Our Lady of Hope Blog

My Dear Friends,

Today we begin the season of Advent. In our sanctuaries of the two churches we have the Advent wreath with four candles, three purple and one rose colored. Advent prepares us for the joyous season of Christmas. This is my fourth season of Advent and it will be my fourth Christmas with you at Our Lady of Hope. These four years have gone by so quickly. Despite the season of hope, peace and joy, Advent and Christmas itself can also be a painful time for many people.

My Dear Friends,

There's been a lot of talk about kings lately, both real kings and pseudo kings. In 1776 the colonists overthrew King George III of England and we began a country of the United States under a political system that is known as a Constitutional Republic. It has survived for 249 years (next July is the 250th birthday of our country) under both good and bad presidents, good and bad congressmen and good and bad senators. It has survived through countless wars, including a civil war. It has had its fair share of good and bad governors as well. We have been blessed in this country despite some of its moral failings, both historical as well as current moral failings.

My Dear Friends,

We have two Sundays left before our first Sunday of Advent. Today is the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time and the following week will be Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. There is nothing ordinary about ordinary time. Since the reform of the Mass in 1970, instead of calling Sundays after Pentecost or Sundays after Epiphany, the reformers called them by the numerical order of the week, hence ordinary time means time in the order of time. It could never mean ordinary, as we understand ordinary in our English language because since the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, eschatological time (time that we live waiting for the Second Coming and end of the world as we know it) is living the resurrection every day of our lives.

My Dear Friends,

Today, as we celebrate the feast day of St. John Lateran Basilica, the cathedral Church of the diocese of Rome, we recall the sublime teaching of St. Paul in several of his letters. Church buildings are important. It is in the church building that the sacraments are to be celebrated, with exceptions permitted for some of the sacraments. The four major basilicas of Rome are all honored during the year on our liturgical calendar. Within each diocese, we are called to celebrate liturgically the date of our local cathedral, and in our own parishes, we are also called to celebrate the date of each local parish church.

My Dear Friends,

Today we celebrate All Souls' Day, which is only a memorial (not a feast or a solemnity) on the liturgical calendar. Even though it falls on a Sunday this year, because of the importance of praying for our deceased loved ones, Holy Mother Church does not bump All Souls' Day, like she does when other memorials fall on a Sunday. For centuries on this day, priests wore black vestments. Since the reform of the liturgy in 1970, the church rubrics state that the preferred color is purple, but black and white are other options that are allowed. Now this memorial of All Souls' follows immediately upon All Saints' Day. On All Saints', the color is white. I am opposed to wearing white on All Souls' for that very reason.

My Dear Friends,

It is hard to believe that this week we celebrate Halloween on Friday. It is the beginning of an important Triduum beginning with Halloween, followed by All Saints and then on next Sunday, All Souls. Halloween, as you know, is a Catholic holiday that was hijacked by the secular world, along with St. Valentine and St. Patrick. When you pray the Our Father, you begin, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. Hallowed means holy. The second part of Halloween is an abbreviation of evening.

My Dear Friends,

This Wednesday, October 22nd, we will be celebrating the feast day of Pope St. John Paul II. There really is not much I can say about him that most of you are not familiar with already. He was pope from October 1978 to April 2005. And he was the first non-Italian pope since the early 1500's when he was elected. There is a belief that he was planning on taking the name of Stanislaus if he had been elected in the conclave weeks earlier. But after the election and then death of Blessed Pope John Paul I, john Paul II decided to honor him by taking his name.

My Dear Friends,

During this month of Respect Life, Our Lady of Hope, with the advice from our Pro-Life committee, is offering some events for us to unite with the 40 Days for Life campaign that the Catholic Church in the United States participates in every year. On this Wednesday, October 15th, we will prayerfully witnessing to Life on the grounds of Immaculate Heart of Mary, from 7 am to 6 pm, followed by a Mass for Life at 7 pm. The Mass will be celebrated in Latin.

My Dear Friends,

October is the month of the Rosary (the feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary is Oct. 7th), and it also respect life month. The rosary of our Blessed Mother is arguably the second greatest weapon we have, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass being the first. Pope St. Pius V in the 1570’s was the pope that asked all of Europe to pray the rosary in order to defeat the Muslims at the Battle of Lepanto, a battle in which the European Christians were outmatched in numbers. Pope Pius attributed the victory to Our Lady and inaugurated the feast day of Our Lady of Victory.