Our Lady of Hope Blog

My Dear Friends,

Today's Gospel passage from St. Matthew is the call of the two sets of brothers as Apostles, St. Peter and St. Andrew, and St. John and St. James. These four apostles are fishermen, and Jesus says to them that he will make them fishers of men. A fisher of men means that Jesus is giving authority to his followers to preach the good news and to heal the sick. The same authority he gave to the apostles is the same authority he gives to his priests.

My Dear Friends,

Today I want to focus on our altar servers. The young men and women and young boys and girls do a fantastic job helping the priest and the deacon at the altar. For centuries, the roles that these servers provide were performed by adult men, who wore the black cassock with a white surplice. The black cassock is a clerical garment. In the traditional Mass, clerics were divided into seven orders; porter, exorcist, lector, acolyte, subdeacon, deacon and priest. After the Second Vatican Council, Pope St. Paul VI suppressed the four minor orders and the subdiaconate and made the ministry of lector and acolyte as an instituted ministry.

My Dear Friends,

Today we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, which also ends the Christmas season. Jesus was baptized by St. John in the Jordan. By being baptized, Jesus blesses all water and makes it holy. Besides sacraments, our Catholic faith also has rich tradition of sacramentals. A sacramental is something blessed and is meant to lead us deeper into our faith and prepare us for the sacraments. Holy water is one such sacramental.

My Dear Friends,

Continuing with last week's bulletin letter, we are still in the Christmas season. The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, on January 1st was the end of the Christmas octave. The Christmas season has two more weeks, normally, after the New Year. The Solemnity of the Epiphany is celebrated in many countries on January 6th, the 12th day of Christmas, and for many cultures and for many centuries is a more important feast day than Christmas.