Today, we meet a woman, who after meeting Jesus, shared her story with all those who have ears to hear.

March 15, 2020
Dear Visitors and Parishioners,

Today, we meet a woman, who after meeting Jesus, shared her story with all those who have ears to hear. We don't know her age. However, her story with the Lord is his longest one-on-one chat recorded in Scriptures.

She lived in a town where everyone knew her, knew of  her  failure  to live up to what was considered decent and conventional conduct for a woman. In order to avoid the condemnation of her neighbors-she did her errands in the heat of the day when they were staying cool and resting in their homes. This woman was an outsider: a woman in a man's world, despised by the Jews, a repeat offender of social norms. She was an outsider; John's gospel doesn't even give her a name.

This Samaritan woman is shocked to see a man at the well and even more shocked when this Jewish man engages her in conversation and asks for a drink of water. The Samaritan woman said to him, "How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink ?"- For Jews use nothing in common with Sa­ mari tans. She focused on the Law; Jesus focused on grace. If you knew He said, "the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. "Jesus knew quite well who the woman was and her life history. Yet, he approached her for a drink. Jesus's aim was actually to draw her closer to himself, the Eternal living water.

The Good News is that despite our sinfulness, failings,  God  can use  us if we accept his call which comes to us because of the water of baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Brothers and sisters, this is how grace works. Grace motivates change in one's life. St Paul says, "Sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under the law but under grace." "With God's grace, all things are possible." Our response to the Lord should be the same. We confront our true selves, experience God's grace, and share the good news of his mercy, and forgiveness.

Jesus invites all by saying 'If anyone is thirsty let him come to me. Let any­ one come and drink who believes in me for from his breast shall flow fountains of living water'. Jesus is in fact here talking about the life-giving Holy Spirit.

What is the water we seek to quench our thirst with?-The  water welling up to eternal life which Jesus offers or the polluted water from the wells of pleasure that cannot deliver peace and joy, or the water of success, wealth, power, drugs, etc.? Let us rejoice, because the living water Jesus offers us is free and we have but to ask for it. It alone can satisfy our longings and deepest thirst.

-Fr. Peter Damian Harris, O.P.

If Lent is 40 days, why are there 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter?

March 8, 2020
Dear Visitors and Parishioners,
If Lent is 40 days, why are there 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter?

"The 40 days of Lent" has always been more of a metaphor than a literal count. Over the course of history, the season of preparation for Easter Sunday has ranged from one day (in the first century) to 44 (today in the Roman church). Officially since 1970, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at sunset on Holy Thursday.

Already at the Council of Nicea in 325 the bishops spoke of the quadragesima paschae (Latin for "40 days before Easter") as the well-established custom. At that time Lent began on the sixth Sunday before Easter and ended at dusk on Holy Thursday-40 days. But the council also forbade fasting,  kneeling,  and any other acts of sorrow and penance on Sundays, even in Lent. So only 34 of the 40 days were for fasting.

Since Jesus fasted and prayed for 40 days after his Baptism, Christians  in the fifth century wanted literally 40 days of penance before Easter. The first step was to add Good Friday and  Holy Saturday,  the "paschal fast,"  to make 36 fasting days.

The second step occurred over the course of the next few centuries in Rome. In addition to baptizing new Christians at Easter, the practice of welcoming back on Holy Thursday those who were baptized but who had committed serious  sins became popular. Just as those to be baptized entered into final and intense preparation during Lent, those to be reconciled were expected to do likewise. But the first day of Lent - a Sunday-was already full, with Eucharist, a penitential procession through the city, and the rite of election for those to be baptized.

So those to be reconciled on Holy Thursday gathered on the Wednesday before the first Sunday of Lent. Wednesday (along with Friday) was already a day of fasting throughout the year, so it was appropriate to gather the penitents on that day. Borrowing a sacred sign from the scriptures, the bishop sprinkled ashes on the heads of the penitents, which they wore (without washing) until Holy Thursday as a sign of their sorrow.

This sacred sign was so attractive that even those who were not in a state of serious sin began to ask for ashes on the Wednesday before Lent. By the 11th century the pope recommended to all the bishops that ashes be distributed to anyone who sought them on that day, which became, of course, Ash Wednesday.

Here then, were four more days of fasting and penance: Ash Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday before the first Sunday of Lent, bringing  the total to 40. So today, while the season of Lent (Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday) is technically 44 days, the number of days for penance and fasting before Easter  is still 40: 44 days minus 6 Sundays equals 38, plus Good Friday and Holy Saturday equals 40. -  

By David  Philippart

Hear, O God, my petition, listen to my prayer

March 1, 2020
Dear Visitors and Parishioners,

A Commentary on the Psalms by St. Augustine

Hear, O God, my petition, listen to my prayer. Who is speaking? An in­dividual, it seems. See if it is an individual: I cried to you from the ends of the earth while my heart was in anguish. Now it is no longer one person; rather, it is one in the sense that Christ is one, and we are all his members. What single individual can cry from the ends of the earth? The one who cries from the ends of the earth is none other than the Son's inheritance. It was said to him: Ask of me, and I shall give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession. This possession of Christ, this inheritance of Christ, this body of Christ, this one Church of Christ, this unity that we are, cries from the ends of  the earth. What does it cry? What   I said before: Hear, 0 God, my petition, listen to my prayer; I cried out to you from the ends of the earth. That is, I made this cry to you from the ends of the earth; that is, on all sides.

Why did I make this cry? While my heart was in anguish. The speaker shows that he is present among all the nations of the earth in a condition, not of exalted glory but of severe trial.

Our pilgrimage on earth cannot be exempt from trial. We progress by means of trial. No one knows himself except through trial, or receives a crown except after victory, or strives except against an enemy or temptations.

The one who cries from the ends of the earth is in anguish, but is not left on his own. Christ chose to foreshadow us, who are his body, by means of his body, in which he has died, risen and ascended into heaven, so that the members of his body may hope to follow where their head has gone before.

He made us one with him when he chose to be tempted by Satan. We have heard in the gospel how the Lord Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. Certainly Christ was tempted by the devil. In Christ you were tempted, for Christ received his flesh from your nature, but by his own power gained life for you; he suffered insults in your nature, but by his own power gained glory for you; therefore, he suffered temptation in your nature, but by his own power gained victory for you.

If in Christ we have been tempted, in him we overcame the devil. Do you think only of Christ's temptations and fail to think of his victory? See yourself as tempted in him, and see yourself as victorious in him. He could have kept the devil from himself; but if he were not tempted he could not teach you how to triumph over temptation.

-St. Augustine

"The fast is the weapon of protection against demons,"

February 23, 2020
Dear Visitors and Parishioners,
Why fasting is so powerful

"The fast is the weapon of protection against demons," taught St. Basil the Great. "Our Guardian Angels more really stay with those who have cleansed our souls through fasting.”

Why is fasting so powerful? "By setting aside this (created) realm where the devil works, we put ourselves into communion with another realm where the devil does not work, he cannot touch us," Deacon Carnazzo explained.

It better disposes us for prayer, noted Monsignor Pope. Because we feel greater hunger or thirst when we fast from food and water, "it reminds us  of our frailty  and helps us be more humble," he said. "Without humility, prayer and then our experience of God really can't be unlocked."

Thus, the practice is "clearly linked by St. Thomas Aquinas, writing within the Tradition, to chastity, to purity, and to clarity of mind," noted Fr. Lew.

"You can kind of postulate from that that our modern-day struggles with the virtue of chastity, and perhaps a lack of clarity in theological knowledge, might be linked to an abandonment of fasting as well."
Be wary of your motivation

However, Fr. Lew noted, fasting "must be stirred up by charity." A Catholic should not fast out of dieting or pride, but out of love of God.

"It's always dangerous in the spiritual life to compare yourself to other people," he said, citing the Gospel of John where Jesus instructed St. Peter not to be concerned about the mission of St. John the Apostle but rather to "follow Me." (John 21: 20-23)

In like manner, we should be focused on God during Lent and not on  the sac­rifices of others, he said.
Lent (is referred to) as a joyful season...It's the joy of loving Him more.

"We will often fail, I think. And that's not a bad thing. Because if we do fail, this is the opportunity to realize our utter dependence on God and His grace,  to seek His mercy and forgiveness, and to seek His strength so that we can grow in virtue and do better," he added.

And by realizing our weakness and dependence on God, we can "discover anew the depths of God's mercy for us" and can be more merciful to others, he added.

Giving up good things may seem onerous and burdensome, but  can-  and should- a Catholic fast with joy?

"It's referred to in the preface of Lent as a joyful season,"  Fr. Lew said. "And it's the joy of deepening our relationship with Christ, and therefore  coming closer to Him. It's the joy of loving Him more, and the more we love God the closer we draw to Him."

"Lent is all about the Cross, and eventually the resurrection," said Deacon Car­nazzo. If we "make an authentic, real sacrifice for Christ" during Lent, "we can come to that day of the crucifixion and say 'Yes Lord, I willingly with you accept the cross. And when we do that, then we will behold the third day of resurrection."'
This article was originally published on CNA Feb. 20, 2016 catholicnewsagency.com.

Today's readings emphasize for us that we should let our light shine out before others, and that we should not hide it under a bushel basket.

February 9, 2020
Dear Visitors and Parishioners,

Today's readings emphasize for us that we should let our light shine out before others, and that we should not hide it under a bushel basket. It may seem silly. Why would anyone hide a light under a bushel basket? It obviously does not belong there. However, the truth is we do at times, otherwise our readings today wouldn't exhort us to let our light shine out otherwise. What is this light then that we sometimes hide? Is it not the sheer goodness of God, the presence of Christ, and the grace of the Holy Spirit found in each one of us?

When I was in seminary and we were discussing the Trinity and on how some early Church Fathers viewed  the Trinity, it was clear that the sheer good­ ness found within God overflowed into the world into creation. It is as if God's sheer goodness was like pot of boiling water just waiting to burst out.

We, who are made in the image of God, are called to let our light break forth. But how? In what way? The  task is not  an  easy  one, but we  need  only  to look  at what was provided in the scriptures. Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn your back on your own... If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness. Our goodness is to bubble over into the service of others.

St. Basil the Great, one of the greatest and most influential saints in the Church, had a few words to say, and while they may seem harsh for our  ears, he speaks a truth of what is the duty of every Christian:

The harshest form of covetousness is not even to give things perishable to those who need them.
"But whom do I treat unjustly," you say, "by keeping what is my own?" Tell me, what is your own? What did you bring into this life? From where did you receive it? It is as if someone were to take the first seat in the theater, then bar everyone else from attending, so that one person alone enjoys what is offered for the benefit of all - this is what the rich do. They first take possession of the common property, and then they keep it as their own because they were the first to take it. But if every man took only what sufficed for his own need, and left the rest to the needy, no one would be rich, no one would be poor, no one would be in need. ...

ls God unjust, dividing unequally the goods of this life? Why are you rich, while the other is poor? Isn't it, if for no other reason, so that you can gain a reward for your kindness and faithful stewardship, and for him to be honored with the great virtue of patience? But you, having gathered everything inside the empty bosom of avarice, do you think that you wrong no one, while you rob so many people? ...

He who strips a man of his clothes is to be called a thief Is not he who, when he is able, fails to clothe the naked, worthy of no other title? The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.

- Fr. Nicholas Reynolds, O.P.

The Feast of the Presentation, sometimes called the Feast of Meeting, is, at its core, a feast of longing.

February 2, 2020
Dear Visitors and Parishioners,

The Feast of the Presentation, sometimes called the Feast of Meeting, is, at its core, a feast of longing. This feast reveals the longing between humanity and divinity. In the Temple, Jesus comes to meet us and we go to meet Him. God is truly  present amongst us every day. He comes as a light for all who are in darkness. Like Simeon, may I too recognize that the Lord has come to be my light and salvation? We have to make God more and more a part of our daily lives.

Simeon recognized Jesus as 'a light for revelation to the Gentiles,' and so for us. God wants us in communion with Him all the time. Brothers and sisters, not letting God into your life every day can cost you [us] eternally. Let God fulfill His promises to you today! Simeon sings his song of farewell after years of waiting for the sign of God's salvation. In Simeon, we see hope triumphant and hope eternally rewarded.

As you meditate on the story of the Presentation in the Temple, let God speak to you especially through the words of Simeon.

-Fr. Peter Damian Harris, O.P

Your candles may be blessed at the 9:30 a.m. or the 11:00 a.m.
Masses  Sunday morning

Candlemas Day was important in the lives of farmers.
An old English song went as follows:
  "If Candlemas be fair and bright, Come, Winter, have another flight.
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Go, Winter, and come not again."

Here are eight, frequently asked questions that might come up when you invite a friend to Mass.

January 26, 2020
Dear Visitors and Parishioners,

Here are eight, frequently asked questions that might come up when you invite a friend to Mass.

What's with all of the sitting, standing and kneeling?
Each posture during Mass has function and meaning. When we sit, we are en­gaged in active listening, giving our attention to the readings, the homily and some of the prayers. We stand for a couple of reasons- to listen to the Gospel (we sit for the other Bible readings) to acknowledge that we are in the presence of Christ. The Gospel is the Word of God speaking to us in the present. We hear stories about Je­sus and the words that He spoke and so we stand in honor of this. Sometimes our standing together shows our unity in prayer (like when we pray the Creed or the General Intercessions) as the Body of Christ, and we stand together as a community preparing to receive the Body of Christ in the Eucharist. Kneeling is a penitential/ reverential posture. We acknowledge our sinfulness and need for God's healing, so we kneel in God's Presence asking for that healing.

What's that squiggly motion everybody does in front of their faces before the Gospel is read? Before the Gospel is read, when the community stands together to listen, we make the sign of the cross on our foreheads, our lips, and our hearts signifying that we are asking God to always keep the Gospel on our minds, on our lips and in our hearts. If we keep the Gospel in these three places, all our thoughts, words and desires will be in line with Jesus. It's a physical reminder to us that we need to not
just hear the Gospel, but to live the Gospel every day of our lives.

How does everyone seem to know what's going on and what to expect?
This is one of the best things about Catholic Mass. The way we do it in America is the same way they do it everywhere in the world. And the way we do it today is pretty much the way it's been done since the 1st Century. From the prayers that we say to the Scripture readings that are read, to the postures and responses that we participate in- it's all mapped out; and it's all uniform in every language. This is awesome because you can just sink in, let go of whatever was weighing you down on your way in, and let the ritual happen. There is a flow, a beauty and  a comfort to the routine.

What is the wafer you all are receiving, and can I get one, too?
The Source and Summit of everything we do as Catholics is the Eucharist, aka: Holy Communion. Jesus said in the Gospel of John 6:51, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." We take this very literally. At the Last Supper Jesus took bread and wine, blessed them and said, "This is my body" "This is my blood" and "Do this in memory of me." (Luke 22) We take this, with the Gospel of John very literally, too. Jesus' Sacrifice for us on the Cross is what we celebrate at Mass. He made that Sacrifice once and for all, but told us to participate in it, too. Our celebration of this Sacrifice isn't a new one; it brings  the one and only Sacrifice into the present. The hosts and wine change from those elements to His True Presence-to the Body and Blood of Christ. It's not a symbol for us. It's a reality. And so, we ask that only those who are united with us in that belief through the Catholic Church participate in receiving Communion.

see the full article and question list at uscathlic.org

- Jen Schlamauss-Perry

"Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."

January 19, 2020
Dear Visitors and Parishioners,

"Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."

-John 1:29b

These familiar words of St. John the Baptist offer us a beautiful meditation. They are spoken every time we attend Mass when the priest holds up the Sacred Host. These words, spoken first by John as Jesus came to Him to be baptized, are words that can be prayerfully meditated upon throughout our lives.

Think about that statement: "Behold the Lamb of God... " It's good to start by imagining John speaking these words of Jesus. But from there, we apply them to the Eucharist and to countless other moments in our daily lives.

When John first spoke these words, the "Lamb of God" was seen in a very ordinary way. The eyes of all present saw only an ordinary man approaching the scene. But the eyes of faith saw He who would give His life for the salvation of the world as the Sacrificial Lamb.

And when we look at the Sacred Host, as it is held up at Mass for all to see, we see Jesus, the Sacrificial Lamb, in an even more veiled way. We see, with our eyes, a piece of bread. But with the eyes of faith, once again we behold the Savior.

The Sacrificial Lamb of God is continually coming to us throughout our day. He is all around us, coming to us in veiled form, revealing Himself in faith. Do you see Him? How is it that you are being called, this day, to behold His divine and sacrificial presence? How is He present in acts of selfless charity? How does He come to you each day and how does He desire you to bring Him to others each day?

-Fr. Nicholas Reynolds, O.P.

Today's Feast marks the conclusion of the Christmas Season and the be­ ginning of Ordinary Time.

January 12, 2020

Dear Visitors and Parishioners,

Today's Feast marks the conclusion of the Christmas Season and the be­ ginning of Ordinary Time. It's a feast of transition from the hidden life of Christ to that of His public ministry. This Feast equally echoes the  theme  of the Epiphany in that the Baptism of the Lord is another manifestation announcing Jesus' divinity to all of His first followers and  to the disciples of John the Baptist.

First of all, it needs to be pointed out that Jesus did not need the baptism of John. John was baptizing as a call to and sign of interior repentance. Jesus had no need to repent. But, nonetheless, He comes to John. John resists at first but Jesus insists. It's a question that often pops up when we hear these readings and observe this feast.

"Why did Jesus get baptized?" He obviously was free of sin. Why did he go through this ritual? What was the point? Why did he do it?
Theologians have been writing about this for centuries. They often talk about its symbolic importance. St. Gregory of Nyssa compared the baptism in the Jordan to Joshua entering the promised land through the Jordan.

But I think the explanation  is  much simpler-and  can lead  us  today  to a deeper appreciation of Christmas and the Incarnation. In short: this mo­ment when Jesus is baptized shows just how much God wanted to enter our world - to be one of us, to live as one of us, to share in all we are, even to the point of being baptized with all the others.

He came to enter into the human family, to be one with us in every way, and to bring the whole human family into the fullness of God's life. Finally, Jesus came in order to transform the world into the Reign of God. By entering into the waters, Jesus sanctified water and poured forth  His grace making all water the future source of salvation.

Jesus' baptism in the Jordan by John is a second  epiphany.  It  was  a  mo­ment of manifestation. As He emerged from the waters, "Heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from Heaven, 'You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."'

As we prepare to begin Ordinary Time, reflect, today, upon these words of the Father at the Baptism of Jesus. Hear the Father speaking to You about the divinity of His Son. Turn your eyes to Jesus and prepare yourself to fol­low Him and to heed every  word  He speaks. He was sent into this world  to draw us to the Father, allow Him to fulfill that mission in your own life.

-Fr. Peter Damian Harris, O.P

Prayer Dedicating theOrder of Preachers to the Blessed Virgin Mary

Dear Visitors and
Parishioners,

Prayer Dedicating the
Order of Preachers to the Blessed Virgin Mary

Virgin Mother
Mary, with trust we approach you. We, your preachers, fly to you  who 
believed  in  the 
words  sent from heaven and
pondered them in your heart. We stand close around you, who are always present
to the gathering of apostles.

In you the Word
was made flesh, the same Word which we receive, contemplate, praise together,
and preach. Therefore, under your guidance, we today devote ourselves anew to
the ministry of the Word. Furthermore, we declare to you that, hearing with you
the Word within ourselves and anointed by the Spirit whose sacred vessel you
preeminently are, we are consecrated in the name of Jesus Christ to evangelize
the world.

With the eyes of
your heart enlightened, you understood the mystery of the Word. Through you we,
too, are able to perceive the presence of that same Word in the history of our
time, so that we may finally contemplate him face to face.

Through you, the
Father sent his Son into the world that he 
might save it. Through you, we will be powerful in the sight of your
people, becoming witnesses of that truth which frees and of that love which unites.

To this place we have brought our
needs and here we ponder them. Do you, Mother, give us strength and preserve
the harmony of our family, so that what was begun by our profession may be
brought to completion by our love for one
another, for the salvation of the world, and to the praise and glory of God.

Today is the feast of the Holy Family

Dear Visitors and Parishioners,

December 29, 2019

Today is the feast of the Holy Family
and we as a church celebrate the fact that Christ, Our Lord, joined himself to
a family and sanctified family life. The Holy Family is a model for all
families in the Church, and at the same time this feast speaks to how each of
us can embrace Christ with our own families.

As we continue to celebrate the gift
of the incarnation, it is important for us to remember  that Christ entered into a family, and that
he needed a family. He relied on his mother and his foster father to help bring
him up. Hidden in here is the scandal
of Christmas: the maker of the universe,
who holds infinite power, needs to be fed, clothed, and supported by others.
The reality of the Son of God needing a family speaks to a most basic component
of our human nature: the need for human relationship. Perhaps it may sound odd
that God, who does not need anything, would bind himself so closely to his
creation that he made in his image that he
would need others, and yet this is precisely 
what  we celebrate. Christ, in becoming
incarnate, empties himself so that he might experience our human nature and
form a relationship with us.

Moreover, as we celebrate this feast
it is important to raise up the sacredness of the family. By being born into a family Christ
sanctifies the family life,
filling it with his grace. He makes family an opportunity to experience himself
and his grace in our own families, despite our own brokenness and sinfulness.
Every time a parent loves their child or a child their parent, Christ is there.
Every time spouses love one another, Christ is
there.

Christ is in his Church as well,
which is also our family and  His fam­ ily. We are baptized into the Church to be God's children and
as such the Church is our family. In and through the Church we are bound to one
another as brothers and sisters through his grace. Together we form one body with many
different gifts and talents, and so in the Church we are taught to rely on one another forging
a relationship among us.

The Holy Family gives us an
opportunity to reflect on how Christ truly embraced our human nature and  needed 
the  relationships  of  oth­ers. The Holy Family reveals to us how we too belong to a family and
that it is good and holy to form relationships and rely on others: to both
strengthen others and draw strength from others. This feast tells us truly that
the glory of God is found in a human being fully alive, and part of being alive
includes our families.

-Fr. Nicholas Reynolds

If we had to choose just one word to convey the spiritual meaning of the Christmas season

December 22, 2019

Dear Visitors and Parishioners,

If we had to choose just one word to
convey the spiritual meaning of the Christmas season, we might pick Emmanuel
the word  that appears in this Su day's
First Reading and is repeated in the Gospel.

Matthew narrates how Joseph comes to
know that Mary's pregnancy is not the result of her unfaithfulness but the
result of the miraculous intercession of the Holy Spirit. This happens
according the prophecy of Isaiah. In quoting
that prophecy, the word Emmanuel
appears again. Emmanuel expresses what we celebrate
this Advent and Christmas Season. The word means, God is with us. The present not just for a day but for all eternity.

The child's title, Emmanuel
(God-with-us), designates him as the ful­filment of the promise: "I will be
your God and you will be my people". There is never an instant when he is
not  with 
us. God 
is now  present as never before.
We are surrounded by God. We believe 
that  the God  of infinite power and majesty, the Creator of
the world, decided to take on flesh and come among his children. God did not
simply want to tell us about himself, God wanted to reveal himself in a human
face. God became one of us that first
Christmas and walked among us. He invites us, each day, to receive Him into our
deepest selves.

In our situation, with Christ really
present, we can "be confident and unafraid," He comes to raise us
whose hope has died under  the burden of problems, worries, and
concerns. He comes as one of us to bring hope;
he come to us who feel we are abandoned in the desert in order to make

the parched desert of our hearts bloom again with life, as the Prophet
Isaiah promises. 

God is not above us. God is not
beyond us. God is not far from us. God is not removed
from us. No, God is with us. God is Emmanuel. That one word proclaims what we celebrate at Christmas and it
gives us the reason for our hope and joy. EMMANUEL

- Fr. Peter Damian Harris, O.P

Today we begin a new year of grace.

December 15, 2019

Dear Visitors and Parishioners,

The following homily was preached by the Reverend Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Ph.D., S.T.D., First Sunday of Advent (December 1, 2019), at the Church of the Holy Innocents, Manhattan.

Today we begin a new year of grace, with the Advent season upon us. Let's begin by saying what Advent is not about. It is not about shopping; it is not about decorating a tree; it is not about having Christmas parties or singing Christmas carols. It is about the Advent, the Arrival, the Corning of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Even here, however, not a few intelligent, practicing Catholics still get it wrong. Advent is divided into two unequal parts: From the First Sunday of Advent through December 16, the Church directs our attention to Christ's Second Corning-at the end of time; from December 17 forward, we consider the Lord's First Corning as the Babe of Bethlehem. So, if we wish to adopt the mentality of sentire cum Ecclesia (thinking, feeling with the Church), what should be our spiritual stance from December 1 to 24?

If you were paying close attention the past few weeks, as the liturgical year was winding down, you should have noticed that the Scriptures insistently focused our gaze on what are traditionally referred to as "the four last things"-death, judgment, heaven, hell. Those themes continue to engage us for the first part of Advent...

Truth be told, we don't hear much of any of those four last things at all anymore­ and we are all the poorer for it. Now, we shouldn't be obsessed by these concerns, but because they formed a fundamental part of Jesus' preaching and teaching, they ought to form a part of ours as well.

Some years back, I was addressing a crowd of over a thousand people in the Miami area for a Saturday conference on the Faith. During the question period, a woman stood up and asked if the Church still believed in hell because she hadn't heard it mentioned from the pulpit in years. I turned the tables by pitching her ques­tion back to the audience: "How many people here  this  morning,"  I asked,  "have heard a homily on heaven within the past five years?" Fewer than twenty hands went up. "Now," I continued, "how many have heard a homily on hell within  the past five years?" Not a single hand surfaced. I think you would agree that something's off when statistics like that emerge-and I wouldn't be surprised if  many  people here today would have similar data to report. In fact, the problem is so widespread that the former Cardinal Ratzinger /Pope Benedict said that the greatest difficulty in the Church over the past four decades is a loss of a sense of eschatology-which is the $64,000 word for the four last things. In other words, if we lose sight of where we're headed, not only is our eternal salvation jeopardized, but our earthly existence is likewise compromised.

The goal of every human being ought to be heaven. That realization prompted the priest who taught us seminarians Freshman English at Seton Hall to say: "Gentle­ men, I know heaven's our true home, but I'm not the least bit homesick." And believe it or not, that is a rather Christian  attitude.  What I mean is this: While  we should regard life on high as our final destiny, we should also appreciate life here below because it too is God's gift to us. Indeed, if we cannot appreciate the divine gift of earthly life, chances are we won't be able to appreciate eternal life, either, because the two are intimately connected. We can't skip any steps in the process, however, so let's begin with that topic which haunts the modern mind- death.

Full article is available at The Catholic World Report.

Thank you for supporting me in my formation as a Dominican Friar!

Dear Visitors and Parishioners,

December 1, 2019

Thank you for supporting me in my formation as a Dominican Friar! I want to give you an update on how you have helped me to pray, live in community, study, and preach the Gospel according to the mission of the Order of Preachers for the salvation of souls.

This summer, on the eve of the feast of St. Dominic, I renewed my vows in the chapel of Holy Rosary Priory. As I reflect back on this mile­ stone, thinking of my novitiate in Irving, my  two years  of  studies in St. Louis, and now the beginning of my pastoral year at Texas Tech in Lubbock, I am struck by the gift of being able to share my vocation as a Dominican with many people like you.

Every evening before dinner, at Dominican priories all around the world, we gather to pray for the friars who have died on that specific day, listing out their names, and reciting Psalm 130, which we refer to as the De Profundis. This cherished tradition in the Order is one of the heartbeats of our regular community life in which the leader of the prayer begins the Psalm with the line, "Out of the depths I cry to you, 0 Lord." This full-hearted expression of trust in God affirms the commitment we make, through our Dominican vows, to build each other up in faithful­ ness to our call to preach. Likewise, it is out of the depths of my heart that I want to offer you my gratitude.

As a student brother on the road  to being ordained  a priest,  I want to recognize that your generosity provides me an opportunity  to study at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis. By exploring the truth of the Gospel with my professors, brothers, and other fellow students, my heart and mind are being formed to witness and share God's love. For example, the study of Church history has given me a context to better understand the pursuit of Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  By studying the  philosophical background to theological questions, I have learned ways to use unique tools of language to engage others in dialogue. Furthermore, walking though the development of Catholic social teaching has encouraged me with a foundation for reach­ing out to the vulnerable in our society today.

Dominican study, centered on the Word of God and oriented to our preaching mission, is done in the context of an active common life. Engaging on this vocational journey with my brothers in community means so much to me. My fellow friars are family to me, and like any family, we share together in the joys, frustrations, sufferings, and hopes of life. And how can I try to describe this to you It is characterized by moments like chanting the Liturgy of the Hours on a daily basis and participating in Mass together, consistently offering up prayers for you and your intentions. Our Dominican community life is expressed through everyday moments like trad­ing stories around the breakfast table, in which the climax of laughter bellows out into the hallway like an uproar. It is shown by the forgiveness extended to a brother who finishes the pot of coffee without making a new one. It is lived out in the reality' of shedding tears with a brother after a family loss, sharing a joyful exchange of conversation in the kitchen while baking cookies together after a long day of classes, decorating our Priory Christmas tree in preparation for a festive celebration together, and even parting on our itinerant journeys, knowing that we hold each other in prayer wherever we go.

Last summer, I had the opportunity to live with the Dominican student broth­ers in Nairobi, Kenya. Again, how can I describe this to you, except to say that so many of the Kenyans we met shared their love of Jesus with such humility, passion, and beauty. I sincerely wish you could meet them. Navigating bumpy roads, my brothers and I visited parishes, schools, and homes of wonderful people. I discovered that some of those who bore the struggle of living in very poor conditions with their families, were nevertheless filled with the Lord's peace that surpasses understanding. In Kenya, one of the Swahili proverbs I learned was the phrase, "Haba na haba hujaza kibaba," which means, little by little the bucket is filled. Through encounters with the friars and the people there, I found that my heart was indeed overflowing.

This past academic year, I had the honor of volunteering in a L'Arche com­ munity, which is a home where those with and without intellectual disabilities live together. I found that it was through everyday moments like cooking spa­ ghetti & meatballs for dinner and singing familiar songs in the living room, that I was able to help lift up the dignity and gif t that each member had to offer.

Moving to Houston this summer, I participated in the clinical pastoral edu­cation program at MD Anderson Cancer Center. In this ministry  that was as fruitful as it was challenging, I learned the value of compassionate presence in a profound way. I found purpose in remaining with others in their pain while helping them to recognize God's active presence. Even though it was difficult, I am thankful for the opportunity to walk with the patients and their families through meaningful moments in their journey with cancer  and relationship with God.

At this stage in my formation, I am now on my pastoral year, engaging in campus ministry. As I continue to meet many students, I am excited to empower them to express their faith in Christ through acts of service and fellowship together. Of course, I am cheering for them in life, while holding true to my Aggie roots in support on the football field.

As I walk with others along the journey of faith, I recognize many people are walking with me at the same time. This is such a gif t! God is so faithful and will continue to bring the good work begun in my heart, and in the hearts of so many, to completion. It is the good work of Dominican life: To Praise. To Bless. To Preach. Thank you for choosing to share in this work of God in my life. Let us continue to lift each other up in prayer. In Christ,

-Br. Greg Dunn, O.P.

To keep Christ in Christmas, we need Advent.

Dear Visitors and Parishioners,

November 24, 2019

To keep Christ in Christmas, we need Advent

Advent prepares us to let go of our power-seeking ways.

Advent is a season of preparation, prayer, and discernment. For me, it is both my favorite liturgical season and the most challenging. The people of God are called to be watchful and to prepare the way of the Lord. And yet in the chaos of contemporary society, the one thing we all seem to lack during Advent is time. Culturally, we move from Hal­loween to Thanksgiving to Christmas, sacrificing Advent along the way. Why are we in such a rush to Christmas? Can we truly have Christmas without  Advent?

From the very  first  Sunday, Advent  begins  with both  a warning  and an invitation. Beware, the Gospel of Luke warns. Do not get too caught up in the anxieties of daily life such that Jesus'  arrival will  "catch you by surprise like a trap." At the same time, it is an invitation. We each are called to be "one who, in the noise of the world, does not let themselves be overwhelmed by distraction or superficiality, but lives in a full and conscious way, with a concern above all for others," Pope Francis notes.

Always in Advent is a tension of being watchful and humbly opening ourselves. The constant reminder is to focus on God, not ourselves. The Magnificat proclaims that the world's  power  structures  are  not  God's. "He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly, " Mary sings. "The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty." This is why Advent begins with a warning. Since God's ways and priorities are not  our world's,  if we  are not  attentive  we will not be  ready.

"Advent is a time for relinquishing some of the control in order to receive the impossible from God,"  writes the biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann. Resisting the anxieties of daily life or societal pressures is easier said than done. Time seems to be the one thing we do not have each December. As Advent slips away and the pressures of society sur­ round us, we lament the need to "keep Christ in Christmas."

As a child, my teachers and parents urged us to reject consumerism and focus on God. However, the growing refrain is focused on the supe­riority of Christmas over other faith traditions. The very word Christmas is highly politicized. All throughout the election season, I kept seeing TV commercials in which candidates announced, "I say Christmas" as if a political position is akin to one's position on minimum wage or trade policy.

Last March I had the privilege of visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem ...with a few other pilgrims through the Old City to witness some­ thing remarkable. A Muslim family was entrusted with the keys to the church at least eight centuries ago. Adeeb Joudeh, a descendant of this family, told CNN that it is an honor bestowed not only on his family, but the Muslim world . In the wee hours of the early morning, Joudeh passes the keys to the descendant of a second Muslim family, Wajeeh Nuseibeh, who climbs a small ladder and unlocks the top and bottom locks, and the door is opened to visitors.

Here in the place of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, the depths of Bruegge­mann's point became clear to me. Advent's preparation invites us into a liminal space wherein God joins with us. And we must let go of control, let go of seek­ing worldly power in order to prepare. The peace and community caring for this holy site witness to the journeying  in the wilderness together.

Advent is what prepares us to reject the life-diminishing power structures of the world. We do not find hope by rejecting our brothers and sisters of other faiths and cultures. We cannot keep Christ in Christmas by excluding but only by journeying  together in the spirit of the Magnificat.

-Meghan J. Clark

www.uscatholic.com

This week the Church will celebrate the feast of the Pre­sentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary on November 21

Dear Visitors and Parishioners,

November 17, 2019

This  week  the  Church  will  celebrate  the  feast  of  the  Pre­sentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary on November  21. It is a feast that  was  widely  celebrated  in the  Eastern  Church before  it began to have  force in the  Western  Church, but  it  is an important  feast for us today, as we celebrate the Virgin Mary's  dedication to God.

The story of  the presentation  is not found in scripture, but there is an account of it within the Tradition of the Church, found in the Pro­ to evangelism  of  James,  which  contains  the  narratives  of  the  Virgin Mary's birth and childhood. Tradition holds that when Mary was three years old, her parents,  Joachim  and Anne, brought  the young Blessed Virgin  Mary  to  the  temple  to be  dedicated  to God. She remained  in the  temple  until  she  was  twelve  years  old  and  betrothed  to Joseph.

It is said that  when  she was first dedicated  to the Lord,  grace rushed  upon her  and she danced in the temple, for she has found her home  with  the  Lord,  as the  Lord  was  to  preparing  to  make  a home for  himself  in  her.  Though  we  are  not  matched  in  graces  received as the Blessed  Virgin  Mary, would  that we  all dwell within  the tem­ple  of  the  Lord  and  be  dedicated  to  him  as  she was?  Though  each of  us have  different  vocations,  all of  us have been baptized  into the Lord. We have all received  his life and he now lives in us by means of  his  Spirit  in  us  and  has  made  us  a  temple  sacred  to  the  Lord.

Like  Mary  we  are  dedicated  to  the Lord  and  are  asked  to  an­swer  his  call.  Thus  in  our  honoring  of  Mary  as  she  is  dedicated  to  the  Lord,  we  honor  her  in  her  desire  to  remain  with  the Lord  and follow him. St. Augustine  offers for us an important  in­ sight  on  following  the  Lord  through  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary:

Stretching out his hand over his disciples, the Lord Christ declared: Here are my mother and my brothers; anyone who does the will of my Father who sent me is my brother and sister and my mother. I would urge you to ponder these words. Did the Virgin Mary, who believed by faith and conceived by faith, who was the chosen one from whom our Savior was born among men, who was created by Christ before Christ was created in her -did she not do the will of the Father? Indeed the blessed Mary certainly did the Father's will, and so it was for her a greater thing to have been Christ's disciple than to have been his mother, and she was more blessed in her discipleship than in her motherhood. Hers was the happiness of first bearing in her womb him whom she would obey as her master.

Now listen and see if the words of Scripture do not agree with what I have said . The Lord was passing by and crowds were following him. His miracles gave proof of di­ vine power, and a woman cried out: Happy is the womb that bore you, blessed is that womb! But the Lord, not wishing people to seek happiness in a purely physical relation­ ship, replied: More blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Mary heard God's word and kept it, and so she is blessed. She kept God's truth in her mind, a nobler thing than carrying his body in her womb. The truth and the body were both Christ: he was kept in Mary's mind insofar as he is truth, he was carried in her womb insofar as he is man; but what is kept in the mind is of a higher order than what is carried in the womb.

The Virgin Mary is both holy and blessed,  and yet the Church is greater than she. Mary is a part of the Church, a member of the Church, a holy, an  eminent-the  most  eminent-member,  but  still  only  a  member  of the entire body. The body undoubtedly is greater than she, one of its mem­bers. This body has the Lord for its head, and head and body together make up the whole Christ. In other words, our head is divine-our head  is God.

Now, beloved, give me your whole attention, for you also are members of Christ; you also are the body of Christ. Consider how you yourselves can be among those of whom the Lord said: Here are my mother  and my broth­ers. Do you wonder how you can be the mother  of  Christ? He himself  said: Whoever hears and fulfills the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and my sister and my mother. As for our being the brothers and sisters of Christ, we  can understand  this because  although  there  is only  one inheritance  and Christ is the only Son, his mercy would not allow him to remain alone. It was his wish that we too should be heirs of the Father, and co-heirs with himself.

Now having said that all of you are brothers of Christ, shall I not dare to call you his mother? Much less would I dare to deny his own words. Tell me how Mary became the mother of Christ, if it was not by giving birth to the members of Christ? You, to whom I am speaking, are the members of Christ. Of whom were you born? "Of Mother Church," I hear the reply of your hearts. You became sons of this mother at your baptism, you came to birth then as members of Christ. Now you in your turn must draw to the font of baptism as many as you possibly can. You became sons when you were born there yourselves, and now by bringing others to birth in the same way, you have it in your power to become the mothers of Christ.

-Fr. Nicholas Reynolds, 0.P.

Humility is one of the virtues most characteristic of our Lord.

Dear Visitors and Parishioners,

Humility is one of the virtues most characteristic of our Lord. It is the only virtue that he explicitly said that we should learn of Him. "Learn of me that I am meek and humble of heart." It is not the virtue of the weak; it is the virtue of the strong.

Humility is not an inferiority complex, or a negative self-image. It is not the denial of the talents I have. It doesn't mean that we hide our talents. Humility instead of suppressing our actions inspires us to do and attempt great things because we are only instruments in the hand of God.

The Christian identity is servant, disciple, and humble follower. Greatness is seen in love, in being willing to serve the needs of oth­ers, as Jesus did. These words can be remembered at the last supper when Jesus washed the feet of the disciples. "If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, "you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done to you"

Each day, we should ask God  for humility, with our whole hearts. We should ask him for the grace to know that we are nothing of our­ selves, and that our corporal and spiritual well-being depends on him alone.

Let us, therefore, practice humility as much as we can. There is no virtue more pleasing to God than that of humility. If we possess it, we shall possess all the other virtues. Even if we are great sinners, we can be sure that, if we are humble, God will forgive us. Humility is truth. It is true that I am a feeble, fickle, sinful human being. But it is also true that I am gifted and graced. I am an unrepeatable gift of God. I have this inner core goodness that nothing can destroy. And in spite of all my physical warts and spiritual infidelities God loves me unconditionally with a love I cannot merit or ever be worthy of. God requires humility from everyone

Let us practice this beautiful virtue. It will unite us to God; it will let us live at peace with our neighbors; and it will make the daily cross less heavy.

Seeing that anything you are, anything you have, anything you have accomplished is a gift of God. You don't have to have some ostenta­tious display. You don't have to brag and boast about yourself. It is the proud who are restless. They are always in competition, in the rat-race. They always have to be number one. They value themselves according to their possessions,  productivity  and success.

The proud always have to prove themselves.

We don't have to prove anything to God. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He loves us not because of what we are but because of WHO he is. All we have to do is to drop our masks, come down off the pedestal and just be me. And be happy to be me. And we will find rest for our soul.

The example of Jesus Christ should make us humble. St Augustine says: "When I see that God led a life filled with abasement and shame, from his Incarnation up to the Cross can I be afraid of humbling myself? God seeks lowliness; I, a worm, should exalt myself? My God, destroy my pride, which separates me so much from you.

God is humble. Are we? We are invited at this Eucharist to empty ourselves and learn to take the lowest place.

-Fr. Peter Damian Harris, O.P

St. Martin de Porres

St. Martin de Porres

November 3, 2019

Born in Lima, Peru on December 9, 1579, Martin was the illegitimate son to a Spanish gentlemen and a freed slave from Panama, of African or possibly Native American descent. At a young age, Martin's father abandoned him, his mother, and his younger sister, leaving the family to grow up in deep poverty. After spending just two years in primary school, Martin was placed  with a barber / surgeon where he would learn to cut hair and the medical arts of the time.

As Martin grew older, he experienced a great deal of ridicule for being of mixed­ race. In Peru, by law, all those of African or Indian descent were not allowed to become full members of religious orders. Martin, who spent long hours in prayer, found his only way into the community he longed for was to ask the Dominicans of Holy Rosary Priory in Lima to accept him as a volunteer who performed the most menial tasks in the monastery. In return, he would be allowed to wear the habit and live within the religious community. When Martin was 15, he asked for admission into the Dominican Convent of the Rosary in Lima and was received as a servant boy and eventually was moved up to the church officer in charge of distributing money to deserving poor.

During his time in the Convent, Martin took on his old trades of barbering and healing. He also worked in the kitchen, did laundry and cleaned. After eight more years with the Holy Rosary Priory, Martin was granted the privilege to take his vows as a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic by the prior Juan de Lorenzana who decided to disregard the law restricting Martin based  on race.

However, not all of the members in the Holy Rosary Priory were as open-minded as Lorenzana; Martin was mocked for his illegitimacy and slave heritage.

Martin became a Dominican lay brother in 1603 at the age of 24. Ten years later, after he was presented with the religious habit of a lay brother, Martin was assigned to the infirmary where he remained in charge until his death. He became known for encompassing the virtues of carefully and patiently caring for the sick, even in the most difficult situations.

Martin was praised for his unconditional care of all people, regardless of race or wealth reflecting his great love for God and all of God's gifts. It is said he had many extraordinary abilities, including aerial flights, bilocation, instant cures, miraculous knowledge, spiritual knowledge, and an excellent relationship with animals. Martin also founded an orphanage for abandoned children and slaves and is known for raising dowries for young girls in short amounts of time.

During an epidemic in Lima, many of the friars in the Convent of the Rosary became very ill. Locked away in a distant section of the convent, they were kept away from the professed. However, on more than one occasion, Martin passed through the locked doors to care for the sick. However, he became disciplined for not following the rules of the Convent, but after replying, "Forgive my error, and please instruct me, for I did not know that the precept of obedience took precedence over that of charity," he was given full liberty to follow his heart in mercy.

In January of 1639, when Martin was 60-years-old, he became very ill with chills, fevers, and tremors causing him agonizing pain until he passed away on November 3, 1639.

At the time of his death, talks of his miracles in medicine and caring for the sick were widely known and accepted. When he was exhumed 25 years later, his body exhaled  a splendid fragrance and he was still intact.

For the complete article go to www.catholic.org .

...Pride is the fundamental evil

October 27, 2019

...Pride is the fundamental evil. It arises from a lie about who God is, and what we are. We desire a likeness to God that we ourselves, by our own powers, can se­ cure; but that is to divorce God from love, and to reject His gifts of love. We cannot become like the giver of all good things by means of ingratitude. We cannot become like the God of love by assuming that we, as creatures, do not need that love...We want the gift, but we do not want it as given.

Satan was the noblest of God's creatures; that is to say, he was a created being, and the glory of his being was God's gift to him. To reject that gift is to "fall like lightning," and here we should recall the moment when our Lord Himself, in joyful praise, echoed that verse from Isaiah (Is. 14:12-15). He had sent forth the seventy-two disciples, granting them authority to teach and to heal, and they returned to Hirn and cried out in astonishment, "Lord, the devils also are subject to us in thy name!" To which Jesus replied, "I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven" (Lk. 10:17-18). Then He advised them to rejoice not in the exercise of that power, but in gratitude, for their names were written in heaven. And Jesus "rejoiced in the Holy Ghost, and said: I confess to thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hidden these things from the wise and the prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones" (Lk. 10:21). Of course: "For the foolishness of God is wiser than men" (1 Cor. 1:25).

...Humility is the most realistic of virtues. I am a creature; well then, I acknowl­edge that I am a creature. I cannot attain blessedness on my own; cannot, on my own, even make this world into a decent wayside station, let alone heaven. Well then, I acknowledge what history and my own eyes will teach me. I am a sinner; I survey the moonscape of my life and see it pitted with self-regard, stupidity, and spite. Well then, I bend the neck and confess the sins. In humility, literally, we bow down to the humus or the soil beneath us, and cry out, with the repentant psalmist, "My soul cleaves to the dust" (Ps. 118:25). It is not that we make ourselves out to be less than what we are, but that we try for a change to stop making ourselves out to be more than what we are. We try to look into the darkness of sin, and the more terrifying darkness of love.

But humility is more, far more, than a curative for pride. It is itself a mighty power-and here do pagans, ancient and modern, stumble and fall. "Take up my yoke upon you," says Jesus, "and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest for your souls" (Mt. 11:29). The Lord Himself is humble, not despite His being one with the Father, but because He is one with the Father, for "the Son cannot do any thing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing" Gn. 5:19)...Jesus wants us to be humble so that we will be as He is, seeing the love of the Father and bringing it to light by our deeds. The angels can fly, says the witty Chesterton, because they take themselves lightly. We are to take ourselves lightly too, like the little children that thronged about the Lord, "for the kingdom of heaven is for such" (Mt. 19:14).

With that grace comes true power, so that humility expands the heart, opening it up in brave freedom to the might of God, so that Saint Paul can say, not boasting, "I can do all things in him who strengthened me" (Phil. 4:13). And who is this giver of strength but that Lord to whom Paul has just sung the great hymn, who "humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:8)?

What can humility do? It flings wide the portals of the heart, because once, in that little Nazareth, it flung wide the portals of heaven itself .

Anthony Esolen. "Humility: The First of the Lively Virtues." Crisis Magazine For the full article go to www.catholiceducation.org

Jesus is not comparing God to an unjust judge.

Dear Visitors and Parishioners,

October 20, 2019

Jesus is not comparing God to an unjust judge . The parable should be read in the context of an earlier comment found in Luke 11:13 where Jesus says: 'If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!' Hence, if even the most unjust of judges will finally concede to the ceaseless petitions of a defenseless widow, then how much more will God answer our prayers!

The parable offers hope to those among us who are perhaps reluctant to address God with our petitions. It is both an invitation and encouragement to pray without ceasing, confident of God's desire to respond. God loves us dearly-to hear us and respond in ways that are for our best good. So we need to keep praying, never give up, for God will hear and respond. St. Thomas Aquinas, 'We set forth our petitions before God, not in order to make known to Him our needs and desires, but rather so that we ourselves may realize that in these things it is necessary to turn to God · for help.' The persistence of my prayer speaks of the depth of my need. Even if I find that my prayer always has something for which I always ask, I take time to see how God may already be offering me some answer.

God calls us to be awake, and confident in God's power hear our petitions. He gives us the Holy Spirit to help us to recognize where God is at work in our lives. Prayer  is very  important  in Luke's  Gospel.  In Luke's  Gospel we  see Jesus in prayer  more  often than  in the  other  Gospels.  Evidently  prayer  was important  in Luke's life but we can say that Luke is teaching us that prayer  was central in the life of Jesus and ought to be central in our lives too. And we are called to pray - not only for ourselves and our community but for all victims and victimizers that they will see their injustice and change. And we are called to give thanks to God for even the least change that may happen. Jesus says in Luke 18:1 "... men always ought to pray and not lose heart....". God bless you, and increase your faith. That you may be fruitful in HIM and His WORD may abide in you.

We need to have true faith! We don't usually discover our faith when things go well for us. We usually find it when things fall apart, because that's when we realize we need it. True faith does not come until we have faced trials and tribulations-we have to be down-and-out to really understand that we are not alone, and that God will hear and respond to our faith through prayers.

Today's parable is the second one Jesus teaches in Luke's Gospel on the necessity of prayer. Earlier Jesus told a parable about a man going to his friend in the middle of the night to ask for bread and even though at first the friend may not want to get up if he persists his friend will get up and give him the bread (Luke 11:5-8).

Prayer was central in the life of Jesus as we see especially in the Gospel of Luke. That centrality of prayer continues in the life of the disciples. Luke is teaching us that prayer ought to be central in our lives because it was central in the life of Jesus. Jesus teaches the Parable of the Persistent Widow about the importance of constant prayer. We are to be as constant in prayer as that widow, and if the unjust judge answered that widow's request how much more will our heavenly Father answer us.

-Fr. Peter Damian Harris, O.P.