In many ways the liturgical year corresponds with the seasons. As we come to the end of the growing season and the advent of winter in many parts of the world, it should not surprise us that the Church points our spiritual thoughts and sentiments toward what we call the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell – the four last stages of the soul in life and the afterlife. Did you ever notice how the seasons remind us of God’s eternal plan?

As we celebrate Veterans Day, let us give thanks for all the men and women, who have faithfully served our country since its beginning. ...My paternal grandfather served in World War I in France. I will always remember the one Christmas, probably 1967, when he recalled the Christmas of 1917, which he spent in the trenches. Those who have read about trench warfare know what a frightening, filthy, de-humanizing situation the men found themselves in. Yet they fought on to make the world “safe for democracy.”

The official Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us many things about Faith. Moderns must keep in mind that it is God who has revealed Himself to us that we might be saved. The Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. .... In addition, the Faith requires our own personal response. We respond to a living God. The Catholic Faith isn’t like a currant scone, where we pick out the currants and leave the rest.

The Gospel always stands in direct contrast with the way of the world. The world embraces what some might call the will to power. Based on a self-centered view, we are encouraged to see all things from the perspective of getting my way, asserting myself, pushing myself on others, gaining the most for me, me, me. In the end all is for me, me, me. ....The Sacred Scripture points us in an entirely different direction.

I remember hearing Saint John Paul II boldly proclaim: “Semper Fidelis; Always Faithful.” Some will recognize this as the motto of the Marine Corps, which is appropriate; whereas the Pope used it in a wider sense to remind the Poles and the entire Catholic world of our heritage of a tenacious and lively Faith: The Faith of the martyrs, the Faith of Our Fathers. No ordinary Faith, this. ...

Leprosy [was] once a dreaded disease for which there was no cure.  Up to modern times lepers not only suffered from their disease, but they also suffered emotionally, spiritually, and mentally as they were shut off from the rest of society to live their remaining days in separation from beloved family and friends in impoverished conditions.  Lepers were in a desperate situation.  Therefore, the healing our Lord brought was an unexpected and tremendous blessing.  ...... It is not difficult to see that the real leprosy is sin.  Sin does to the soul what leprosy once did to the body.  Serious sin can alienate a person not only from God, but also from those who love Him most, besides having negative emotional, spiritual, and mental effects.  ....

Luke 17:5 “The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’” During October let us draw near to Mary through her rosary, which leads us like her into the embrace of the Savior. “The Family that prays together stays together!”

Jesus told this parable as a warning to those who first heard it and to us who hear and read it now. It is a call to live the two Great commandments: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength; thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Luke 10, 27)....

God’s laws without God’s divine presence to assist us are impossible to keep, and thus would readily become an extraordinary burden no human could bear. However, with God’s divine intervention through actual and sanctifying graces, we are empowered to go beyond the merely human and conform to God’s plan for us. ....

What the Church has always taught as wrong is now considered by many to be right, and what we always considered to be right is now thought wrong.  It would not be an exaggeration to say that there is much confusion in matters of faith and morals. ....

One of the reasons that our accomplishments are not greater is that we falsely expect an easy way.  We should know that nothing just drops down from heaven.  It never will.  ....

It seems to me that what we need more of is the “Faith of Our Fathers” as Father Frederick Faber, the great Catholic hymn composer wrote in his famous hymn.  We now live in confusing times.  What we used to say was wrong is now considered by many to be right, and what we once proclaimed as right is thought to be wrong.  Our time is a time of subjectivism, relativism, nihilism.  Pope Benedict aptly called it the “dictatorship of relativism.” What is needed more than ever is that “old time religion.”  Not that we live in the past, but we still need to live by the teachings of the Gospel as articulated by His Church. 

A new school year is a time of new beginnings. To parents and children new to the parish, I offer a cordial welcome on behalf of all. To those returning from last year, I offer my best wishes as you return among us. To borrow an expression from the 20th century, at this time of year we can say that we are starting with a “clean slate.” Looking ahead to the 2019-2020 academic year, we are all challenged to purify our intentions and put our best foot forward. It is a time of hope for all of us. ....

In our contentious world there is always the need for peace makers, as our Lord said at the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the peace makers.” So why in Luke 12 does Jesus seem to contradict Himself by saying that He has not come to establish peace “but rather division?” What does this mean? Which saying is correct? Well, of course, both of them. Read more....

The point of the Scriptures today is that we must always be ready. We must not lose hope or abandon a life of faith and love.

Luke 12:20-21 But God said to him, “You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?” Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves, but are not rich in what matters to God. ... Read more.

Faith must be sustained if it is to bear fruit. The flames must be kept burning brightly, otherwise they will grow dim and even go out. .... Of all the ways to grow in faith, prayer is most important. Faith is a relationship with God that is personal, real, trusting and inexhaustible. ....

“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.  There is need of only one thing.  Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her (Luke 10:41-42).” ....

The greatest treasure we have as Catholics is the Lord’s gift to us of the Holy Eucharist.  We remember and celebrate at every Mass that the “night He was betrayed” he took ordinary bread and wine and changed them into His Body and His Blood.  We believe that after the words of consecration, first pronounced by the Lord Himself at the Last Supper, the bread and wine cease to exist.   We have only the appearances of bread and wine.  Their substance has changed in the most radical way possible.  We call this change transubstantiation.  This doctrine assures us that Jesus is truly and really present for us in the Holy Eucharist until the end of time.

Matthew 28:18-20 Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”