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.