Pastor’s Column 22nd Sunday Ordinary Time August 29, 2021 I once returned to the rectory after a retreat to find that the place smelled like someone had died in it while I was gone. Eventually the odor was narrowed down to something in the kitchen. I went through every drawer and shelf, one by one, until finally I found a can of peaches that had a small hole in the bottom. It was on the top shelf, and out of this hole was oozing the most awful black muck that had spread out o

Pastor's Column 21st Sunday Ordinary Time August 22, 2021 The words of Jesus Christ in John chapter 6 are just as scandalous to hear today as they were when Jesus first said them 2000 years ago. Jesus, of course, uses many metaphors when describing himself, among them: I am “The Son of Man”, “The Light of the World”, “The Way the Truth and the Life”, “The Vine” and “The Door”. But when Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life”, he was not just using another metaphor. He really me

Pastor’s Column Solemnity of the Assumption August 15, 2021 Why would Jesus hide himself under the appearance of Bread and Wine? Wouldn’t it be better if He manifested Himself more openly? God gives us everything in this life, but He asks us to choose Him through faith. It wasn’t easy for the first Christians to believe in Jesus as the Son of God either. The Lord asks us to have faith in Him and so He comes to us under many disguises; first and foremost, in the Eucharist. I a

Pastor’s Column 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time August 8, 2021 Every Roman Catholic Church has an altar. We treat the altar with great respect, for it represents Christ and is that place where the Living Bread comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. If the ambo is where we hear God speak his Word to us, the altar is the place where the Lord becomes physically present among us in the Eucharist, in order that we might feed on him, the Bread of Life. The altar is where