Happy Sunday!

On this Holy Family Sunday the liturgy directs our attention to the life of the Holy Family and that school of Nazareth where family life is learned. We can feel the peace and joy of Christmas abiding in them. We pray that all families may be attentive to the Word of the Lord and allow it to bear fruit in their homes!

I hope everyone had a joyful Christmas celebration. I am grateful to all of our volunteers for making the Christmas celebrations such great experiences!

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A priest friend recently told me a remarkable story. One of his cousins reported having a vivid dream in which an angel told him the family needed to exhume their grandmother's body from a ceme- tery in New York and return it to her birthplace in Romania. She had been dead nearly 10 years. As you might expect, the family thought it was, well, crazy. But astonishingly they exhumed her body. It was incorrupt, showing no signs of decomposition. That experience sparked healing, faith, and reconciliation throughout the family.

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When I was 11, I was riding my bike on a Friday night in Scottsdale, Arizona. I saw giant spotlights swirling in the sky. Something amazing had to be happening. I pedaled after them with excitement. Sweaty and tired, I arrived, only to find a used car lot. Bright lights, flapping banners, inflatable balloon men swaying wildly in the wind. I stood there, heart sinking. All that spectacle, and all my effort ... for this?

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Happy Sunday!

This Sunday we begin the second week of Advent. Our readings hit a variety of themes. In the first reading from Isaiah we hear about the shoot that will sprout from the stump of Jesse. The second reading then speaks of unity and hope. In the Gospel John the Baptist urges those who hear him to repentance. It is the Psalm(72), that ancient prayer of the people of Israel, that captures the heart and seeks to encapsulate these themes.

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Happy Sunday!

I hope everyone had a most enjoyable Thanksgiving! Today we start the new liturgical year with the First Sunday of Advent! I can't believe it's already here but time never slows down and so are marching on. This great season of Advent grabs our attention and directs our hearts and minds to look towards Bethlehem. The entrance antiphon for the Mass this Sunday is "To you, I lift up my soul, O my God. In you, I have trusted; let me not be put to shame.

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Not long ago, I was called to a hospital to anoint a woman in her early 80s. She was dying, and visibly in pain. But what struck me most wasn't her suffering - it was the atmosphere in the room. She had eight children and 30 foster kids, and many of them were gathered around her. You'd expect sorrow, fear, maybe even despair. But the room was filled with something else entirely - a quiet strength, a kind of sweetness. It was as if she was suffering not just with them, but for them. And they, in love, were suffering for her.

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Happy Sunday!

This week I am currently on my retreat so this letter is being written early. Thank you for your prayers during my retreat in Louisiana. On Tuesday I will fly back to Arizona and return to Flagstaff on Wednesday evening. It's amazing that Thanksgiving will be upon us so soon and then Advent beginning. Before that though, we will be hosting the diaconate ordination of Nathan Blanchard next Saturday. Please keep him and the whole Blanchard family in your prayers as they prepare for this exciting event. The ordination will be at 11:00am on Saturday. Due to preparations there will be no morning mass or confessions next Saturday the 22nd.

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Happy Sunday!

This Sunday the Church celebrates the Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of the Lateran Basilica. Commonly called St. John Lateran, this church is the Pope's cathedral. It is one of the four major basilicas in Rome and is a beautiful place of pilgrimage. Lining the main aisle are six columns on either side with a different apostle in each column. Some of the apostles hold the instrument of their martyrdom, others have symbolic features from their life, each of them is massive.

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Happy All Souls' Day!

Today the Church celebrates the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed. Indeed, throughout the month of November the Church prays for the deceased in a particular way. This has been a practice of the Church from the beginning. I remember visiting the catacombs in Rome and seeing the different graffiti throughout the underground tunnels. Families used to gather at the tombs of their loved ones to pray and would also bring a picnic.

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Happy Sunday!

We are less than a month away from the first ordination to take place in our new parish church. On November 22nd Bishop Dolan will be here to preside at the diaconate ordination of Nathan Blanchard. Many of you know Nathan and his family, his father is Dcn. Greg Blanchard. We feel so privileged to host such a wonderful event. It will take place at 11:00am on Sat 22.

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Happy Sunday!

Today is the calendar feast of the North American Martyrs, St. Isaac Jogues, St. John de Brebeuf, and Companions. These saints were French Jesuits who ministered in current upstate New York to the Huron Tribe. Writing back to France to encourage more Jesuits to join them, St. John de Brebeuf wrote thus, "When you reach the Hurons, you will find us with hearts full of love. We shall receive you in a hut, so mean that I have scarcely found in France one wretched enough to compare it with.

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Dorothy Day, the great Catholic activist, doubted God's existence. At least in her early adult years. But something changed when after giving birth to her daughter, she experienced an overwhelming gratitude. She later described how, as she held her daughter, the only appropriate response was a kind of unlimited gratitude. She had done nothing to deserve such a gift - this tiny, miraculous life - but there she was, flooded with gratitude, completely undone by the love of such a Giver.

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Happy Sunday!

This weekend we celebrate the Feast of our patron Saint Francis of Assisi. His feast is October 4th and since he is our patron we are able to celebrate it as a solemnity on Saturday and Sunday. Thus, if you typically follow along with the readings in your missal, you'll notice the readings are different today. St. Francis was born around 1181/82 in Assisi, Italy to a wealthy family of textile merchants.

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