“It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, at all times to acclaim you, O Lord, but on this night above all to laud you yet more gloriously, when Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. For he is the true lamb who has taken away the sins of the world; by dying he has destroyed our death, and by rising, restored our life.”

Dear Friends,

Palm Sunday inaugurates Holy Week by placing the Church before a paradox that unsettles every shallow understanding of power, success, and faith: salvation comes through obedient self-emptying, not through domination or resistance. We are not invited liturgically to a sentimental admiration of Jesus’ suffering but required to have a theological clarity and personal decision. The question posed is not whether Christ suffered, but whether we are willing to follow the path by which suffering becomes redemptive.

“Behold!” It's a word that we hear at each Mass, but it takes on an even deeper meaning during the Sacred Triduum, as there is indeed a great amount to behold during its most holy liturgies.

Dear Friends,

As we continue our Lenten journey and approach this 5th Sunday of Lent, the Church invites us to continue looking more deeply into our hearts. Lent is often the time when we try to “fix” ourselves—we give something up, we pray more, we try to improve. But sometimes, without realizing it, we spend more time looking at the sins of others than examining our own.

In the course of just 3 days, the most important, most symbolically rich, most dramatically beautiful liturgies of the entire year take place, with those three days having their own special season of the Liturgical Year: The Holy Triduum. The Triduum encompasses Maundy (Holy) Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday’s Easter Vigil. These three liturgies together act almost like one continuous Mass, with there being no dismissal such as “go forth, the Mass is ended” given the end of the Easter Vigil, and no greeting of “In the name of the Father…” given on Good Friday.

Dear Friends,

As a young boy, I used to think eyeglasses looked "cool." Now that I have to wear them always, and my vision continues to change, I often wish I didn’t need them at all. Moreover, I tend to misplace them often. We usually assume that everyone wants to see perfectly, but as a colleague recently pointed out to me when I was sharing my situation, there is a strange "middle ground" where your vision is just good enough to get by, but bad enough that you have to carry your glasses everywhere. Life is actually simpler when we admit we need help to see clearly. This is what the gospel reading today reminds us of.

While on my last trip to Italy, I visited a place I had been wanting to see for quite some time, called the Capuchin Crypt in Rome. This crypt is located under the Holy Mary of the Conception of the Capuchins church, which was constructed by the Franciscan Capuchin Friars in the year 1626. In 1631, Cardinal Antonio Barberini, OFMCap, ordered the remains of thousands of Capuchins to be exhumed and transferred to the crypt below the church.

Dear Friends,

Two weeks ago, following the whirlwind of "Name Tag Weekend," I was finally settling down into the quiet of my evening. That peace, however, was suddenly interrupted by a single phone call from the daughter of a former parishioner at St. Andrew the Apostle. Her message was brief but urgent: "Father Robert, your friend collapsed in church and is being rushed to the emergency room at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center in Glendale."

We often think of Lent as being 40 days long, but if you were to count the days from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday, you arrive at 46 days instead… What's that about?

Dear Friends,

As I reflected on the readings for this second Sunday of Lent, the theme of this article, inspired by my American Mom, came to my mind. She often told me, “Fr. Robert, you’ve got to give to get.” It made me wonder further how you would feel if an authority you deeply respect asked you to give up something you value above all else? Would you? You would likely find yourself torn between loyalty to that authority and love for what you hold dear. Would you be ready to let go of something precious to secure a relationship?

Mass practically begins with a “penitential act.” It’s the first order of business, right after the Sign of the Cross and a basic greeting. It says, “first things first”—let’s acknowledge our sins. We should not discount that immediacy. The Penitential Act signals an indispensable element of right worship and liturgy: man’s moral standing before his God. God is holy; man is not. That dissonance is the barrier to right worship because it is the barrier to the divine-human relationship.

Dear Friends,

Lent is a season within the Church's Liturgical Calendar. Lent is a graceful period lasting 40 days, during which the Church invites all her members to pray, fast, be reconciled with God and with one another, and be grateful in anticipation of Christ's redemptive passion, death, and Resurrection. During Lent, we are challenged to share with others what we have received from God. This requires a proper attitude and faith commitment. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Thursday of Holy Week.

“The main current of Lent must flow through the interior man, through hearts and consciences. The essential effort of repentance consists in this. In this effort, the human determination to be converted to God is invested with the predisposing grace of conversion and, at the same time, of forgiveness and of spiritual liberation.”

Dear Friends,

We live in an age of unprecedented connectivity. With a swipe of a finger, we can see what is happening on the other side of the globe. Yet, as our digital worlds expand, our physical worlds, the ones inside our own living rooms and dining tables, are often shrinking. The reality of this was powerfully brought home to me at a recent workshop Fr. Paul and I attended at the diocese as part of our priests’ ongoing formation.

While a bit of a dry topic, it can be helpful for Catholics to know some basic information about how the Church handles legal matters, especially in regards to the administration of the Sacraments.

Dear Friends,

As your pastor, I am often asked about the Church’s stance on celebrating weddings during Lent. While the Universal Church law (Canon Law) grants the faithful a right to the sacraments, liturgical guidelines specify that any wedding held during Lent must be significantly "toned down" to respect the season of penance.

There are few facts known about St. Blaise except that he was a fourth-century bishop in the city of Sebaste, Western Armenia, and died as a martyr. A physician, he was regarded as a righteous man and, at an early age, elected bishop by the citizens of Sebaste. He was martyred by beheading in the year 316. Beyond those few facts, much of what we know of Blaise comes from legends. He became, during the Middle Ages, one of the most popular of all the saints and today remains highly esteemed.