During the Church’s Evening Prayer on Epiphany, the liturgy proclaims: Three mysteries mark this holy day: Today the star leads the Magi to the infant Christ; Today water is changed into wine for the wedding feast; Today Christ wills to be baptized by John in the river Jordan to bring us salvation. Usually, we stop with the Magi. The crèche is complete: Mary and Joseph, ox and ass, shepherds with their flocks, magi with their gifts. While everyone might leave the stable—the Holy Family to Egypt, the shepherds telling glad tidings to the villagers, the Magi...

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During the Church’s Evening Prayer on Epiphany, the liturgy proclaims: Three mysteries mark this holy day: Today the star leads the Magi to the infant Christ; Today water is changed into wine for the wedding feast; Today Christ wills to be baptized by John in the river Jordan to bring us salvation. Usually, we stop with the Magi. The crèche is complete: Mary and Joseph, ox and ass, shepherds with their flocks, magi with their gifts. While everyone might leave the stable—the Holy Family to Egypt, the shepherds telling glad tidings to the villagers, the M...

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I’ll be the first to admit it: Epiphany’s Mass involves a lot of words. Prophet and gospel are lengthy. Our best-known hymn for the day (written in Williamsport, mind you!) doesn’t really allow much room to sensibly skip verses. Throw in Eucharistic Prayer I, with its special texts for the Epiphany and we end up with a lot of words. There’s one more set of words we could add: the Announcement of Easter and the Moveable Feasts, a chant given to the deacon to proclaim after today’s gospel. We won’t be doing it, but here are the words: ...

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It’s still Christmas. It wasn’t Christmas the day after Halloween or the day after Thanksgiving. No matter what the radio played or what shops looked like, it just wasn’t Christmas. It really wasn’t Christmas during those hectic weeks of parties and concerts, shopping, and cookie baking. But now it’s Christmas, and Christmas sticks around for us as Catholics. We’re still celebrating Christmas today as we reflect on the Holy Family. New Year’s Eve and Day will be the Octave Day of Christmas (along with our celebration of Mary as M...

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We all know that Advent is about looking forward. Yes, we look forward to Christmas, to remember how God came into our world in the incarnation. Perhaps, more importantly, we look forward to his Second Coming when we enter into a new heaven and earth, where tears are wiped away, death is defeated and life—a perfectly happy life—never ends. While I certainly want us to seize the moment of each Advent day and hour, let’s look ahead to some things happening in our parish: Christmas Confessions: Last opportunities before Christmas on Mondays, December 16...

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Tomorrow—the Immaculate Conception of Mary: Shouldn’t it be today, December 8? How did it land on the 9th? But, on Monday, that day wouldn’t be a holy day of obligation, right? Yes, Mary’s conception is set for December 8— exactly nine months before the feast of her nativity. But, when it falls on Advent Sunday, Advent (just like Lent or Easter) wins over the feast. But, it’s an important feast because, obviously of Mary and because it’s the patronal feast for the United States. So, it gets moved instead of canceled. Rome has recent...

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I’m writing this column a full week before Thanksgiving. And I just got back from Hobby Lobby. It wasn’t really a fun trip. (No fault of the store, by any means!) I only needed candles for the Advent wreaths in the house. I know they had them last year. But, they’re not exactly in an easy spot to find. I had to plow through all sorts of Santas and trees, shiny ornaments and fake gift boxes (Why, for heaven’s sake, is that even a thing?), crowds of people piling up the stuff they apparently need to get before Thanksgiving arrives in 8 days. And, of co...

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We heard these words today: “Jesus Christ...the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth...who has made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father....” Yes, we celebrate Christ as our King. But, we also acknowledge that we belong to a priestly and royal people, the Church. We belong to each other. We’re responsible for each other. That’s a great challenge for the pilgrim Church on earth. But, if we think back to the beginning of this month, we also belong to that Church triumphant, the saints in h...

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This past year our parish Vocations Committee has brought some special days to our attention: International Marriage Day (around St Valentine’s), Good Shepherd Sunday (after Easter, when we pray for vocations to priesthood), Buy Your Priest a Beer Day (yes, that’s really a thing). We have one coming up this week—and one that may present an unfamiliar notion for us—Day of Prayer for Cloistered Life. This Thursday the Church celebrates the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin, the day when Joachim and Anne bring the child Mary to Jerusalem, where, as ...

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Last weekend we had lots of things going on. We put on the costumes for Halloween. We celebrated All Saints Day. We heard magnificent music at the All Souls Day Requiem Mass. We celebrated Sunday for the first time as one consolidated parish. But, we missed something during those days. The Church sets aside this week for prayer for vocations—vocations to religious life as sisters and brothers, vocations to the permanent diaconate, vocations to the priesthood, vocations to sacramental married life. We didn’t miss the moment entirely. We’re always pray...

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