Pastor's Column Solemnity of the Holy Family December 28, 2025 We can learn quite a bit from this Sunday's gospel of the flight into Egypt. Suddenly the Holy Family has to leave everything and move to a foreign country to avoid the king, who wants to kill Jesus. So Jesus is just a week old and already, there is trouble. Surely there had to be another way! Couldn't God have somehow just "taken care" of Herod? Why did the Holy Family have to suffer like that? Why was

Pastor’s Column Christmas 2025 “Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” Luke 2:15 Christmas day and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass are intimately connected: both are really a kind of time machine. The past, present and future are all gathered around us in a way that is unique whenever Christmas, or Mass, are celebrated. The name itself evokes the connection: Christ-Mass . In addition, we ar

Pastor’s Column 4 th  Sunday of Advent December 21, 2025 We are all familiar with the story: an angel appears to the Virgin Mary, requesting her permission to receive the Son of God within her. It is indeed the most awesome moment of human history. Mary is troubled by the greeting of the angel. She ponders the implications of what she has just heard and even questions The great Angel Gabriel before she says “yes! "You are to have a child and the child who will be th

Pastor’s Column 3 rd  Sunday of Advent December 14, 2025 People travelled great distances to see John the Baptist. John wore a camel’s hair coat, ate locusts and wild honey and ministered at the Jordan River, all of which evoked images of the prophet Elijah returning. What a sight this must have been! John was an apocalyptic preacher. His was a message of repentance and consequences. He tended to emphasize the need of repentance to avoid the perfect justice of God.

Pastor’s Column 2 nd  Sunday of Advent December 7, 2025 John the Baptist was unique. The people of Israel had not seen an Old Testament prophet for centuries but they did recognize the real thing when they heard him. People were coming from all over to hear Jesus – and this included many Scribes and Pharisees – the religious leaders of their day. John wasn’t afraid to tell them off either. Preaching like this got him in trouble pretty fast. John would soon be a pris