Our Lady of Hope Blog

My Dear Friends,

Today's Gospel passage from St. Matthew is the call of the two sets of brothers as Apostles, St. Peter and St. Andrew, and St. John and St. James. These four apostles are fishermen, and Jesus says to them that he will make them fishers of men. A fisher of men means that Jesus is giving authority to his followers to preach the good news and to heal the sick. The same authority he gave to the apostles is the same authority he gives to his priests.

My Dear Friends,

Today I want to focus on our altar servers. The young men and women and young boys and girls do a fantastic job helping the priest and the deacon at the altar. For centuries, the roles that these servers provide were performed by adult men, who wore the black cassock with a white surplice. The black cassock is a clerical garment. In the traditional Mass, clerics were divided into seven orders; porter, exorcist, lector, acolyte, subdeacon, deacon and priest. After the Second Vatican Council, Pope St. Paul VI suppressed the four minor orders and the subdiaconate and made the ministry of lector and acolyte as an instituted ministry.

My Dear Friends,

Today we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, which also ends the Christmas season. Jesus was baptized by St. John in the Jordan. By being baptized, Jesus blesses all water and makes it holy. Besides sacraments, our Catholic faith also has rich tradition of sacramentals. A sacramental is something blessed and is meant to lead us deeper into our faith and prepare us for the sacraments. Holy water is one such sacramental.

My Dear Friends,

Continuing with last week's bulletin letter, we are still in the Christmas season. The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, on January 1st was the end of the Christmas octave. The Christmas season has two more weeks, normally, after the New Year. The Solemnity of the Epiphany is celebrated in many countries on January 6th, the 12th day of Christmas, and for many cultures and for many centuries is a more important feast day than Christmas.

My Dear Friends,

The celebration of our Lord's nativity is over, but the Christmas season has just begun. On the 26th of December we celebrate the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen. On the 27th we celebrate St. John the Evangelist. The 28th we celebrate the Holy Innocents. On the 29th we celebrate St. Thomas Becket. And on the 31st we celebrate Pope St. Sylvester.

My Dear Friends,

In a few days we will be celebrating the birthday of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Birthdays of loved ones are always an occasion of joy, but when it comes to our Lord's birth, the joy is incomparable. God became man and entered into his creation as a little baby. The vulnerability of a baby does something to people. New born babies are helpless and in need of protection and care. There is no way a baby can survive outside the womb unless the baby has someone who will feed him or her and protect him or her from the surrounding environment.

My Dear Friends,

On this third Sunday of Advent, I bring you some of my favorite Christmas songs and artists. No one sings "The Christmas Song" better than Nat King Cole. And no one sings "White Christmas" better than Bing Crosby. These two should be obvious to all. I also like Bing Crosby's versions of "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman." In fact the Christmas albums (I'm dating myself with the word album) of Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby are nearly perfect. Frank Sinatra sings a beautiful "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," but in the movie, The Godfather, it is Al Martino who sings the song as Michael and Kay are shopping in New York City.

My Dear Friends,

This Second Sunday of Advent we are introduced to St. John the Baptist and his fiery preaching. Talk about hellfire and damnation !! Brood of vipers !! Bad fruit being cut down !! Chaff will burn in unquenchable fire !! The coming wrath !! And his first words of this gospel, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" Advent is about preparation, and St. John the Baptist prepares the way of the Lord.

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.