During the month of November, the Church ponders The Last Things, that is, the end of our earthly lives and our life after death. We begin by celebrating All Saints’ Day on November 1st, a Holy Day of Obligation. On this day, we rejoice with all the Saints, known and unknown, who, through the mercy and grace of God and aligning their will with His, have attained entry to our Lord’s Heavenly Kingdom. The next day, November 2nd, is All Souls’ Day, where we pray for all those souls, remembered and forgotten, who have passed on from this world and are in Purgatory awaiting entry to Heaven.

Dear Friends,

“By itself, faith accomplishes nothing. For even the devils believe and shudder. No, faith must be joined to an active love of God which is expressed in good works.”
—St. Maximus the Confessor

These words from Saint Maximus may remind us of the reading from the letter of Saint James we heard a few Sundays ago when he said, “Faith apart from works is dead.” Saint Maximus even goes so far as to say that even the devils have a technical faith as they know who God is and believe in his power. We see this in the various episodes of exorcism in the gospels, where Jesus casts out evil spirits.

You may have noticed the altar servers are wearing different colors now from what you may be used to. This is one of the most outwardly visible signs of the reforms happening with our Altar Server ministry. The ministry is in the process of being transformed into a full-fledged formative program with the vision of planting and cultivating seeds to inspire and raise up the next generation of vocations to Religious Life and the Priesthood.

Dear Friends,

I would like to express my profound gratitude for your active participation in a number of activities our parish has been involved in the last couple of months. Among others, we began by doing a census, which was followed by a survey to determine the size and needs of our parish. Even though the participation was not as we had hoped, it gave us some idea of the direction our parish desires to go.

Dear Friends,

This month of October is usually known as Respect Life Month in our Catholic Church. And so, in this article, I am going to ask all of you to do everything in your power to respect life. One way I am asking you to do this is by voting NO to Proposition 139, as the Bishops are asking us to do. This is because, as you know by now, this proposition opens the door to enshrining a constitutional right to abortion in Arizona, including even removing safeguards for girls and women currently in place at abortion clinics.

Concluding our series on the sacrifice all of creation offers in worship to God the Almighty Father, we now look at how all of creation is united together through our work, our own sacrifice that we offer in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The sacrifices of creation can only be offered to God through our cultivation and work of the items to render them in service of worship. We form and carve the beeswax into candles; we make bread for the Eucharist from the wheat of the earth, and the wine from crushing grapes. We press olives to extract their oil for Chrism and melt and cast gold into chalices to contain our Lord’s blood. Through these actions, we fulfill one of the primordial commands God gave to us in Genesis, to “Fill the earth and subdue it.” (Gen. 1:28). We participate in the work of God by creating new things from what He has given us, and we in turn offer it back to Him.

Dear Friends,

For the last five weekends of September, our reflections centered on stewardship, covering its three pillars of time, talent, and treasure. This weekend, as members of our parish community, it is our time to commit. As a community, we want to reaffirm our resolve and commitment to faithful stewardship to the support of our parish. As we do so, let us keep in mind that this is a sacred moment for us to reflect on our relationship with God and our role as stewards of His resources.

All of God’s created world offers a part of themselves for the offering of the Holy Mass. So far, we have seen how animals and plants give their fruits and even their very selves to worship God. Let us now see how the earth and all the non-living but purposefully created bodies and objects within our universe make an offering to God.

Plants contribute so much to the worship of God that they need another week to get through all the ways they sacrifice themselves in the mass. Last week, we saw that flowers, cotton, linen, wheat, and grapes are all involved in the liturgy, and we began to see the sacrifice of trees and their role in salvation history. We continue with trees, and there is still more they give.

Dear Friends,

Last week, we, Priests and the Bishops of our Diocese gathered in Flagstaff for our annual convocation. While it was radically different from the convocations we had in the past, it was nevertheless hailed as one of the best we have had in recent years. Our presentations focused on the hidden life of St. Joseph through the lenses of artists. Elizabeth Lev, the renowned Vatican Church art historian, and author who made these presentations, captivated the priests and the bishops with her very thrilling talks and sense of humor, making the three days of the convocation look like half a day. This was not a mean feat to achieve, considering that she was talking to priests who are often hard to impress.

The Holy Mass is offered to God through the sacrifice of Christ, united with the sacrifice of all of creation to facilitate the worship of God. Last week we took a look at the sacrifice that animals make in order to contribute to the Mass. Today, we will see how the plant world offers itself to the glory of God.

Flowers are often the most conspicuous offering of plants to God in the mass. They are often made of bouquets of cut stems, meaning the life they have to give is by definition limited. Their blooms give the rest of their life accentuating the sanctuary and adding extra beauty on the most holy days of the year. The flowers will eventually wither and die, but in their short life they gave their all to decorate God’s throne room.

Dear Friends,

Over the past three weeks, we have emphasized in different ways that, as Christians, we are all called to be good stewards of the resources God has entrusted to us, which include our time, talent, and treasure. One of the most significant ways we can demonstrate our faith and commitment to our parish, which I want to focus on this week, is specifically by sharing our financial resources. In this article, I want to emphasize three points: the importance of generosity, the benefits of giving, and the practical ways you can share your financial resources with your parish.

Dear Friends,

In the last two weeks, our homilies focused on Stewardship, inviting us to recognize that all the things we have: our time, talent, and treasure are gifts to us from God. Both last week’s homilies and article discussed the stewardship of TIME, emphasizing the need for us to spend time with our Loving Father. It was essentially about creating time for prayer and for our brothers and sisters. Understood this way, stewardship of time becomes a very important aspect in developing our relationship with God and our community.

The Holy Mass is first and foremost a sacrifice to God, and in this ultimate sacrifice of Christ is many smaller sacrifices composing a vast array of the entire natural world. From animals, to plants, to even the earth itself, all of God’s creation comes together in the Holy Mass to offer fitting sacrifice to their creator.

Let us first start with the sacrifice that the animals make to facilitate worship of God. Certain vestments (the ceremonial garments worn by the clergy in the liturgy) may be made from silk, a sacrifice of silkworms to create. The most important books used in the liturgy are bound in leather, a sacrifice of cows to create.

Dear Friends,

This is a famous quote from one of the Church’s great modern saints, Maximilian Kolbe; a Franciscan priest who lived his life leading others to Christ and gave his life at Auschwitz in order to save the life of another. We recently celebrated the feast of Saint Maximilian Kolbe and his call to recognize the poison of indifference is even more relevant today.

On Sunday, September 15th, the Distribution of the Precious Blood will be reintroduced at masses in a phased roll-out, beginning at the 9am and 11am masses. As discussed in previous articles about the Precious Blood, one does not need to consume both species of the Blessed Sacrament (Body and Blood separately) in order to receive all of Christ; he is entirely present in either species. If, however, you wish to receive the Precious Blood, please follow the instructions below.