Our Lady of Hope Blog

My Dear Friends,

Today we are celebrating the first Holy Communion of twenty of our faith formation students. It is always a joyous celebration whenever anyone receives his or her first Holy Communion, but to see so many of our children receive our Lord for the first time warms our hearts. It should make us remember our own first Holy Communion. Our Lord desires for all who call themselves Catholic to receive Communion. And our Lord continues to call those who are not Catholic to come to the Catholic faith and receive Him in Holy Communion.

My Dear Friends,

Last week we celebrated Good Shepherd Sunday. Today, April 28th, is the anniversary of the 18th year of my priestly ordination, the feast day of St. Peter Chanel and St. Louis de Montfort. Reflecting on my priesthood and through coincidence only, I have been watching a few movies with Catholic priests as characters. It got me to think about all the great movies with great performances of actors playing priests.

My Dear Friends,

Today, the fourth Sunday of Easter, is commonly called Good Shepherd Sunday. It is a day for us to pray extra for shepherds to feed our Lord ’s sheep. Vocations to the priesthood, although they have dropped precipitously in many dioceses throughout the world and in our own United States, are a gift to the Church. We remember as well that we need priests in order to have celebrations of Mass and to stop the unfortunate closing of many parishes and church buildings because of a lack of priests.

My Dear Friends,

We are moving quickly through the Easter season. On this third Sunday of Easter we continue to rejoice in the Risen Lord and our redemption. As the beginning of the Gospel today says, the disciples recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread. This is just a way to say that they recognized Jesus in the most Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist.

My Dear Friends,

Today is the eighth day of the octave of Easter. For eight days we have been celebrating Easter day liturgically. Pope St. John Paul the Great also named this day Divine Mercy Sunday, after the devotion of St. Faustina, who received from our Lord words to share concerning his over abiding mercy to all sinners. The Diary of St. Faustina is a wellspring of comforting words from our Lord.