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.

“Tho’ I’m no Catholic, I listen hard when the bells in the yellow—brick tower of their new church ring down the leaves … ring in Sunday morning and old age which adds as it takes away. Let them ring, only ring! … Let them ring for the eyes and ring for the hands and ring for the children of my friend who no longer hears them ring … O bells ring for the ringing! The beginning and the end of the ringing! Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring Catholic bells—!” (Excerpt of a poem by William Carlos Williams, 1883-1963)

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.

The spiritual and bodily meanings of proskynein [i.e., adoration on one’s knees] are really inseparable. The bodily gesture itself is the bearer of the spiritual meaning, which is precisely that of worship. When kneeling becomes merely external, a merely physical act, it becomes meaningless. On the other hand, when someone tries to take worship back into the purely spiritual realm and refuses to give it embodied form, the act of worship evaporates. Worship is one of those fundamental acts that affect the whole man. That is why bending the knee before the presence of the living God is something we cannot abandon.

Ever wonder why the bread we use at Mass, then consecrated into the Precious Body of the Blessed Sacrament, is different from other bread we might normally encounter, and not just Wonder Bread? The way in which the bread is made is strictly regulated by the Church, and the wine for the Precious Blood is no different. The regulations, while allowing for some broad differences (though not often seen in the USA), are very precise about the most important details to ensure that the bread is real bread and the wine is real wine that would be analogous to the same that our Lord would have used when he instituted the Eucharist.

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.

According to Catholic theology, baptism is much more than merely a symbolic sign of belonging to the church. It is the means by which a person is incorporated into Christ, becoming a member of his mystical body. Baptism, accordingly, makes the baptized an alter Christus, another Christ, and thereby grants us the common offices of priest, prophet, and king. This is precisely why, for example, every candidate for baptism is anointed with oil, just as, in the Old Testament, priests, prophets, and kings were anointed upon assumption of their offices.

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.

Catholics set themselves apart from many other Christians through their practice of praying for the deceased. This practice stems from the belief that the souls of the departed may be in purgatory, and the prayers and sacrifices of the living on Earth can aid their journey to Heaven.

Dear friends,

I want to take a moment to thank each of you for your generosity as we come to the close of our reflections on Stewardship in this month of September. Thank you for sharing your time, your talent, and your treasure so faithfully with our parish. Know that your commitment not only strengthens our community but also helps us live out the mission Christ has entrusted to us through our parish.

“Another angel with a golden censer came and stood at the altar; he was given a great quantity of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that is before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel” (Revelation 8:3-4).

Dear friends,

This weekend, our focus turns to the stewardship of treasure, and we're asking you to consider a financial commitment to our parish. This isn't just about meeting a budget; it's about recognizing that everything we have: our talents, our time, and our financial resources, as we have been emphasizing, are gifts from God. How we use these gifts is a reflection of our gratitude and our faith.

Dear friends,

As I mentioned in some of my past articles and homilies on stewardship, we often think of stewardship in terms of tithing or charitable giving. Still, it's a much broader concept that encompasses all aspects of our lives. Last week, we considered the stewardship of time. We pointed out that time is the one commodity we all possess, yet so often squander. However, unlike money, it cannot be saved or earned back. Every second that passes is gone forever.

Last week I attended the canonization Mass of now Saints Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati. St. Peter's Square was packed with hundreds of thousands of people, most of them young people from all over the world, waving their country's flag back and forth in the air.

Dear friends,

As we celebrate the Memorial of Mary, our Lady of Sorrows, this week, I feel first and foremost deeply saddened because of the recent gun attack injuring and killing some innocent school children inside the Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis. Why should hate be embraced by any human being against other human beings when all people are wonderfully created in the image and likeness of God? (Genesis 1:26-28) My heartfelt condolences go to all who suffer loss, grief, and sorrow. May peace prevail on earth if we all consider each other a brother/sister, a friend, or a neighbor. Our world will become a wonderful world. Oh, yes, it will become a wonderful world indeed!

Today I am in Rome, attending the Canonization Mass of Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis, where Pope Leo XIV proclaims through his capacity as Vicar of Christ that these two men are officially members of the Heavenly Kingdom; in other words, Saints.