Our Lady of Hope Blog

My Dear Friends,

This week, August 29th, we celebrate the Passion of St. John the Baptist. He is one of the three birthdays that we celebrate, along with our Blessed Mother and our Lord Himself. But because of his importance, we also celebrate his martyrdom and entrance into heaven. He is the bridge between the Old and New Testaments. He is the precursor of the Lord, preparing the way of the Lord and pointing out to anyone who would listen that Jesus is the Lamb of God. He reminds those who were his own disciples that must decrease so that our Lord may increase.

Last week we celebrated the Solemnity of the Assumption. This week, on the octave day of the Assumption, we celebrate the Queenship of Mary. These are the fourth and fifth Glorious Mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary. We rightly honor the Blessed Mother and we with joy call her Queen of Heaven and Earth. As Scott Hahn reminds us in his book, Hail, Holy Queen, and Brant Pitre writes in his book, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary, the title of queen mother goes back to Solomon and was handed down through the line of kings.

My Dear Friends,

This Thursday, August 15th, we will celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, assumed body and soul into Heaven. It is one of our Holy Days of Obligation in the United States.

My Dear Friends,

Today is the feast day of St. John Vianney, also known as the Cure of Ars. He was born in 1786, immediately before the French Revolution, and lived until 1859. He is also the patron saint of parish priests, due to his remarkable career as a pastor in Ars, France. St. John Vianney was also a friend of the early Marists (the Society of Mary) and became a member of the Third Order of Mary.

My Dear Friends,

For the next five weeks our Sunday Gospel readings will be coming from the Gospel of John chapter 6. This is commonly called the Bread of Life Discourse. It begins with the feeding of the multitudes with loaves and fish, a miracle that is recounted in all four gospels. The miracles of the loaves and fish have a Eucharistic understanding. Last week, we finished the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, where over 60,000 Catholics spent four days worshiping, adoring and praising our Lord. It is a response from the bishops of the United States to counteract the studies that show that a majority of Catholics do not truly understand the Church teaching on the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

My Dear Friends,

Last week in our country there was an act of political violence; an attempted assassination upon a man running for president. There have been many presidents who have been assassinated in office; Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy. Three other presidents were victims of an attempted assassination and suffered injury; Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump.

My Dear Friends,

In the Gospel of Mark today, we hear Jesus tell his disciples to preach the Good News. But we also hear him say to his disciples that “whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.” Jesus was sent by the Father to reconcile the Twelve Tribes of Israel and bring forth the Kingdom of God. He was also sent so that no one may be lost; the Father desires the salvation of all. But we also know that there are some who will not be saved. They will reject the offer from our Lord.

My Dear Friends,

As someone who loves movies and who also loves books, I have come to appreciate the simple fact that the novel is nearly one hundred percent of the time better than the movie. There are, of course, exceptions. For example, I find Francis Ford Coppola ’s movie The Godfather to be far superior to Mario Puzo’s novel. Stephen Spielberg’s movie, Jaws is also superior to Peter Benchley’s novel of the same name. Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest also pales in comparison to Milos Forman’s movie version with Jack Nicholson.

My Dear Friends,

It is hard to believe that we are coming up on July 4th. The Revolutionary War, or the War for Independence, is our history as a people and as a country. We, the United States of America, have been at war with many countries ever since, with occasional years of peace between the conflicts and wars. We will continue to be at war for many years to come, as long as we remain a country.

My Dear Friends,

Tomorrow, June 24th, we celebrate the solemnity of the birthday of St. John the Baptist, six months and one day before Christmas, the birthday of our Savior. Our Lord (December 25th), our Blessed Mother (September 8th), and St. John the Baptist are the only three birthdays on the liturgical calendar that we commemorate and celebrate. Interestingly, the birthday of our Blessed Mother is only considered a feast, a lower rank than a solemnity, while St. John the Baptist and our Lord are both solemnities. Yet, the conception of our Blessed Mother (December 8th) and the conception of Jesus (March 25th) are both solemnities.

My Dear Friends,

Last Sunday was the choir ’s last time singing at Mass until the fall. They did a wonderful job as usual. I am grateful for all their hard work and dedication to helping us enhance the celebration of Mass. This past year, especially, has been a challenge since Dan Ringuette left us to pursue another position in Litchfield at St. Louis de Montfort parish. With his leaving we also lost some choir members, but the choir members who remained did a marvelous job under the direction of George Murphy (in Immaculate Conception Church) and the Immaculate Heart of Mary choir remained steady under Loni Birkenburger, all held together under the direction of AJ Bunel, who willingly stepped up to play at all Masses until we find someone who can assist him.

My Dear Friends,

As mentioned last week, Archbishop Christopher Coyne is asking us to implement a new venture in the Archdiocese of Hartford, Called by Name. He is asking each parishioner of every parish in the Archdiocese of Hartford to identify a person who you think might make a good priest, a good deacon, or a good religious sister or brother. Fostering an environment of vocations is the responsibility of every Catholic.

My Dear Friends,

Today is the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, more commonly known as Corpus Christi. Even though Catholics have been a minority in the United States since our founding, yet still Catholics, especially the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Jesuits, were responsible for much of the missionary work. We see this in the names of cities throughout what is now the United states; places like San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Santa Clara (all in California), St. Louis Missouri, St. Paul Minnesota, St. Augustine Florida and San Antonio and Corpus Christi Texas. Corpus Christi, in Latin, means Body of Christ.