Our Lady of Hope Blog

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.