Letter from the Pastor

Not everyone can preach beautiful sermons or deliver learned lectures but anyone of us can make God visible.  We can paint a picture of Him with our own lives. When a person says, “I have been saved by grace of God through Christ,” what does he mean?  The New Testament doesn’t make it something vague and abstract, but something clear and concrete.  It talks about specific qualities of life.  Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that you are my followers, that you love one another.”  The Book of Acts says, “When the people saw the courage of the […]

Millions of Americans let the technology “babysit” their children for large portions of the day.  Even at 11 o’clock at night, long after cartoons and family shows have ended, an estimated 12 million children under age 10 are still on computers.  These hours have an enormous influence on our children.  Studies have shown that the media exercises the greatest formative influence on  viewers who have not yet formed strong personal values.  As adults with Christian principles, we have some protection from media influence, but the minds of young children are wide open.  We need to be cautious. Consider just the […]

On next Saturday, May 24, 2025, several men from St. Joseph’s Seminary here in Yonkers will be ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of New York.  I ask all of our parishioners to please pray for these young men as they prepare to accept Jesus’ invitation to “come follow Me” as His priests. Also, may we here at Annunciation-Our Lady of Fatima parish pray fervently every day for an increase in vocations to the priesthood.  Our Holy    Father, Pope St. John Paul II, made a special point that the local parish community and in fact each Catholic parish family […]

We are living in a forward-looking time.  Adventure and progress are the themes of the day.  Individuals and groups are breaking out of old forms and moving ahead into what they hope will be a bright new day. Though we are sometimes frightened by this rapid change, we dare not sit in total condemnation of it.  A lot of things needed to be changed for a long time.  But in days such as these, we should also recognize that there is a danger of throwing overboard some valuable cargo that ought to be kept.  So, in the midst of changing […]