Our Lady of Hope Blog

My Dear Friends,

October is the month of the Rosary (the feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary is Oct. 7th), and it also respect life month. The rosary of our Blessed Mother is arguably the second greatest weapon we have, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass being the first. Pope St. Pius V in the 1570’s was the pope that asked all of Europe to pray the rosary in order to defeat the Muslims at the Battle of Lepanto, a battle in which the European Christians were outmatched in numbers. Pope Pius attributed the victory to Our Lady and inaugurated the feast day of Our Lady of Victory.

My Dear Friends,

Today we are blessed to have Archbishop Christopher Coyne join us at the 9:30 Mass in Harwinton with a light reception to follow. Archbishop Coyne has been making the rounds to all of the parishes. As we welcome the archbishop to our beautiful parish of Our Lady of Hope, we are cognizant of the fact that a bishop is a successor of the apostles and receives the fullness of the priesthood of Jesus Christ upon ordination to the bishopric.

My Dear Friends,

Last week I purposely chose to avoid talking about the political assassination of a young 31 year old on a college campus. He is a controversial figure and the emotions in our country right now are running high. There are many disgraceful comments all over social media as well as on talk shows and newscasts. There is a lot of virtue signaling on the right as well concerning his death. There have been countless acts of violence throughout our country recently, beginning with the assassination of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband this past June.

My Dear Friends,

The Sacrament of Confirmation is a wonderful and important sacrament of the Catholic Church. It is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and follows upon the Sacrament of Baptism. In the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox churches, it is given to the newly baptized immediately after baptism. This happens in the Western church when an adult is baptized and confirmed at the Easter Vigil. Otherwise, the Western church, exemplified by the Roman Catholic Church has a history of separating these two sacraments.

My Dear Friends,

Tomorrow, September 8th, is the ninth month since December 8th, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. Many people believe that the Immaculate Conception is referencing Jesus, but Jesus was conceived on March 25th, nine months before December 25th, the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord. Both dates of conception, March 25th and December 8th, are a statement by the Catholic Church that life begins at conception. In the United States, the Immaculate Conception is a Holy Day of Obligation, while the Annunciation on March 25th is not, but it is a Holy Day of Obligation in other countries.

My Dear Friends,

After two weeks of an exclusive Jesus, we return to a more inclusive Jesus in today’s gospel. He teaches that when you hold a banquet you should invite the poor, the lame, the crippled and the blind. The Holy Mass is such a banquet. Jesus invites the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind to come to the wedding feast of the Lamb. In other words, Jesus is inviting those who are sinners to the wedding banquet. No one is ever excluded from the celebration of Mass.

My Dear Friends,

Today’s gospel talks about salvation. How many will be saved? Jesus’ response says that only a few will enter through the narrow gate. What is the narrow gate? It is the sacrificial love that comes from the heart in following Jesus and his commandments. Wide is the path of destruction, for it comes when we live selfishly and seek a life of pleasure. The most damning aspect of the gospel is that Jesus closes the door and says to those outside that he does not know us.

My Dear Friends,

August has two of the most beautiful feast days in honor of our Blessed Mother; the Assumption and the Queenship of Mary. Besides these two important feast days, the Catholic Church calendar in August also celebrates the Dedication of the Basilica of Mary Major on August 5th. We also have memorials of seven saints that have a strong devotion to the Blessed Mother, beginning with St. Alphonsus Liguori (August 1st), St. Peter Julian Eymard (August 2nd), St. John Mary Vianney (August 4th), St. Dominic (August 8th), St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe (August 14th), St. John Eudes (August 19th), and St. Bernard (August 20th).

My Dear Friends,

A ciborium is the vessel that holds the Hosts that will be consecrated at Mass as well as holding them in the tabernacle when there are extra Hosts. When I first arrived at Our Lady of Hope in January 2022, Father Ruminski had shared with me that he had some parishioners donate to have two of the ciboria (plural) at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church refurbished. The ciboria look beautiful and worthy of holding the Precious Hosts for Holy Communion.

My Dear Friends,

Tomorrow we celebrate the feast day of St. John Vianney, the Cure of Ars. St. John Vianney is the patron saint of parish priests. When his neighboring priests of the diocese became jealous of him, they passed around a petition accusing St. John Vianney of many things and asked people to sign it so that they could send it to the bishop and have St. John Vianney removed from the parish in Ars. Somehow the petition arrived at Ars, and when St. John Vianney saw it, he immediately signed the letter.