Our Lady of Hope Blog

My Dear Friends,

Today we are blessed to have Archbishop Christopher Coyne join us at the 9:30 Mass in Harwinton with a light reception to follow. Archbishop Coyne has been making the rounds to all of the parishes. As we welcome the archbishop to our beautiful parish of Our Lady of Hope, we are cognizant of the fact that a bishop is a successor of the apostles and receives the fullness of the priesthood of Jesus Christ upon ordination to the bishopric.

My Dear Friends,

Last week I purposely chose to avoid talking about the political assassination of a young 31 year old on a college campus. He is a controversial figure and the emotions in our country right now are running high. There are many disgraceful comments all over social media as well as on talk shows and newscasts. There is a lot of virtue signaling on the right as well concerning his death. There have been countless acts of violence throughout our country recently, beginning with the assassination of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband this past June.

My Dear Friends,

The Sacrament of Confirmation is a wonderful and important sacrament of the Catholic Church. It is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and follows upon the Sacrament of Baptism. In the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox churches, it is given to the newly baptized immediately after baptism. This happens in the Western church when an adult is baptized and confirmed at the Easter Vigil. Otherwise, the Western church, exemplified by the Roman Catholic Church has a history of separating these two sacraments.

My Dear Friends,

Tomorrow, September 8th, is the ninth month since December 8th, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. Many people believe that the Immaculate Conception is referencing Jesus, but Jesus was conceived on March 25th, nine months before December 25th, the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord. Both dates of conception, March 25th and December 8th, are a statement by the Catholic Church that life begins at conception. In the United States, the Immaculate Conception is a Holy Day of Obligation, while the Annunciation on March 25th is not, but it is a Holy Day of Obligation in other countries.

My Dear Friends,

After two weeks of an exclusive Jesus, we return to a more inclusive Jesus in today’s gospel. He teaches that when you hold a banquet you should invite the poor, the lame, the crippled and the blind. The Holy Mass is such a banquet. Jesus invites the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind to come to the wedding feast of the Lamb. In other words, Jesus is inviting those who are sinners to the wedding banquet. No one is ever excluded from the celebration of Mass.

My Dear Friends,

Today’s gospel talks about salvation. How many will be saved? Jesus’ response says that only a few will enter through the narrow gate. What is the narrow gate? It is the sacrificial love that comes from the heart in following Jesus and his commandments. Wide is the path of destruction, for it comes when we live selfishly and seek a life of pleasure. The most damning aspect of the gospel is that Jesus closes the door and says to those outside that he does not know us.

My Dear Friends,

August has two of the most beautiful feast days in honor of our Blessed Mother; the Assumption and the Queenship of Mary. Besides these two important feast days, the Catholic Church calendar in August also celebrates the Dedication of the Basilica of Mary Major on August 5th. We also have memorials of seven saints that have a strong devotion to the Blessed Mother, beginning with St. Alphonsus Liguori (August 1st), St. Peter Julian Eymard (August 2nd), St. John Mary Vianney (August 4th), St. Dominic (August 8th), St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe (August 14th), St. John Eudes (August 19th), and St. Bernard (August 20th).

My Dear Friends,

A ciborium is the vessel that holds the Hosts that will be consecrated at Mass as well as holding them in the tabernacle when there are extra Hosts. When I first arrived at Our Lady of Hope in January 2022, Father Ruminski had shared with me that he had some parishioners donate to have two of the ciboria (plural) at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church refurbished. The ciboria look beautiful and worthy of holding the Precious Hosts for Holy Communion.

My Dear Friends,

Tomorrow we celebrate the feast day of St. John Vianney, the Cure of Ars. St. John Vianney is the patron saint of parish priests. When his neighboring priests of the diocese became jealous of him, they passed around a petition accusing St. John Vianney of many things and asked people to sign it so that they could send it to the bishop and have St. John Vianney removed from the parish in Ars. Somehow the petition arrived at Ars, and when St. John Vianney saw it, he immediately signed the letter.

My Dear Friends,

Yesterday, Sat, Jul 26, we celebrated the memorial of Sts. Joachim and Anne, the parents of the Blessed Mother. It was St. Anne that conceived Mary immaculately in her womb. It is a great privilege for St. Anne to be the one who conceived our Blessed Mother, for it is Mary that brought forth our salvation in Jesus Christ. St. Anne is a very powerful saint for that very reason, and many call upon her intercession and are granted an answer to her prayers.

My Dear Friends,

St. Luke shares with us this little scene about Martha and Mary. These are the sisters of Lazarus, who we meet in the Gospel of St. John. In this little scene in St. Luke’s Gospel, we see the same dynamic as St. John; Martha is anxious and Mary has chosen the better part. Martha speaks to our Lord in a manner that many of us could relate to; Martha tells Jesus what to do. How many times do we go to the Lord and tell him what we want and what he needs to do?

My Dear Friends,

Today we hear the parable of the Good Samaritan. Before we condemn the priest and the Levite for avoiding taking care of the victim, we must first understand the law of Moses. Touching a dead body would make you unclean, and the person is unclean would have to go through several steps of ritual purity to make himself clean once again. Since priests and Levites provided a role in the community for the Jews, they would want to avoid a body in such a state, not knowing of the body was dead or alive in order not to have to go through the purity laws.

My Dear Friends,

July is upon us. I love July, except for the heat. There are many wonderful feast days in July on the Roman calendar. St. Thomas the Apostle (July 3rd), St. Benedict (July 11th), St. Kateri Tekakwitha (July14th), St. Bonaventure (July 15th), Our Lady of Mount Carmel (July 16th, and the Mount Carmel festival at the Mount Carmel Church in Town Plot section of Waterbury), St. Mary Magdalene (July 22nd), St. James the Apostle (July 25th), St. Joachim and St. Anne (July 26th), St. Martha, now with St. Mary and St. Lazarus (July 29th), and St. Ignatius of Loyola (July 31st).