Those who are “history buffs” of Early Christianity, as I am, may know that the first Christians in Rome and Greece were infamous among their pagan neighbors for rescuing abandoned babies. Infamous because those first Christians would go out at night and listen for abandoned babies crying. Then they brought the little ones into their homes, protected them, and raised them with love.

We just celebrated the great day on which Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven. Although the Church has always and everywhere believed that Mary “having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory” it was not formally defined as dogma until 1950. Venerable Pope Pius XII wrote in Munificentissimus Deus (say that a couple times fast…) that Mary “by an entirely unique privilege, completely overcame sin by her Immaculate Conception, and as a result she was not subject to the law of remaining in the corruption of the grave, and she did not have to wait until the end of time for the redemption of her body.”

To impress your friends you might share with them that the Catholic Church reads through the synoptic gospels on a 3-year cycle at our Sunday Masses. For example last year's weekly gospels were from Matthew and next year will be Luke. That of course means this year we are mostly reading Mark. Mostly, because Mark is the shortest gospel and to "cover" three weeks in the middle of Ordinary Time we have been reading from John 6.

Happy St. John Vianney Day to all in our parish! Today is a very special day indeed, in fact a “solemnity” in our parish, granted by our Bishop and the Church to us in honor of our holy patron, the parish priest of Ars, France, Saint Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney (which, being quite a mouthful - and in a French accent - we shortened to John Vianney in English…)

This past Friday, July 26, we celebrated the feast day of Saints Anne & Joachim, Mary’s parents - and so the grandparents of Our Lord. There is a tradition that says they were unable to conceive for a very long time in their marriage. Like holy Abraham and Sarah (and others in Israel’s history) they kept faith in God and continued to pray for a child of their own.

Every three years our United States Province of the Congregation of Holy Cross meets in a formal Provincial Chapter. This is sort of like a cross between a family meeting and retreat… It is an opportunity for those we elect as delegates to discern the Holy Spirit’s will for us as a religious order.

Our parish, like many, considers July 1 as the beginning of the new “fiscal year.” There’s no theology behind this, rather it’s an administrative way to wrap up the previous year’s accounting and operations and get ready for the new year. Hard as it is to believe, the school students begin classes in three weeks and around the corner are the new OCIA classes, charity drives, and fall activities.

I got a fair amount of feedback from last week’s “From the Pastor” in which I proposed a comparison to the television character Ned Flanders. Thank you for sharing your thoughts - both the laughs and critique - I really am grateful that anyone reads this at all (besides dear Mom checking online from Ohio…)

For those of us late Gen-Xers who grew up watching the television show “The Simpsons” we recall the character Ned Flanders. Can you believe The Simpsons are still on and making shows after 35 years? (768 episodes!) So, I suppose even the younger generations may know who Ned is: he is the very explicitly and genuinely Christian neighbor (in this case the house next-door) to the Simpson family. The Simpsons themselves are shown to be Church-goers though generally falling asleep at service or getting into some kind of shenanigans while the reverend is preaching.

This coming Saturday, June 29, we celebrate the Solemnity of Sts. Peter & Paul. It is a solemnity (the highest level of religious feast day) because of how close these first apostles were to the Lord and the martyrdom they suffered for Him.

Of course we know much about Simon Peter, upon whose rock of faith Jesus built His Church (Mt 16:18). Time and again Peter expresses his dedication and faith in Jesus, and time and again says something that gets rebuked by Jesus. Famously Peter, the rock, was so afraid he denied even knowing Jesus (Lk 22:57). Ultimately Peter was restored and commissioned to feed Christ’s sheep and lambs (Jn 21:17). He did so on earth until his martyrdom in Rome in the mid-60’s A.D.

Now that we’ve settled into the heat of the Arizona summer, it’s time for the annual joke that even though it may be 110°, it’s still cooler here than in hell… so get to church!

I know, the joke is corny. But I’d be a lousy pastor if I didn’t regularly remind us all (me included!) that Jesus is very clear about the reality of eternal damnation and His offer of eternal life after this earthly one. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says:

I read somewhere that the “school summer reading list” goes back to the 1890’s, probably as a way to keep kids reading and intellectually stimulated over the summer-break. For those of a certain age you may remember Pizza Hut’s “BOOK IT!” program that earned you pizza for having read a certain number of books. I, for one, am confident that the only reason I read Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities is because of that delicious incentive…

A little over a century ago there lived in Ireland a little girl named Nellie Organ. The Good Shepherd Sisters who were raising her recognized something special in this child, who spoke of seeing “Holy God.” From the age of 3 she wanted so fervently to receive Holy Communion at Mass. Alas, at the time, 1906, Catholic children were not given First Holy Communion until the minimum age of 12.