In honor of Mother’s Day, Little Way Pregnancy Center will be offering a beautiful, grace-filled gift for mothers. Archbishop Shelton will offer a mass for your mother—living or deceased.

It is said that— “The graces acquired by having a Mass said for a special intention are beyond earthly comprehension. The Mass is the greatest prayer and therefore the most powerful means to help others and ourselves gain eternity with him.”

Mother’s Day cards detailing the gift of this special Mass offered by our Archbishop, will be available Mother’s Day weekend in the back of church. For on-line donations and Mass enrollment visit www.littleway.org/mothersday or click HERE.

For over 40 years, Little Way has served the women and families in our community—offering free medical services for expectant moms, parenting classes, baby closet items, and support groups for both mothers and fathers.

All proceeds will benefit the life-saving work of Little Way. Thank you for your support.

Please Consider Donating Any of the following items to help make this year’s Summerfest another great success!

• Gift Cards of any Amount (Bring to the Parish Office or drop in the Collection Basket at any mass)
• 2 Liter Soft Drinks (Bring to the Office or place in the bins in the Gathering Space)
• Cakes, pies, brownies, cookies, etc… (Bring to the RE Building June 6th or 7th)

April 20, 2025

Gospel:  John 20:1-9

Today, in this Catholic Church and in all the other Christian churches of the world; our Eucharistic liturgy is the most gratifying celebrations in our whole liturgical calendar.  Our church is decorated with more flowers than usual (lilies and poinsettias are not here 24/7); the choir is singing upbeat songs; most people are wearing their best clothes; there is a chance for some fellowship with friends we have not seen for a long, long, long while… 

Yet, none of us came here today for the scenery, the concert, the fashion show or the socializing.  We are here today because we are reminded that death was conquered ONCE.  Today, with all the Christian faiths that have spun off the root of Catholicism, we share in the hope that it will happen again… FOR US… in due time… in God’s choosing… 

Have you even watched illusionists like Harry Houdini or David Copperfield in either the media or live at a theatre?  There is usually the one who puts a lady in a box.  Locks are secured.  The box is suspended.  The illusionist thrusts swords through the box.  When unlocked and opened, the lady was gone.  “HOW did he do it?”  Although we do not know HOW the trick was accomplished, we DO know that it was not magic.  There is a logical explanation for the disappearance for the lady. 

On Good Friday, many saw the wrapped lifeless body of Jesus laid in a tomb.  They watched a HUGE stone rolled into the groove before the cave-like vault sealing the only exit.  Sunday morning three people saw the same tomb.  The stone was rolled away.  The body was gone.  WHERE had the body gone?  There were three responses: Mary Magdalene thought the body was stolen.  Peter was puzzled, “Why would someone unwrap the body BEFORE stealing it?”  John saw and believed.  Our response to the empty tomb should make all the difference in the way we live life.  Does it for you?  What do you make of an empty tomb… if anything?

Christ is raised to new life by God.  The Resurrection is not a magic trick.  It was a feat foretold by prophets and accomplished by the power of God.  Peter and others ate and drank with him.  Mary conversed with Jesus.  We follow a risen Lord.  He is alive.  Bet on it.

Christ is raised.  We are raised with Christ.  Christ’s resurrection changes everything for all who lives before and after him.  When we die, we will not he held by death.  We believe through faith like John.  Eyes of faith help us see the invisible reality.  Believing is seeing.  

Christ is raised.  Our goal is eternal life with Him. 

Christ is raised.  Proclaim it.  We proclaim it with our words.  We are not responsible for the belief of the hearer.  Jesus was not always believed.  We will only be accountable for sharing the message.  Our message may not be popular or well received.  It is always difficult to go against the grain.  We may suffer, as disciples have, as Jesus did, for our faithfulness.  Doing comes out of believing.  Believing in eternal life makes all the difference.  When our words and actions match, we become credible.  People may not agree with us, but they can not ignore us.

A Dutch navigator sailing the high seas happened to come across an uncharted island in the Pacific.  He was just thrilled to land on it.  And this discovery happened on Easter Sunday in the year 1722… over 300 years ago.  Not surprisingly, the island was named “Easter Island”.  A well-known preacher used this bit of history to make a point.  He pointed out that we make a mistake if we regard Easter merely as an island – a nice place to visit once a year and then go back to the mainland.  Rather, he stressed Easter belongs on the mainland… your mainland is wherever you go… and with whomever you journey. 

Friends, the tomb is empty.

What do you have to say about that?

Gospel: John 18:1-19:42

April 18, 2025

Imagine walking into town from the country to go to market and passing through a line of naked, crucified men hanging on crosses along both sides of the road.  Some of the men may be already dead, some still gasping for air as they slowly suffocate.  Others are cursing the government and everyone else in outbursts of anger and pain.

That is what Jewish men and women had to endure whenever Rome executed someone.  Crucifixion was a brutal, inhumane torture reserved for non-Roman citizens.  Executions were public affairs meant to frighten people into submission.  And for the Jew, crucifixion was proof positive of God’s total rejection and condemnation.  Anyone “hung on a tree” was surely cursed by God.

So the crucifixion of Jesus was not a pretty affair.  We sometimes decorate our crosses and clean up our art work to make it less revolting, but then we miss the human tragedy and horror of the event.  But the death of Jesus was as brutal and gory as any execution could possibly be.  Is it me, or does anyone else view the repackaging of the film, “The Passion of the Christ” as such an attempt to sanitize what has already been produced as “over the edge?” 

May be… may be…

Those who had any hope that Jesus was a good man sent by God went home that day sorely disappointed and hurt.  A crucified criminal could not be a good man.  And Jesus was indeed a crucified criminal. 

That was the human vision of what happened on Good Friday.  That is how the event appeared to most of those who were there.  The event was nothing less than a horrible disaster, a degrading end to a young man’s career.  In the words of Isaiah, “there was in him no stately bearing…nor appearance that would attract us.”  He was a “man of suffering…spurned, and we held him in no esteem.”  Isaiah states further, however, that there is an entirely different way to view what happened.

To the eyes of faith, this horror was an act of love, an act of victory and, in John’s words, a moment of GLORY.  As Isaiah says, “it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that He endured”.  After Resurrection and Pentecost, the Christian community could look back on that horrible event and say that Jesus, in an act of unconditional love, had suffered for our sins and won our salvation.  The early church interpreted the events of Good Friday in the light of God’s loving plan of salvation.  Good Friday was not just a human event, a Roman execution.  It was also an act of love as Jesus laid down his life for us, His friends.

John, more than any evangelist, emphasizes Jesus’ free offering of Himself in service to God and to us.  John talks about the crucifixion as Jesus’ “finest hour”.  Is John clueless?  NOT.  John has captured a deep fact of our faith.  God, and only God, can take the most horrible act of a person’s inhumanity to another person and turn it into good, an eternal good.  And that is what God is all about!  He loves us so much that He is willing to turn gross evil into love and give us the benefit.

Today we gather not so much to lament the suffering and death of Jesus, as to glory in the love He has for us.  As the song used to say, “We remember, we celebrate, we believe.”  We believe that his love for us is unconditional and that He calls us to faith and life.

We do not celebrate the Eucharist today.  We dramatically remember that what Jesus did at the Last Supper was to offer Himself totally to God and us, an offering that culminated at the cross.  Today we venerate that cross knowing that we cannot look beyond it until we are called.

Holy Thursday 2025

Gospel:  John 13:1-15

April 17, 2025

We enter tonight into the Sacred Triduum, three holy days that culminate in the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection, by placing ourselves in humble service to others.  The solemnity, the symbols, and the beauty of this liturgy need very little – if any – explanation.  We can focus on many symbols tonight, but let out attention be drawn to the Gospel we have just heard proclaimed and the sacred action which will follow this homily: the mandatum (washing of feet). 

Instead of hearing the familiar story told in the synoptic Gospels, we hear instead John’s account of what happened after the meal Jesus shared with his disciples.  By telling them HOW Jesus washed the feet of these disciples, John makes the necessary connection between servanthood and Eucharist.  This is called mandatum because it is Jesus’ mandate that his disciples to as he did.  “Do this, do this love, in memory of me.  Do this Eucharist in memory of me.  Pour yourself out in complete service to others as I have done”.  Early in Church history, the mandatum was considered a sacrament; a transforming encounter with Christ. 

Sharing in the Eucharist means washing the feet of others. 

Feet are an interesting part of our bodies.  They help support us and keep us standing upright.  They prevent us from falling by keeping us balanced. Above all, feet are essential to walking as we take one step at a time.  They may not be the most glorious part of our body, but they have a major role to play.  Ask anyone who has lost the use of a foot.

The Hebrews walked from slavery into freedom.  The prophets walked from place to place announcing the message of Jesus.  Even at the time of Jesus, walking was THE mode of travel.  So, celebrating the Last Supper, Jesus, who took the role of slave and that of the host, washed disciples’ feet.  By doing this, Jesus not only performed a practical act of offering comfort to weary feet, he also emphasized that if anyone wishes to be a follower, she or he must be a servant to all.

The Hebrews were instructed to eat the Passover meal with their loins girt (that is to say, flexed, ready to walk), sandals on their feet, and staffs in hand ready to “hit the road”.  Before the journey, the Hebrews were instructed by God to prepare a meal.  They would need nourishment for the journey.  This meal was not one for the sake of eating/killing hunger – it was a sacred meal.  So they were prepared to hear God say, “Ready, set… go!”… they were called by God to set out on a journey with no clear knowledge of WHERE they would be going… kind of like handing your phone to someone who would program your GPS, click start, and tell you to follow it … wherever it tells to you walk … forever how long. 

Jesus shows the disciples the meaning of perfect love.  Just as Jesus knew the twelve, He also knows us.  In fact, Jesus is aware of our past sins as well as those we will commit.  In all of this, Jesus still loves us.  Knowing fully who we are, Jesus is still willing to serve us and asks us to do the same.  Doing Eucharist means service to one another on the journey of life. 

“Where charity and love prevail, there is God.”  Let us commit ourselves to the poor, to humble service as a Eucharistic people who live by the mandate of Christ. 

Let us go forth and wash the feet of others.

Passion / Palm Sunday

April 12-13, 2025

Gospel: Luke 22:14-23:56

Imagine, if you will, a group of people walking through a huge store they seldom have a chance to visit; maybe just once a year.  On every display, there is a sign that proclaims “HUGE SALE”!  In this store, the sales are genuine and represent outstanding value.  But the people assume it is all “just routine sale promotion, just business as usual.”  They leave the store without checking anything out; they miss out on the special values that were available to them.

With today’s liturgy we begin HOLY WEEK.  The analogy you just heard is not perfect; God doesn’t run a sale on grace this week – grace is always FREE.  But there are special, sacred times of grace.  HOLY WEEK is one.  It is unlike any of the other 51 weeks of the year.  The upcoming days can truly be holy ones for us if we are aware…

HOLY THURSDAY.  Recall and appreciate more deeply; Jesus’ deep affection for his friends and example of service to others; his desire to remain with us and his breathtaking gift of The Eucharist; His acceptance in the Garden of “doing for us what we could not do for ourselves”.

We bring to the Lord our experience of community, both joy and pain; gratitude for Eucharist and desire to enter more deeply into it; we ask ourselves; what are areas of our lives that most need nourishment?

GOOD FRIDAY.  Recall and appreciate more deeply; Jesus’ acceptance of injustice, pain and death for our sake; his forgiveness of those responsible.

We bring to the Lord our own sadnesses; past, present and to come; contrition for the ways we have been part of “the hour of darkness”.

HOLY SATURDAY.  Recall and appreciate more deeply; the shock, confusion and emptiness felt by those who loved Jesus; and through all this, God’s plan moving toward fulfillment; death: a requirement for resurrection.

Bring to the Lord all those whose world would have been suddenly torn apart; petition for trust, even in the darkest of times; that God is still in charge; our desire to be spiritually renewed.

EASTER VIGIL/EASTER SUNDAY.  Recall and appreciate more deeply; God promised a savior and God delivered.  Our personal history is joined to the great events of salvation history. Despite news headlines, victory over death is final.

Bring to the Lord boundless gratitude for being restored to new life; desire to see signs of new life in our lives and the lives of others.

In our Eucharist today, we celebrate the Pascal Mystery which we recall in detail during Holy Week.  Let us pray for the grace to enter fully into this sacred time… the holiest of all the weeks of the year. 

Ash Wednesday 2025

March 5, 2025

Gospel: Matthew 6:1-6; 16-18

Everyone has seen it at one time or the other… a thought put on a button, bumper sticker, just about anything… message:

Please be patient.  God isn’t finished with me… yet!

Whether we realist it or not, today we proclaim that same message.  We don’t do it with a button… but with the ashes on our foreheads.

The askes we will wear announce to the world a plain fact… we are not perfect, we are sinners…

These ashes tell all who see us that we are beginning 40 days of prayer, repentance and sacrifice – that we are Catholic Christians seeking somehow to reconcile ourselves with God.

These ashes say that we are a work in progress.

They say: please be patient.  God ISN’T finished with me.

In a word, He isn’t finished with any of us.

That is the great wonder and consolation of Lent!

As we enter this holy season, we should approach it soberly and seriously.  But we should not mistaken “seriousness’ for ‘solemnity’.

The Gospel reminds us; “Do not look gloomy… anoint your head and wash your face.”  I’d take that one step further; add to this season of penance and prayer a sense of possibility.  Make it an occasion of Hope.  And yes, even Joy… and most definitely Mercy…

We think of Lent as a time for ‘giving up’… let us shorten our work to ‘giv-ing’… begin by giving JOY.

And if you truly want to give up something, don’t settle for chocolate or pizza or cheesecake or alcohol or tobacco or shopping or the casinos or whatever… you name it…

Go further.  Go deeper.  Try giving up something REALLY hard… give up cynicism… or jealousy… or backstabbing…

Give up gossip.  Give up regrets for choices you never made or paths you never took.  Give up the Blame Game. Give up fighting God’s Will for you.  Give up acting “MY will be done” rather “THY will be done”.

Need help?  Try this: give up whatever fear or anxiety is keeping you from celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation… pull a Nike… Just Do It… go.  Look for opportunities… they are there…

Give up being too busy to pray or being too worriedto Hope.  As I know is said in AA… let go, let God.  As it is also said, ‘there is no better time than the present’.  As scriptures says, ‘now is the acceptable time’…

The point of all this isn’t just to take others feel better – or make ourselves feel holy.  It is to draw us closer to The One who makes everything, including redemption… possible.  And we do it now for a good reason.  Lent pushes us to admit something we prefer to ignore.  You know, we don’t have forever.  Look in the mirror after Mass tonight, we have been marked.  The clock is ticking… and there is work to do…

As we ‘Remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return’ OR ‘Reform your life and believe in the Gospels’; we remember to start ‘over and over and over’ in these 40 days to become better… not perfect.

Be patient with yourselves… and with everyone else; especially the unsensible…

God isn’t finished with any of us… yet.