, we get readings about the last things. This Sunday, the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, is the penultimate Sunday of our year, and it refers to at least three last things, which makes it a bit confusing.