Our Lady of Hope Blog

My Dear Friends,

Yesterday, Sat, Jul 26, we celebrated the memorial of Sts. Joachim and Anne, the parents of the Blessed Mother. It was St. Anne that conceived Mary immaculately in her womb. It is a great privilege for St. Anne to be the one who conceived our Blessed Mother, for it is Mary that brought forth our salvation in Jesus Christ. St. Anne is a very powerful saint for that very reason, and many call upon her intercession and are granted an answer to her prayers.

My Dear Friends,

St. Luke shares with us this little scene about Martha and Mary. These are the sisters of Lazarus, who we meet in the Gospel of St. John. In this little scene in St. Luke’s Gospel, we see the same dynamic as St. John; Martha is anxious and Mary has chosen the better part. Martha speaks to our Lord in a manner that many of us could relate to; Martha tells Jesus what to do. How many times do we go to the Lord and tell him what we want and what he needs to do?

My Dear Friends,

Today we hear the parable of the Good Samaritan. Before we condemn the priest and the Levite for avoiding taking care of the victim, we must first understand the law of Moses. Touching a dead body would make you unclean, and the person is unclean would have to go through several steps of ritual purity to make himself clean once again. Since priests and Levites provided a role in the community for the Jews, they would want to avoid a body in such a state, not knowing of the body was dead or alive in order not to have to go through the purity laws.

My Dear Friends,

July is upon us. I love July, except for the heat. There are many wonderful feast days in July on the Roman calendar. St. Thomas the Apostle (July 3rd), St. Benedict (July 11th), St. Kateri Tekakwitha (July14th), St. Bonaventure (July 15th), Our Lady of Mount Carmel (July 16th, and the Mount Carmel festival at the Mount Carmel Church in Town Plot section of Waterbury), St. Mary Magdalene (July 22nd), St. James the Apostle (July 25th), St. Joachim and St. Anne (July 26th), St. Martha, now with St. Mary and St. Lazarus (July 29th), and St. Ignatius of Loyola (July 31st).

My Dear Friends,

This past Friday, June 27th, we celebrated the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This solemnity is always the Friday after the Corpus Christi (the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ), which is always after the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. These days are all united in some way that focuses on the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, our Lord Jesus Christ. I did write some bulletin articles on Pope Francis’s encyclical on the Sacred Heart.

My Dear Friends,

Today is the great feast day commonly called Corpus Christi, the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Not only do we receive our Lord’s Body and Blood, but we also receive his Soul and Divinity. The word concomitant is used in our theology to explain that since we receive our Lord’s Soul and Divinity we also receive the Divinity of the Father and the Holy Spirit. We participate in the life of the Trinity when we are baptized, but as we are nourished with the Holy Eucharist in Holy Communion, we also participate in the life of the Trinity every time we receive Holy Communion. The Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist is a central article of our Catholic faith and a great mystery.

My Dear Friends,

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. It is the greatest of all mysteries in our faith precisely because it is the life of God himself, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. All other mysteries flow from this mystery. God existed for all time because he exists outside of time. Indeed, he created time when he created the heavens and the earth, the sun and the moon and all living creatures. God did not need to create; he chose to create because of love.

My Dear Friends,

Today we celebrate the great feast day of Pentecost, the commemoration of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and the beginning of the Church. During the Easter season we focus, of course, on the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ. It is true that Jesus speaks of the Spirit throughout the Easter season in our Scriptures, but it is only today that we have a specific day in our liturgical calendar devoted to the third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

My Dear Friends,

In our Catholic faith, certain months are devoted to certain saints or to our Lord. March is for St. Joseph. May is for our Blessed Mother. October is for the Rosary. January is for the Holy Family. September is for the Archangels. The month of June is devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Sacred Heart is a beautiful devotion in order to foster a love for our Lord’s heart and his love and for reparation for our own sins as we call upon our Lord’s heart for mercy.

My Dear Friends, We now return to Pope Francis’s encyclical, Dilext Nos (on the Sacred Heart of Jesus). The first nine paragraphs in chapter four deal with Scriptural references on the love of Jesus as thirst and as water. The title itself of chapter four is A Love that Gives Itself as Drink.

My Dear Friends,

As you know by now, we have a pope. Cardinal Robert Prevost has been elected and has taken the name of Pope Leo XIV. He will need the courage that comes from the lion in order to carry the burden of the papacy on his shoulders.

My Dear Friends,

Since I submit my bulletin letters on Tuesdays, there is a good chance as you are reading this that we have a new pope. There will be a lot of commentary about who this man is, what name he has chosen, and where he is on the spectrum of the Catholic Church, i.e. progressive, traditional or centrist.

My Dear Friends,

When I was assigned as a priest in Boston at Our Lady of Victories Church (2008-2011), I had a radio program every Sunday. Most of my shows were with my friend Paula from Brunswick, Maine. We would have a discussion about a certain topic concerning the Catholic Church or cultural issues coming from a Catholic foundation. When Paula could not do my show with me anymore, I would do a show by myself on the Sunday readings. Some topics of my shows with Paula included how to receive Holy Communion, Divine Mercy, the Eucharist, marriage, confession, celibate priesthood, holy friendships, etc.