A very warm and joyous welcome to the family members and friends who are in town this weekend for the Thanksgiving holiday. Whether you’re celebrating or sad about “The Territorial Cup” football game between Arizona State and the University of Arizona, I am really glad you’ve come to Mass with us at SJV and pray the Lord blesses you and your loved ones.

These final weeks of our Church’s liturgical year (which officially ends this year at sunset on December 2) always have us reading about the Last Days. Last Sunday’s Gospel passage, this week’s and next week’s are all from Matthew 25 and tell the Parables of the wise and foolish virgins (v.1-13), the prudent and fearful servants (v.14-30) and the final judgment (v.31-46). Popular culture has turned the topic of “end-times”, last days, final judgment into either a horror genre or a fringe genre of evangelical Christians (remember the “Left Behind” book series?)

160 years ago this week, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, our great President Abraham Lincoln helped to dedicate the battlefield cemetery. There he famously observed:

“The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”

Over the past week we have celebrated the holy days of All Saints and All Souls, and in many homes in our parish we have also commemorated the Dia de los Muertos with pictures, mementos and regalitos to our deceased family and friends. We celebrate the saints, above all others our Mother Mary, throughout the year on different days. As well, our dear departed remain close to our hearts and in memories. These special days give us another special opportunity to pray together and celebrate.

Time seems to be flying even faster than normal, doesn't it? Fr. Tom and I saw a Christmas-themed commercial on television the other night and remembered that it wasn't too long ago when the "holiday shopping season" began the day after Thanksgiving. Now it's starting before Halloween! Such are the times. Although we Christians live in the world - and most of us buy both Halloween candy and Christmas presents! -we are not "of the world" and keep our eyes focused on the coming of Jesus. Saint Paul wrote to our Christian ancestors (though it holds true for us) "you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to await his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath."

Last Sunday we had a wonderful celebration of our Blessed Mother’s rosary together with a few thousand of our fellow Catholics at the Arizona Rosary Celebration 2023. Guadalupanas, Divina Misericordia, families and Knights of Columbus made the journey east to the Phoenix Convention Center where we joined Bishop Dolan and Bishop Nevares for the afternoon of prayer, song, celebration and fraternity. It was awesome! If you are able to go next year, I hope you’ll consider it - and it’s fun for the whole family (did I mention it was free?...)

Each October we celebrate the Rosary, although of course we pray it throughout the year. Venerable Fr. Patrick Peyton, C.S.C., (1909-1992) was a priest of our Congregation of Holy Cross and was famous for his “Rosary Rallies” and “The Family Rosary” in which he encouraged families to gather together in their homes and pray the rosary. He coined the phrases “The Family the Prays Together, Stays Together” and “A World at Prayer is a World at Peace.”

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

This week our school principal, Doug Weivoda, and I were able to attend the first ever “Holy Cross Pastor & Principal Workshop” at Notre Dame in Indiana. It was a wonderful opportunity to be together with other parish pastors and principals in our U.S. Province (including Fr. Paul Ybarra and his principal from Portland) to reflect on how we are best able to educate the students in our care. We prayed together, listened to various expert presenters, and took a tour of St. Joseph Grade School in South Bend.

This Sunday’s second reading is from St. Paul’s letter to the Christians in Philippi and contains the most beautiful poem about Christ (in my humble opinion…) It is often referred to as the “Philippians Hymn” or the “Christ Hymn” and some scholars believe it was written in the mid 30’s A.D. This means during the years immediately following Jesus’ resurrection! By 62 A.D. when Paul was writing to the Philippians, he included this poem in the letter and due to its distinctness from the rest of the letter and Paul’s “style”, it causes us to believe it was well known by both the Apostle and this community and was one of the first universal hymns about Jesus Christ.

One of my mentors in college, Msgr. Michael Osborn, taught us that the word “mystery” has a deep and important theological meaning. For most of us, mystery is a genre of entertainment: the mystery books of Agatha Christie or stories of the detective Sherlock Holmes. In this sense, mystery means something like a puzzle to solve or a case to crack. If you work at it with the right clues and for long enough you’ll be able to figure it out. Other times we may use mystery in the sense of a fact completely and forever unknowable, as in “it’s a mystery how the 1993 Notre Dame Fighting Irish lost to Boston College.”

Congratulations to Karina Rocha, our wonderful business office coordinator, and to her family for the birth of her son Matteo last week. Mom and baby are both healthy, happy, and holy! Karina is grateful to everyone in the parish who has prayed for her during the pregnancy and delivery and looks forward to returning to SJV after her maternity leave time with Mateo.

Speaking of pregnancy, you’ll notice the two new parking spaces reserved for pregnant moms in our SJV parking lot. We love life at all stages and just as we try to ensure parishioners with mobility limitations can park close, so too for our families with pre-born babies. Certainly parking is a precious commodity here at church, and we are all grateful for your observation of these new reserved spots. As well, let’s pray all these babies keep growing in good health!

Though the temperatures don’t seem to reflect it here in Arizona, we are finally at autumn’s doorstep. For a while now we have been in “new year” mode at the parish and the school as we kick off programs, classes, and ministries. Everyone seems renewed after summer travels and rest - and happy to be together again! Please keep reading our weekly bulletins for information on all the exciting opportunities for prayer, fellowship, catechism, and Christian service here at SJV.

My dear friends,

This past week we Catholics celebrated two of our great saints, Monica and her son Augustine. These two “early” Christians were northern Africans who went on to become one of the most well known Mother-Son duos since Mary and Jesus! St. Augustine is a doctor of the Church, a pillar of western philosophy, and is generally considered to have written the first autobiography, “Confessions”. Besides being a wonderful theological and philosophical reflection, this life story reveals a complex family that grappled with serious problems. Augustine’s father was a non-believer and would fly into violent rages and become physically and emotionally abusive. Monica was a devout Catholic who suffered greatly due to her husband’s abuse and his infidelity - and later the wild and rebellious life of her son Augustine.