Father, how often should I come to confession? I get that question a lot. Sometimes from nonbelievers who want to understand this strange religious system of ours. Sometimes from people interested in becoming Catholic—they want to know just what they’re getting into. Sometimes from Catholics who are confused about the messages they’ve received— everything from “God doesn’t really care about sin anymore” to “Why aren’t you like Mother Teresa or John Paul II, who when to confession every single week?” The answe...

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Last Sunday afternoon I was sitting in St. Peter’s Cathedral in Scranton. I had traveled over there for the Rite of Election—an important part of the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults (OCIA) which used to be called Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA). As I sat there waiting for the liturgy to begin, I realized just how long it had been since I last participated in that particular ceremony. For many years of my priesthood, I had to skip that rite because I had evening Mass responsibilities. Since coming here, my Sunday afternoons and evenings ha...

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I know I’ve driving home this pilgrimage aspect of the Holy Year pretty often. But, it’s a treasured part of our Catholic faith. I’d hate to have the next several months to pass by and have us think: “I could have participated, I could have done something…”  Now we are fortunate to have a pilgrimage site in one of our churches. But, that doesn’t stop us from finding other sites as well. Think of it this way: As we travel, for work or for vacation, we’re passing pilgrimage sites all along the way. After the Broadway sh...

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From time to time, I hear people assert that the Church had done away with something. Friday penance or Sunday Mass obligation, confession, or indulgences. Usually, it’s accompanied by an appeal to an event (like Vatican II) or a person (like the Pope). “Didn’t Vatican II  get rid of that?” “Didn’t Pope Francis change that?” Truth: none of the aforementioned items have been changed. Not by a Council, not by the pope, not even by the synodal process. Check out how often Pope Francis has invited u...

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A couple of times in the past few weeks I’ve talked about the Holy Year—as part of a homily, in the bulletin. We’ve reflected on Jesus’ words in the Nazareth synagogue—“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…to proclaim a year of favor from the Lord.” We’ve talked about pilgrimages and shrines and holy doors. Imagine my surprise when I learned that the Bishop wanted to mark St. Boniface Church as a diocesan site for pilgrimage this year. Suddenly, Holy Years weren’t things that happen somewhere else&mdash...

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Remember the books we gave out at Christmas? Thin book. Grey and gold cover. The title is hidden in the middle of the artwork. Maybe you thought it was the worship guide for Christmas Mass—the place where we’d put the songs and readings. Maybe you picked it up right away— well, as right away as the day after Christmas when everyone went home—and started to read. Maybe you tossed it on the coffee table, the desk, the back seat of the car—with a mental note “later”. I’m included in that last category. That grey and gold...

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One of the elements of a Holy Year in the Catholic Church is pilgrimage. The pope opens the doors of Rome’s great basilicas. From across the world people travel to pass through those doors—to gain the indulgence of the holy year, a particular expression of God’s mercy. But, every pilgrimage is more than a trip or a vacation. Lovely though it may be to see Rome or Jerusalem, Canterbury or Compostela, a good pilgrimage points to something deeper than holy places or sacred shrines. It tells us we’re pilgrims—from the moment of our baptism until...

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You thought today was just Sunday, right? Another Sunday like all other Sundays. If you were particularly focused on Church and Mass, you might have guessed it was Some Sunday in Ordinary Time—third, fourth, whatevereth? But, this Sunday’s a lot more. It’s Groundhog Day and if you’re reading this on Sunday morning, that rodent has already warmed or chilled our hearts with a prediction for spring. It’s the Presentation of the Lord—the fortieth day after Christmas when the Christ Child was presented in the temple, and one of those fea...

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I couldn’t help noticing during the General Intercessions that there seemed to be a lot going on this past week. The Martin Luther King holiday. The Inauguration. The Day of Prayer and Fasting for the Protection of Unborn Life. The Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity. On top of it all, we continued to pray for vocations, for the sick and suffering, for people impacted by the California wildfires. As far as prayer goes, we had a great deal on our plate this past week. For those of you at the Saturday evening Masses, you’ll notice another wrinkle in our prayer...

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If you listen carefully to the prayers in today’s Mass, you’ll notice a focus on the Church’s unity. (Actually, you might first notice that they don’t exactly line up with the prayers given in publications like The Word Among Us and Magnificat.) This week each year the Church— along with other Christian communities, Orthodox and Protestant—invites us to pray that Christ’s believers might grow to be one as he so deeply desired—and himself so deeply prayed at the Last Supper. Let’s not forget that unity has always been ...

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