Home Page

So let us rejoice and be glad. For there burns within the Church a fire of love that does not go out. There blows in the Church a breeze that never fails to cool the heat, a spring of living water that does not dry up. We have only to open our hearts to the power of the Spirit present among us.

Dear brothers, so soon to be ordained: In St. Matthew, St. Paul, and Pope Francis you have found a path for approaching the mystery about to be enacted in the depths of your spirit. You, as all of us in ordained ministry, must rely on the mercy of God.

I joyfully congratulate you on this day of re-dedication and consecration, and as we await the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday, I join you in prayer, in this our upper room, for a fresh outpouring of the Spirit, such that Resurrection Parish will radiate far and wide the glory of God shining on the face of the Risen Christ, and may God bless you and keep you always in his love!

If we are to have a future, it must be a future of love. The world’s anger passes away into oblivion, but Christ’s love is eternal. Only love is credible. Only love drives the Church’s mission forward.

Today’s Scriptures turn the phrase, ‘to give as good as you get’, on its head. They inspire us not only to transform the meaning of that phrase, but they also reveal why and how our lives should be different, radically different, from the world around us.

By listening to the Word of God, by sharing in Jesus sacrifice on the Cross, and by receiving his Body and Blood under the form of bread and wine, you are being joined to Christ as closely as branches are joined to the vine.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus shows us a better way to be connected. . . connected not just culturally, morally, legally, or electronically – but connected in love.

By willing it, we “give God permission” to unite us to himself and one another by means of his abundant graces flowing from him to us through the Church. In a word, you and I have to decide how, when, and where we will allow the Lord to take us to himself and make us a part of his People.