Last week I did my first presentation at St. Michael’s Church in Newark. It is called “What Comes After the Jubilee Year of Mercy?” It largely contains pieces of what I did in my three presentations at Immaculate Conception Church on the Jubilee Year of Mercy but it does contain some new insights. You can …
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10 Psalm 40:2, 3, 4, 18 (14b) Hebrews 12:1-4 Luke 12:49-53 Jesus tells us that he comes to bring division, to set father against son and mother against daughter, and in-laws fighting. The thing is, we don’t need Jesus help with this. We can find enough to fight …
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Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Lawrence. He was a deacon under Pope St. Sixtus II and was martyred in 258 A.D. Yesterday we celebrated the optional memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (aka Edith Stein) who was martyred during World War II. Our Catholic Church has a long history of martyrs …
If you look at today’s gospel, you will see it begin with Jesus saying “The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind.” I think that is all some people hear today and they think everyone gets into Heaven. God WANTS everyone to get into Heaven but if …
Tomorrow I complete my first month at St. Michael’s in Newark. Of course, the month has been full of meeting new people. Every parishioner is a new face to me. While every person has been a new face to me, there still have been connections to the past. One of the parishioners here is the …
Today’s (7/26/16) first reading comes from the Book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah served as a prophet in a time when people had fallen away from faith in our God. The people faced a very difficult time and wondered if God had abandoned them. Of course, God had not. God was simply allowing them to suffer the …
Well, I have been at St. Michael’s for two weeks now. I have felt very welcomed by the parishioners and that has been great. The staff has also been great. I realize now that I had forgotten what it was like to be in a new place. When I go to work on something in …
As I prepare to move to my new assignment at St. Michael’s in Newark next week, I have thought about the various places I have served. Next Thursday, June 30th, I will celebrate my ninth anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood. In those nine years, I have served in three different parishes that included …
We are just about to mail our June 2016 parish newsletter. As I prepare to leave the parish, below is the last column I wrote for the Immaculate Conception newsletter. Final Thoughts Four years ago, on June 26, 2012, I became the pastor here. In a few days, June 28th, I will move on to St. …
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If you are a regular reader of my blog, by now you know that on June 28th, I will end my assignment as pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Ithaca and move to Newark, NY where I will become the pastor of St. Michael’s Church. This has not been an easy decision for me. I had …
