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).