Dear Friends,

Our parish, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, is on a continuous journey to know, to love, and to serve Christ in our community, so that we get everyone who walks through our doors to heaven. In order to achieve this, together we must embrace Christ’s vision for our missionary discipleship so that our parish can thrive and be a place for others to grow together in faith.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ through Mary,

Among St. Vincent de Paul's famous statements, I picked the following:

1. "Go to the poor: you will find God,"
2. "The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is humility,"
3. "We must love our neighbor as being made in the image of God."
4. "Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying". And,
5. "It is not enough to give bread. Love must be your calling."

Dear friends,

This weekend, we at Our Lady of Mount Carmel are blessed to welcome the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (SHS), who are here to share their powerful story of faith, service, and urgent need. We have a profound opportunity to embody the love of Christ by generously supporting these courageous Missionary Sisters.

Dear friends,

I hear this frustrating, persistent, and often challenging question asked repeatedly in conversations about the goodness and omnipotence of God: Why do good people suffer so many challenges while the wicked seem to prosper and have an easy life?

It is rarely simple to give a soothing or immediately convincing answer to such a profound question. To complicate the matter, the question of suffering quickly spirals into deeper societal and existential quandaries. Consider the further questions that arise when we look at the world:

Dear friends,

Truly righteous or virtuous people know that they, too, are capable of contemptible behavior. They know that it is only because of the goodness of God that they have been spared situations in which their weaknesses would have overpowered them. The truly righteous are fundamentally humble.

We are no longer slaves to sin but beneficiaries of adoption as children of God in Christ through Mary. We are therefore made righteous by the Love of God."...God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us". Rom 5:8. Fear no more, but embrace the freedom of the children of God through Christ.

Dear friends,

I am sure you have all heard this phrase: “To Jesus through Mary”. This simple, but profound truth is the very heart of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish. Our existence, our mission, is singular: to lead all who pass through our doors to heaven through a deep and abiding focus on the Eucharist, the very source and summit of our faith, and a devoted love for our Blessed Mother, Mary, our Patroness.

Dear friends,

According to recent studies… a great number of priests quit each year. They don’t quit because they have a lack of faith in God. They don’t quit because they don’t believe in the calling God has placed on their life. Most don’t even quit because of financial reasons. Priests quit because they are overwhelmed with mental exhaustion.

Dear friends,

Two weeks ago, I was out for a Pastors’ Retreat organized by Amazing Parish Movement. The retreat, which focused on the theme: “Abide in me”, taken from John 15, touched me deeply at very many different levels. It kept on reminding me over and over again that for my mission among you as your pastor to bear fruit, it must be rooted in Christ and his cross. This means that all my actions must flow from, be sustained by, and nourished by my deep relationship with the Lord. However, it is what happened at the airport in Dallas on my way to Missouri that inspired the title of this article. Somehow, it also anticipated my retreat experience.