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January 17, 2025“The Epiphany season, also known as Epiphanytide or the time of Sundays after Epiphany is a liturgical period, celebrated by many Christian Churches which immediately follows the Christmas Season. It begins on the Epiphany and ends at various points (such as Candlemas, which will be covered in a future letter) as defined by those denominations. The typical liturgical color or the day of Epiphany is white, and the typical color for Epiphany season is green.Read More
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January 11, 2025It has been my great honor to teach the RCIA (now OCIA, but I am having a hard time getting used to that!) classes here at St. Mary the Virgin. Because we are a small parish, our group might be more aptly named “Seekers Classes” because people come seeking different things. Some are unbaptized adults, seeking baptism and confirmation, becoming part of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Some are baptized Catholics who have left the Church before receiving all their sacraments and are looking for First Communion and/or Confirmation. And some are Catholics who received their sacraments, but left the Church to follow a different way, and are now coming back into the Church and want to relearn what they didn’t get in their initial religious education. And some have been faithful Catholics who just want to brush up on their faith.Read More -
January 3, 2025Most of you probably know much, but some (myself included) know very little about it. EPIPHANY comes from the Greek word epiphaneia meaning “manifestation” and being a Christian holiday commemorating the first manifestation of Jesus to the Gentiles, represented by the Magi, (most of us probably knew this but read on) and the manifestation of His divinity, as it occurred at his baptism in the Jordan river and at his first miracle, at Cana in Galilee.Read More -
December 25, 2024For centuries now, every twenty-five years the Church sets aside a graced time of Jubilee. These Jubilee Years are “a significant moment in the life of the Church in which she celebrates the year of messianic favor inaugurated by Christ through his Incarnation and Paschal Mystery” (cf. Lk 4:19, St. John Paul II, Tertio Millennio adveniente, nos. 11-16). The Year of our Lord 2025 is just such a Jubilee, and so it stands apart as a new opportunity to receive the Lord’s mercy, to give gratitude for his Holy Church.Read More
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December 15, 2024While the traditional reckoning of the Advent Ember Days is in the Third Week of Advent (nearest St. Lucy’s day), the Ordinariate was given permission to shift them to the First Week of Advent. This was done to safeguard the full observation of the O Antiphons (Sapientiatide), from 17-24 December (this week) in the Ordinariate calendar.Read More
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December 8, 2024The term “Advent” derives from the Latin adventus, meaning “coming” or “arrival.” Thus it’s a time of waiting and preparation, filled with joy but also with repentance and penance. It anticipates the “coming of Christ” from three different perspectives: the 1st coming in Christ’s Nativity in Bethlehem, Christ’s reception in the heart of the believer, and the return of Christ as King of the Universe at His Second Coming (which we celebrated two weeks ago).Read More
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November 30, 2024I am probably "Preaching to the Choir" (this is an old church adage, you know, referring to something commonly known) but the word "Advent" comes from the Latin word "adventus" which means "coming" or "arrival." It is a time to reflect on the humble nature of the birth of Jesus. It is a time to anticipate our heavenly home.Read More
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November 24, 2024"That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in Heaven, on earth and under the earth: And that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.” —-Philippians 2:10-11 Today, November 24th, the last Sunday of the Church’s Liturgical Year is the Feast of Christ the King. It was established by Pope Pius in his 1925 encyclical Quas Primus. Pius XI wrote that if the truths of Christ “are presented to the faithful for their consideration, they will prove a powerful incentive to perfection.”Read More
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November 8, 2024Have you ever given your opinion about something, and then said "That's just my two cents worth"? It's a way of letting the person you're talking to know that this is just your own opinion, and the listener is free to disagree. When we add our "two cents worth" to a discussion, we let people know that, "yes indeed, this is what I think, but I could be wrong. Take it for what it's worth - a great deal perhaps, or not much, maybe."Read More
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November 3, 2024The Scripture readings today are familiar to many here at Mass today. They are the most fundamental principle of Christianity. They are to love God, and Love each Other. We remind ourselves of their importance at the beginning of every Mass which is said or sung in the Ordinariate Form, in what is called the “Summary of the Law”.Read More
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October 25, 2024By tradition, the Catholic Church dedicates each month of the year to certain devotions. I often like to use my weekly letter to describe some of them. The month of October is dedicated to the Holy Rosary, one of the best known of all Catholic devotions. October includes the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (October 7). the best way to celebrate the month is, of course, is to [pray the Rosary.Read More
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October 18, 2024During this month of October we are able to celebrate the Feasts of two great female saints – St. Therese of Lisieux (on October 1st) and Teresa of Avila (on October 15th) of whom we have relics of both, or the two Teresa’s of SMV! (We are also blessed with a Shrine Altar to Saint Therese, a gift of the Oliver family) Because of these connections, I thought I’d share brief outlines of their lives, as inspirations for us today.Read More
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October 11, 2024Let me sing praises to our Adult Choir. These dedicated people are parishioners (mostly) and give their time to celebrate and enhance the principal liturgies here at SMV.Our Youth Choir has 19 singers of various ages. It should be at least 30 strong. Nevertheless, it is probably the best sounding Youth Choir SMV has ever had. When I hear our congregation sing, I hear a lot more than average voices singing. The Adult Choir meets on Thursday evenings at 7:00 pm. The Youth Choir meets on Sundays immediately after the 10:30 Mass.Come sing with us.Read More -
October 4, 2024Last Sunday, I used our Shrine of St. Thomas More as a homily illustration. Since we also have a Shrine to St. Therese the "Little Flower" at our church (a memorial from the Olivers) and her reelic, and also since her Feast Day was last Tuesday, I thought I would make her the subject of this week's article.Read More
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September 27, 2024Although we celebrate the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity today, September 29th is also the Feast of All Angels. From the Old Testament account of Jacob's wrestling's all the way through to the 'conscious communion' sought in St. John Henry Newman's Dream of Gerontius, mankind has not only been perplexed by the existence of angels, but even more perplexed by whether communication with them is either possible or desirable.Read More -
September 22, 2024Although one cannot tell this by the temperature. It's now early Fall, and time to focus more on our Religion, our Church and our Parish. I thought therefore that I would use this week's letter to remind everyone of some upcoming events.Read More
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September 14, 2024As promised here are the last three of the "Seven Sorrows"Read More
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September 7, 2024When looking through some of FORMED’s September offerings (and you have not already registered for FORMED, which is free to all SMV parishioners, I urge you to so to do!) I came upon a short program of the Seven Sorrows of Mary, which is the dedication for this month of September in the Roman Catholic Church. Later, during some private prayers, I envisioned Mary’s experiences, I pondered her most blessed and most sorrowful life. I met Mary heart-to-heart: her sorrows and her Son’s agony became mine, and the Mother of Sorrows became the mother of my own sorrows as well. During this month, perhaps we all could enter into the mind and heart of Mary, and reflect on the seven major sorrows in her life.Read More
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September 1, 2024Tomorrow is Labor Day, when many workers are given the day off (We will have our regular Noon Mass tomorrow though, and we welcome back our old friend and former Parochial Vicar, Fr. Tom Kennedy to celebrate the Mass.) What should Catholics think about Labor Day, or the dignity of Work, and what are our theological positions regarding labor itself? His Holiness Pope Leo XIII has affectionately been remembered as the "Pope of Labor" although by rights ought to be known for equally important accomplishments. The website, "The Legacy of Pope Leo XIII" is established to share information about this important, but nearly forgotten Pontiff.Read More
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August 24, 2024Saint John Eudes, whose feast day we celebrated last Monday, once said: “Never separate what God has so perfectly united. So closely are Jesus and Mary bound up with each other that whoever beholds Jesus sees Mary; whoever loves Jesus, loves Mary; whoever has devotion to Jesus, has devotion to Mary. The Three hearts devotion is easy to understand - it is nothing other than honoring the Three Hearts of the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.This is often done by making reparation to: 1 - The Scared and Merciful Heart of Christ. 2 - The Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. 3 - The Most Pure and Chaste Heart of St. Joseph.Read More
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