Laetare means Rejoice. Why do we rejoice?

“Now we must Celebrate and Rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.”

Laetare Sunday; Rose is the color of Love. Grace is simply the Love of God overflowing into the world. It is Jesus Who Is This Love.

The Parable of The Fig Tree: The season of Lent is a perfect time to reflect on how we spend our time. Do we give first priority to God, tending to our spiritual growth and sacramental life with diligence?

Do we give next priority to our loved ones, focusing intentionally on them each day without distractions from phones, screens, or thoughts of work? If not, now is the moment to repent of our waste of time or of misplaced priorities on our use of time. God is merciful but just. Let’s turn to Him and ask Him to make our lives fruitful while we still have time to do so.

The Mystery of the Transfiguration

“This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”

In last week’s Gospel, we followed Jesus into the desert where He fasted and prayed. This week, He leads us up a mountain to witness His Transfiguration. Why do we hear both of these experiences in Lent?

The Transfiguration was the most astounding, amazing and mind-blowing experience for Peter, James and John, revealing Jesus as truly the Son of God. What glorious Light shone from the face of Christ as He foretaste of Heaven and a vision of His hidden glory.

A Jubilee Season of Hope

In this 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope, we ask: Lord, in these difficult times, we enter into the desert of Lent this year on our annual Journey to Jerusalem with much grief in our hearts for those lost to us…

the bullets and missiles in Gaza & Ukraine; the rhetoric and spin of governments; those still living in fear of the pandemic; Yet we turn to these words of Hope:

Calling Out Hypocrisy

Remember from last week, the key to loving your enemy is in action, not emotion: showing kindness: in thought, in word and in action. So, if someone curses us, we are to bless them.

“A blessing is not just to do good towards somebody, but to speak good to somebody. So you bless with your mouth, you act (obviously) with your actions through all kinds of different ways. If someone curses me, they speak evil against me. You’re verbalizing that they would wish harm upon you (that’s what a curse is).

“To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”

We all have enemies and that is a sad thing, Who is your greatest enemy? Who hates you? We all have enemies. Yes, it’s a sad thing, but unfortunately it’s true for most of us, if not for all of us. How do we react to this situation?

We Are Blessed Sacrament: It’s a different world in today’s Gospel. Jesus turns all our notions of what is good and desired and makes it upside down in St. Luke’s version of The Sermon on the Mount. Now that his twelve apostles have been selected, Jesus teaches and prepares them for their mission. “Get used to ‘different’ from now on.”

“They beckoned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them” (Lk 5:7).

First we see that Jesus is preaching to a crowd who is pressing in on Him to listen. What an amazing, inspiring image! Do we “press in” as we listen to the readings proclaimed in Mass with this same sense of wonder and urgency?

Today, 40 days after Christmas, we celebrate the great Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, when Mary and Joseph brought their infant Son to the Temple in obedience to the laws of their Jewish faith. This is a beautiful and mysterious feast, with many lessons for us. This Gospel passage from St. Luke, recounting the details of the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple, teaches us a stewardship lesson through the example of St. Joseph and the Blessed Mother, who are the “Holy Parents.” “Mary and Joseph consecrate Jesus to the Father out of love and obedience. Our parents did the same with and for us at our baptism.

“Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, ‘Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.’”

What does this teach us as Christian stewards? It shows us that we all have equal dignity and worth in God’s sight, and that if God sees us as equally precious, we should view each other in this same light. It teaches us to humbly recognize our own gifts as well as the giftedness of every member of our parish family. And, while God designed us to be ultimately dependent on Him, it seems He has also designed us to need each other!

“Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now” (John 2:10).

After the Baptism of The Lord, we return to Ordinary Time. Each year, the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time is from the Gospel of John. This year, we have the account of the famous story of the Wedding Feast at Cana, the time when Jesus officially began His ministry by performing His first miracle at Mary’s request.

“You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

How do you describe the indescribable? It was the greatest day of Our Lord’s life. Up to that point, at least. We celebrated the Epiphany of The Lord last week with the Christmas Star over Bethlehem and the visit of the Magi and now we close out the Season of Christmas and we move to the River Jordan.

“And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way” (Gospel of St. Matthew 2:12).

Good Stewardship is an Act of Worship:
How do we announce the birth of a child today? “Send pictures! Send photos!” is the first thing we say when a baby is born and we send and receive photos or videos to each other on our cell phones and tablets. Usually the first pictures are taken shortly after the birth, still in the hospital. Then, after a while, there’s the more formal portrait photos with parents and siblings and grandparents. Yet we want to see the first photo above all.